I'm loving it

What a nice change to talk about art! I'm no expert on the matter, but I really like it. In fact, I feel very interested to study for example art's history. But let's get straight to the point. I chose an artist I like very much: Wassily Kandinsky and the painting I chose is called "Yellow, red, blue" (1925). Kandinsky was born in Russia and he's one of the first creators of pure abstraction in modern painting. Music had a big influence on his work. I first heard about his work on an art's history class in 2006, here at the University, when I was in Bachillerato. Then, last August, when I visited Paris I was in a store inside de Pompidou Centre looking for a poster to take home, and I saw this painting and loved it. I got so obssesed with his art that later I bought a book that compiled all his work.

I like Kandinsky because, to begin with, I like abstract art. I don't really like realism or naturalism for example. I like to see a painting and to try to find a meaning, to look for a shape. I like that it's like a dream, that it's not obvious. I guess I feel like getting into the mind of the creator. I specially like this painting because of the colors and the meaning of the situation when I first saw it. When I first arrived to Paris I thought that the one thing I wanted to buy for myself was a poster of a Kandinsky painting to hang on my wall. When I went to the Pompidou Centre my last day in France (hopeless that I wouldn't find what I wanted) and saw this painting, everything changed! I left that store with a huge smile on my face.

That's it. I hope you like it too! =)

A random article I found

I found on the website of The Guardian an article (actually, it's more like a piece of news) called "University to investigate drinking initiation ceremonies" about initiation ceremonies in Gloucestershire University. This article was written by Anthea Lipsett, and she explains that a secretly-filmed video was sent to the BBC showing some students with plastic bags over their heads vomiting because of drinking alcohol. Moreover, the guy leading the action was dressed like a Nazi. According to the author, these ceremonies are held by students from sports clubs, and they make the new students drink, obey orders and go through different initiation tests. University authorities declared themselves against those kinds of activities saying they are dangerous and violent. They claimed that the university "takes bullying and intimidation very seriously". Student spokesmen also said they were against it, and that those practices didn't tarnish the image of the university; those who intimidate and do weird rites are a minority. The majority take their studies very seriously and that's the external image of Gloucestershire University.

I think this article is interesting because there are initiation rites, on the first year of university for example, in many countries. It's a way of getting yourself in and being accepted. To me this article is worth reading because I think those kind of activities are unnecessary, cruel, humiliating and should not be done. I think it's good that not only the University's authorities declare themselves against it but also the students themselves. You may have an initiation ceremony where you can have fun and meet new people, but not drinking until you faint or doing nasty things.
The whole initation matter is very interesting because you always want to be accepted and sometimes you go too far.

If you want to check it out go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/oct/02/students.highereducation

a website I enjoy a lot and I shouldn't...

I don't remember how I first found this website but since I did I visit it almost every week...

the website I'm talking about is....drums please! http://www.pointlesssites.com/

I know I should be ashamed of admitting such a thing but it's a fun website!

This is a website that reunites all kinds of websites, mostly useless. You can find games, odd websites, tools, all kinds of stuff! It's really fun! Actually the other day I was visiting it, and I found a link to a website where you can choose a pet (like a dog or a cat) and make it talk! I thought it was hilarious so I sent my friend Valentina (who is also in our class) one that looked like her dog Marrón.

I've also found links to websites where you can play very strange games, send e-mails to yourself or to your friends in the future, make different voices say whatever you write down, send bottles with messages through a virtual ocean, know how many people there are in the United States that are named like you, etc.

I know it's a huge loss of time, but it's different from what I am used to seeing on the internet. Plus, as the website itself says, it's for bored people...

Enjoy!

Finally! The last assignment!

Sue Cartledge wrote an article called "Mayans sought wine not chocolate" where she describes how archaeological research found out that the Mayans made wine out of the fruit of cacao plants before chocolate. In the article she explains that Cornell University Department of Anthropology discovered some pottery shards in northern Honduras that date 5oo years earlier than the first chocolate evidence, which was 3000 years ago. So, this is the earliest evidence of cacao consumption. Cartledge then explains the pottery shards archaeologists found and what substances they had that made especialists think it was an alcoholic beverage made of cacao. Finally, she explains that knowing about how to work the pulp and seeds perhaps made them discover accidentally chocolate, while they were trying to make their drink more powerful.

