Tag Archives: anthropology
Life as Expressed in Death
Today’s blog is written by ASM’s bioarchaeologist Dr. James Watson. I was recently asked by archaeologists at the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia Sonora (INAH: National Institute of Anthropology and History) to come to Hermosillo to analyze several prehistoric human skeletons that had been recently recovered from several archaeological investigations throughout the state. Skeletal [...]
Museum Jobs
It’s a busy time again at the University and at the Arizona State Museum. Students are back on campus, classes are underway, and fall events are being planned. Everyone is doing multiple tasks at once. At the museum one program we are working on is an Open House for students in the Anthropology Department. At [...]
Contemporary Issues
What makes a museum relevant? What role should a museum play in its community? Which communities should a museum serve? How and why? How do you define culture? Is it important? Those are some of the questions being discussed by ASM staff these days. Why do you visit museums? What do you expect to see [...]
Archaic Origami
The amazing thing about museum collections is that their objects represent people, real people. Someone once made or used the objects and they hint at lives lived and stories to tell. This past weekend I was at the Grand Canyon. At the Visitor’s Center in Tusayan, a National Geographic IMAX film shows a scene with [...]
Making Connections
“Its interesting. I’ve never seen a picture of him before,” pondered Chental Spencer my student employee, after catching sight of her great grandfather John Willie, Jr. in ASM’s newest exhibition on Navajo Code Talkers. She also saw a picture of another of her great grandfathers, Richard Thomas. Chental recalled when he was awarded the Congressional [...]
Relatives of Sid the Ground Sloth (Ice Age)
Sid the ground sloth in the Ice Age movies is adorable, a pain in the neck with his shenanigans, but pretty appealing as a character, specially with the mothering instincts exhibited in Ice Age 3. Arizona is no stranger to this Pleistocene animal. The Shasta Ground Sloth was widespread in the Western United States up [...]
Riding Our Faith
Hard economic times make me depressed, make everyone depressed as we struggle to figure out what to cut, how to cope. But there is always hope, a word that keeps jumping out at me. Hope that the legislature and our governor will create a budget that supports education and the arts. Hope that the K-12 [...]
Ancient life in the driest desert in the world: a report from the field
Today’s blog is a report from the field by Dr. James Watson who has been in Chile teaching and researching supported by a Fulbright award. When I arrived in Arica, Chile to start four months of research on the dental health of some of the world’s oldest skeletons I had no idea how barren a [...]
Moving Museum Experiences
I subscribe to another blog about museum audience research. Today’s entry was about emotion, and the power of museums to provoke emotion in their visitors. The people commenting are all folks who work in museums. I thought I’d share a few of their comments and ask for yours—Do you remember a visit to a museum [...]
Summer Research Adventures
This summer, three of Arizona State Museum’s curators are off on explorations far from home. Associate Curator of Ethnohistory Michael Brescia is taking in the beauty of Southern Spain to learn about historic traditions related to water rights. Associate Curator of Conservation Teresa Moreno is part of an international team in Arcadia, Greece, discovering mythical [...]
