#archaeology discourse

[un-pearable]

people in the archaeology subreddit digging up the corpse of indiana jones again for the annual discourse. somehow seem to have forget the most important scene in the film if you’re critiquing his status as an academic

[clearancecreedwatersurvival]

Reminder that people who have been in one high control group tend to end up joining other high control groups (including the guy who developed the BITE model).

Reminder internet movements/communities/pipelines often become high control groups.

Reminder that online communities that demand you at all times police yourself and everyone else around you, and/or sell you a worldview of complete nihilism where people not in the in group are evil or stupid and only you the people in the group Know The Truth and embody Goodness because what the group believes is the only correct way to be Are High Control Groups and if you find yourself in one you should consider getting the fuck out of there.

If it walks like a cult and quacks like a cult, it’s probably a fucking cult.

Flat-earthers/Q-anon/Atlantean/ancient alien conspiracy theorists (all of which are rooted in anti-semitism and most of which originated with the Nazi party) are high control groups, and most of the people in those communities are also in fundie Christian cults.

The ‘rationalists’ who push shit like the imminent evil ai which must be protected against and simulation theory and a Lot of Eugenics and also that one extremely notorious Harry Potter fanfic back in the day are high control groups.

Terfs are a high control group, and so are the community which is basically their inverse: the black-pilled part of the manosphere/incels. Once again most people in those groups are also in or formerly from fundie Christian cults. In the case of terfs, some people in the community genuinely believe that they are progressive and feminist which I find very darkly funny given that the entire terf movement has been proved to be intentionally created and spread by, you guessed it, the same fundamentalist Christian evangelical death cultists who are trying to seize governmental power and proposing anti trans bathroom laws and bans to anything remotely sexual or divisive in internet spaces.

Multi-level-marketing companies form high control groups out of their ‘sales rep’ consumer bases who don’t realize that 96% of them will never make a profit and they’re not supposed to, because they are actually the company’s market. And yes, mlms are incredibly popular with people who are also in a fundie cult, which is why they’re the most popular in the United States in Utah.

And the anti-shipping community is also a high control group which has found extreme purchase in algorithmic rabbitholes on tiktok and twitter. And it’s pretty apparent that most people in that community are either currently in some sort of repressive Christian religious environment or formerly so, given how many of them keep telling people to burn in hell for disagreeing with them.

[cryptvokeeper]

I don’t remember if I’ve made this exact post before but in case I didn’t people in the Pokémon irl tag you are my favorite people on this site

[icelogged]

it is my time to carry the cross that once dug into the backs of british looking white girls who took lofi selfies in the 2010s ♡

[dykesynthezoid]

“Those historical costuming community weirdos” people on here will say, bc they cannot fathom that someone with formal education as a dress historian might… shockingly… actually know more about historical dress than they do. You know, as an expert. And it’s wild bc it’s ppl who will decry anti-intellectualism in one breath and then demean studied female historians in the next, all bc they??? Presented a piece of clothing history that contradicted your specific layman’s misconceptions????

That’s not to say these historians don’t have their own bias and may interpret the facts of dress history a certain way; but that’s the case in any professional field. There’s always some variation in perspectives and interpretations. That doesn’t change the fact that those professionals still have a much better understanding of the issue than you do as a layman. Also the way people talk about these women is very frequently misogynistic as hell, but I guess that isn’t surprising. Would prefer if it didn’t come from so many people who proclaim to be feminists though

[chronicanthropologic]

Anthropologist here. I worked in an anthropology lab during my undergrad. We had a collection that we were working on returning to the country it was stolen from. Who was it stolen by? Art students who went grave robbing on a study abroad trip. Not anthropologists. There are codes of ethics and codes of conduct as well as several acts and laws in place to ensure that things like this do not happen. These codes are constantly updated as well. All of the collections I worked on were artifacts or pottery donated to us or things that our professional archaeologists were actively working on during their own research and digs. Nothing was being stolen, it was being documented and typography guides were being made. Everything was numbered, photographed, and kept track of so we knew things were accurate. Please do not mistake looters for professional archaeologists and anthropologists. Our job is to do no harm.

