I apologize once again the long silence in my blog. I have been away from Internet for a large part of the summer. It was great having summer holidays for the first time since 2001. Besides the previously mentioned trip to Ireland, we spent a lot of time in our summer cottage. Time somehow seems to extend there. It reminds me of childhood summers, and the way they felt endless.
They don't make summers like that anymore. The passage of time seems to accelerate when you grow up. Weeks are flitting by almost too fast to notice. Month, which was an eternity when I was a child, is hardly no time at all. Even years feel shorter (I recently had my birthday, again! I definitely don't feel that old.). I am often aghast at how many years have passed from something that for me seems to have happened quite recently.
We split time down into regular, measurable units; days and hours, minutes, seconds even, but our personal, experienced time does not always move at the same speed. A week abroad feels like a longer time. Then when you return home and everyday life takes over, it quickly fades into something that happened long ago. If, however, you keep returning to the same place, like archaeologists doing fieldwork, you may get a funny feeling that hardly any time has passed since your last visit, although it may in reality be a year or two.
I think it is the way our brain works that makes the difference in the way how our personal time behaves. The human brain is an amazing thing. Even when we are just idly walking along a street, the brain keeps taking everything in, filing and classifying, making connections. For most of the time, we are not even aware of this happening. The brain filters much of the incoming perceptions as background noise that our conscious minds need not be informed about. When we go to unfamiliar circumstances, the brain keeps making remarks to our consciousness more often. This has no doubt been a survival trait for our ancestors.
For a small child every day is still full of new experiences. For most of us adults our daily lives run pretty much the same script over and over again - get up in the morning, go to work, try to get things done, pick the child from daycare, go home, cook dinner, go to sleep. We do this negotiating through our everyday lives in a sort of autopilot. When we travel and go sightseeing we are pre-disposed to pay attention to our surroundings. However, in our normal lives we have little use for the knowledge gathered abroad, so it gets filed away. If we, however, return to the same place later on, the brain picks up from where we left the last time, bringing forth the memories surprisingly fresh.
Showing posts with label musings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label musings. Show all posts
Friday, August 7, 2009
Monday, April 6, 2009
Family matters
I was offered a chance to go to the Danish dig in Jarash again this year. After some consideration I regretfully declined the offer. The foremost reasons were financial, but there were also family matters to be considered. I was away from home a lot last summer, and I had sort of promised my son already that this summer would be different. I could not break that promise.
Last summer while in Jarash I was reading the biography of Gertrude Bell. She was a well-off and educated British lady who traveled widely in the Near East, especially Levant, in the late 19th and early 20th century. She documented archaeological sites - she also visited Petra - and did services to the British Army during the First World War. In her time, when most women devoted their lives to raising a family, she was most exceptional - and I dare say she would still be. Her life is fascinating. What began to annoy me when reading the biography, however, was the way how the biographer, Georgina Howell, seemed to think that all of Gertrude's achievements were just compensation for the lack of husband and children. That, in fact, the true vocation of every woman ever born is to raise a family, and Gertrude threw herself into her work just to sublimate that need. It made my hackles rise. Surely Bell could have married if she really was desperate to have children - I understand she did not lack charm or suitors. What if she chose otherwise - in those days combining family and her way of life would have been outright impossible.
Trying to have it all is still not without its complications, at least for a woman. The idea of the mother as the primary caretaker sticks fast. When I do go abroad I often face questions about who will look after my son. I remind those who ask that the child has a father, too, and one who is perfectly capable of taking care of him, and try not to feel too bad about people who sagely say that a child should not be separated from his mother for more days than he has years of age. But sometimes I can't help wondering whether I am doing my son some irreparable wrong.
Last summer while in Jarash I was reading the biography of Gertrude Bell. She was a well-off and educated British lady who traveled widely in the Near East, especially Levant, in the late 19th and early 20th century. She documented archaeological sites - she also visited Petra - and did services to the British Army during the First World War. In her time, when most women devoted their lives to raising a family, she was most exceptional - and I dare say she would still be. Her life is fascinating. What began to annoy me when reading the biography, however, was the way how the biographer, Georgina Howell, seemed to think that all of Gertrude's achievements were just compensation for the lack of husband and children. That, in fact, the true vocation of every woman ever born is to raise a family, and Gertrude threw herself into her work just to sublimate that need. It made my hackles rise. Surely Bell could have married if she really was desperate to have children - I understand she did not lack charm or suitors. What if she chose otherwise - in those days combining family and her way of life would have been outright impossible.
Trying to have it all is still not without its complications, at least for a woman. The idea of the mother as the primary caretaker sticks fast. When I do go abroad I often face questions about who will look after my son. I remind those who ask that the child has a father, too, and one who is perfectly capable of taking care of him, and try not to feel too bad about people who sagely say that a child should not be separated from his mother for more days than he has years of age. But sometimes I can't help wondering whether I am doing my son some irreparable wrong.
