Educational and Public Archaeology Resources Online

Educational and Public Archaeology Resources Online
Last week, Lewis Borck (University of Missouri) organized a community-crowdsourced spreadsheet of archaeology/history-oriented educational and public content online as a resource for teachers and students looking for activities/readings/videos they can do at home during social isolation and quarantine. The document may be edited by those who wish to add resources. Everything is welcome, and there is a particular interest in histories/archaeologies often missed by K–12 education. Borck asks that people share it on social media to raise awareness of the resource. The spreadsheet is at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aGq85WU70SVjx22OJXqwA2mwzq2fMS5sVghlzvTlb5I/edit?usp=sharing

The Mimbres Pottery Images Digital Database is a marvelous resource that provides access to images and data on 1000s of Mimbres vessels. A just completed project, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, developed a search function that enables more systematic access to the collection. As part of that project, April Kamp-Whittaker developed educational materials based on MimPIDD for K–12 and college students. These materials teach analytical skills using archaeological materials as well as introducing the students to archaeology and supporting materials for teachers. https://bit.ly/2UfLFCN – Mimbres Pottery Images Digital Database

Editors’ note: We encourage people and organizations to also let us know about podcasts, videos, and other digital resources we can help share via this newsletter. Contact us at sat-editor@archaeologysouthwest.org.

Commentaries: Anthropological Perspectives on COVID-19
Anthropologists have known for decades that the names we give to things can be profoundly consequential. Words and names define the building blocks from which we assume the world is made up. They become our common sense. But seemingly self-evident words actually express a point of view. This may only become clear when we realize others have different building blocks or when the words are challenged. https://bit.ly/2vJ6Kw2 – Hugh Gusterson at Sapiens

Co-opting American economist Alan Greenspan’s wonderful term, I believe such consumers are engaged in a bit of “irrational exuberance,” where people temporarily lose sight of a commodity’s true value. From an archaeological perspective, I’m particularly interested in how human garbage has highlighted other bouts of odd consumer behavior or responses to scarcity in past times. https://bit.ly/33JuIUt – Stephen E. Nash at Sapiens

Gateway Communities Caution against Flocking to Public Lands
Despite exhortations to avoid unnecessary travel, local nonprofit Friends of Cedar Mesa is noting a significant flow of recreation users to the greater Bears Ears region. Each one of these travelers poses a risk of spreading COVID-19 as they stop for gas, buy groceries at crowded and undersupplied stores and try to find a place to use the restroom that isn’t closed. Not only can a flood of visitors increase negative impacts on a fragile landscape, but it also puts remote gateway communities at risk. A COVID-19 outbreak in this region could quickly overwhelm our health care system with potentially dangerous consequences. https://bit.ly/3bmvFVs – Josh Ewing in the Salt Lake Tribune

For most of the United States, social events and attractions ranging from museum visits to music festivals have vanished. But despite nationwide warnings that people should stay at home and limit unnecessary outings, national parks and monuments have, for the most part, remained open. As a result, visitors desperate for activity and distraction have flooded into Moab, Utah, the gateway to Arches National Park. On March 16, doctors from Moab Regional Hospital sent a letter to Gov. Gary Herbert, R, asking for help. https://bit.ly/2Jaki6P – High Country News

I believe in the right to be outside, but at this moment it shouldn’t be exercised through visitor centers and bottlenecks. Forget the parks; seek out the spaces in between, the backyards and alleys. It’s a great time to explore an irrigation ditch or the woods at the edge of town — to see what’s around you. Be as local as you can. https://bit.ly/3bqez9i – Craig Childs in High Country News

Video: What the Fossils of Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Can Tell Us about Our Future
In this March 3 Archaeology Café presentation, paleontologist Christa Sadler discussed Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in her talk, “Seeking the Future in the Past: What the Fossils of Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Can Tell Us about Our Future.” https://youtu.be/vGxGWfsIGsM – Archaeology Southwest (opens at YouTube)

Farmers Who Fished
Jonathan Dombrosky, a Ph.D. candidate, and Associate Professor Emily Lena Jones, both from the Department of Anthropology at The University of New Mexico, recently received a National Science Foundation grant for $30,298 to research the impact of a changing environment on the incorporation of new foods into human diets. “My dissertation research centers on one broad question: How and why do people who heavily rely on agriculture make decisions about new foods to eat? I specifically focus on fishing here around Albuquerque about 700 to 400 years ago among Ancestral Pueblo farmers. I am particularly interested in how people might have responded to environmental change – wetter conditions in this instance – to include more fish in their diets,” said Dombrosky. https://bit.ly/2Jf1i7e – University of New Mexico News

