Need Anthropology Ideas (Lavabe, this thread is for you!)

[CathyCA]

My Sam called me last week and told me that he planned to visit me for 3 weeks. He arrives on Tuesday night. I'm very excited.

Sam has finished summer school. He has switched his major to ANTHROPOLOGY, and he loves it. At least, he loves the classes he took this summer. He might even have achieved junior status in college.

Anyway, I'm looking for ways to keep him engaged and interested in ANTHROPOLOGY while he's here in North Carolina for those three weeks. I think that a trip to the Lemur Center is a given, but what else should I be doing? Are there other ANTHROPOLOGY things that my mom and I could show Sam while he's here?

Also, are there any left-coast leaning social and cultural things I could be showing him to let him know that North Carolina is almost as hip as California?

Thanks in advance for all of your suggestions.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Why not go to the NC zoo as well? I haven't been there in years. Also Wake Forest has an ANTHROPOLOGY museum, but for some weird reason they don't capitalize it. ;)
http://moa.wfu.edu/

[CameronBornAndBred]

By the way, what part of anthropology is he interested in? Biological (primatology) is only one aspect. Now you've got me googling it, good thing today is slow at work and I'm bored.

[CathyCA]

By the way, what part of anthropology is he interested in? Biological (primatology) is only one aspect. Now you've got me googling it, good thing today is slow at work and I'm bored.

I don't know. He told me that he had changed his major to ANTHROPOLOGY.

[CathyCA]

Why not go to the NC zoo as well? I haven't been there in years. Also Wake Forest has an ANTHROPOLOGY museum, but for some weird reason they don't capitalize it. ;)
http://moa.wfu.edu/

He might enjoy the NC Zoo. He went to the SF Zoo last week. I saw some pics that ExLax had taken and tagged the kids in on FB.

I didn't know about the WFU ANTHROPOLOGY Museum, even though I spent 3 years at WFU. I didn't get out of Carswell Hall much. . .

Great ideas! Keep 'em coming!

[Lavabe]

Anthro is a fine major.
Sounds like he is early in the major. Will address any anthro questions you may have.

Note: biological/physical involves genetics, human biology, Paleoanthro (fossils), and primates.

[bluebutton]

My work is really close to Linguistic Anthropology. Walt Wolfram at NCSU is the big sociolinguist in the area. He does southern dialects.

There's a lot of really fascinating stuff about language, communities, and history in NC.

[bluebutton]

BTW I would say if he's not going to grad school that anthro is a better second major than primary major. It is really intellectually stimulating, but I'm not sure it would point him toward getting a job after college.

And if he thinks he wants to go to anthro grad school, hopefully he has a rock solid god-complex. Anthro profs and students at UCLA were ridiculously full of themselves and cut throat which was unnecessary because they did indeed do quite interesting work that would have been easier to engage if they could get over themselves.

The UT anthropologists might do good work, but in person are practically incoherent and undiciplined.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

Anthro profs and students at UCLA were ridiculously full of themselves and cut throat which was unnecessary because they did indeed do quite interesting work that would have been easier to engage if they could get over themselves.

The UT anthropologists might do good work, but in person are practically incoherent and undiciplined.

Food fight! Food fight!

[DukieInKansas]

Anthro profs and students at UCLA were ridiculously full of themselves and cut throat which was unnecessary because they did indeed do quite interesting work that would have been easier to engage if they could get over themselves.

The UT anthropologists might do good work, but in person are practically incoherent and undiciplined.

Food fight! Food fight!

I think this falls under cultural anthropology.

[Lavabe]

Hmm... Too much to comment on:
1) my inclinations for Sam is to tour some of the good archaeology sites dealing with native Americans and also the historical arch sites. ECU does a lot of good work. If you want to go into neighboring states, historical arch is really neat in Virginia. At an early stage of taking anthro, it's highly worthwhile to visit such locations.
2) cultural sites vary wildly in nc. At an early stage, visiting museums devoted to different groups is a good start. Iirc, ap st (or Unca) may have some good Appalachian museums.
3) I like the idea of going to the Nc zoo... I like it a lot. If Sam has seen SFZoo, Asheboro would be a good follow up.
4) in terms of liberal arts and science majors, predacious few majors guarantee a job. I know... I majored in computer science and anthro. What these majors do provide are ways to improve and enhance skillsets. Ant usually places more emphasis on languages, cross cultural comparisons, an enhanced sense of history, and a more complete holistic sense of human biology. This touches on a lot of disciplines, so doubling majors is quite common. Having said that, in my 15 years of writing rec letters for anthro majors, most of my culturals have gone into public health, law, business, and teaching. The bio students go more into medicine, dentistry, pub health, and a few also go into vet school. Fwiw, arch students have a high employment rate. Overall, us labor statistics forecast anthro as one of the best employable majors in the next ten years.
5) Where I've taught, fewer than 5% of majors go onto grad school in anthro.
6) Will not defend UCLA, but that doesn't sound like the grad student I know there.
7) UT: Texas Austin? Nice bio anthro there. A description of UT in an earlier post just doesn't apply to them, at least from my experience with them.
8) UT: Texas San Antonio? Fantastic bio anthro there. really personable.
9) UT: Knoxville?
10) okay... I will defend UCLA anthro. Giada DiLaurentis was one of their majors. ;)

[Lavabe]

Cultural anecdote: when I first taught a general intro to anthro, I had to answer a student question. Student asked me why it was important or relevant to learn about famous cultural anthropologist Malinowski or the Kula Ring. I then got into a 10 minute discussion of why NASCAR was just like the Kula Ring.
The student signed up for the Anthro major within two weeks of that response.