Something I like: Models of migration to the new world.

This semester I had a Prehistory class where I studied a topic I liked a lot: the arrival of Men to America.

This is a topic I'm very interested in because I like History and I like the mystery that surrounds the first peopling in this continent. In general, I like all prehistoric subjects, like the first human being, how he evolved, peopling routes and how great civilizations were created. I guess history is what I like the most right now.

So far, about the peopling of America, I've learnt that there are different hypothesis, like the one that's most accepted that establishes that men first arrived through the Bering land bridge, which joined what we know as Alaska and Siberia. So, according to that hypothesis men came from Europe, entered through North America and then peopled the rest of the continent.
There are other hypothesis, like one that's not very different than the above, but the difference is that this one establishes that the peopling was realized through the coast of the American continent. Another hypothesis is that not only men arrived trough the Bring land bridge, but also from the sea, from Europe or Australia for example.
All this hypothesis have some archaeological proof, some more than others.

I would love to work on this, because it's not all said about how it happened, so sometimes I imagine myself being an archaeologist so I can work on finding the answers that are missing. Of course this is just a dream because it's not that easy. But, anyway, I would love to work on prehistoric related subjects.

I felt attracted to this topic of the career I'm studying because since I like history and I like great civilizations I also liked what's before: the first human beings.
Actually, I don't know another reason why I like this subject, I just like it, I don't have another reason because it has been kind of a struggle for me to decide what I want: social anthropology or archaeology so, since I haven't decided yet I can't say nothing more, because honestly, I don't have a clue.

some websites:

• http://cogweb.ucla.edu/Chumash/EntryDate.html

It's a very simple web site that compiles everything that's been said about the topic. It's brief and clear.

• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/stoneage/

This is web site has some interactive material about the first Americans. It's very interesting and clear too. They have videos of how to make a stone weapon or how they could have arrived.

some interesting web sites.

I browsed in the internet for a while and I found some interesting web sites. I had a surprise when I found that there are all kinds of web sites about anthropology and there are a lot of universities around the world that research many interesting subjects. So, I chose this two web sites for different reasons:

The first one is http://www.ethnologue.com
This is an encyclopedic reference work that catalogues all the living languages in the world. You can search for something specific or just see a complete list of all the languages that exist and choose one. You can also choose to view the different languages in a world map. When you select a language the web sites gives all the information about it: from which country it is, how many people speak it, etc. You can also see some of the work and research that has been done about that language or culture. I think it's interesting because personally I never imagined there were so many and the information is very specific and useful, at least for me because I really love languages and one my goals for the future is to learn more of them.





The second one is the well known http://www.nationalgeographic.com
I think almost everybody is familiar with this magazine and TV channel. I chose it because it has very valuable information, great researches and papers. I remember when I was little my father used to buy it every month. We had a big collection of magazines that my father gave to my older brother later, when my brother first went to college to study anthropology. I think it's a very interesting magazine, they study so many different topics and they always take beautiful pictures. For me this magazine has been very inspiring. I also like the TV channel but I'm not going to be cynical: I don't always watch it :)










So, two different ways to get close to anthropology in a very wide sense of the word. Two interesting web sites to visit, for different reasons of course, one is kind of an index and the other is a type of entertainment, but both captivating. I hope somebody will agree with me.

Just another weekend

So, I have to talk about my last weekend. What did I do? Let's recall...
On Friday night I met with two friends I know from Bachillerato. We went to the house of one of them and watched "Pretty woman" because none of them had ever watched it. On Saturday I got up late (as usual) and helped my mother cooking (as usual). After we had lunch a friend I know from High School picked me up and we went out. We went to a store because she wanted to get new socks and then we went to her house. Later at night she gave me a ride back home and I got into bed and watched a movie. On Sunday, I got up late again (as usual) and I helped my mother cleaning the house. After that, I went to Homecenter with my parents to buy a new desk for my bedroom. When we got back home, we spent all afternoon trying to assemble the desk. After that, I had to clean my pets cages (as usual) because I have a hamster and a hedgehog and they get very disgusting, so every 5 days I have to clean their cages.
So that's it. That was my last weekend. A normal weekend.