sinenox
New Member
Re: I really need some advice on finding my path in science
Hello! In college I double-majored in Evolutionary Biology and Physical Anthropology. I was fast-tracked in to many great digs and I've had the opportunity to work alongside some famous paleoanthropologists. Ultimately however, I decided to pursue a Ph.D. in Geology and study paleoclimatology. Here are my reasons for doing so:
1. Anthropology isn't science. I spent so much time listening to stories built around very little data and a lot of arm-waving. I witnessed a lot of bias tossed in to the mix where interpretation was concerned. I became sick with stress over how unquantitative the field really was, so I left. At this point I use chemical fossils to infer minute changes over the course of millions of years and I still feel better about my conclusions than I did as a field-schooled archeologist.
2. Anthro seems like great fun, but in fact it's very restrictive. I wanted to travel all over the world and work on a variety of projects. I came to discover that even as a very successful anthropologist you'll be lucky to have more than a handful of sites and realistically you're expected to focus on one culture and one region and work it for your entire career. My position as a paleoclimatologist affords me the ability to travel all over the world and investigate a wide range of phenomena.
3. Humans are interesting, but I came to realize that the stories I'm interested in are larger than one species and a few million years.
4. Reputation. Anthropology is a mess right now because (and this is a very abbreviated discussion of a complex issue) there is no certification process and we have multiple definitions of archeological ethics at play. The truly advanced programs (UA, etc) are so ethics-oriented that if you accidentally involve yourself with the wrong person (e.g. spend a month at a field school taught by the wrong person) your work will never be trusted and you'll miss out on a great many opportunities. Contrast this with the Ivy League mentality where you have lots of money and great collections that were mostly (and sadly still are sometimes) gained through illicit means and where your undergrads still go around speaking in terms of biological determinism. Working with human remains is far from the only political consideration here.
The very best piece of advice I ever received when trying to decide where to go in school was this: read the work. Go to the scientific literature of everything that interests you and discover where the science stands, what the standards are and what you will actually be doing (methods section) and creating in terms of data. We're always sold a slightly better version of the truth. Go to the literature, seek out first-hand experience - that's truly valuable and may save you a lot of time.
Hello! In college I double-majored in Evolutionary Biology and Physical Anthropology. I was fast-tracked in to many great digs and I've had the opportunity to work alongside some famous paleoanthropologists. Ultimately however, I decided to pursue a Ph.D. in Geology and study paleoclimatology. Here are my reasons for doing so:
1. Anthropology isn't science. I spent so much time listening to stories built around very little data and a lot of arm-waving. I witnessed a lot of bias tossed in to the mix where interpretation was concerned. I became sick with stress over how unquantitative the field really was, so I left. At this point I use chemical fossils to infer minute changes over the course of millions of years and I still feel better about my conclusions than I did as a field-schooled archeologist.
2. Anthro seems like great fun, but in fact it's very restrictive. I wanted to travel all over the world and work on a variety of projects. I came to discover that even as a very successful anthropologist you'll be lucky to have more than a handful of sites and realistically you're expected to focus on one culture and one region and work it for your entire career. My position as a paleoclimatologist affords me the ability to travel all over the world and investigate a wide range of phenomena.
3. Humans are interesting, but I came to realize that the stories I'm interested in are larger than one species and a few million years.
4. Reputation. Anthropology is a mess right now because (and this is a very abbreviated discussion of a complex issue) there is no certification process and we have multiple definitions of archeological ethics at play. The truly advanced programs (UA, etc) are so ethics-oriented that if you accidentally involve yourself with the wrong person (e.g. spend a month at a field school taught by the wrong person) your work will never be trusted and you'll miss out on a great many opportunities. Contrast this with the Ivy League mentality where you have lots of money and great collections that were mostly (and sadly still are sometimes) gained through illicit means and where your undergrads still go around speaking in terms of biological determinism. Working with human remains is far from the only political consideration here.
The very best piece of advice I ever received when trying to decide where to go in school was this: read the work. Go to the scientific literature of everything that interests you and discover where the science stands, what the standards are and what you will actually be doing (methods section) and creating in terms of data. We're always sold a slightly better version of the truth. Go to the literature, seek out first-hand experience - that's truly valuable and may save you a lot of time.
