If I was dead....

How morbid. I would be lying to say I have put a lot of into my own funeral. In fact, when my mother talks to me about how she wants to be remembered (this has been a very open subject since I was very little) I go into a some form of deep panic at the thought of her not being around. If I panic about the one I love the most, then the thought of my not being on this earth anymore puts me into a mind space I do not want to be in.

When thinking about how I want archaeologists to find me is completely idealistic. How can you fit something into a coffin that explains the complete context of your life? If not, how you do figure out what could only explain maybe a part of you, will your family be willing to accept that you want to be discovered in the distant future, in a coffin, full of things? I am sure there will be massive differences between what you want to be remembered for and how they want you to be remembered, or is there possibly a comfortable middle road for both parties to agree on.

I think of material goods when I think of how I will be discovered in the future. I suppose the only reason I connect the two is because you cannot look at a pile of bones and understand the consciousness or complete context on what the individual is all about without some sort of material good to integrate your knowledge.

This is where family relations could be awkward at a request like this. Should I  possibly fill it with goods that our society deems to be useless. Possibly, drape myself in tacky gold jewellery that reflects Mr.T in the good old days of the A-team, including a 5 finger ring, and a thick gold chain with a massive pendant. Maybe add some form of gold genitalia covering so they could think of our society is some form of pagan ritualistic nymphomaniac well... I hope you get the point. Include some wine glasses, because we are a society of overconsumption.  Maybe I should be laying on a bed of feathers, surrounded by dollar bills, with two male slaves on either side of me, this will further deepen the beliefs of the archaeologists that my society was one of pagan nymphomaniac ritualism.

From: http://marcschuster.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/mr-t1.jpg

Putting things that are not of any relevance really makes you wonder if the people of the past were really just putting one over us. If really all the beautiful interpretations we have received over the years providing many with a sense of fascination, was really our history just having a laugh.

However, this is reality. Our interpretations are all we have so to pull one over on the society which uncovers us could entail letting our current society down.

I would want to say if inhumation was the way I decide to be immortalized (by the looks of everyone's blog last week that really isn't the only possible way, and those themselves are saying a lot to the future), I would want the future to know that my nuclear family really was the most important part of my life. This could be some form of engraved stone with a photo of all us, this could also be on the grave marker, but if it was close to my body it could be interpreted as important. Really this is what it comes down to, there's so many things I really like, and if they were not in my life presently I would be a sad person. But really if there was anything to pass onto the generation that discovers me is that it really is not what the climate of the politics, or my personal individual status, but really my amazing family who has supported every step I have taken since I was able to walk.

I wish I was amazing and I could super impose
this image into the other one, but I'm not, this is my
dad, Len.

Mom and I before I left for NZ, amazing goggle tan and all

Sarah Burke

From: http://www.powdermag.com/files/2012/01/pw-sarah-burke-portrait.jpg

I will have a proper Anth 392 blog in a bit when I get some resources for an original funerary practice. But I had just been told that Sarah Burke passed away a couple hours ago.

For all of you who have not heard, she sustained a massive injury to one of the main arteries. The hospital was able to repair it, however she was left with serious irreversible brain damage. After a induced coma, she passed away.

Sarah Burke was a huge inspiration for many girls who where getting into any freestyle riding. Although I don't ski, I was in awe every time I watched her in videos, on TV, and live while I was living in Whistler. She was such an inspiration for girls getting into the park scene to push themselves to keep up with the boys (who are crazy). She threw down the most ridiculous tricks anyone could do, stomp them, then ride away like it was no big deal. She actually made skiing cool again.

With such a huge celebrity for the snowboard/ski scene, it makes me wonder what sort of memorial will be created in her honour? Sarah has been to so many resorts and implanted herself into the life of each town they resided in, it will definitely be world wide. As with tradition in ski videos, most of this seasons snowboard and ski videos will be dedicated to her with some of her progression throughout her career shown for public display.

Sarah was also involved in many volunteer/fundraising for those who are less privileged or in need to help, any donations in her honour have been asked to be made out to www.giveforward.com/sarahburke. This is an example common in our society, where monetary donations are given to a foundation that is supported by a celebrity, or the creation of a foundation in support of whatever ailment the deceased succumbed to.

Either way, thanks Sarah for being an inspiration to push for what you want. You'll be throwing it down in the big puffy pow clouds in heaven...

Well Hello There...

Why hello Anth 392, and possibly my parents. I am completely new to this blogging deal, I see many do it, so why not give in to peer pressure? Or possibly obligation for marks...

So I suppose I need to say a little bit about myself. Let me first get this off my chest, I am completely and utterly SHY! Phew... it's hard coming out of the shy closet, since most of us are too shy to venture into the crazy world outside of it. So the idea of being in a class where you cannot be shy scares the daylights out of me. But this is exactly what I have searched for since I graduated high school.

Although I am very quiet and shy, I have not let this stop me from anything I have really wanted. After high school I attempted school, turns out not everyone is ready for that right out of the gates of high school. So I spent the next seven years traveling and learning what I thought to be a lot more than I did out of a text book. I did the fieldwork before the theory? Either way, I moved from ski hill to ski hill, got into competitive slope style snowboarding... then onto Europe where I traveled for a year. I came home to find out how bored I was of sedentary life, so I moved to New Zealand for a season of snowboarding in Wanaka (in the middle of the South Island, surrounded by about 4 different resorts to choose from, AKA my personal heaven). Then some more travels around North America.

Traveling lasted until last year, when I entered my 23rd year for the second time, I decided I wanted to go back to school, operative word want. I want to learn anything that strikes my interest, I do not think it matters whether or not it can be applied to later life, learning for learning's sake is probably the best thing I discovered in my travels to find myself (still looking). So now, I am an Anthropology major enjoying the stress of school and the interesting subjects the field has to offer.  I am also a scaffolder in Fort McMurray during the summer to help support my learning habits, a place that has inspired many term papers, also an excellent conversation starter as it turns out.

Either than that, I look forward to the painfully slow process of my shy self getting to know everyone in the class.