Author: Beth Kelley

Beth Kelley is an applied & digital anthropologist with an overall interest in how people engage with and are impacted by their environments and vice versa. This has manifested itself in many ways, by looking at creativity, playful spaces, built environments, and environmental enrichment, sustainability, design research, and integrative and collaborative models of learning such as through play and hands-on learning.
Uncategorized

Noisy Caves

Beth Kelley

Man, I am on an archaeological roll! Again, also posted in my other blog:

Another article today that discusses Upper Paleolithic peoples’ understanding of acoustics, and how cave art is often placed at the exact locations where acoustics are best in a cave. Archaeologists have also found flutes in the caves and are trying to determine if the flutes were connected to the cave paintings and their placement in any way.
Iegor Reznikoff, a specialist in ancient music at the University of Paris X in Nanterre featured in the article, also points out the sound-painting connection at certain sites in Finland and France near lakes and other outdoor locations. There has also been correlation shown between Native American pictographs in California deserts and seismic fault lines (I’ll add a link as soon as I can find it again).

architecture

George Washington’s boyhood home found

Beth Kelley

I didn’t even know it was missing, but apparently they found it (“they” being a collection of archaeologists and historians). The biggest let down: no cherry tree. They were also [for some bizarre reason] surprised that the house wasn’t more rustic; from what they can deduce, it had up to 8 rooms including separate bed/storage rooms upstairs, rather quite nice for that time’s standards and much more appropriate for a gentryman [again, duh!].

music

Archaeology News

Beth Kelley

This was also posted in my other blog, The Art of Science:

First news item: the cave paintings at Lascaux (France) are currently being threatened by mold. One of the possible causes: bright lights. The caves have a history of threats, all directly or indirectly caused by humans. This case exemplifies the hard challenges faced with old artifacts – or just limited natural resources in general – and weighing the benefits of preservation/isolation, scientific intervention and study, and public access to knowledge and such resources.

Next up: The re-creation of musical instruments from Central America. The story discusses Roberto Velazquez, a musical historian/archaeologist/mechanical engineer who studies ancient musical instruments found in archaeological sites all over Central America and recreates them and experiments with their sounds. What is not mentioned but inferred is the spectral analysis done on these instruments in order to determine what they are made out of – clay mostly, but also feathers, reeds, frog bones? – and how to recreate them. Velazquez will also experiment with making sounds with the flutes and whistles, and some of them are really eery; there is a sound clip with samples of all the different sounds, and I was not prepared for the first sounds that they played. It was from the appropriately-named Whistle of Death, and it is creepy to put it mildly.

*Edit*: exclusive only to Complex Interplay and MSNBC: Archaeologists have determined when Odysseus finally made it home.

cognition · robotics

Apes acting more like humans than humans

Beth Kelley

Macaques have figured out how to fish. Studies have also shown that chimps have the ability to plan ahead. It has also been found that chimps need hugs and kisses or other forms of affection.

And the latest landmark of humans? The Japanese have developed a robot girlfriend.

I’m planning to go cuddle and enjoy a nice fish dinner.


Uncategorized

Kenyan study shows possible benefits of ADHD

Beth Kelley

A study of nomads in Kenya found that nomadic Kenyans with the 7R allele associated with ADHD are overall healthier than their non-ADHD peers. It was also found that men from the same tribe but who are now living sedentary lives are not as healthy as their non-ADHD peers who were sedentary.

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Brazil releases photos of "uncontacted" groups to try and discourage contact

Beth Kelley

This quarter at school has been really full and I haven’t been as diligent a reporter as I’d like to be. But, this one was staring me in the face and I couldn’t say no.

The Brazilian government has released photos of a few of the estimated 68 “uncontacted” tribes — although the term should be “bad idea to contact” tribes because they try to kill us if we come too close — in hopes of making their plight well-known and encourage people to keep their distance.

My first thought was: if you’re trying to be respectful and keep them isolated, then what are you doing flying over taking pictures!?

family · language

Yelling’s not going to change anything (well, maybe)

Beth Kelley

This article discusses a study that finds oldest siblings really are disciplined the most sternly. Being an older sister, in some ways that makes me feel better, but not entirely.

This article is about a linguist at my university who has found close connections between indigenous languages here in the Pacific Northwest and indigenous languages in Asia. Language is awesome!

children · play · psychology

NY mom lets kid ride subway, gets socially whipped

Beth Kelley

I did not know about this until the article in Newsweek came out, but apparently a woman let her 4th grader ride the subway alone to go home early from a shopping trip. I say good for her. Kids today are too protected, coddled, and not trusted to be responsible human beings. She even created her own blog, Free Range Kids. I hope this trend continues, with books like A Nation of Wimps and most modern psychologists promoting independence in children rather than protecting, it’s time that America regained its independent, rugged streak and grew up a little bit!

children

Traveling far away from home is bad

Beth Kelley

Well, I didn’t make it to Victoria, BC, for a number of reasons, the final clincher being that I couldn’t find my passport or two other kinds of government-issued ID. I’m sure it was boring anyway; just a bunch of archaeologists talking about cool stuff they found, not to mention historical studies of cultural land use. 😦
Since I couldn’t get my academic fix this weekend, I’ll try to get one here: I’m surprising myself about the whole Texas polygamist raid and the issues that are stemming from it. Usually I am dead set against any form of domestic or child abuse, and treating women unfairly, and am all for taking kids and women out of bad situations. However, I think taking over 400 kids away from their mothers and the only society they’ve ever known and first locking them up in a sports arena and then separating them into different foster homes borders on child abuse itself, and certainly negligence at the bare minimum. It was really irresponsible of the Feds to handle the situation the way they did, and while there are no easy answers in a situation like this, there had to be a better one than the one they chose. Maybe arrest and remove the men who are dominating these women and children? Argh!
Anyway, I’d like to hear your thoughts on the matter.

Uncategorized

NWAC 2008

Beth Kelley

I will be presenting at the 2008 Northwest Anthropological Conference held in (so I’ve been told) beautiful Victoria, B.C.
My presentation will be on the cultural change of land use in Skagit County over the past 60 years, using photos to analyze what people were up to, as well as what was important to people. For example, in the 1950s only one picture of the cat and because the kid was playing with it; in the 1980s lots of pictures of dogs all by themselves, they are the featured player in the article.
I’m only going for a day, so I don’t know how much I’ll be able to see, but I hope to get a little bit out of the whole deal.
I’ll write an synopsis when I get back.