Cathy: cultural anthro opportunities occur everywhere in NC.
Anywhere you see ritual, you can see an anthro opportunity. TAKE HIM TO A BRUNCHGATE!

[Lavabe]

Will address any anthro questions you may have.
.

Note: Will NOT answer exam/quiz questions.
;-)

[CathyCA]

I talked to Sam tonight. He will be doing both physical and cultural anthropology, but he said that his emphasis will be on cultural anthropology since they're the ones getting the jobs.

He wants to go to the zoo, the museum at WFU and he's interested in the lemurs at Duke.

He's also interested in sustainable living, so he's interested in going to all of the farmer's markets around here. He wants to plant a garden in my back yard, and I had to tell him "NO." I just dropped some major bucks with my landscaper to make my yard look decent. I'm not going to let Sam go shoveling in the middle of my yard. I told him that he could plant a garden at Mom's house in his Papa's raised planting beds. That, along with messing with the old compost bins, seemed to satisfy him.

Keep the suggestions rolling in, though. I've got to entertain this kid for 3 weeks.

[bluebutton]

I wanted to apologize for my intemperate blast at anthropologists. Since I wasn't willing to name the ones I had in mind, I blasted the whole lot of them which was uncalled for.

Lavabe, I owe you and your decent colleagues an apology. I'm sorry.

Cathy, I hope your son continues to find his studies engaging. Don't worry about keeping him busy. A few things here and there are good, but there are anthropological insights to gained anywhere. Heck, and evening at the local mall with a notebook should be plenty entertaining. Certainly, observing and talking with people at a farmer's market would be.

[Lavabe]

Cathy, I hope your son continues to find his studies engaging. Don't worry about keeping him busy. A few things here and there are good, but there are anthropological insights to gained anywhere. Heck, and evening at the local mall with a notebook should be plenty entertaining. Certainly, observing and talking with people at a farmer's market would be.

I agree with this statement100%. Two other opportunities to consider: study abroad (Sam should grab one of these chances... Acquire a foreign language and become fluent in it); service-learning opportunities. Hopefully Sam will have a good look at work from one of my former colleagues from Emory, Peggy Barlett. Her work has inspired Many people. Also, I believe there was a summer field school in cultural and sustainable/intentional communities in western NC. I don't know if it is still being run.

bbutton: I agree that second majoring is sometimes a wise idea. In California, however, anthro is a popular, well-established and well-recognized major both within and outside universities. In contrast, Florida's blowhard governor has made some anti-anthropology comments. I don't want to get political, but dude actually singled out anthro as a major not needed in Florida.

Otherwise, most anthros I know embrace double-majoring. It's different in many other disciplines.

I am really glad to see that Sam likes both bio and cultural. Hopefully he'll feel the same way with arch sometime soon.

[DevilWearsPrada2.0]

The best to you Cathy with keeping Sam engaged in activities and all things that young people like!! But enjoy your 3 weeks!!! That time surely will go by on a fast pace!!

The North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro is always a good day trip!!!

Enjoy your 3 weeks!!!!

[OZZIE4DUKE]

I talked to Sam tonight. He will be doing both physical and cultural anthropology, but he said that his emphasis will be on cultural anthropology since they're the ones getting the jobs.

He wants to go to the zoo, the museum at WFU and he's interested in the lemurs at Duke.

He's also interested in sustainable living, so he's interested in going to all of the farmer's markets around here. He wants to plant a garden in my back yard, and I had to tell him "NO." I just dropped some major bucks with my landscaper to make my yard look decent. I'm not going to let Sam go shoveling in the middle of my yard. I told him that he could plant a garden at Mom's house in his Papa's raised planting beds. That, along with messing with the old compost bins, seemed to satisfy him.

Keep the suggestions rolling in, though. I've got to entertain this kid for 3 weeks.

Of course there is the big farmer's market in Raleigh, and there are two restaurants there, the country kitchen for breakfast/brunch, and the seafood restaurant for lunch! Both are excellent! And we have a new, small farmer's market in Smithfield a few days a week, right on Business 70, between the court house and new Town Hall. That would make for a good contrast in size/culture for him.

[Lavabe]

Lavabe, I owe you and your decent colleagues an apology. I'm sorry.

No problem. I can't speak for your experiences, and clearly, different people and programs have different emphases on teaching and public outreach. From my own experience, people can have wildly different opinions about me. Personally, I probably never would have entered anthro had it not be for the one-on-one interactions I had with two profs at Duke; I doubt sincerely that I would have had as much chance to learn that way at large schools like UT (whichever one) or UCLA. It's useful to see your comment before the beginning of a new academic year.

[DukieInKansas]

For his interest in sustainable living and gardening - he might be interested in Rosalind Creasy http://www.rosalindcreasy.com/. She is from CA but he might find her sight interesting.

Also, I don't know if any of the food pantries in your area do this but Manna House in Pensacola, FL installed an urban garden instead of replacing one of their warehouses. One of the folks running it was actually an archeology major. Here is their website: http://www.mannafoodpantries.org/gardens.html. Perhaps there is a similar organization closer he can check out.