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.

My favourite song

I think most people would agree with me that is almost impossible to only have ONE favourite song when there are so many! So, I decided I was going to pick not only one of my favourites but also a special one. A song that meant something to me. That's why I chose a song by Michael Jackson called "Thriller".

Michael Jackson was during the 90's the King of Pop music. His songs and dacing moves (his "moon walk" will never be forgotten) marked a generation of teenagers all over the world. He was a great artist until he got involved in all those problems with plastic surgeries and weird relationships with children.

I chose the song "Thriller" because it reminds me that when I was younger, let's say around 6 years old, I just couldn't watch his video because it scared me so much! Now, even if it was filmed during the 80's I still think it's a great video because it is like a horror film in a song. Personally, I'm not a romantic person and I'm not a big fan of traditional love songs, of course there very good ones but songs like "Thriller" there are not. This song is special, it's not about missing a girl or saying how much you love someone, it's about being scared, frightened, it's about the worst feeling you could have: feeling totally unprotected. I love this song because even if finally it's about "love", it's different, it's a different way of calling the girl's attention: he promises he will protect her from the evil that's trying to possess her.

Lyrics:

It's Close To Midnight And Something Evil's Lurking In The Dark
Under The Moonlight You See A Sight That Almost Stops Your Heart
You Try To Scream But Terror Takes The Sound Before You Make It
You Start To Freeze As Horror Looks You Right Between The Eyes,
You're Paralyzed

'Cause This Is Thriller, Thriller Night
And No One's Gonna Save You From The Beast About
Strike
You Know It's Thriller, Thriller Night
You're Fighting For Your Life Inside A Killer, Thriller
Tonight

You Hear The Door Slam And Realize There's Nowhere Left To Run
You Feel The Cold Hand And Wonder If You'll Ever See The Sun
You Close Your Eyes And Hope That This Is Just
Imagination
But All The While You Hear The Creature Creepin' Up
Behind
You're Out Of Time

'Cause This Is Thriller, Thriller Night
There Ain't No Second Chance Against The Thing With
Forty Eyes, Girl
You Know It's Thriller, Thriller Night
You're Fighting For Your Life Inside Of Killer, Thriller Tonight

Night Creatures Call
And The Dead Start To Walk In Their Masquerade
There's No Escaping The Jaws Of The Alien This Time
(They're Open Wide)
This Is The End Of Your Life

They're Out To Get You, There's Demons Closing In On Every Side
They Will Possess You Unless You Change The Number On Your Dial
Now Is The Time For You And I To Cuddle Close Together
All Through The Night I'll Save You From The Terror On The Screen,
I'll Make You See

That This Is Thriller, Thriller Night
'Cause I Can Thrill You More Than Any Ghost Would Dare To Try
Girl, This Is Thriller, Thriller Night
So Let Me Hold You Tight And Share A Killer, Diller, Chiller
Thriller Here Tonight


It's funny what men can do to convince a woman. Anyway, I prefer this than a corny love song.

This is me

Hello, my name is Barbara Rivera Amaro, I'm 20 years old, although I'll be 21 on April 11th. I study Anthropology and I'm in second year. I chose this career because I want to know about people, about our society and others, I want to know about the origin of men, about our history, etc. I also like many other disciplines, like History of art, Psychology, among others.

My expectations for this class are very high because I like languages a lot, actually I can also speak french and I hope I'll learn many other languages. I'm interested in improving my English because it opens doors, English is like a world language and my ultimate dream is to go abroad, so learning English is basic.

About this assignment, I don't really like blogs because I don't understand how people choose to publish their lives so everyone can read and judge! I'm not interested on having a diary that everyone can see, it makes me feel naked. I know it all depends on what kind of blog you have, but even so, I think it's strange.

Well, I guess that (against my will) there will be more posts. Until then!