An effective
way to teach the basic methods of archaeological analysis is to
incorporate the research of William Rathje s Garbage
Project in the classroom. Rathje s work is more than a
heuristic of material culture; it allows students to look at
unexpected associations between consumption and material culture
of the present. In the years that I have utilized this exercise,
I am always surprised at how far students are willing to take the
analyses of garbage. By beginning with the very basic assignment
of instructing my students to conduct an analysis of garbage, I
have found that each student interprets the project in a
different way. This allows for more creative projects and greater
critical insight about methods of material culture analysis.
During one term
of Cultural Anthropology I wanted to develop an applied focus on
the anthropology of conflict. Events in the post-9/11 world led
me to question the ways that anthropology can be used to
understand and solve human conflict. Students produced a public
poster session in which they considered one frame of everyday
life that related to conflict. A general goal of the poster was
to teach the invited community college public about means of
resolving human conflict given the specific contexts of the
project. One of the most intriguing posters was created by a
student who wanted to understand the dynamics of living in a
low-income housing unit. As she stated it, the conflict between
property management and the residents needed to be resolved, and
the specific issue that concerned her was a lack of adequate
resident parking. Her project drew the attention of many of the
participants in the public research session. Our college
president is pictured in the photo to the right.