Searcy SIR - Spring 2006

After a year at OU, I feel a little closer to the end. Overall, I've been enjoying myself and the work here. Classes went well this semester. I took two, one was a directed readings of Southwest archaeology under Paul Minnis and the other was my core class for biological anthropological theory.

Southwest Readings
Paul drilled me good with this one, requiring me to read about 2 books a week at the beginning of the semester, then he tapered off at the end. The last part of my semester was dedicated to writing a paper that would be part of my dissertation prospectus and likely part of a future NSF dissertation improvement grant. Best books of the semester - "Exploring the Hohokam" (edited volume) and "Ceramics and Ideology" (Patricia Crown). Least impressive book of the semester - "Becoming Aztlan" (Carol Riley) - this last one came out last year and talks of how southwestern cultures were where Aztec ancestors originated. He kind of jumped around from weak evidence to weaker evidence.

Theories of Biological Anthropology
This is the required course for all grad students here at OU. The instructor is really great and knows a lot about the history of physical anthropology. I really enjoyed getting a better grasp on evolutionary issues and attempting to understand the taxonomy of early man. I still don't know if I believe that the Neanderthals were a different species from homo sapiens because I know a number of people with distinct crested brows. This may prove the theory that early homo sapiens moved north into Europe and were hooking up with the Neanderthals of that area. Great book from this class/fun read - "Race is a Four-Letter Word" (Brace) - this book looks at how the concept of race is a socially constructed phenomenon.

Other activities
The Spring semester also brought a close to the rewriting of my thesis for publication. Dr. Clark is in the process of editing it as we speak, pouring buckets of blood over the pages, so that it can be published. Clark originally offered to publish it in the NWAF Papers series, but said that if it is good enough, he will take it to some university presses (Texas, Oklahoma, Utah, etc.) to try and get it picked up. We'll see what happens.

Also, I was able to put together a paper for the SAAs in Puerto Rico in April, co-writing it with a friend from ASU (Jamie Holthyusen). It highlighted my ethnographic research of metates in guatemala and applied those findings to a collection of metates excavated from La Quemada, Mexico. I haven't heard a report of how the session went, but hopefully someone may have decided to listen to the session rather than lounge on the beach. I know what I would have been doing.

Otherwise, I have been working a lot on a full-length documentary dealing with illegal immigration, a real hot topic right now. We have a lot of footage of the recent rallies here in OKC and in Dallas. We also have had a number of interviews with state representatives and will be filming in Mexico and at the border after my dig at Casas Grandes in July. I also just started work on a Q'eqchi'-English dictionary with a student from SUNY Albany and that seems to be rolling along. The semesters never end. Take care all.