Nathan Downey
University of Chicago
In a now mildly famous commencement speech delivered by Jim Carrey, the man who brought us Ace Ventura and Dumb and Dumber remarked, “You can fail at what you don’t want, so you might as well take a chance doing what you love.”
With those words on my mind I enter 15 hours of total flight time, attempting to do what I love. I reflect on the distance I have covered and the journey that lies ahead. Months of eager anticipation have culminated in an uncontrollable bouncing of my left leg. After 3 planes, 1 Ocean, ~13 thousand kilometers, I am moments away from touching down in my mother’s home country: the Philippines, the motherland. A second generation Filipino-American; there are a couple of things that make me the farthest thing from the unwavering bastion of my mother’s cultural background. I have never set foot on Philippine soil (or even Asian soil for that matter), I cannot converse with my mother in Tagalog or her native Ilocano both of which I have been hearing since birth, and until very recently, I couldn’t even tell you the name town in which my mother grew up. At some point I will manage to rectify all three. However, I am not traveling to the Philippines simply in order to drum up some semblance of authenticity to counter the probing questions of the my mothers siblings in California. The islands beckon with the opportunity to employ an archaeological framework for the purpose of historical reconstruction and anthropological problem solving. I coming to the Philippines to learn first hand all I can about the indigenous people who maintain an integral position in defining the national identity. Any extremely moving revelations and insights pertaining to my own heritage comes as an eagerly welcomed bonus.
The appeal of archaeology is inescapable. Whether they’re raiding tombs, toting whips, fighting undead mummies, or using magic talismans to defeat the forces of evil, various idols of archaeology exist as undeniably powerful attractants to the field of archaeology. I’m not saying I chose to pursue the field of archaeology just because Indy’s whip game is strong, but I’m also not going to say that wasn’t a contributing factor. All screen appeal aside the truth is I was captivated by the very premise of being able to physically reach back through the layers of history and find evidence about the behavior and decision making of peoples that came before us. The idea that we can reconstruct diets or develop accurate models of social organization of past populations awakens the same giddy, starry-eyed little kid in me who marveled at the archaeologist-adventurers of the TV screen.
My decision to pursue archaeology came to fruition over a startlingly rapid period. 7 months ago, I was pursuing a bachelors degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Chicago with the intention of going on to pursue a medical degree and eventually becoming a physician- a great and noble goal but I wasn’t completely in love with it. So 6 and half months ago I dropped premed requirements to accommodate the added workload of the Anthropology major and shifted my focus towards bioarchaeology. Since my self-coined mid-term crisis, I have been fortunate enough to have taken classes covering, bioarchaeology, paleodemography, paleopathology, human bone fragment identification, colonizations, ceramics analysis, faunal analysis, and bone fragment identification of major domesticated taxa. Additionally I was fortunate in that a good number of techniques I had learned in my first 4 quarters of primarily pursuing Biological sciences would be useful in an archaeological context: DNA analysis and sequencing, mass spectrometry, and C NMR analysis. Now I am headed to my first field school in the in the rice terraces of the Ifugao province.
The clock ticks down towards the time to begin actually work, actual research. As with any foray into personally unexplored academic territory I find myself plagued with the usual concerns. Is my topic good enough? nuanced enough? Will there be adequate preservation of ancient DNA samples? Will my paper be good enough? Will I be able to publish something? But I remain excited. To me field school represents a new challenge and a new opportunity for growth. I have been given an amazing opportunity to conduct research in a field and setting that I love. Now I drift off into the land of jet lag induced comatosis, hoping to dream of well preserved human remains and well sharpened MarshallTown pointing trowels.
University of Chicago
In a now mildly famous commencement speech delivered by Jim Carrey, the man who brought us Ace Ventura and Dumb and Dumber remarked, “You can fail at what you don’t want, so you might as well take a chance doing what you love.”
With those words on my mind I enter 15 hours of total flight time, attempting to do what I love. I reflect on the distance I have covered and the journey that lies ahead. Months of eager anticipation have culminated in an uncontrollable bouncing of my left leg. After 3 planes, 1 Ocean, ~13 thousand kilometers, I am moments away from touching down in my mother’s home country: the Philippines, the motherland. A second generation Filipino-American; there are a couple of things that make me the farthest thing from the unwavering bastion of my mother’s cultural background. I have never set foot on Philippine soil (or even Asian soil for that matter), I cannot converse with my mother in Tagalog or her native Ilocano both of which I have been hearing since birth, and until very recently, I couldn’t even tell you the name town in which my mother grew up. At some point I will manage to rectify all three. However, I am not traveling to the Philippines simply in order to drum up some semblance of authenticity to counter the probing questions of the my mothers siblings in California. The islands beckon with the opportunity to employ an archaeological framework for the purpose of historical reconstruction and anthropological problem solving. I coming to the Philippines to learn first hand all I can about the indigenous people who maintain an integral position in defining the national identity. Any extremely moving revelations and insights pertaining to my own heritage comes as an eagerly welcomed bonus.
The appeal of archaeology is inescapable. Whether they’re raiding tombs, toting whips, fighting undead mummies, or using magic talismans to defeat the forces of evil, various idols of archaeology exist as undeniably powerful attractants to the field of archaeology. I’m not saying I chose to pursue the field of archaeology just because Indy’s whip game is strong, but I’m also not going to say that wasn’t a contributing factor. All screen appeal aside the truth is I was captivated by the very premise of being able to physically reach back through the layers of history and find evidence about the behavior and decision making of peoples that came before us. The idea that we can reconstruct diets or develop accurate models of social organization of past populations awakens the same giddy, starry-eyed little kid in me who marveled at the archaeologist-adventurers of the TV screen.
My decision to pursue archaeology came to fruition over a startlingly rapid period. 7 months ago, I was pursuing a bachelors degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Chicago with the intention of going on to pursue a medical degree and eventually becoming a physician- a great and noble goal but I wasn’t completely in love with it. So 6 and half months ago I dropped premed requirements to accommodate the added workload of the Anthropology major and shifted my focus towards bioarchaeology. Since my self-coined mid-term crisis, I have been fortunate enough to have taken classes covering, bioarchaeology, paleodemography, paleopathology, human bone fragment identification, colonizations, ceramics analysis, faunal analysis, and bone fragment identification of major domesticated taxa. Additionally I was fortunate in that a good number of techniques I had learned in my first 4 quarters of primarily pursuing Biological sciences would be useful in an archaeological context: DNA analysis and sequencing, mass spectrometry, and C NMR analysis. Now I am headed to my first field school in the in the rice terraces of the Ifugao province.
The clock ticks down towards the time to begin actually work, actual research. As with any foray into personally unexplored academic territory I find myself plagued with the usual concerns. Is my topic good enough? nuanced enough? Will there be adequate preservation of ancient DNA samples? Will my paper be good enough? Will I be able to publish something? But I remain excited. To me field school represents a new challenge and a new opportunity for growth. I have been given an amazing opportunity to conduct research in a field and setting that I love. Now I drift off into the land of jet lag induced comatosis, hoping to dream of well preserved human remains and well sharpened MarshallTown pointing trowels.