And we're back....

It's been awhile since the last post (nearly 2 years in fact), but as of today Southern Tier Biohistory is back in business.  There were a few issues that caused this long hiatus, not the least of which were some technical issues related e-mail provider switches.  But the main issues were time constraints.  In the two years this blog has been asleep, I have become an adjunct instructor at Broome Community College (soon to be SUNY Broome).  I now teach the online versions of Introduction to Archaeology and Introduction to Biological Anthropology.  With online courses, the majority of the course prep occurs long before the course begins, especially when it's your first go at it.  In addition, I still teach my summer courses at Binghamton University, all while working full time at Public Archaeology Facility.  So blogging took a far backseat.

Now, thanks to a lull in course development duties, as well as the encouragement from Jason Antrosio over at Living Anthropologically, I've gotten things off the ground again.  And it's an interesting time to be an anthropology blogger, or at least it has been for the past years.  In the time I've been out, I've missed the recent Jared Diamond and Napoleon Chagnon controversies, not to mention the targeting of our field by Florida governor Rick Scott.  But rather than beating dead horses, I'd like to move on with the focus of this blog.  In the next few days I'll have information on not one but two archaeological field schools offered this summer at Binghamton University,  more recent isonymy research, and the upcoming meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropology...

Stay tuned, and welcome back.

Community Archaeology Program

One of the intereting things about working at PAF is the relative prominance an archaeological organization can have within the community.  Much of this stems from our various community outreach programs.  One of our strongest by far is the Community Archaeology Program, which allows children and adults to participate in laboratory and field excavations during the summer season.  The website has a wealth of information for anyone interested, and a facebook page has just been added.

1000 year old canoe excavated in Florida

The Saint-Petersburg Times has a video of the excavation of a 1000 year old canoe on Weedon Island, Florida.  The fact that the canoe survived to the extent that it did in the salt-water environment of the island is quite remarkable.  The clip gives a respectable amount of screen time to the archaeologists, as well as the cultural context of the find.

Welcome to Southern Tier Biohistory

Welcome to the inaugural post for Southern Tier Biohistory.  My goal for this blog will be to create a nexus for information and research centering on an important subset of anthropological research, namely the use of archival and historical data sources.  My own background as a biological anthropologist will inevitably reflect the emphasis topics relevant to human biology.  However, as this weblog grows I hope to include posting relevant to all four subfields as they relate to the topic of archival data mining.

The genesis for this project lies within my circuitous route to my Ph.D in anthropology.  Prior to my graduate studies, I had been working as a field technician for contract archaeology firms in Upstate New York.  Initially starting graduate school as an archaeology student, I quickly became enamored of biological anthropology and evolutionary theory, which eventually saw me obtaining my Ph.D at Binghamton University with David Sloan Wilson.  However, throughout my graduate studies up to this very day, I continued working as a professional archaeologist, and am currently a project director for the Public Archaeology Facility of Binghamton University.  This then was my dilemma – I needed to unify the academic pursuit I had been engaged in for a significant part of my adult life with the occupation I had been engaged in for an even longer period of my life.  How would I do that?

The answer came in part when I got a hold of the edited volume Human Biologists in the Archives (edited by Ann Herring and Alan Swedlund).  This led to my interest in historical demography and the use of surnames as genetic markers (isonymy), which became a springboard for my current research focus.  Further book hoarding (a fairly common condition among both current and former graduate students, or so I am told) led me to Laskers Surnames and Genetic Structure.  The historical focus of these and other works in biological anthropology forms the nucleus of what I hope to cover in this weblog, and I am eager to hear from other anthropologists working the same vein (especially other bloggers).

Finally, a word about the blog title.  Southern Tier refers to the Southern Tier of New York State.  This is both my home and the focus of the lions share of my current research.  Thus I thought it appropriate to contextualize the work I am doing and create a more “localized” feel to the blog.  Context is essential in any historical (or biohistorical) work, and so the Southern Tier will occasionally figure prominently in the posts ahead.