Monday, June 30
FYI
I just added some more pictures to the original photo album if any of you aren't pictured out yet.
Sunday, June 29
the backstory
You want to hear about Hawaii, but I'm having a hard time figuring out what you want to hear about Hawaii. In fact, the only thing I can think of to talk about right now is the strength of my fingernails. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being Paper and 10 being Wicked Strong, I give them a solid 10. I do. I love my fingernails. But fingernail strength ultimately has little to do with Hawaii.
So the deal is, on the first of June, I left for three weeks of work with the Monumental Architecture Field School on the Big Island in the company of one student/fellow staff member and several boxes of moody GPS units. An additional faculty person and supervisor were to meet up with us later.
Also included in the field school: two project directors, three T.A.s, four undergraduates, one graduate student, two Kiwis, and a couple wayward academic types who dropped in for various lectures and, presumably, beer.
Our mission? To equip gallant and somewhat sweaty groups of archaeology students with GPS units and antennae mounted on rangle poles decorated jauntily with ribbons of neon flagging tape and send them forth to walk woozy but relatively parallel transects across Pu'ukohola National Historic Site and take points every five meters with the ultimate goal of creating a detailed topographic map of the whole park. The poor bastards collected more than 10,000 points during the course of the project, flags waving enthusiastically, even over incredibly steep terrain strewn with loose cobbles and booby-trapped with kiawe (mesquite) branches bearing spines the size of mice. Angry mice. Which look bigger than they actually are, but will still bite right through the soles of your boots if you step on them. Wait, I'm talking about flora, not fauna. My own metaphors have gotten the better of me.
Anyway, the kiawe was brutal, and Halawa House, where everyone but the Pima folks lived, was apparently infested with rodents, so my metaphor is not entirely without integrity. But the students perservered and were rewarded with an awesome map and, more importantly, no fewer than three barbeques, one of which was held on a beach.
When not working, we went on a lot of field trips. For example, we went to Volcanoes National Park where we camped and walked through a lava tube and leapt exuberantly over active steam vents (Some of us. Not those of us writing this blog, however). We also got to several beaches and hiked up to the top of a cinder cone to look over the vast agricultural field systems that cross the landscape in the northern part of the island.
Next time, I'll tell you about the ceremonies we were invited to participate in and a little about Pu'ukohola. Meanwhile, here are some pictures
.
So the deal is, on the first of June, I left for three weeks of work with the Monumental Architecture Field School on the Big Island in the company of one student/fellow staff member and several boxes of moody GPS units. An additional faculty person and supervisor were to meet up with us later.
Also included in the field school: two project directors, three T.A.s, four undergraduates, one graduate student, two Kiwis, and a couple wayward academic types who dropped in for various lectures and, presumably, beer.
Our mission? To equip gallant and somewhat sweaty groups of archaeology students with GPS units and antennae mounted on rangle poles decorated jauntily with ribbons of neon flagging tape and send them forth to walk woozy but relatively parallel transects across Pu'ukohola National Historic Site and take points every five meters with the ultimate goal of creating a detailed topographic map of the whole park. The poor bastards collected more than 10,000 points during the course of the project, flags waving enthusiastically, even over incredibly steep terrain strewn with loose cobbles and booby-trapped with kiawe (mesquite) branches bearing spines the size of mice. Angry mice. Which look bigger than they actually are, but will still bite right through the soles of your boots if you step on them. Wait, I'm talking about flora, not fauna. My own metaphors have gotten the better of me.
Anyway, the kiawe was brutal, and Halawa House, where everyone but the Pima folks lived, was apparently infested with rodents, so my metaphor is not entirely without integrity. But the students perservered and were rewarded with an awesome map and, more importantly, no fewer than three barbeques, one of which was held on a beach.
When not working, we went on a lot of field trips. For example, we went to Volcanoes National Park where we camped and walked through a lava tube and leapt exuberantly over active steam vents (Some of us. Not those of us writing this blog, however). We also got to several beaches and hiked up to the top of a cinder cone to look over the vast agricultural field systems that cross the landscape in the northern part of the island.
