The local newspaper recently ran a story about the annual festival held at Moundville, located not far from Tuscaloosa — a large park and archeological site (associated with what is called the Mississippian culture, and complete with large platform mounds on which various sorts of structures were once built). Its decline is thought to have occurred around 500 years ago, but prior to that it seems to have been a major metropolitan center; my own University’s Anthropology Department, which offers a specialty in archeology, has a variety of digs taking place there. Continue reading “Turning Reality Into History Lessons”
What’s Past is Past
Which way of picturing the past gets to count as anachronistic and which doesn’t?
For if we take the situated nature of human beings seriously — I mean really seriously, which necessitates that we include ourselves in the mix– then all talk of the past is anachronistic, right? Continue reading “What’s Past is Past”