That Anthro Podcast

Undergraduate student Tim James from the University of Mexico joins me today to talk all things paleontology and CRM archaeology (Cultural Resource Management). We discuss his unique background growing up visiting museums in New Mexico, and how being exposed to archaeological sites and indigenous people from such a young age really inspired him to study ancient material culture, and explore how it connects us all. We talk about ancient fossils in downtown LA, and what CRM is. Which means he and the team are called in when construction crews are digging in a site and find fossils, or the team will survey/excavate if the site is suspected to have cultural materials. He also tells us a fun story about excavating and driving a 900 pound triceratops sacrum across the country from South Dakota (all legal and with proper authority of course!) to a museum in LA where it currently resides. He expresses his opinion that paleontology doesn't take into consideration early indigenous peoples finding fossils and how they would have explained them and incorporated these extinct animals into their mythology and oral histories; and that they should start to.

https://maxwellmuseum.unm.edu/

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Brought to you in collaboration with the American Anthropological Association check out their podcast library here https://www.americananthro.org/StayInformed/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=1629

Welcome to That Anthro Podcast Dr. Matthew Velasco, a Professor at Cornell University. On this episode we discuss how Dr. Velasco’s love for history and film led him to undergraduate and graduate degrees in Anthropology. We also discuss his experience taking his first anthropology class at Stanford and the impact Dr. John Rick’s Intro to Archaeology class had on his academic path. This includes being invited to join Dr. Ricks project at Chavin de Huantar the summer after taking that intro class. He expresses his love for Peru, the importance of community engagement, and how he has continued to conduct research there. Currently he is working on a book project regarding cranial modification in the Colca Valley in Peru, and how archaeologists can look at cranial modification within a specific community. We also take a tangent to discuss the graduate application process and he provides some very useful advice.

SAA conference info: The Bioarchaeology Interest Group (BIG) is organizing a Mentoring Event for the 88th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology (SAA), to be held Thursday, March 30, from 9:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m, location TBD. This free workshop will provide an opportunity for students to receive mentoring from expert bioarchaeologists of different backgrounds and career tracks. Please complete this form to register for the event. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to e-mail the BIG Co-Chairs, Sara Juengst ([email protected]) and Matt Velasco ([email protected]). We look forward to meeting you in Portland! Sign up here https://forms.gle/bgRrS6kKxdduTh3a9

Today Dr. Jamie Clark an Associate Professor of Archaeology at George Mason University joins That Anthro Podcast. We discuss her academic journey including her dissertation research at Sibudu Cave in South Africa. We also discuss her first teaching appointment at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and what it was like to live and teach in Alaska. Then we cover the next phase of her career teaching at GMU, including her class that I took called "Archaeology of Climate Change." Dr. Clark is an archaeologist who studies human-environmental relationships in the late Pleistocene through the lens of zooarchaeology. We also chat about her most recent project that brought her to Sefinum, Israel this summer. I hope you enjoy this episode!

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My friend Stephanie Black joins us today, recording all the way from Sydney Australia! Steph graduated from Macquire University with a degree in archaeology in 2017, and since has been traveling the world doing various archaeological project. Hear about her once in a lifetime experience at the Crenshaw Center in Scotland, what it was really like to work in Dubai in the middle of a desert, and how she is trying to incorporate Australian indigenous history into her social media content. Follow @thatanthropodcast on instagram for more behind the scenes content, and check out Steph @adventuringarchaeologist!