The Bare Bones Of It

Hello again!

    While the title is misleading (I'm pretty much going to tell you everything that has happened thus far in extensive detail), I quite liked the ring of it and decided to use it for my own personal pleasure. 

First things first: I hope this blog post finds you well, whoever you are that is reading this! Secondly, London is spectacular and if you can ever find time to take a vacation, I highly suggest visiting the UK.

Now that those are out of the way...

As Professor Ullinger previously stated in her most recent post, the three of us worked in Cambridge on Monday and Tuesday at the Department of Biological Anthropology (can you say awesome!).  We helped make dental molds of various teeth in the mandible and maxilla, which was super cool but super scary.  Everything has to be done with a gentle touch because the teeth and bones alone were close to 5,000 years old.  

This is the finished product after making a mold! 

After finishing all of our work on Tuesday, the three of us walked around Cambridge and grabbed dinner. I snapped a lot of photos from that day and will spare you all of them. Below are a few select favorites.

After building an appetite from walking around so much, Professor Ullinger took Caitlyn and I to a very well known place in Cambridge: The Eagle.  It is a glorious place for two reasons: One, James Watson and Francis Crick announced their discovery of the DNA double Helix (see below).  Side note: while her name is not on the plaque, Rosalind Franklin did helped both men in this discovery but is unfortunately note always recognized. Here on ANEW equality is important, so you go girl!

After an incredible two days of working at Cambridge I spotted this piece of street art that I thought was pretty neat.  Everything about the image just makes me feel happy inside so I thought I'd share it with everyone.

On Wednesday we had "Nerd Day", which was insightful and peaceful.  We started our adventure that day at the Hunterian Museum and learned a great deal about how early surgeons got their bodies to work on, the types of exploratory surgeries done to advance their knowledge of animal and human anatomy and some interesting abnormal and pathological diseases. My favorite was the skeleton of the "Irish Giant" whose height was 7'7! His femurs alone were almost taller than myself. No joke.

Later on we ventured over to Highgate Cemetery and had a peaceful walk around.  It was amazing to see all of the different types of headstones and plots.  I even got to see a potential family member, Sir Sidney Nolan, an Australian painter famous for his Ned Kelly images.

We also met a fox friend who posed exceptionally well for this image. I would have thanked him but he hurried off before I could.

Here is a picture for all of you Karl Marx fans. 

On Thursday Professor Ullinger, Caitlyn and myself went to meet Professor Conlogue and Professor Walbaum for lunch at the Tippery on Fleet Street in London.  It was within walking Distance of St. Brides Church, which is where Professor Conlogue has been doing previous x-ray work on bones from the church's crypt and took us there afterwards.  

I learned that the church has had a rough history and that the renovations being done to the building are in an attempt to restore it's natural glory. In 1666, the church was left in ruins due to the Great Fire and then in 1940 was attacked in WWII by Germany.  We were lucky enough to go down into the crypt and see those ruins and also a separate area dedicated to the history of the church, which held pieces of roman coins, stained glass and other objects from the time. 

The five of us then walked to the Museum of London, and became familiar with our newest place of employment.  We haven't been able to see any of the exhibits yet, but when we do I will post on the blog!

This then brings me to Friday, which was the first official work day at the Museum.  Professor Ullinger searched through the Museum's database to look for skeletons from Farmindgon who were noted to have a specific pathology we were interested in.  Caitlyn and I then examined the skull, arms and vertebrae, taking measurements and recording them to better aid our research.

Caitlyn and I used this weekend to do some fun touristy things, which included: The Original Tour Sightseeing Bus around London, the Pride Parade in Trafalgar Square, going shopping in Covent Garden, riding on the River Thames Cruise, taking a Haunted London walking tour and visiting Windsor Castle. As I type this right now, the soles of my feet are still pulsing from all of the walking we have done!

Tower Bridge

Guild Hall

The London Eye

Big Ben

Thames River at night

Countryside on our way to Windsor

 London Tower

Tomorrow marks the last week I will be here in London and I am already feeling sad. But alas, I am having a wonderful time here and am very thankful for the opportunity to help conduct research.

Best,
    Lindsay

Update from London

What a week!   Due to a last-minute snafu, Caitlyn, Lindsay and I ended up working on skeletons at Cambridge for a couple of days last week instead of starting at the Museum of London.  Here they are, sorting skeletal material and making molds of teeth that will be brought back to QU for further analysis.

We had "nerd day" on Wednesday and visited the Hunterian Museum, which houses thousands of pathological anatomical specimens.  Unfortunately, you cannot take photos inside of the museum.

We also visited Highgate Cemetery, one of London's "Magnificent Seven" -- seven grand cemeteries used during the Victorian era.  This cemetery is most well-known for housing the tomb of Karl Marx.

We discussed the use of several Victorian motifs, including Egyptian obelisks (Victorians were quite the Orientalists!) and angels.

The cemetery has also buried people more recently.  A contemporary grave that caught our eyes:

Lindsay also spied one of London's notorious foxes at the end of our visit.

An anthropological perspective on DOMA's death

Today is a historic day in the U.S., with the Supreme Court ruling that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional. From the perspective of someone who regularly teaches a course on cross-cultural understandings of gender, sex, and sexuality, opposition to the right of two, non-related adults of the same sex to enter into marriage, seems based on ignorance (in the true sense of the word, meaning to be uninformed, or lacking knowledge). Opponents of same-sex marriage define the institution premised on a limited understanding of the ways humans have organized social and biological reproduction over time and across space.

