Thoughts on a cemetery database

     Databases can be really helpful to researchers because all of the information is in one place and you can link multiple bits of information to one grave. When you search for one grave all of the information about it comes up, you can also look for a particular bit of information and all of the graves that have it will be brought up. You can do many kind of analysis using a database if the information is provided. Some things include studying how many people are at a cemetery, the style of grave stones over time, the age individuals died, how individuals died and what the grave stones can tell us that the remains cannot. However you have to make sure all the categories in the database are in their proper format, for example in the database we were using the first age of individuals column was number based so it was able to be sorted numerically but all of the other age categories were in text format so even though numbers were recorded they had to be sorted alphabetically meaning all of the 100 year olds were grouped with numbers starting with one, giving a false reading of the oldest individual. Another thing to make sure about is that all of the spelling is the same, otherwise when you search a specific word some things may be missed. One thing I noticed with the database we used was that a lot of unknowns were left blank which was acceptable, because there are always going to be unknowns or missing data, but some were listed as “zzz” so when you were looking for ones with no information, these didn’t show up, which is a problem. Recording exactly what is written on the gravestones is good for the researcher and for preservation purposes, but it can make doing research on it very hard. Since each inscription is created personally, they are all very different and individualized, which makes comparisons and visualizing trends very difficult. It can also make it hard to tell who’s really in the grave as many parents burying their children will inscribe “our baby” when they are really a few years old. Where as when coming from a scientific perspective, baby usually means less than one years old, so when you search for the term you get a variety of results. Quantitative analysis allows you to be able to chart and graph information to see connections and how things change over time. It can mathematically prove links between ages and years of death, if there are spikes in deaths occurring for a period of time it can indicate the effects of illnesses or diseases occurring  or if there is an increase in the number of years people live it can show the affects of advances in medicine.  However you must make sure that when you use a final number found from your analysis that you give the context it came from or the total number of individuals that number comes from, otherwise the number you give has little meaning and has the potential to diminish your argument if the audience does not understand where the data is coming from. 

Thinking about death

What grave goods would I include in my own grave? And what do I think my close friends and family include?

     I found thinking about these questions a little challenging, as I’ve never been to a funeral and never given my own death or funeral much thought. Especially since our society doesn’t practice the ritual of including grave goods as much as many others did in the past. We may make sure to include an object or two that we know is very important to that person and that they wouldn’t want to be without, but don’t include all of the persons most important belongings, animal sacrifices or food offerings. We usually hold onto the deceased’s belongings to grieve over or to keep a part of them with us.

    I would want to be buried in brightly colored semi formal clothing such as a summer dress or my favorite top with black pants. I would be wearing jewelry that was important to me, the ring my sister got me (she has an identical one) and the Plumeria flower earrings my mom got me from Hawaii, every time I put them on it reminds me of the family trip we made there together over last christmas. I’d also want to be buried with some of my possessions and thing I love, photos of my family, (so they knew who I belonged to and loved), books, my cookbook, and coffee (can never have too much). I would also want thing associated with my pets, such as a lock of hair, my riding equipment because I love to ride horses and have been doing so since I was 3 years old. Including all of my pets is important because they keep me balanced and happy. Many of these would say a lot about the kind of person I was and what I enjoyed during the times I lived, but people who didn’t know me may not be able to figure out why some of these items would be so important to me.

    I think my close family and friends would know that I wanted these kinds of things to stay with me. I don’t think there would be too much of a difference in what they would place with me apart from the odd thing, such as flowers or the teddy bear I’ve had for a very long time. I think these items would send the same message or it would be more obvious that I was a daughter based on more sentimental items and their meanings.

Keeping an open mind

This week we were asked to comment on an interview with Ramilisonina, about his work with Mike Parker Pearson on the connection between Stonehenge and Madagascar’s modern-day megaliths and a bloggers response to said interview for our Anth 397: Archaeology of Death class.

The interview with Ramilisonina can be viewed here: http://archive.archaeology.org/1001/etc/conversation.html

And the blogger’s (Brian John) response can be viewed here: http://brian-mountainman.blogspot.ca/2010/11/sacred-stones-and-madagascar.html

     There are many theories surrounding the construction, use and purpose of Stonehenge by the people in ancient times. The theory proposed by Ramilisonina is just one of many. We will never know which one is correct, and many that have been proposed or still have yet to be, may be correct. I believe that we must stay open-minded to all interpretations because we will never get a definite answer as to which is correct. We must instead hear all of them and decide for ourselves which we believe is most correct, and yet not eliminate the possibility that other explanations could be the correct ones.

     I agree with Brian’s statement, “It all goes to show how hard it is for us to see inside the heads and hearts of people living in totally different traditions and in other lands”. However I find this ironic because this quote makes him seem very open minded to many theories and interpretations of Stonehenge. Yet he readily dismisses Ramilisonina’s theory based on one conversation with one of his friends. Different cultures can develop similar or the same beliefs or ideas without having to interact, and is not that far fetched to consider a belief held in Madagascar could be an explanation for something that happened in the United Kingdom many years before. Just because they occur at different time periods and in different places does not mean that it is impossible for it to occur. I think it was unfair of Brian to say Ramilisonina theory is “a leap too far” when we will never have a definitive answer and he seems to recognize that fact with his ending statement.

Stonehenge at Night. http://thothistheibis.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/following-the-white-trail-to-stonehenge-part-v/

Hello all

Hey all, I'm Branwen. 

I'm in my fourth year of my anthropology major. I am originally from Calgary and thought it would be a nice change to get my degree on the west coast. I decided I wanted to go into anthropology in my grade 12 year just seemed like the logical thing to do based on my interests. 

My main interest is in cultural anthropology (both modern and ancient) but I seem to keep getting drawn to archaeology (sometimes you just cant have one without the other). I've also really enjoyed other disciplines such as Medieval studies and Greek and Roman studies.

I really enjoyed classes in technology and culture, ancient technology, myth and legends, as well as learning about earlier civilizations through the evidence they’ve left behind (bones, ruins, artifacts, etc.). I'm really getting into the topic of animals in ancient cultures. I was inspired to do this class after taking Dr. McGuire’s Barbarian class and doing a group project on mortuary archaeology, I wanted to learn more about what the dead could tell us about their past and the different ways people treat their dead.

I'm really hoping to get into a field school or an internship soon to gain some more experience in the field (so if any of you are in the same boat or have already done one of these give me a shout, I'd love to hear about it!).