Archeologist/Anthropologist?? Help.

[KSGrace]

My son (12 yrs old) wants to be an archeologist when he grows up. I realize this may change but he keeps talking about it so I thought I should at least check into what it would take to become one.

 

I have found that when looking at colleges they always have the degree listed as a BA or MA in Anthropology, not archeology. Why is this? Is it the same thing? Does one get a degree in Anthropology then specialize in Archeology?

 

I'm confused. Does anyone know about this career? Thank you!

[GraceinMD]

My dh majored in archaeology, so I suppose it depends on the college. We also have good friends who have PhDs in Archaeology. I'll ask dh for more info if you haven't gotten any answers.

 

(Funny story: at our wedding, my mil (NOT the most tactful of people) said to dh's good friend, a PhD well-respected archaeologist, "Oh, I'm so glad that Son didn't end up going into archaeology, but got a real job! How ARE you?")

[KSGrace]

Thanks! I would appreciate any info you can get me. Where did you husband attend college (if you don't mind telling me)?

[Jennifer3141]

My dh majored in archaeology, so I suppose it depends on the college. We also have good friends who have PhDs in Archaeology. I'll ask dh for more info if you haven't gotten any answers.

 

(Funny story: at our wedding, my mil (NOT the most tactful of people) said to dh's good friend, a PhD well-respected archaeologist, "Oh, I'm so glad that Son didn't end up going into archaeology, but got a real job! How ARE you?")

 

 

:D Nice MIL!! lol

What exactly is a "real job" by her definition?

 

Jen

[Kathy in MD]

(Funny story: at our wedding, my mil (NOT the most tactful of people) said to dh's good friend, a PhD well-respected archaeologist, "Oh, I'm so glad that Son didn't end up going into archaeology, but got a real job! How ARE you?")

 

I could see myself saying something stupid like this!

 

Is there a cure for foot-in-mouth disease?

[saw]

two in archaeology via the University of Leicester's distance learning program. If you go on their site and request information, they'll send you some. There's not a lot about the content of the courses themselves, but it does tell you what you need to do for a diploma, MA, etc.

http://www.le.ac.uk/archaeology/dl/dl_intro.html

I emailed them last year when I first started considering this (decided against it then for want of time) and received some very friendly responses. My impression is that they're pretty good in their field. It's a UK school, but we're in Europe so for some reason this made sense to me when I started looking around for archaeology classes. Hope this helps!

[elegantlion]

My dh majored in archaeology, so I suppose it depends on the college. We also have good friends who have PhDs in Archaeology. I'll ask dh for more info if you haven't gotten any answers.

 

(Funny story: at our wedding, my mil (NOT the most tactful of people) said to dh's good friend, a PhD well-respected archaeologist, "Oh, I'm so glad that Son didn't end up going into archaeology, but got a real job! How ARE you?")

 

 

I wanted to be an archaeologist but didn't pursue it because of a similar mindset from my parents. :glare:

[Stacia]

If your ds is interested in actually trying out/working on a dig, check out some of these links:

http://www.digonsite.com/guide/index.html

This is a great site because it focuses on programs & digs that kids can try.

 

This website (Archaeological Institute of America) might answer some of your questions.

 

They also have links for various sites you can go work on. I know many are for ages 18+, but sometimes there are digs that allow kids younger than that.

 

Other websites/resources that may be of interest to your ds:

 

http://www.archaeological.org/webinfo.php?page=10015

 

http://www.archaeologyfieldwork.com/forums/index.php?board=volunteer

 

http://archaeology.about.com/od/currentdigs/Archaeology_Digs_2008.htm

 

Even if you can't participate in a dig, try to visit one that is in process. A few years ago, we happened to be at Mt. Vernon's Gristmill where a few archaeologists were working on excavating the distillery. My dc were fascinated & we ended up spending the entire afternoon there, just watching them work. The archaeologists were great -- very friendly, explained a bit to the kids, and let them hold a (heavy) iron post they had unearthed. It was way cool.

 

I think being an archaeologist would be such a neat thing to do! It's on my wish list too, lol! :001_smile:

[Mrs Mungo]

I wanted to be an archaeologist but didn't pursue it because of a similar mindset from my parents. :glare:

 

Same here, except then I majored in English. :D

 

I'm trying to talk my husband into both of us going back to college and getting archeology degrees when he retires.

[elegantlion]

Same here, except then I majored in English. :D

 

I'm trying to talk my husband into both of us going back to college and getting archeology degrees when he retires.

 

That would be fun! We go on digs in our back yard. We're always finding something funky.

[RebeccaC]

When I majored in this in the 80s I had to take so many hours in anthropology, archaeology, sociology, and psychology. To go to grad school to become an archaeologist I had to take so many hours of just archeology classes. I no longer remember what the break down of hours was. Seems like I had 3 anthro classes and 2 each of the others and a ton in archaeology. The rest was all in archaeology. My focus was on the Anasazi in American methodology and for grad school I needed so many hours of classical methods and for that I went to Hebrew U in Jerusalem. Since I wanted to id human bones I need to take most of the the pre med classes. So I had a dual major.

 

I also did a very short volunteer internship type work at the Museum of Natural History in Chicago, mostly weighing and measuring human bones. My prof got this for me through the old boys club and it was very unofficial in nature no pay, etc.... They have a huge collection of human bones.

