A Message from our friends at The Archaeology Channel

Friends and colleagues: In our programming, we like to call attention to topics not covered by others. This time, we are pleased to bring attention to a far corner of Bangladesh, home to a small indigenous community, in Khumi Lives, the latest video feature on our nonprofit streaming-media Web site, The Archaeology Channel (http://www.archaeologychannel.org).

Khumi is the smallest of the indigenous groups in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of southeastern Bangladesh. In today’s age of globalization, changes are occurring in the animist Khumi peoples’ religion, culture, lifestyle and language, raising concern over the gradual disappearance of their unique beliefs and customs. In this documentary, filmmakers spend a year in the lives of the Khumi as they explore the present situation of these people within the context of a rapidly evolving world.

This and other programs are available on TAC for your use and enjoyment. We urge you to support this public service by participating in our Membership (http://www.archaeologychannel.org/member.html) and Underwriting (http://www.archaeologychannel.org/sponsor.shtml) programs. Only with your help can we continue and enhance our nonprofit public-education and visitor-supported programming. We also welcome new content partners as we reach out to the world community.

Please forward this message to others who may be interested and let us know if you wish to be removed from our mailing list.

Richard M. Pettigrew, Ph.D., RPA
President and Executive Director
Archaeological Legacy Institute
http://www.archaeologychannel.org

Archaeorama’s New Year’s Forecast

Discovery magazine has posted 10 archeological predictions for 2009.  It makes for some interesting reading and something to look forward to in the New Year. If you are interested, read more here…

Halloween 1977 Maui: An Archaeological Memoir

We were sent over to Mala Wharf in Lahaina, Maui on Halloween. The really odd thing about it was that we were supposed to map a cemetery (we all found that to be a strange thing to be assigned to do on Halloween). The cemetery needed to be relocated to make  way for a big resort development. But only the native Hawaiian cemetery was impacted. The Japanese, Chinese and Christian graveyards were to be left intact. The Hawaiian cemetery had been abandoned for over a century, and was overgrown in large interlacing thickets of kiave.

Kiave is not a native plant on Maui, it had been brought to Hawaii by a Texan. In Texas, kiave is known as mesquite. I found out that it is amazing what a tropical climate and fertile volcanic soils can do to mesquite trees.

Authors note: Please bear with me on this story, as I am having a hard time writing it. The reasons are many. But the main challenge is I want to get this story right, and tell the cold hard truth. There was a lot going on that day, a lot that needs to be described first, as it makes the story even more remarkable. Also, something close to miraculous or supernatural occurred late in the afternoon. I want to describe the truth of that event, but it is difficult to reach back across 31 years and capture it accurately.

Still, I will tell this story somehow.

Where to stay: Kauai Memoir

The very first job I had after I graduated from the University of Oregon, was also one of the best jobs I ever had…period.  I was hired by a research institute to do contract archaeology in the Hawaiian islands.  Contract archaeology is a branch of Cultural Resource Management (CRM), and actually most professional archaeologists work in CRM, as there are comparatively very few jobs available in universities and museums. In those days I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to go to Graduate School in anything…because I had worked full time and had also attended school full time. Plus, I had been a poverty-stricken student long enough (5 years) to want to concentrate on making a little money..(when I went to Hawaii, I didn’t even own a car; couldn’t afford one anymore; I had sold my ’67 Falcon to pay for my last quarter of tuition at the U of O). Putting myself through college had wearied me of school, after being self-sufficient since the age of 19. Further complicating my future plans was another big decision to make…would  I continue on in archaeology or do something completely different that I was very interested in; Film School or an MFA in creative writing?  I was so conflicted at the time, that depending on what week you asked me, I would have given you one of three different answers about my continuing educational plans. At the core of it all, I was still a writer of journals, stories, screenplays, and more than a couple of unfinished novels in those years (1977-1979).

Deciding to work full time, I applied all over the Intermontane West, Alaska, and Hawaii for any archaeology job available. Working east of the Rocky Mountains was simply not in the cards. I loved and still do love the West (I had spent half my life away from the West and had no inclination to leave it again).

Serious time was also spent on thinking about whether I wanted to pursue a post-graduate education in anything. Furthermore, I decided it was now high time for the field of archaeology to give me a vote of confidence. If I could not obtain an archaeological job with my freshly-minted Bachelor of Arts degree that I had sacrificed to obtain, then that would be a strong indication that I needed to do something else. If it could not take care of me, then archaeology was not worthy of any further commitment on my part. I realize looking back now that for me, archaeology was like a beautiful, slightly neurotic, high maintenance girl friend with ADD. I was certain that I loved her but I was not really sure that I could afford her, and although she promised me that she did in fact love me…I never quite believed her. Of course I wanted to believe, but there was always this nagging suspicion nibbling at the edge of my mind. But I digress, and I digress wantonly. My apologies.

See, you think about this kind of stuff when your own labor and limited funds have been exhausted in obtaining your own education. The dynamics are quite different when you are the one who is picking up the tab.

When the job in Hawaii became available I was quite surprised, because it was the only job in archaeology that I could get at the time. With the exception of the Eskimos in Point Barrow, Alaska, no one else even acknowledged, much less responded, to the two dozen apps I sent out. Thus, I learned how to accept rejection at an early age, but I never have learned how to not resent it.

Hawaii was it! So I put everything I owned in an army surplus duffel bag, flew out to Lihue, got oriented, picked up my gear and my two workers, and headed out to the far northern shore of Kauai (see map). Amazingly enough, they even gave me a 1977 Toyota Land Cruiser to drive. It was the project vehicle…I was thrilled.

My job was to direct a mapping project. We had about 10 miles of the coast line and all the associated archaeological sites and features to map therein.  I worked all day in my swim trunks and lathered up in sun tan oil. It was truly like archaeological heaven. Whenever I wanted to know what sea level was, I stood by the ocean and said “this would be sea level right here!” I was  aware that I might be setting the archaeological bar a bit high for any subsequent endeavours. Many experiences would be anticlimatic. Hawaii was a tough act to follow.

Where to Stay

I will start this new section with a recommendation of where you should stay if you ever find yourself on the road in the Yucatan between Cancun and Corozal, Belize. Hands down the place to go is the Club Med Coba. It has a world class bar and very nice rooms.

The club also has a great swimming pool and the ruins of Coba are right there on the hotel grounds. There is also a nice hiking trail that takes you down to lakeshore where crocodiles sun themselves on big flat rocks. Try not to feed them.