Nonsensical hierarchy in the science world

I have built up a large collection of Science friends. Together we could take over the World but we choose not to. Just regular old self-controlled scientists...

I tell you this because my minimal experience in anthropology has led to a year-long study of these people (my friends, my specimens, whatever). "Arrogant awkwardness"  sums up the personality trait of the average scientist. If they are shy, they are most certainly not shy enough to tell you that they do any old science. They are members of an elite few of the best kinds of scientists. A physicist will stick up his nose at a mathematician. A chemist will chuckle at the trivialities of a biologist. And vice versa. Within each field are further subdivisions of each science, and those are no less contested. But Archaeology is always at the bottom of a said hierarchy. People often question why I am doing a science degree.

The reason for this is simple: No matter what else in the world is discovered. No matter which genome is coded, what the Large Hadron Collider has been up to, what extinct animal is shown to still exist, the story that will be most hotly debated, reaching into the most ignorant of the public, will be the discovery of the next missing link. Oh yeah.

Everyone has wanted, at some Indiana-Jones-watching time, to be an archaeologist. Few desire to be stuck in a lab (or worse, in his own head).

And if jealousy is not a good reason why archaeology should be the top science, maybe it should be the shear volume of what we are expected to know. For my puny masters project, I have to become a master of archaeology, linguistics, history, physical anthropology, statistics, genetics and biological evolution. Is there a science so encompassing of so many fields?

What I am arguing is actually a philosophical point. What is the most important unit of philosophy? Is it the atom (or less), the cell, the organism, the universe?

Archaeologists are notorious thieves of other fields. We need to be Jacks of all trades to be masters in archaeology. And in using all these other fields we put together a puzzle that should have been eroded away by the sands of time. Archaeologists have also contributed to fields as obvious as dating (chemistry and physics), as important as medicine and psychology and race studies, as personal as heritage, and as creative as faunal reconstruction and analysis (biology). There are few archaeologists I know who do not eventually specialize in another field.

The whole hierarchy thing is nonsense (except for geologists- they belong on the bottom).

Hopping into the parrallel: A comment on "Womanspace"

Not being one to follow the not-so-important pages of Nature, I was sent the following article by my supervisor:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v477/n7366/full/477626a.html

For those of you who haven't read the infamous fictional article, it features a scenario where physicist Ed Rybicki and his friend are sent to the shops to buy school knickers for his daughter. The two are completely hopeless at the task and eventually fail. This inspires Ed to wonder how women seem to be so adept at finding what they are looking for (and more) without the man even noticing what was going on. He then suggests that women have the power to access parallel universes i.e. womanspace. Ed, throughout his piece of fiction, falls victim to stereotypical settings with seemingly sexist undertones.

The article was heavily criticised, with individuals opening accounts to berate Ed on his blatant sexism and calling for petitions to have editor, Henry Gee, thrown out of Nature. Blogs (such as the one below: Isis the scientist) similarly attack the author and editor and journal.

http://isisthescientist.com/2011/11/17/what-womanspace-really-looks-like-and-why-nature-can-suck-it/

As pitiful as"Womanspace" the article is as a piece of literature, I cannot help but feel that some scientists are just a little too touchy. In fact, the reinforcing of stereotypes and sexist undertones can be seen in Dr Isis' description of her blog, where she lists her very impressive credentials and her juggling of family and research and ends off with: "Also, she blogs about shoes. In fact, she blogs a lot about shoes." Is it ok because she is a woman? And women, of course, can juggle their priorities of career, babies and shoes (oh shoes!), as long as a man feels he can do the same and does not accredit this to supernatural powers or differences in the way men and women think.

I do not doubt that the most successful individual in many situations will be a white male. I also do not doubt that this has more to do with existing prejudices than it has to do with actual talent. But to suggest that the quasi-fictional story of a man shopping for his daughters knickers is what is spurring on this sexism is a little out of touch with reality.


Sexism is not caused by men alone, it is also caused by women. Women who sacrifice their jobs to raise a family, even though their job was meaningful to them. Women who use sex as a means to feeling loved. Women who allow their husbands to hit them so that they will not be alone or so that they will not be poor. Women who do nothing about these women. Not a silly middle-aged man and a sensationalist editor.