 

I had two summer internships with National Geographic doing Garbology with Professor William Rathje of the University of Arizona at the Naperville dump, my prof went to grad school with Rathje and got me this very glamorous job :rolleyes: It was good experience but I swear I lost some of my sense of smell.

 

I spent several summer breaks working on traditional digs and then had a job as a PA doing analysis of the digs during the school year.

 

I did not continue on with this due to Gulf War I. I was paying for some of my education through the IL Air Guard and was called up and went to UEA and Saudi. While in the desert I hear my bio clock and decided to have kids and here I am. No regrets. Loved my college years and adventures but like being mom even more.

 

Of course I went to school in the mid to late 80s and I am sure that requirements have changed since then. I remember that I celebrated in a major way when I found out that I did not have to take an anthro linguistics class. Hated the small introduction I got of it in anthro 101 or what ever that class was called. I did have to take a couple of statistic classes. One of which should have been titled Creative Grant Writing or How to Lie Convincingly using Statistics.

 

 

HTH and made sense and it is of course just my experience.

[KAR120C]

Depending on the program, archaeology can be considered a specialization within anthropology rather than its own degree program.... So in my old department the degree would be in anthropology, but an archaeology student would have taken all the archaeology classes as well as the core anthropology classes.

 

My own degree is in anthropology with a specialization in medical anthropology, and DH was anthropology with a specialization in archaeology. A lot of our classes were together, but at the higher levels there were more separate things, and he did field school (volunteering on a dig for credit but not pay), while I volunteered on a study within my area of concentration, collaborating with the local public health department.

 

I should warn you.... both of us dropped out of grad school when it was clear that there were practically no jobs available. Of the twenty or so other students in our grad school cohorts (we went to different grad schools), only two are employed in anthropology. This varies tremendously by school, and actually it's not a matter of the selectiveness of the school.... Where we got our undergrad degrees actally turns out many more employable graduates -- it's a much less "selective" program, but it's much more in-tune with what will actually get you a job. Of all the people I know who went to the same grad program I did, the two from my cohort are working in anthropology, one more who was a year behind me is a contract archaeologist (which is a job, but not necessarily a great one), one who was a few years ahead of me has a really super-kick-butt job directing archaeology for a historical site, and then everyone else -- like 95% of the whole place -- has gone to something else. One is in nursing school, one is in veterinary school, a bunch of us went to public health/epidemiology, there's a city planner...

 

So I guess what I should say is if it really is his lifelong dream, then of course he should pursue it... but also do everything he can to keep his options open in case there isn't a job waiting for him at the other end. It would definitely be worth it to find a dig to volunteer on, although most of them aren't going to want kids -- at least teenagers if not college age. It can be really REALLY hard physical labor, and some of that varies by location -- I have a friend who did her fieldwork in Georgia in July with the red clay... :svengo:

 

Anyway -- I didn't mean to sound quite so discouraging!! But if he is absolutely set on it, he should find out for himself just what he's signing on for, as soon as he can... and not close any other doors before he absolutely has to. You can do everything right and just not have any opportunities show up at the right time.

[KAR120C]

I had two summer internships with National Geographic doing Garbology with Professor William Rathje of the University of Arizona at the Naperville dump, my prof went o grad school with Rathje and got me this very glamorous job :rolleyes: It was good experience but I swear I lost some of my sense of smell. I spent several summer breaks working on digs and then had a job as a PA doing analysis of the digs during the school year.

I saw him speak at a conference in Calgary in, uh, 1990? 91? Sometime in there... He was a hoot! It was an excellent study too -- I always remember what y'all found about buying behavior during meat shortages... it was fascinating. (But I wouldn't want to do the work myself -- not for gobs and gobs of money!! LOL)

[RebeccaC]

I saw him speak at a conference in Calgary in, uh, 1990? 91? Sometime in there... He was a hoot! It was an excellent study too -- I always remember what y'all found about buying behavior during meat shortages... it was fascinating. (But I wouldn't want to do the work myself -- not for gobs and gobs of money!! LOL)

 

 

It was not just behavior but the meat it self that was fascinating. They capped the dump each night and so it was air tight. We excavated 10 year old garbage and the meat was still red just turning brown and firm, once it was in the air it quickly deteriated. I could give detail of the contents of baby diapers that were almost as they were the day they were buried in the dump. The most amazing thing I think that we found was what decayed in a dump and what did not. Plastic decayed rather quickly because it needed anaerobic bacteria, however meat, leaves, divorce papers, newspapers needed aerobic bacteria and had almost no decay. All the paper for the most part was white and crisp and we read and classified all kinds of personal papers that I am sure the owners never wanted read :eek: we even found a diamond engagement ring.

 

I have only have 2 hours sleep for the last 24 and I hope that this post reads better than my above post, which I edited just now. Sorry if it is a bit loopy. Rathje was a hoot to work for.

 

Some one told me about the TV show bones and I watched it once and what I did was nothing like the TV show.

[KAR120C]

Some one told me about the TV show bones and I watched it once and what I did was nothing like the TV show.

When I quit the department (rather in a huff I'm afraid...) I told a couple people it was because I had cable now and anthropology was a lot more fun on television. ;)

[tibbyl]

Have a brother-in-law and his partner who graduated from U TN Knoxville in anthropology in 1980 or 1981. There were very few jobs at the time; most of what was available were limited term contract jobs that were relatively low-paying. Brother-in-law continued on in these type jobs: can't say for sure what he is doing now. His partner got her Ph.D. and is a professor of anthropology.