I’m not sure what prompted me to finally realize this blog. Maybe it was that the name came to me a couple weeks ago and I could see it clearly. It’s definitely part self-importance, with an added desire write about anthropology, archaeology, and the materiality of life as I witness and perceive it. Even more so since graduating and completely feeling disinterested in the work I was going to be doing.
Materiality in the anthropological sense is fascinating, I love seeing people and their stuff. What it is and what it means to them. Ironically my interests have always been around the ‘external’ factors of life, the stuff that is intangible. These are the big questions anthropological research tries to tackle… identity, ethnicity, race, class, etc. they are all just ideas, but they have real impacts on life.
Immaterial Realities as a name reflects that. It is with this perspective I want to explore and reflect upon. The things I’ve come to understand and appreciate about life, how it’s lived. The dirt and mud, smudges, scratches, and all the other signs of life… and it’s struggles. The categories that exist in our minds and drive our thoughts and values. How these ideas are constructed in reality, and meanings of these ideas and how they’re enacted on the world. Bluntly, the why and how of people’s behaviors.
This isn’t an academic endeavor, and like my thoughts I expect there to be many threads, fragments, and half thought out good ideas. I’m not fully sure where this will go, but I hope that we’ll both find something along the way. I plan on flexing the academic muscles that atrophy quickly. After I explore my early ideas and I’m not sure where I’ll be headed. Life happens though, and there’s plenty to take in.
Immaterial Realities 