Monday, March 23, 2009
On navigators and perceiving the world
We got a navigator for our car last Christmas. Some time ago I used it for the first time when I had to find to a place in Kirkkonummi. The logic of the navigator takes some getting used to, so of course I took a wrong turn. There is something extremely annoying about a calm male voice telling you to make a U-turn when you a driving on a road where it is not an option. So after a while I found myself screaming back at the navigator as if it were a live person. (Although no real person, and surely no male I know, would have so admirably maintained their calm in that situation.) Silly, I know - it is a machine! But any computer user surely knows that sometimes you just find it helps to vent your feelings by cursing at the dumb machine.
I have been wondering, how things like navigators will change our way of perceiving our surroundings in the long run. Traditionally people have oriented themselves using landmarks, and in most parts of the world this is still the method of finding your way. The obsession with maps is a western thing. For example, if you take a taxi in Amman, you'd better know some handy landmark near the location you're going to, otherwise it might get tricky. The streets do have names, but nobody knows them. And if you show a map to your taxi driver you are just going to make him very confused. Even we westerners don't as a rule need a map to negotiate our daily lives - we know where everything is, through experience. That is the way people normally perceive the world - not as maps or street names, but as places and relationships between them.
What will happen, when we increasingly start to rely on navigators and similar appliances to describe the world for us? Will these useful gadgets actually make us dumber when we need no longer pay attention to our surroundings to orientate? I have already noticed that following the little arrows on the navigator screen and listening to the soothing voice giving you driving instructions means you pay little attention to where you actually are. The perceived world is substituted by the virtual reality of the map on the navigator screen. And even if we don't end up in a situation where we are unable to find our way home from work without our electronic little helpers, I think we are certainly going to miss much when we hand over our perception to these machines.
I have been wondering, how things like navigators will change our way of perceiving our surroundings in the long run. Traditionally people have oriented themselves using landmarks, and in most parts of the world this is still the method of finding your way. The obsession with maps is a western thing. For example, if you take a taxi in Amman, you'd better know some handy landmark near the location you're going to, otherwise it might get tricky. The streets do have names, but nobody knows them. And if you show a map to your taxi driver you are just going to make him very confused. Even we westerners don't as a rule need a map to negotiate our daily lives - we know where everything is, through experience. That is the way people normally perceive the world - not as maps or street names, but as places and relationships between them.
What will happen, when we increasingly start to rely on navigators and similar appliances to describe the world for us? Will these useful gadgets actually make us dumber when we need no longer pay attention to our surroundings to orientate? I have already noticed that following the little arrows on the navigator screen and listening to the soothing voice giving you driving instructions means you pay little attention to where you actually are. The perceived world is substituted by the virtual reality of the map on the navigator screen. And even if we don't end up in a situation where we are unable to find our way home from work without our electronic little helpers, I think we are certainly going to miss much when we hand over our perception to these machines.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Temptations
I have never been very good at resisting temptations. Especially ones involving books. Although I admit that I did not even try very hard when I saw the most recent list of books on sale from The David Brown Book Company. I found a couple of very interesting titles at laughable prices: Letters from the Desert by Margaret Drower (2004), which contains letters and journals of Flinders Petrie and his wife, Hilda; and Women Travellers in the Near East by Sarah Searight (2005). I will try to find time to comment the books here after I have received and read them.
When I was a child, I dreamed of becoming an explorer. I read books about expeditions to the little known corners of the world and was an avid follower of the TV documentary series "The Silk Road", a Japanese-Chinese co-production filmed in the late 70's and shown in the Finnish telly in the early 80's. It was probably this dream which unconsciously drove me when I applied to study ethnology in the first place. Later, when it had become clear that I was not to follow the Finnish academics of the 19th century into expeditions in Siberia (I mean the ones who went voluntarily; a number of Finns were exiled there because the Tsar did not like their views), I turned my interest into archaeology. It seemed to promise at least the uncomfortable accommodation and not-too-good meals on digs, if not the excitement of discovering new territories and peoples. In hindsight, my ending up spending several seasons in Jordan, camping on a mountaintop*, was just a logical continuation of the kind of career choices I have made.
"The Silk Road" is currently being rebroadcasted on YLE Teema. And I still dream of traveling the Silk Road all the way through Central Asia to China, preferably on horse- and camelback.
*Although, truth to be told, the camp was relatively comfortable and the food was actually good if a little monotonous.