[wardentabriis]

It's always so funny to me to see people rail against RPF from a moral high ground like...y'all know historical fiction has existed for millenia, right? I'm very curious when the cutoff is for them

[phoenix-joy]

Author & Timestamp: Sarah Kuta for Smithsonian Magazine, April 30, 2024.

Note: this is an emotive topic and it is not one I feel qualified to give an opinion on yet. My sharing of this extract and link neither supports nor argues against any particular viewpoint, it's simply to take note of a conversation that I feel is important.

Extract:

[T]he Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney [has] removed fragments of mummified bodies from public display. Museum staffers also plan to rename the “Mummy Room” to more accurately and respectfully reflect mummification’s significance in ancient Egyptian culture.

[...]

Egyptologist Melanie Pitkin, [...] a senior curator of antiquities and archaeology [at Chau Chak Wing], is leading the charge to rethink how the museum displays and interprets its Egyptian collection.

[...]

“For hundreds of years, body parts in museum collections have been treated as objects,” says Pitkin in a statement.  “We have become so accustomed to seeing them on show that we often forget they once belonged to living people.”

For now, the remains are being kept in the museum’s “closely monitored collection store” while curators work to “implement better practices with Egyptian communities and authorities,” according to the statement. In the display, the museum replaced the unwrapped body parts with ancient Egyptian funerary portraits from coffin lids and masks. Curators are also exhibiting a painted portrait from the Roman era.

[Two] completely wrapped, mummified bodies [...] along with 3D visualizations based on CT scans of the remains. The CT scan data of another mummified body [...] also remains on view.

[...]

“In renaming the room, we’d like to focus more on the transformation of the body into an eternal being [...], rather than the body itself,” Pitkin says [...]. “We also encourage visitors to critically reflect on the ethical complexities museums face when caring for human remains.”

[...]

“[Modern] cultural stereotyping [of ancient Egyptian mummified bodies] would elsewhere be recognized as a form of racism, but the ancient Egyptians are not here to object to the ways in which we depict them,” Jasmine Day, an Egyptologist [...], tells the Sydney Morning Herald.

[...]

Around the world, curators and policymakers are also reconsidering their approaches to other types of artifacts. Earlier this year, [...] Harvard University removed a book binding made of human skin from its library, while the Field Museum in Chicago covered some of its Native American artifacts.

/end of extract

[elimgarakdemocrat]

I get why people find this kind of thing cute but they do know that it's completely destroyed any possibility the original will work right

"oh yeah this was a common slogan, we have several examples of this in the houses of scientists. Probably some kind of incantation meant to ward off bad luck via ironic detachment"

[tlatollotl]

Why do some people rage against using the term Aztec, but say nothing when someone uses Maya (multiple cultures), Zapotec (Bën Za), Mixtec (Ñuu Savi Sukun, Ñuu I'ni, Ñuu Andivi), Tarascan (Purépecha), Huichol (Wixárika), Cora (Náayerite), Huastec (Téenek), or any other indigenous groups? Especially when discussing archaeologically defined groups/cultures that may be quite distinct from their contemporary descendants?

I'm not saying that we shouldn't use better terms. We most definitely should. Anasazi, for example, should never be used beyond a single sentence saying it is no longer an acceptable label when reviewing and discussing the historiography of the Puebloan peoples.

But that doesn't mean some terms should be abandoned in lieu of another term that is no way better. Replacing Aztec with Mexica ignores the two other ethnic groups/city-states that made up the Triple Alliance. I want you to stop and think And see if you can recall what those two groups were. I'll give you a hint, Nezahualcóyotl was from one of those groups.

Give up? They were the Acolhua and Tepanec. So, if you want to stop using Aztec, that's fine. But you have to replace it with Mexica, Acolhua, and Tepanec every time. However, that replacement is only limited to talking about Tenochtitlán, Texcoco, and Tlacopan. Why? Because there were more ethnic groups within the Basin of Mexico, not to mention outside the Basin of Mexico, that were under control of the Triple Alliance and were distinct from being Mexica, Acolhua, or Tepanec. You could, of course, replace Aztec with Triple Alliance, or Ēxcān Tlahtōlōyān in Classic Nahuatl. Totally fine if a little unwieldy. Though you may run into issues with people confusing the Triple Alliance of Mesoamerica with several Triple Alliances in European history.