One of the arguments used to expose the absurdity of the opposition to same-sex marriage was based on evidence from the ethnographic record: humans understand "coupling" in myriad ways, and that there is no "natural" norm that should determine how humans select their intimate partners. In fact, in many societies, the idea of marriage has nothing to do with intimacy at all, and your "husband" or "wife" is not the person you consider yourself the closest to, or even as a "soul-mate." This idea of a soul-mate is a very recent, and very Western, capitalist conception of marriage, albeit one that seems to work well for some segment of the American population in our contemporary era. Extending the right to have an exclusive relationship to couples of the same-sex makes absolute sense in terms of our country’s notions of liberty, rights, and equal protection under the law.

Anthropological insights into how diversity is beneficial for us as a species were useful in eroding a noxious and discriminatory law aimed at a much maligned segment of the American public. Whether our contemporary form of "marriage" is the best of all possible worlds can be left to debate, but to narrowly define who has access to the standing institution based largely on ethnocentric and religiocentric ideas, is not in line with what we know about the diverse, and succesful, ways humans live cross-culturally. I think this current ruling is a useful example of why we should always question what we think of as "natural" for human behavior, especially when we haven’t bothered to check the ethnographic and archaeological record first.
 Prof. Haldane (I'll teach Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Gender/Sex/Sexuality again in 2014-2015)

Bag of Wind

I am writing this as I take the train from Romania back to Hungary. I made it on the train with only a few minutes to spare, after a stressful attempt at getting a ticket in the Arad train station. I am tired, sweaty, and not quite sure if I am on the right train.

The landscape flowing past my window is filled with perfect rows of corn, wheat and the occasional sunflower field.  These domesticated spaces are interspersed with patches of wildflowers and stands of birch and beech trees.

I am listening to a song on my iPod by Lia Ices called Bag of Wind, which dawned on me as a nice metaphor for my emotional state at this leg of my trip. I don’t know what she intended for this phrase – but her beautiful and haunting melodies, along with the rocking of the train, have lulled me into an introspective mood.

I am at that point in a trip away from home (nearly two months now) where I am feeling like a walking dichotomy: comfortable traveling and homesick; invigorated but exhausted.

The phrase “bag of wind” captures something about the experience of traveling in new lands.  It is a movement of venturing into the unknown – a place that can be scary, even dangerous, always stressful to a certain extent.

At the beginning of this trip there were many unknown variables and there were moments when I questioned whether being away from home for so long was worth the trip. And sometimes it wasn’t. Being away from my husband, family, and friends was particularly hard this summer. There was a death in the family, and some hardships that I could have never anticipated.  I felt how difficult it is to be away – disconnected – when your people need you (and you need them) the most.

It also speaks to the act of capturing something. Putting a finger on that “something” is difficult, but I always feel changed by long trips abroad. Participating in an archaeological field season, in particular, is a rite of passage of sorts. It is intense and you build relationships with people that can, and often do, last a lifetime. I learn about my strengths, my weaknesses, and most importantly, I always emerge having accomplished things that I didn’t think I could do, or didn’t even realize existed before.   Stepping outside of my cultural comfort zone ignites a newness and love for life, while at the same time instilling a deeper appreciation for the comforts of home.

The trip to Romania was well worth it – I got to see a fascinating archaeological site, reunite with old friends, and forge new relationships as well. I also now smell like cat pee due to a particularly feisty house cat named Bin Laden who apparently sprayed my luggage as a parting gift before I left.

I could literally use a bag of wind right now, if something like that existed, because the poor woman who has to sit next to me on the train is giving me the stink eye (pun definitely intended!). Oh the adventures of traveling!

Signing off for now,

Prof. Giblin

Official

Greetings!

     I would like to start this submission with an image that was the inspiration for the title of this post.

Behold! The coveted telephone booth photo. You're not an official London traveler until you do it!

Today Caitlyn, Prof. Ullinger and myself went to see Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guards at 11:30 a.m.  This apparently happens everyday.  What a production!    

Here's a video of the changing of the guards!

Caitlyn, Prof. Ullinger and myself at Buckingham Palace. Word is, when the Flag is up, the Queen is there. So, it looks like she was there when we went this morning. 

After we visited the palace and were walking towards Trafalgar Square, we saw these awesome cars lining the street. It looks like there was a car show of some sort, so if you're a big car lover, you'll enjoy these photos!

I think this one belongs to the Jetson family.

Our next destination was Westminster Abbey, which provided us a nice view of Big Ben!

Unfortunately, we couldn't go inside the church because there was a service being held, but the architectural design was absolutely beautiful.

 

We walked around some more after visiting the Abbey, in which I proceeded to take around 320 photos. I just couldn't help myself!  Lucky for you, I won't post them all.

After eating lunch at Proper Hamburgers we decided to walk to Piccadilly Circus.  

It reminded me of Times Square in NYC.  What do you think?  

The three of us then walked to Fortnum & Mason, this amazing department store full of tea, coffee, candies, jams, wines, fine china, fudge and loads more! Let's just say we had a great time in there. 

Caitlyn and I then went see this free concert in Trafalgar Square where tons of tents held magicians, face painters and other neat things.  We stayed for some performers and then navigated our way back to Bloomsbury.  

This ends our first official day of sightseeing in London.  Hope you all enjoy!

Lindsay