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A “practice” college interview for a high school student from New York turned into the real deal once he dug into the anthropology offerings at 九州娱乐官网.

 

克里斯•福克斯 ’20 applied to 九州娱乐官网 on a whim. 但是他的本科经历 除了反复无常之外什么都没有. With a double major in anthropology and philosophy, 克里斯 now has skill sets, the curiosity, and the cultural sensitivity he needs to work as a federal archaeologist on lands where ancient populations once dwelled.

Drawn to the field of archaeology, 克里斯 soon found a kindred spirit in Aaron Lampman, Associate Professor of 人类学, who spent part of his adolescence in the Southwest and who runs the 西南研讨会 with Department Chair Julie Markin. 克里斯, 这种新奇的经历改变了我的一生.

 “The 西南研讨会 was my first exposure to cultures of the Southwest U.S. I 我爱上了那里. 所以，当我告诉Dr. 兰普曼:我很想去 back the following summer he suggested I look at the National Science Foundation’s REU (研究 Experiences for Undergraduates) program. 他们进行了为期六周的考古 field school offered through the University of Arizona.”

After being waitlisted, 克里斯 got the news he had hoped for. 有了一个名额 and he would be heading to New Mexico for six weeks. 勘测和挖掘萨拉多 site along the Gila River in New Mexico, 克里斯 and his fellow team members found evidence of migration patterns of cliff dwellers, their interactions with Southern peoples, 也许还有一种新的宗教.

“A new expression starts to show up on pottery right before the Spanish made their way to that area,” says 克里斯, who is fascinated by what ancient artifacts reveal. “To see people’s possessions, how they built their homes, the tools they used, how they decorated, tells us a lot about who we are today.”

But he is equally aware that as an archaeologist he is treading on hallowed ground; he chose as the topic of his 高级顶点经验 “virtue ethics”—defining the character traits archaeologists should have to ensure that they excavate in an ethical 时尚.

“There’s a level of integrity that the scientific process provides, but as we work with descendent communities and those mindful of the Native American Grave and Repatriation Act, we must recognize that our responsibility is to the people, not just to the artifacts 或者是科学. There’s a human component here that’s just as important. 问题是 remains, should they trust us with their culture—a culture that we impose on what 他们的祖先留下了?”

It’s a topic of keen interest to Archaeology Southwest, the nonprofit organization 克里斯就读的野战学校的负责人. He has been invited to present his thesis as part of a panel discussion at the Society for American Archaeology conference in 今年四月，德克萨斯州的奥斯汀.

Then after graduation, 克里斯 hopes to return to the Southwest to do more digging. He is applying for jobs through the National Park Service, which is putting survey teams together to identify new sites of significant archaeological value.