But what really is the issue with using Aztec to refer to the multitude of ethnicities and cultures that made up the Triple Alliance? It isn't derogatory or insulting. The term is based on the semi-mythical homeland of numerous groups that occupied Central Mexico and made up a large part of the Triple Alliance (the Tlaxcalteca were from Aztlan, as well). In fact, Aztec is a handy term to refer to the collection of all these groups despite the polity not being a monocultural entity because these groups did share many cultural features, histories, and/or languages.

You could compare the term Aztec to Roman. A broad term that encompasses many peoples. But when necessary, you can discuss individual or small groups of ethnicities/cultures within the broader polity. And that includes the people of Rome itself which you could refer to as Romani, which they called themselves, to be distinct from the larger broader socio-political Roman label for the people of the Republic/Empire outside of Rome proper.

It's an issue of scale, I think. But that's why we have multiple terms available to use when the context and need arises. And if better terms come along, by all means replace the previous terms.

If you disagree, I would like to know why. This was sort of a rant into the void from seeing other online discourse. I really would welcome a good explanation as to why we should replace Aztec with Mexica at the expense of all the other groups that made up the Triple Alliance.

[a-selkie-abroad]

Ectoberhaunt Day 3: Archaeology

i did this instead of working on my essay for my class on artefacts i wont lie. great way to review and test my understanding of one of my sources

if you'd also like to read Hiscock's 1993 paper and critique my infographic on it go ahead, it's available online free! There's a lot of stuff i didn't touch on like how many of those bondi points broke in production and also academic discourse on misidentifying lithics, which is fun to read. If you're a freak like me.

I LOVE SCIENCE COMMUNICATION!!!

[legends-on-legends]

People who get defensive about Ganondorf’s characterization (or lack thereof) in ToTK seem to willfully misunderstand the criticisms we’re making about that game. Nobody’s demanding that Ganondorf have a “tragic backstory” that exonerates him or a “redemption arc,” we’re just asking for the bare minimum: a coherent motivation and some thematic relevance, that’s it. Also, maybe some actual dignity for the Gerudo, too, instead of them getting disproportionately shamed for the deeds of One Guy over ten thousand years ago.

It’s not like ToTK would have had to stretch very far to give Ganondorf that bare minimum, all the ingredients were already there: the Zonai mining activities in the Gerudo region, the “ancient evil” that existed before Ganondorf entered the scene, the Gerudo’s own archaeological site from where they investigated the Depths, etc. Just add like 2 – 3 more backstory scenes focused on developing Ganondorf a little more, put some actual meat on the skeleton of a story we got in ToTK, and there you go.

The fact that some Zelda fans are so vehemently opposed to the bare minimum effort of writing for one of Nintendo’s most iconic villains is honestly baffling. The fact that they’re so opposed to Ganondorf having any semblance of humanity, that they’re apparently fine with Nintendo outsourcing the script for the highly anticipated sequel to one of their most successful games, absolutely bewilders me.

Like…this is definitely a combination of Modern Fandom’s extreme polarization and moral puritanism, plus the Zelda franchise containing conservative themes that a large part of the fandom seems to have internalized, and of course, good ol’ fashioned orientalism.

I’m inclined to mostly blame Modern Fandom because the way that people talk about villain tropes and “redemption arcs” and all that seems to overlap with “antishipper” nonsense. It’s like many young people nowadays are terrified of being judged for the “sin” of liking or relating to the designated Bad Guys, so they have to loudly and repeatedly proclaim that they are Good and Proper Christian Fans who engage with media in the Appropriate Manner, and denounce anyone who wants villains to be interesting or complex.

Even something like ATLA that recently had a revival is seeing Discourse like “Zuko should never have been redeemed bc he’s an evil colonizer, that teenage boy should have been executed instead!!!1! and Aang not killing Ozai at the end means that the writers are trying to excuse/defend genocide!!!1!”

I know it’s not most fans who have this kind of mindset, but dang, it’s getting more common.

