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kate_nepveuI am at Arisia! I have a schedule! I also have a laptop that I took to some panels this morning. Here's the first:
Description:
Everyone thinks of Indiana Jones, but Captain Picard is an amateur archaeologist. Archaeological content abounds in fantasy and sci-fi. It's a staple in RPG's and computer games like Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. As pleased as archaeologists are to see their field represented, the public understanding of the field is largely dominated by fictional accounts. Some professional archaeologists will help sift through these pop-culture finds, and help determine which are misconceptions, and where art imitates life.
Kevin Turausky, Moniquill Blackgoose, Ninian Stein, Peter Nulton, Roxanne Reddington-Wilde (moderator)
This was great. I'm sorry I arrived a little bit late. As soon as it was over I followed Moniquill on Tumblr (moniquill) and bought her book To Shape a Dragon's Breath.
Also I did not know that archaeology had that "ae" in the middle, I was convinced it was just an "e." TIL.
Excerpted from con bios:
Kevin: "I used to be a park ranger and worked at sites across the US, teaching nature and history to the public, and now I work in utilities."
Moniquill: "Monique Poirier is an enrolled member of the Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe and a lineal descendant of Ousamequin Massasoit. … She has blogged, essayed, and discussed extensively across many platforms the depictions of NDN and NDN-coded characters in sci-fi and fantasy, and would like to help other authors better understand how to produce respectful and well-thought-out indigenous characters and what the common pitfalls are in doing so. …"
Ninian: (no con bio; was trained as an anthropological-archaeologist and an environmental scientist, teaches at Tufts University.)
Peter: "a Classical and Maritime archaeologist who teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design. … Peter has a long history of debunking disinformation about archaeology."
Roxanne: "has been doing low-income public policy work at ABCD, Boston's anti-poverty agency, for the past 25+ years. She fell into the job after finishing her PhD in Celtic Studies while working at Harvard's Anthropology & Archaeology Museum. In the evening, she teaches Anthropology, Art History, Advocacy (and more) at Cambridge College … "
panelists seem to be talking about what draws them in and what repels them from field. Kevin: repels: weather (internship, Tucson in summer); attracted in SFF, Stargate Moniquill: believe I was brought into this panel as kind of dissenting voice, "because not an archaeologist, but I am An Indian." has read/watched/played lots of fiction re: archaeology Ninian: saw tv show when 9, fascinated; mon was like, there are no jobs in archaeology. in college, took course and realized can learn from archaeology for environmental challenges. professor at Tufts. job is to understand problems have today, how they came about, stories we tell about them that affects how (solve?); believes strongly in collaboration across both fields, especially with indigenous communities, and environmental justice. Peter was her first supervisor, dig in Greece Ninian con't: recommends fiction portraying traditional views of archaeology: "Evidence" by Alexis Pauline Gumbs in Octavia's Brood; "Scholar Miaka’s Brief Summary of Memories Imbued in Memory Object Exhibit 132.NW.1" by Jaymee Goh in Recognize Fascism Roxanne: archaeology must cross multiple fields and disciplines, not simply digging up stuff from the past. book from years ago, Andre Norton, The Time Traders, heroes are archaeologist time travelers, utterly filled with tropes & stereotypes (Ancient Aliens), but was caught by idea of being able to go physically into past; feels like for whole panel one or two things from childhood that was spark for career Roxanne: panel is about speculative fiction and where contrasts with what's real or not. if panelists practice archaeology, where does reality differ; if create fiction, how or where incorporated aspects or critique Moniquill: is storyteller; her book has a couple of historians (would not call them archaeologists) in it, who have already lost or rewritten on purpose lots of history, main character takes tea with them and gives them an earful. set in parallel 19th century, very different than today, not good archaeology. "archaeologists" posit that land might have been much more peopled, MC is like, no, we know that, there was a big plague, we have records. very much kid (15 year old) from inside the culture versus learned scholars who mostly studied in old country with 19th century colonialist mindsets Kevin: having done fieldwork, so much is extremely boring, not cinematic or good gameplay. doing transects, which is just walking in a line looking at ground: is this sharpened fleck of rock human-made or just a rock broke. when make a discovery: not a temple, here's a pile of cans left by an army. Peter: was going to talk about cataloguing and library work. was told in grad school, not exciting Indiana Jones all the time, but depends on what working on, was once on 60' extension ladder against Athenian Acropolis taking measurements (Ninian: "safety!" Peter: "my government permit had 'Danger' written on it"). Peter con't: in fiction, archaeologist just thinks of any old thing that comes into head, would like fiction to show complexity of hypothesis construction. the other side of that: debunking Ancient Aliens & Atlantis (Moniquill: Milo Rossi on YouTube!; Peter: awesome, I also have a TED Talk). re: Atlantis: just read Plato y'all, it's just a parable (me in my notes: EVERYONE SHOULD READ THE STEERSWOMAN SERIES) Roxanne: archaeology is slow and boring; once was in deep hole and so bored, covered legs with mud and drew pictures in it. to Kevin: were talking about survey archaeology, which I find interesting and fast paced because not sitting in a hole; was doing in Dartmoor crossing miles of landscape looking for stone walls and foundations. also damn hard work, carrying all the equipment and then measuring afterward (me: I presume that this is easier now); for every hour in field, at least 10 in lab, dozens more in integrating and thinking (question I noted down but did not get to ask: what are the fun details like the mud that people can use in their stories?) Ninian: "very little archaeology in fiction, a lot of looting". both in fiction & history of archaeology, have to watch out for narratives told because tend to be colonial. often shows up very clearly in fictional works, sometimes made fun of there as well: Motel of the Mysteries, David Macaulay: hypothesizes US was buried in 1980s in sea of junk mail; characters are excavating motel, about the comical errors they are making Moniquill: "when in doubt, it's a ritual object"; great Tumblr post about mysterious gold implements, ritual objects; someone talks to costumer, just golden inlays go around a cord on costume, just like we use now (if I find this on Tumblr I will update with link) Ninian: Marie Brennan, A Natural History of Dragons, has modern archaeology training but sets book in alt-history Victorian era to speed up development of field but also include strong arguments for not looting etc. Take Us To Your Chief & Other Stories by Drew Hayden Taylor, has story about petroglyphs as way to time travel, speaks to ways of thinking, indigenous archaeology Roxanne prompts for rants. Ninian: colonialism. well-meaning authors drawing on old/bad archaeology: late in Wrinkle in Time series, Welsh colonize New England, An Acceptable Time Moniquill: oh, the Maddox story (not at all sure I heard this right) Ninian: all ties into Ancient Aliens, discredit indigenous people and take power away from. spends lot of time talking about indigenous science when teaching. many societies only worked 4 hours/day to meet all needs, so much time for science, community building, understanding world around you, literature, comedy … Moniquill amazing thread from indigenous tumblr, do Ancient Aliens to European castles (this one I could easily pull up with a quick search: here) Peter: never seen show claiming Notre Dame Cathedral was built by. but we colonialize the past as well. said that and someone sarcastically responded, how will you decolonize the Greeks & Romans: but they were turned into something that 18th/19th century English needed to be. Atlantis, from 16-19th century, was not aliens, was conveniently disappearing white people Moniquill: (I think, in her book:) on mainland, were convinced indigenous people didn't build things, because they dismantled all the stone things to reuse (Peter: not entirely fiction; her: I know) Kevin: re: differences between archaeology practices (jumping off Roxanne's story); member of his grad school cohort went to Rome to work on skeletons, was trained on NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990) to be very respectful of, whereas people in Rome are the indigenous community so had very different, casual attitude toward. ties into fiction where, have all stories around colonization & white people going elsewhere digging up, but since have archaeology in Europe done by Europeans, what does that tell us: especially when it's SFF civilizations around for very long time yet always going to OTHER civilizations. Jean Luc Picard, does he have a favorite WWIII fighter plane? never learn about own past (me: I think this ties into the false belief that white people have no culture which is motivation to appropriate others) Moniquill: Dragon Age: Inquisition, Ocularum questline. learn later that tool using to find sites "is made of murder"; find ancient temple, just to loot it. especially weird if playing Dalish character since is Dalish temple Peter: find that not strange, UK people when find treasure in backyard, a lot are inclined to keep. Peter con't: in Greece—can't speak to government organization since their economic crisis, but used to be that if you found something prehistoric or Classical, you dealth with one part of government agency, but once hit late Antiquity period where Christianity something popular, then different part plus the Greek Orthodox Church gets involved Moniquill: watches BBC show Time Team, episode about WWI naval grave, and end of excavation reinterred all of bodies, didn't do that with ancient graves: "who's a real person?" Q: how mixed (augumented) reality will impact displaying artifacts and sites to people Peter: special interest in underwater archaeology, seen lot of developments, photogrammetry (I think? Wiki seems to think more about measuring than displaying); University of Calabria in Italy, in collaboration with company, created virtual tour of underwater Roman site, also can do tour underwater with waterproof tablets that you swim up to. (I think this is the Submerged Archaeological Park of Baia.) Roxanne: reconstructing cave art in local villages. I adore replicas. Q: alternate paradigms moving forward. Vernor Vinge posits that will need software archaeology Moniquill: already sort of happening; dealer's room with 8 bit games. the old Internet already gone, efforts to archive for instance Geocities pages lost to time (someone: sometimes for best (that they are lost)) Kevin: but most of archaeology is shifting through trash (bunch of cross-talk that I missed) Roxanne: technical definition of archaeology is not study of past but "study of human cultures through their material remains". in class, tells students to figure out about us, from all different water bottles and things you're drinking Moniquill: this disposable water bottle will be artifact in 10k years Roxanne: plastic is really gross to excavate, leather too Q: curious what have seen as "we live in the future" moments, re excavation technology etc Ninian: really wanted to say, if archaeological sites are not threatened, we tend to leave portion of site there for future archaeologists, very excited that in future might be able to do lot of work without disturbing, already have some tools, like satellite scanning Kevin: when was doing, had GPS that relied on satellite calibration, could just download into computer path that took which was great. tangent: was doing fire archaeology, because area was supposed to be clearcut for firebreak, so going ahead of chainsaw gang while wearing fireproof jacket, gloves because of mosquitos, etc., felt like was in spacesuit Q: how would you portray field more accurately but still entertaining Peter: room to do archaeological SOAP OPERAS. fieldwork: professor, grad students, undergrads, 30 people in same house each with 30 seconds of water warm enough for shower; "alliances form, unauthorized romances take place"; social aspect of exacavations, it's so strange, almost like summer camp. also fictional archaeologist usually looking for One Powerful Artifact; would be kind of neat to have medieval scholar trying to figure out Roman concrete audience: was movie about Sutton Hoo dig—Peter jumps in: entertaining but bad, woman shown as love object, was very authoritative scholar. (The Dig and Peggy Guido.) Roxanne asked for wrap-up, including next relevant panels, which y'all almost certainly don't care about, so: Ninian: encourage everyone to be careful consumers of narrative, what interests it's serving, who is included and notslightly cleaned-up panel notes
Like I said: great stuff.
+1 (thumbs-up, I see you, etc.)?
no subject
Date: 2024-01-14 01:17 pm (UTC)indeed Merriam Webster does list it as a variant! fortunately I just cut and pasted it when editing my notes so I didn't have to force my fingers to do that regardless. 😂