Good Will Ranting

In the 1960s, Lewis Binford was at the forefront of a movement known as processualism. Two writers, Willey and Phillips, who some say began the movement, Stated that "American archaeology is anthropology or it is nothing" (Willey and Phillips, 1958: 2).  Some expect that the nature of an anthropological problem will fall into our hands through narrative. Others rely purely on scientific reasoning and hypothesis testing. I would suggest that a combination of these two methods is ideal. Many have argued for the nullification of narrative, and that to gain more respect as a discipline, we need to rely more on hard sciences like physics, biology, and chemistry. However how hard are these sciences? They may be presented to peers in a manner that would suggest that they are relying only on the scientific method alone, but when documents such as this are presented to the general public, either through magazine, news release or otherwise, the dialect is changed to better suit the audience. I would argue that this usage of language, and the more than likely addition of the necessary aspects of a narrative would then make it soft. The reason archaeology is viewed as a soft science is that much of the hard data is left to human interpretation, and that the “individual” cited by post-processualists is bounded by the story created by the inferences of the individual studying them. They lack representative power because they are not vocally present, and as such the burden of accurately representing the construct of our humanity lies with the archaeologist. We have an immense amount of responsibility in the accurate representations of the past. This makes it extremely important that our inferences remain unbiased and free of political rhetoric. 








References:


Willey, G. R., Phillips, P., (1958) Method and Theory in American Archaeology. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. 

Graves are good

If I could choose what was buried with me, I don't know if I would be serious or not. As an archaeologist, I'm always dissecting the possible of grave goods within sites. This gets pretty boring after a while. I think that it would be interesting to see exactly which grave goods you could get away with before those excavating it became suspicious. With that in mind, the first thing I would want to have buried with me would be a toilet. I would be placed upon this sacred urn in a repose of intense thought. Next, a full place setting would be placed at my feet, and on the plate would be half eaten copy of The Life of Pi. At my side would be my trusty gilded carafe filled with raisin bran. Finally, on my head would be a traffic cone. It would be pretty enjoyable to read the site reports from archaeologists excavating my grave. Archaeology is by no means easy. When interpreting evidence from site reports, there is no way we can directly interpret the thoughts of the people we are studying. However, grave goods are an excellent way of deciphering what people think of their dead. Since I doubt very much that people thousands of years ago have anywhere near the amount of goods to associate their lives with, grave goods are typically representative of the socioeconomic status of an individual. Unfortunately, we are usually never faced with a case that is so simple and direct.

I made it not as boring!

please hold your applause until your eyes stop bleeding

Issues of Research and Ideas for the Future

If you're confused...

Or

If you want to read more because you're absolutely enthralled...

The primary issue with research such as this would be interpretation of the Chinese characters on the gravestones. At many points during our research, we were confronted with issues that would be solved by having the proper personnel or tools to interpret the characters on the gravestones. Since exhumation is out of the question, we are left only to create a typology of the grave stones. This leaves us with many questions, unfortunately, because the inscriptions on the gravestones could add some individuality and context to our study, and the people behind the sites creation. Examining the history behind this site could also lend clarity to our research questions, especially involving the inscriptions on gravestone 2. An extended timeline of events that occurred from the period when the graves were completed (1961) to the present would be extremely useful in determining this. Acquiring this information was an issue for us, as much of the history displayed at the site is mostly concerning issues of immigration and the important context of feng shui. Time is also a factor, because there are a large number of graves at the site, and a closer look into the morphology of these stones could give us more information about the site as a whole. With the time constraints this was not possible. All in all I believe we took steps to ensure that we did not overextend ourselves, but gained as much information as possible.

To relate all of these constraints to further research, I would suggest that contacting the Chinese Cemetery Beautification Committee to inquire about other sources of historical information would be extremely beneficial. Also, the inclusion of ethnography could lend more of a human quality to our research, as oral history most likely exists in the surrounding community. Interviews could be conducted to include not only members of the Chinese community, but surrounding residents as well. In conclusion, the intensification of this or any research project is cyclical, with ideas being submitted, tested, and evaluated for effectiveness throughout. I believe with this process in place, and the inclusion of the ideas above, we could definitely comprehensively answer our research questions.

Gravestone 5: note concrete slab with flower holders

Gravestone 5: close-up  ( poopy goodness included)

:Grave 5: Grave five is one of the two gravestones that are set inside a 70” by 70” concrete slab.  The slab has three small metal or plastic tubes set into it. Since the tubes are arranged symmetrically, I would assume they were for holding flowers or other ornaments. Chuenyan Lai’s  (1987) map shows that this grave was marked as Anonymous.  The stone is made of red granite, and the characters are in relief. The stone is also in very good condition, with the polished surface still intact. There is a small amount of grass growing over the top portion of the stone, but the foliage does not impede the view of the characters. Gravestone 5 follows the dimensions and the south-westerly orientation of the other graves as well.  

Once More for Good Measure


View Chinese Cemetery on Harling Point in a larger map

References:


Chuenyan Lai, D 1987, 'The Chinese Cemetery in Victoria', BC Studies, no.75, pp. 24 - 42.

Introduction...

My name is Matthew Foster, I am a 3rd year anth student at UVic. I was originally in the faculty of music as a singer for my first year, but decided to pursue my other interests. I am originally from Comox, which is about 3 hours north of Victoria. I love music, and sing in the UVic Vocal Jazz ensemble on a regular basis. My reason for taking this course is primarily to learn more about the depth of information we as anthropologists can gather from the dead. For those of us who are interested in the distant past there is no way we could ever speak to those we wish to study, and therefore knowledge of how those people treated their dead can provide much of the information we seek.