The present of an archaeologist

I see that this may, indeed, be a bi-annual update rather than a true-to-ones-followers sort of blog. And smack bang in the middle of my Masters degree (I hope), after an infuriating trip to Zimbabwe, a conference in hilly Swaziland and enlightening visits to bone-collections all over South Africa, one would think I have something deep and meaningful to say.

Unfortunately, I have realised that that is the problem with academia. The more you discover and the more people you meet, the more intimidated you feel and the less you feel you know. So the next few blogs will be small humble accounts of my year. A year when my personal life has blossomed and my academic life has started to get interesting.

But before that, I need a moment to reflect on my immediate future. I am going home to visit my family. If you have ever wondered what inspired me to be an archaeologist, you might have to wonder for a very long time. But what made me mad can definitely be traced back to my large Catholic family of varying devoutness, and Catholic-ness (some are Jews, which I suppose is half-Catholic, and Anglican, which is less so). Buddhist boyfriend in tow, this should be an interesting Christmas at my Jewish aunts house.

If nothing else comes from this holiday, I will at least have a superb collection of anthropological gold.

Have a good holiday!

What archaeologists do...

It has been a long time since posting a blog... And it was my first blog... And I don't have an excuse: I forgot I started a blog. 

Having been reminded of it (by a fellow blogger- who is much more dedicated to it than I am), I thought that past Kezz was clearly a clever little thing, knowing future Kezz would possibly enjoy describing to the multitudes  (okay... I have one follower...) the intricacies of archaeology.

So what is archaeology?

To sum up an entire first year, first semester course: it is the study of past humans (sorry for those who are looking for blogs on dinosaurs or rocks- you will be disappointed). We are those evil people who branch into the study of human evolution (sorry creationists... but seriously...) and past civilizations (sorry racists- they weren't all white). We also look at the evolution of society, from the supposed "simple" hunter gatherers to the more complex civilizations that spanned multiple cities and had striving economies and dense trade networks. 

Archaeologists branch into multiple disciplines: looking at fauna, history, evolution, stone tools, pots and cultural items, architecture, ethnography and (most interesting- to me) HUMAN BONES (insert maniacal laugh here). 

Why do we do this?

Because we love ourselves enough to stay away from 9 to 5 jobs and instead pursue a career that involves travelling, research, camping and handling cool stuff. (And so that people can associate us with Indiana Jones, Lara Croft and Relic Hunter). 

What role do we serve in society?

Come on... What role does an accountant play in society? We make the past cool. Isn't that enough. (And it is meaningful to peoples heritage blah blah blah). 

This blog will take you on a journey that will help explain things you probably don't really understand, but wish you did...

Annie... (Quick! Get your gun!)

Digging in the dunes in forty degree heat can take a lot out of someone. So, when asked what it is like to live in a musical, I laughed it off. Even if the inquisitor was the excavating leader cum prestigious archaeologist I should be impressing. And I am new at this. "No singing" did not feature in my mind as something that could count as bad field etiquette.

The truth is, severe heatstroke and dehydration are not to blame for my sudden urge to burst into "The sun will come out tomorrow" (which was, in hindsite, an appropriate song to sing given the desert-like conditions of the excavation). I would sing for any particular reason: one note is played in the background, someone says a line that I happen to remember from another song, I see a product that has a paticularly catchy advertising-limerick, or not... I happen to be as great (and very bad) a songwriter as I am a singer. I was once called "the Singing archaeologist" by a six-year old who had clearly never understood the wonders of a life run by Frank Sinatra and Julie Andrews.

And no genre is sacred. Rap, rock, pop and opera have all joined the Victims of Kezz support group. How else does one suggest I achieve my dream of leading dozens of strangers into an unusually synchronised song and dance a la "enchanted", the disney movie featuring a disney cartoon that is tricked by an evil queen into a well that takes her to real-life new york?

Life is extremely frustrating for a leading lady whose cast has no clue as to what the next scene may portray. I often wish that everyone would not just empathise with my strange behaviour, but join in (without ruining my groove, obviously). But until the world learns how to tap dance, play musical instruments and smile insanely as if lifes just grand, I am afraid that the Singing Archaeologist will have to be fulfilled watching old movies and Bollywood for eternity. It's a hard knock life.

On second thoughts...