[tiredfoxtf]

This mcyt shit is crazy I'm never leaving

Manhunt, hundred days, Dream has just revealed his face, Accusations, twitter wars, Captain Sparklez has cursed, MCC, Buildfight, SMPs and pranks, Doxxing, bullying, death threats Civil wars, November the 16th, Technoblade never dies, Mojang has promised fireflies TCG, Decked Out 1 and 2, Twitch Rivals, Caves and Cliffs Speedruns, Minecraft telepathy Parkour Warrior, Buildmart, Philza died in 5 year Hardcore world, Vanilla purists, "why you are bored" "Minecraft tiktoks will turn your brain to mush" Welcome to Boat Rush!

We didn't start the fire, It was always burning, since the world was turning We didn't start the fire, No we didn't light it, is there a point to fight it?

Potato wars, Life series, Vault shard Animations and fanart, "modding is hard" JONO, Hermit Gang, Derivakat "RPF is bad", "Filter tags" Fandom discourse, exploitation, labour laws Flanderization, Hate anons, First to five wins, media comprehension skills Mod loaders, mob votes, megabuild Perimeter is now a field Wolf armour, Create, custom horns Cheating scandal, new records 15th Anniversary, archaeology Copper lamp, "consistency" and Bedrock New boss,"Is Minecraft hard?" Content thieves, originality Petty drama, "like and follow for more" I can't take it anymore!

We didn't start the fire, It was always burning, since the world was turning We didn't start the fire, No we didn't light it, is there a point to fight it?

[saints-who-never-existed]

I named my blog after this wonderful video and I can’t recommend enough that you all watch it. I was going to paraphrase the part I found most affecting - the heretofore unknown heart-rending layers of meaning and history behind Peglar, Bridgens, Xenophon, and the Open C. Feeling that I couldn’t myself do the ideas justice, however, I’ve instead quoted the video directly below:

“Not only does this new choice of poetic quotation link Bridgens’ unwillingness to live after the death of one he so loved with the discourse of Peglar’s sexuality, but it also highlights a complex historical intertext between Barry Cornwall’s poem, Peglar’s adaptation, and - to jump back two thousand years - Xenophon’s The March of the Ten Thousand, or, the Anabasis. The first line of Cornwall’s lyrics (and Peglar’s) is ‘The sea, the sea’ which, in the nineteenth century, was a famous line of schoolboy Greek: ‘Thalassa! Thalassa!’ shouted in triumph by Xenophon and his fellow Greek soldiers after a deadly overland march.” 

“During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Anabasis became a popular teaching text for ancient Greek, and this refrain, ‘Thalassa! Thalassa!’ found its way into the common language of Victorian exploratory heroics, part of an imperial cultural context routinely invoked by The Terror through the shared literary games of Bridgens and Peglar.”

“In an earlier episode, the show’s Bridgens had used the Anabasis to warn Peglar of the gruelling march that was then to come; here, at the end of their journey together, the echo of ‘The C, the C’ pulls together the concepts of Greek love, nineteenth century education, desire for sexual freedom and expression, and the queer archaeology of loss and fragmentation as this Bridgens carries his lover’s papers to their final resting place, out of life and into legend, preserving, with his body, this only private record of the Franklin disaster.”

[cliozaur]

The one in which Hugo once again employs an oriental discourse and digs deeply into the material and moral essence of sewers. He compares the plan of Parisian sewers with “eccentric oriental alphabet” with “the misshapen letters.” Always exoticize what you cannot quite understand!

Here, the parallels drawn between sewers and mines, connected through their association with criminal elements, are vivid. My favourite piece is this: “here and there are breathing-holes, where Villon within converses with Rabelais without” – Villon, a poet and convicted criminal who could hide in sewers, and Rabelais, who just got his inspiration from some criminal elements, and thus he is positioned “without” but still in communication with such figures like Villon.

In the part about “the sincerity of foulness,” Hugo refers to what I would call excremental archaeology. When one encounters someone's excrement, there's little else that person can hide. On the other hand, sewers, the receptacles of all filth, serve as the perfect haven for murderers to conceal trace of their crimes, and to which dirty water “in which bloody hands have been washed flows,” but once all these things end up there, it reveals the truth about what transpired.