Next time, I'll tell you about the ceremonies we were invited to participate in and a little about Pu'ukohola. Meanwhile, here are some pictures
.
Thursday, June 26
avoidance strategies
You may have heard the rumor: I'm back from the Big Island. But my head's not back yet, thus I have been avoiding you for the last three days and will probably continue to do so until the weekend while I figure out what to do with this ridculous heat and all this crazy free quiet time and how to make a palo verde tree sprout mangos.
Sunday, June 8
the kooky manakuke & other weird hawaiian words
Kapanaia. Keokea. Kohala. Kapa'au.
The people of Hawaii love their 'k' words. They also enjoy using w, h, m, p, and, of course, your basic, multipurpose a's and i's. From what I can tell, these seven letters, combined in various ways with glottal stops make up pretty much the entire Hawaiian language.
In fact, I believe there was probably one Original Word back at the beginning of time here on the Big Island. This Original Word was comprised of the Seven Kingly Letters and spent most of its time surfing and trying to catch geckos and organizing barbeques down on the beaches. But barbeques and surfing are lonely pastimes when you are but one Word, and thus the Original Word decided to beget another word to be its companion. It took its own letters and rearranged them and created a Whole New Word. And with the Whole New Word, the Original Word was able to create even more Additional Words. And thus was born the Hawaiian language.
Here's an example of a word I learned recently: Heiau. Temple. Here's another one: Manakuke. Mongoose. I have personally had seven mongoose sightings since we arrived. And also Mongoose is now the name of the Saturn I've been driving around the island.
Pu'ukohola Heiau, built around 1790.
Most of the group is staying at Halawa House. This is the backyard at Halawa House.
The Good Luck Gecko who lives at Halawa House
A cinder cone. And cows mobbing the field vehicles.
Barbeque at Kapanaia Beach
The people of Hawaii love their 'k' words. They also enjoy using w, h, m, p, and, of course, your basic, multipurpose a's and i's. From what I can tell, these seven letters, combined in various ways with glottal stops make up pretty much the entire Hawaiian language.
In fact, I believe there was probably one Original Word back at the beginning of time here on the Big Island. This Original Word was comprised of the Seven Kingly Letters and spent most of its time surfing and trying to catch geckos and organizing barbeques down on the beaches. But barbeques and surfing are lonely pastimes when you are but one Word, and thus the Original Word decided to beget another word to be its companion. It took its own letters and rearranged them and created a Whole New Word. And with the Whole New Word, the Original Word was able to create even more Additional Words. And thus was born the Hawaiian language.
Here's an example of a word I learned recently: Heiau. Temple. Here's another one: Manakuke. Mongoose. I have personally had seven mongoose sightings since we arrived. And also Mongoose is now the name of the Saturn I've been driving around the island.
Pu'ukohola Heiau, built around 1790.
Most of the group is staying at Halawa House. This is the backyard at Halawa House.
The Good Luck Gecko who lives at Halawa House
A cinder cone. And cows mobbing the field vehicles.
Barbeque at Kapanaia Beach
Thursday, June 5
ahhh...
I'm about to eat the best pork I've ever tasted. Partially (as you may recall) because I'm eating it in Hawaii, and partially because it's just really, really delicious. It's also mixed with taro (in Hawaiian, "kalo") leaves from the plants around the house, which is really, really cool. I remember reading about taro in anthropology in college. How many of you have taro growing around your house? Hawaii's awesome.
I'm also totally exhausted, kind of sweaty, and I should probably be doing something constructive. Like picking papayas. Or mangos. Or avocados. Or fragrant frangipani blossoms. From the trees in the backyard. Or having mongoose sightings. Or watching the sun set over the beach from the porch. Or doing my laundry.
Did I mention that I'm in Hawaii?
I'm also totally exhausted, kind of sweaty, and I should probably be doing something constructive. Like picking papayas. Or mangos. Or avocados. Or fragrant frangipani blossoms. From the trees in the backyard. Or having mongoose sightings. Or watching the sun set over the beach from the porch. Or doing my laundry.
Did I mention that I'm in Hawaii?
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