2009

This year has been like a rollercoaster. I started at the bottom, and slowly, I’ve been climbing up.

I entered this degree with a lot of fears. Leaving Medicine was a huge decision, and to change it for something so different like Anthropology filled me with fears. What if I didn’t like it? What was I supposed to do with my life? I felt really alone with my decision, because my parents didn’t want me to change my degree, and told me how bad was the decision I was making, the consequences for my future, etc, etc. This was the first time I did something unpredictable, something that wasn’t part of my parents’ plans. All my life, I was the number one student, the good daughter, the girl that had a plan to be successful with a traditional degree, a traditional life.

At the same time, I was really sad to leave a degree where I met some of the best friends I’ve ever had. We were together for 3 years, all day long, and all of the sudden, I was out of their lives. Would this friendships last, now that I was away?
So, that was the mess that entered one day in March to the Archaeology class. A girl filled with fears. But slowly, those fears have gone away.

At the beginning, I’ve had some conflicts with some of the classes, because I compared them with Medicine classes and sometimes I miss the order of them. I know that this degree is different, that the concepts are more relative, but sometimes I feel that people hide the lack of investigation in relativism. If something is relative, doesn’t mean that it can’t have a method, an order. That’s why one of my favorite classes of the first semester, in spite of the complications that we had for the final work, was Methodology of the Investigation, and that’s why I changed my initial plans for my future as an anthropologist.

I entered this degree with the idea of becoming a social anthropologist. I was sure that I never wanted to see anything biological in my life again, no cells, no blood, no bones, nothing. But eventually, I’ve realized that the biological world is a part of the things I love, and a big part. I’m a practical person, and I like to be able to watch things with my own eyes. And I also love the human body, how all their systems connect with each other, the rules of our body, everything. That’s why I want to study the human being from an anthropological and biological way, and to do that I want to become a physical anthropologist.

Another thing I need to mention is the friends I’ve met here. Like I said before, I was sad and unsure that I could find friends like the ones I left in Medicine. Luckily, I was wrong, because my friends here are just the best. We have the exact same humor, we laugh all day, we help each other, it’s just amazing. I have so much fun with my friends that I rather spend time with them than study, and I know that’s not good. But I guess since we just met this year it’s normal, and eventually we will find a way to balance things.

So, now I found myself at the top of my rollercoaster. I’m stressed, yes, because it’s the end of the semester and we have A LOT of things to do. But I’m so happy that I really don’t mind. A lot of beautiful things have happened to me lately, and that gives me strength to go on. The most important thing to me, it’s that I’m happy with the decision I make. It was for the best, I know it.
I guess my plans for the next year are to focus more in my classes, and to study more. I just hope to be as happy as I am today :)

Antropodesafíos

I think that one of the most difficult problems in Anthropology is money. If you want to work in projects of your own you have to find a sponsor willing to pay the costs of your investigations. An excavation, for example, has a lot of costs, because you need the equipment to excavate, but also transportation, food, some place to stay, etc. The government gives certain economical support to archaeologists, but it’s not enough.

I think that, in general, there should be more support from the government, since Anthropologic studies can do a lot to solve social issues, like integration problems. Anthropologists can get closer to people than other professionals, and because of that, they are able to understand people problems in a better way.

One way to solve the financial problems of Anthropology is to educate about our field, what we do, our importance, etc. If people know what we do, there are more chances to find someone willing to invest. I remember when I was a high school student; the information about this degree was zero. And most of the time, when I tell people what I’m studying, they look at me and say “do you study dinosaurs?”…so, as you see, it’s a problem.

Finally, I think that another problem is the contradiction between the goals you established as a social anthropologist, for example, and the reality of our degree. I don’t want to be a social anthropologist, but if I wanted, I would try to help minorities in some way. I see a contradiction in the fact that this degree is a really elitist one. Not everyone can study this type of degree, especially if you are planning to live of it. And I think that the vision of a person that is part of one of those minorities would be really useful, because he would be able to change his own reality.

So, the challenge is to open Anthropology to the world, in order to make it a science closer to people. This would help to get more financial help, and to improve the technological resources, among other things.