Essay: Life of the Gila: Salado—Bringing Worlds Together
What doesn’t make sense to many archaeologists, however, is how the painted pottery tradition of an immigrant minority became so abundant across such a large and diverse area. How could so few outsiders have such a large influence on so many locals? I think it’s because Salado polychromes and the ideas expressed on them transcended or connected worlds, without replacing the multitude of local traditions and identities within them. https://bit.ly/2UxS63k – Jeff Clark at the Preservation Archaeology blog

Transforming Museums
In 2020, after the decades-long surge of identity politics, with its demands for inclusiveness and historical truth-telling, the traditional museum is on the hot seat. And a political present charged with racial bias, misogyny and economic inequality, has upped the heat. The result is a new institutional self-consciousness. Our big museums are feeling compelled to acknowledge that they are products of an earlier, ideologically fraught time. To retain credibility they need to rethink what they were and are. https://nyti.ms/2WNmqK5 – New York Times

Flashback: Building the Indian Arts Research Center
In 1977 Doug Schwartz, who was then the president of SAR [School for Advanced Research], hired Art Wolf to be the curator of collections. Wolf’s task was to oversee the building of the facility that would become the IARC, which now stewards a collection of nearly 12,000 artworks. “I was there literally from the ground floor up,” says Wolf, “working with architect John Midyette on the facility, designing everything from specific shelving to the furniture and desks, and planning for the installation of the Indian Arts Fund collections.” https://bit.ly/2WH5BjC – School for Advanced Research

Continuing Coverage: NAGPRA Compliance on Campus
NAGPRA violations raise questions about colonialism, ethical education practices, and how schools can better support Indigenous communities. Dorothy Lippert, a Choctaw archaeologist who works at the Smithsonian, said that educational practices need to be done “by, with, and for Native communities and Indigenous peoples.” The recognition of the living members in Indigenous communities ought to come before anything else. It’s learning and communicating centered around mutual respect and care. https://bit.ly/2JecMba – Teen Vogue

Continuing Coverage: Oil-Gas Leasing and Public Lands
The Interior Department has received over 230 nominations for oil and gas leases covering more than 150,000 acres across southern Utah, a push that would bring drilling as close as a half-mile from some of the nation’s most famous protected sites, including Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. The petitions for the Bureau of Land Management’s September lease sale, some of which come from anonymous potential bidders, could transform a region renowned for its pristine night skies and stunning topography. Some of the parcels are also within 10 miles of Bears Ears National Monument’s current boundaries. https://wapo.st/39dhUHj – Washington Post

Youth-Led Conservation along Border in Tohono O’odham Nation
In March, CNAY’s Nikki Pitre traveled to the Tohono O’odham Nation with partners of the Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project, Gabe Vasquez and Ángel Peña, to learn about the impacts of the border and discuss youth-led land conservation efforts for the Tohono O’odham community. Honorable Tohono O’odham Tribal Chairman Ned Norris provided testimony to the Natural Resources Committee in late February; sharing the impacts of the border and the desecration of sacred sites and traditional burial grounds of the O’odham people. In meeting with Chairman Norris, CNAY and Nuestra Tierra discussed ways for youth to learn how to advocate for their traditional lands, sacred sites and the sovereign rights of relatives on both sides of the border. https://bit.ly/2QIJR3f – Center for Native American Youth

Internship Opportunity, Ethnography
Living Heritage Research Council is looking for Indigenous interns for a BLM ethnographic research study in Moab, Utah. Know any Indigenous students or recent graduates who are looking for paid experience in cultural anthropology? Please share widely and have anyone interested email Jessica Yaquinto (Jessica@livingheritage.net) or Dr. Kathleen Van Vlack (kvanvlack82@gmail.com) by April 3rd. https://www.livingheritage.net/

Notices of Closure Received by Southwest Archaeology Today
Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Santa Fe NM: The Laboratory of Anthropology Library is closed through April 9. Academia.edu: https://indianartsandculture.academia.edu/LOALibrary. Librarian Allison Colborne is providing support via email, allison.colborne@state.nm.us.

Tonto National Monument: As of March 20, 2020 at 5:00 p.m., the Monument is closed until further notice. https://bit.ly/3bsVFOP

El Paso Museum of Archaeology: Closed until further notice. http://archaeology.elpasotexas.gov/

Take care, everyone. We’ll be back next week with another edition.

We’re happy to help get the word out. Please submit news, publication announcements, and other resources to this link for consideration: https://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/submit-to-sat/

Questions? sat-editor@archaeologysouthwest.org