More anthropology

My letter to Janet Monge:

Dear Professor Monge,

I don't know if you remember me, but I was in your intro to Human Evolution
class last year. I've been thinking of either taking on Anthropology as a
double major [in addition to my now major of Jewish studies that I'm more than
half done with] or switching into it completely and dropping Jewish studies.

I also want to move to Israel when I graduate [or soon after] so I was wondering
if you knew if the digs such as in Skhul and Qafzeh are still ongoing, and if it
would be realistic to think of being an anthropologist/archaeologist in Israel.
Does Penn have any digs there?

Are back on campus yet, and if so, would you have any time that I could stop by
and talk to you?

Thanks,

~Rachel

Her letter back:

Hello Rachel. Of course I remember you! I would be happy to help in any way in talking about your major.........
Israel......so interesting.......
The problem is that Israel is having a bit of a problem much like the US; that is, there is a real ultra conservative movement that is trying to stop archaeology and physical anthropology from happening. There are some who want even the very ancient materials - 100,000 to over 200,000 years old - reburied as ancestors. I am not sure at the moment of the state of excavations there but I will try to find out some info for you. Give me a little time. Perhaps we can meet when you are back on campus. All my best, Janet

Yay! She remembers me! [I guess all those fire drills we had in class were a bonding experience. Evene when I visited her for her office hours there were fire drills!]

Somehow I'm not surprised that there are Haredi Jews against excavations in Israel. Though I'm guessing the evolutionary ones are the more problematic ones. Ones that uncover things like the tunnels near the kotel and stuff would be proving Jewish history and the Tanach and stuff, so they might be more for that. Or not. But my guess is they'd never shut down all excavations in Israel. And if they did I could always be a teacher. I wonder if I have to get malaria and eat a bunny in order to be an anthropology professor...

I think we should have a big "We love Janet Monge" party. I'll invite Gwen and batshua and jtersesk and we can take Monge out to dinner at a kosher restaurant [so I can eat...] and it would be a blast.

Doesn't Bryn Mawr have the program where you can take a class at Penn?

A juggling act

jtersesk said I think it sounds like a fantastic idea! I love Monge, too. Hee. I wish I had realized I didn't like my major soon enough and switched into Ling or Anthro.

Kol Hakavod!

The thing is, it probably wasn't soon enough. let's see.

After this semester if I can move around the Jewish studies classes a bit I'll have 10 out of 14 jewish studies classes done, though if I'm double majoring it would be 10 out of 12. 1 would be the senior thesis, so that would be taken senior year.

After this semester I'll have 2 anthro classes. so that leaves 12. I'll have 12 spots left of classes if I continue in this 4 classes a semester thing. So that would mean all of my classes would have to be anthro. And I'd still have 2 Jewish studies classes to fit in there, so it does mean 2 semesters of 5, plus me not getting to be part-time second semester senior year, and thus not saving 10,000$.

If I were to drop jewish studies altogether, I'd still need to take environmental studies this semester, so I could do 3 anthropology classes, and then I'd have 10 left over 3 semesters, which would actually work so that I could get my final semester of 2. The only problem there is that I feel silly dropping a major when I have 8 out of [12] classes done for it. though I could switch it to a minor which would then be finished already, and it would still look pretty.

Or I could have a joint thesis on jewish anthropology that would be counted in both majors, do a summer excavation in Israel that would count towards both majors [if I, G-dwilling, find a program] and hope that somehow that gives me enough credits to finish both.

Or hope I'm sane enough to master the art of taking 5 classes again, and then take 5 for the next 2 semesters, 2 anthro this semester and 5 next, and then I could have senior year be a mix of jewish studies and anthro, and my second semester senior year could be just the thesis, which would give me enough credits for everything, I think.

This is why I need to see Monge. And Hellerstein, though she didn't respond to me e-mail.

All Library'd out

Sue me for the homestarrunnerism in my title.

So Zelig [who has "Zelig'd" us with many belongings since he and his wife have moved out of Philadelphia] shot Reuven and I an e-mail yesterday asking if there were any undergrads who wanted to do a small research job for him, which will be paid 12$ an hour. I decided since I still have a week left before classes start, I could take the job myself.

Today I was introduced to JANES, which is the Judaic and Near Eastern Studies section of the Library, room 401. It has a lot of Jewish books. All I had to do was to find the articles he had listed and look up what exact pages they were on, and fix if he had any other publishing information down incorrectly. Pretty easy, right?

Well for the most part it was [though there were a bunch of books in German, a few in French, and one in Hebrew, but I managed] except that he had a few call numbers listed incorrectly. So I'm more than halfway done [22 out of 29] having spent 2 hours on this. He expected the whole thing to take 4 hours. I also have to trek out to the Center for Judaic Studies on 4th street and walnut, which will happen on Thursday, since I have an appointment on 18th and walnut, and I'm biking there anyways so what's another 14 blocks? I also have to stop at the Anthropology Museum [monge-land!] so I can do that tomorrow after I go to student health at 9:30 am.

One book was, sadly, missing from the collection, so I'm not sure what to do about that. But the plus side is that I saw the moveable stacks in the west wing of the 4th floor, which are pretty darn cool. You press a bunch of buttons and they move so that the aisle you want to go down is open. This conserves space. I just wouldn't want to get stuck in one of those, since I doubt they have a safety mechanism.

I made 24$ today! Yay!