When I was a child, I dreamed of becoming an explorer. I read books about expeditions to the little known corners of the world and was an avid follower of the TV documentary series "The Silk Road", a Japanese-Chinese co-production filmed in the late 70's and shown in the Finnish telly in the early 80's. It was probably this dream which unconsciously drove me when I applied to study ethnology in the first place. Later, when it had become clear that I was not to follow the Finnish academics of the 19th century into expeditions in Siberia (I mean the ones who went voluntarily; a number of Finns were exiled there because the Tsar did not like their views), I turned my interest into archaeology. It seemed to promise at least the uncomfortable accommodation and not-too-good meals on digs, if not the excitement of discovering new territories and peoples. In hindsight, my ending up spending several seasons in Jordan, camping on a mountaintop*, was just a logical continuation of the kind of career choices I have made.
"The Silk Road" is currently being rebroadcasted on YLE Teema. And I still dream of traveling the Silk Road all the way through Central Asia to China, preferably on horse- and camelback.
*Although, truth to be told, the camp was relatively comfortable and the food was actually good if a little monotonous.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Reality TV
I don't, as a rule, watch reality TV. I can basically understand Idols or something similar - singing contests are, after all, nothing new in television. But there is an aspect to these TV shows that makes me wonder, and that is the aspect of purposefully humiliating the contestants. The Weakest Link was pretty lame by today's standards. The nastiness of the judges in Idols is legendary, but even then you can - at least in theory - hate the evil judges and feel sorry for the poor sod who has made a fool of him/herself. (Except that it is in the nature of most of us to side with the winner.) The worst I find shows like Fear Factor, where people are practically competing to shame themselves by doing disgusting things. (I admit I also wonder at the people who are willing to brave this televisioned humiliation in front of millions of watchers for their five minutes of fame. What kind of a sad person wants to be famous for eating s*t in the telly?)
Public humiliation used to be a form of punishment. Not long ago in our schools you might be told to go and stand in the corner for misbehaving in the classroom. A little longer while ago you would be put in the stocks for socially unacceptable behaviour, and other people would come to leer at you. Even in the more gruesome forms of punishment, such as whipping, cutting of the hand, or execution, the publicity of the punishment added an element of shame to it. By all accounts the public punishments tended to be great fun for the audience, though. The ancient Romans had really understood the amusement value, and made a spectacle of the executions of criminals.*
Most of us enlightened western people would probably detest the stocks as a form of punishment, not to mention cutting of body parts or throwing people to the lions. However, we seem to find other people's humiliation quite acceptable amusement. When our attitudes towards other people's psychic integrity are like this, do you really need to ask why our kids torment each other in schools? If it is wrong to humiliate another person, how can you watch it in the telly and say it is just a harmless passtime?
* I am not going to be greatly surprised if in the near future we see in a reality TV show people actually maiming each other. The reality TV survives by being shocking, and the more people see, the more they get used to seeing. And after all, who could oppose a modern version of gladiators - as long as it is between consenting adults?
Public humiliation used to be a form of punishment. Not long ago in our schools you might be told to go and stand in the corner for misbehaving in the classroom. A little longer while ago you would be put in the stocks for socially unacceptable behaviour, and other people would come to leer at you. Even in the more gruesome forms of punishment, such as whipping, cutting of the hand, or execution, the publicity of the punishment added an element of shame to it. By all accounts the public punishments tended to be great fun for the audience, though. The ancient Romans had really understood the amusement value, and made a spectacle of the executions of criminals.*
Most of us enlightened western people would probably detest the stocks as a form of punishment, not to mention cutting of body parts or throwing people to the lions. However, we seem to find other people's humiliation quite acceptable amusement. When our attitudes towards other people's psychic integrity are like this, do you really need to ask why our kids torment each other in schools? If it is wrong to humiliate another person, how can you watch it in the telly and say it is just a harmless passtime?
* I am not going to be greatly surprised if in the near future we see in a reality TV show people actually maiming each other. The reality TV survives by being shocking, and the more people see, the more they get used to seeing. And after all, who could oppose a modern version of gladiators - as long as it is between consenting adults?
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Virtually there
I have become a virtual teacher. I am teaching the rudiments of archaeology on an internet course in the open university. In practice this means that the students follow the lectures at three different locations over the country. What is sort of silly is that the students sit in a classroom and listen. So they don't have their own computers and microphones and the interaction part of the lecture is nearly non-existent. The only way to communicate is using the chat function of Connect Pro, the program we use for broadcasting the lectures.For the students, I am a talking head on a screen. For me they are even more unreal. Because they have no microphones, I'm talking into a complete silence which feels very weird. Luckily I can at least see a few of them in a webcam picture, so I know there is somebody out there, but I can't really see their reactions - whether they seem to be interested or bored out of their minds.
Am I witnessing the future of teaching in universities?
Am I witnessing the future of teaching in universities?
