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Thursday, September 22, 2005
I Have a Dirty Mind
It seems that I have finally decided what direction I want to take down the oft-exciting and adventurous road of archaeological inquiry (that’s a stupid way of saying I know what I want my master’s thesis to be about). My advisor and her husband, both Mesoamerican archaeologists at USF, direct a field school and do research at a Pre-Hispanic Maya site in Honduras. USF’s graduate program is in applied anthropology (one of the few in the country), which is one aspect that initially attracted me to USF in the first place. The prospect of doing archaeology and making a real-world different at the same time is what truly excites me about my current situation. The co-director of the Honduras field school mentioned that some of his research was in sustainable agriculture and how archaeological research could be used to inform contemporary farming practices in the region. Ever since I took undergraduate courses on South American Indians and Environmental Anthropology I have been fascinated with fishing and farming practices of indigenous peoples from thousands of years ago all the way to present day. To make a boring story short I realized last night (after a few beers, of course) that I was going to have the opportunity to research sustainable agriculture in Palmarejo. I’ll be developing my thesis over the next several months and will hopefully be carrying it out next summer.
Photo: Me getting my Milpa farming skills on.
Posted by Will at September 22, 2005 01:13 PM in Graduate School