the unobservant anthropologist

After living in Florida for my whole life, and Tampa (the big city) for two of them, my boyfriend and I decided to move up to small town Georgia, Statesboro. He’s originally from Louisville, KY. We weren’t too sure what to expect.

Well, it may come to no surprise that it was a huge culture shock! Here are a few of the reoccurring patterns of behavior that we experienced and a few occasions I found to be quite fun.

*People are still very friendly! I’ve always thought Floridians to be somewhat friendly, we occasionally open doors and say thank you- but we don’t have anything on the people of Statesboro!

*Being a southern gentleman/bell is still very fashionable to some. By no means is it an antediluvian way of life in Statesboro.

*People are patient in Statesboro when a tractor is in front of them on a city road. I never saw anyone honk, yell, or gesture at the tractors going 5 mph. Patience is a virtue for most everyone in the city.

*Small town politics can make or break you. Seeing as we were up there to open an off-campus bookstore- a competitor to the on-campus store, we faced a lot of difficulties finding people who weren’t friends with the managers at the other store so we could pay them to do work! A lot of people knew about us (the company) before we came to town! And, when I decided to resign, people were coming in and asking me about it before I “officially” announced it!

*Hostage situations that make the national news can happen anywhere! This took place outside of our downtown apartment, I came home to find my front door with “caution” tape across it.

*A slower pace of life is contagious. In Statesboro, people don’t hussle and bussle around. Us, being from the “city” were used to always doing so, but I found the relaxed and calm way rubbing off on me and my boyfriend. I came back to Tampa and was unwittingly driving 30 mph on a major boulevard! Need less to say, people honked and gestured at me in Tampa 

*I one day saw, a group of Red Hat Ladies! They were having a group lunch at a restaurant in downtown.

*People still farm. I know this sounds silly, but the only farms I had seen before were cattle farms.

*Savannah can (and will) lose its charm if you go there to escape twice a month. It saddens me to think that the last few times we were there, I didn’t even care to go into downtown- I wanted to get my groceries and go home.

So, these are a few post-Statesboro thoughts. They may seem like broad generalizations about the people of Statesboro, but I’m not sure that many there would disagree. Life there is different than in the city and that’s how they like it.

I don’t miss Statesboro, but I think it was a great experience. And now, I can say, I will always live in a big city.

I’ve started a facebook account. If anyone else is on the site and is interested…. here is my page:

Moving day is finally here and we’ve been running around frantically trying to box everything up and get out.

School started this week, so I have some new experiences to tell you, but it will have to wait until next week.

I won’t have the internet at home until the 8th, so trying to do all of my school work next week will be interesting to say the least. Thank god for the Panara that is down the street with free wifi.

I’m incredibly lucky that this first week of classes has been mainly introductions to the course and the students!

A long time ago Will posted this (he got it from Afarensis). I wanted to take this ridiculus quiz after I had been blogging for a little while.

My weblog owns 25 % of me.
Does your weblog own you?

This goes to show I think about blogging a lot- but don’t act on it much; my 10 posts in three months should serve as evidence of this. But considering I fancy myself to be a bit of a pragmatist, it doesn’t do me much good to think about it and not act on it. So, from this point, I shall act upon these 25% life consuming thoughts more often.

Quick note, I am currently studying for my GRE that I am taking tommorow- wish me luck! Once I take the test and finnish up the few other tasks I have for my application I will be back in full force. I still have some SFAA sessions to talk about and a few other topics. I’ve just been bogged down with applying to grad school (all in 3 weeks mind you).

Recently, Kelly Hale did a post about starting an undergraduate community for aspiring archaeologists. This post raised a few good questions such as, what purpose would this serve?

Personally, I think this is a fantastic idea for a few reasons. When I was an undergraduate, I felt like there really was not much comrodery amongst the undergrads- at least not anywhere near what the grad students seemed to have. This may have been by choice, or it may have been because there really weren’t very many opportunity for such relationships to develop. As Hale points out in the post, undergrads are going through the same experiences and have the similar feelings, a community would be a great place for the undergrads to share and discuss their experiences.

As a graduate, I feel connected to my undergraduate school and more specifically the department. I volunteered at the SFAA 2007 table in Vancouver while at the conference this year- I didn’t need to, but I wanted to help because I could. It means something to me to be an alumni, even if it’s just as an undergrad. However, the department really doesn’t foster these types of graduate relationships- you get your BA and your on your own. (Just to clarify, I’m not specifically attacking my old department at all, but departments in general). I don’t really talk to too many of my peers anymore, maybe 4 or 5. I do still however talk to a bunch of my professors still.

The social aspects of a community are clearly beneficial during school; comrodery, networking, encouragement, and knowing others have the same problems/concerns/fears. However, this can continue after undergrad if you form the relationships during school. It also helps to strengthen the department’s community, more people may be willing to volunteer and/or have social gatherings. This may lead to the department being more interesting and inviting to prospective students.

My problem with most undergraduate programs is that they do nothing to encourage the undergraduates to bond (other than in classes of course). Graduate students seem to have clubs and gatherings, listservs, but why can’t the undergraduates do the same?

I think that a forum would be an inexpensive and low maintenance way for the undergraduates to seek each other out and bond.

I had an interesting thought that I wanted to share to see if anyone could give me any insight into the matter….

I’m staying at a hostel here in Vancouver. I usually stay in hostels when I travel because they are inexpensive, usually in a good location, and you meet such interesting people! However, I have noticed that (while staying at hostels and speaking with people at the conferences, etc) that most Americans do not stay in hostels. There are a lot of hostels in America that you can stay at if you are American, and it seems like most do not take advantage of it.

I’ve been surprised to hear, both last year in Santa Fe and here in Vancouver, that most students that come to the SFAA conference do not stay in the hostels. I would think that would be an anthropologists’ dream! You get to meet people from all over the world, and save money- most of us haven’t become rich yet.

Could it be that Americans do not know about hostels?

a little bit about myself. I was born and raised in Melbourne, FL. I moved to Tampa to go to USF where I graduated with my bachelor’s in Anthropology last year. I have since moved to a small town in southern Georgia to help open and manage a college textbook store. I decided to take a break from school before going back to Grad school and I think it was a good choice. I’ve learned a lot and had a lot of experiences since graduating; I now know that I do not like living in a small southern town, where as before I just thought I wouldn’t like it.
I have two favorite things to do; travel and philosophize with friends over beers. Both of which I get to do fairly often.

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