Friday, August 29, 2008
End of season
The field season is over. I am currently in Amman, trying to get used to the idea of returning home in a couple of days. A month of fieldwork in Jordan is such an intensive experience that I find it hard to orientate myself to the normal life. I am often feeling strangely detached and a little bit blue. Helsinki looks alien and simple tasks like shopping groceries or taking a tram are confusing experiences, not the least because I can't decide what language I should speak.
To sum up the season in Jarash, I met many nice people I hope to keep in some contact with in the future, I learned lots of new things - although not necessarily those things I expected to learn, and I found out that being an archaeologist is still my dream job. In short, I enjoyed this season in Jarash enormously. Thank you everyone who were there with me. Tusen, tusen tack.
To sum up the season in Jarash, I met many nice people I hope to keep in some contact with in the future, I learned lots of new things - although not necessarily those things I expected to learn, and I found out that being an archaeologist is still my dream job. In short, I enjoyed this season in Jarash enormously. Thank you everyone who were there with me. Tusen, tusen tack.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
SciFest
I spent the last week in Joensuu, at SciFest, a science and technology fair aimed at school kids. We were there exhibiting the work done in our research project. The idea of SciFest is to give hands-on experience to the children, so the archaeological part of our stand included a sand box complete with "archaeological finds". It was a big hit. Looking at the enthusiastic way the kids were digging at the sand box I could not help feeling a little bit guilty. Considering the bad career possibilities in this field, is it not irresponsible to get children interested in archaeology?
Speaking of work, I have enlisted to work at excavations for the next couple of weeks. The work will involve digging at some Stone age dwelling site not far from Helsinki. This is the first time in a decade I'm doing archaeological fieldwork in Finland, and the first time ever I have the luxury of sleeping at home while doing it. Two weeks away from the office do not sound that bad. I just hope the weather stays nice!
Speaking of work, I have enlisted to work at excavations for the next couple of weeks. The work will involve digging at some Stone age dwelling site not far from Helsinki. This is the first time in a decade I'm doing archaeological fieldwork in Finland, and the first time ever I have the luxury of sleeping at home while doing it. Two weeks away from the office do not sound that bad. I just hope the weather stays nice!
Friday, April 4, 2008
Summer away from home
It seems that besides excavating in Jordan in August I will be working in Greece for a couple of weeks in July. This is a familiar project I have been working for before, so no big excitement in the air. I just hope it is not going to be as hot as it was last time I was there a couple of years ago. You would think that Jordan in August is hot, but that is dry heat, which is much more tolerable than the sweltering Northern Greece.
On the bright side, the impending financial catastrophe of June and July is avoided. And nobody certainly told me to concentrate on Mediterranean archaeology. In a sense it has actually been a professional suicide, because with a history of working in the Eastern Mediterranean for the last decade I am never going to get a post in archaeology here in Finland.
Oh well, I have already decided that when my career in archaeology ends I will go over to real estate business.
On the bright side, the impending financial catastrophe of June and July is avoided. And nobody certainly told me to concentrate on Mediterranean archaeology. In a sense it has actually been a professional suicide, because with a history of working in the Eastern Mediterranean for the last decade I am never going to get a post in archaeology here in Finland.
Oh well, I have already decided that when my career in archaeology ends I will go over to real estate business.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Archaeology is imagination
Within the field of archaeology there have been, and still are, strong research traditions which emphasize on the accuracy of the collection of data and the use of scientific techniques. The underlying conception is that by the use of rigorous and preferably scientific techniques we can produce more accurate interpretations of the past - in less fancy words, do better archaeology.
I have experienced something of a loss of innocence in my relationship with scientific archaeology. I would not go as far as to claim it has no use whatsoever - scientific methods can certainly serve to answer some questions, as long as those questions are suited to be answered by those methods. However, it is only our interpretation that makes them archaeology.
However, there is a part in the process which leads from archaeological finds or scientific results to archaeological interpretation, which I am sorely tempted to call a leap of imagination. It may be well-informed and persuasively argued imagination, and based on a sound theory, and if we want to move beyond the mere description of material things, it is necessary, but still, it has more to do with fantasy than with science.
I have experienced something of a loss of innocence in my relationship with scientific archaeology. I would not go as far as to claim it has no use whatsoever - scientific methods can certainly serve to answer some questions, as long as those questions are suited to be answered by those methods. However, it is only our interpretation that makes them archaeology.
However, there is a part in the process which leads from archaeological finds or scientific results to archaeological interpretation, which I am sorely tempted to call a leap of imagination. It may be well-informed and persuasively argued imagination, and based on a sound theory, and if we want to move beyond the mere description of material things, it is necessary, but still, it has more to do with fantasy than with science.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
