Self evaluation of my academic year (2009)

It’s hard to make an evaluation of my year, because I have the impression that it’s been very long. I actually can’t believe that my last semester was part of this year, maybe because we had a lot of things to do, besides this semester have been very different from the first, especially in terms of subjects. But, to begin with, I can say that one thing that the two semesters have in common is that they have been very stressful, I’ve been very tired; the only thing I want are some vacations.
From the beginning, this year has been tiring. The first semester we had a lot tests, pieces of work or essays (in group or individual), and this semester I haven’t had many tests, only two, but a lot of pieces of work. The complicity in this is that the most of them were in group, so it’s harder than when you work alone, because you have to organize yourself and fulfill with your group partners.
But besides this, I really enjoyed my first semester, especially for the subjects…well, actually for one subject in particular: anthropology III, materialistic theories. I really liked it, maybe for the content of the subject, the teacher was very good (compared with other professors) and because I think I really like materialism. I had psychology, physical anthropology elements, Latin American History, Statistic II, and Linguistic. In materialism I really enjoyed the classes, and besides I probably have forgot the most of the things (my memory is kind of bad), I really learned. The other subjects weren’t bad, but they could’ve been better. But the worst subject of all was Latin American history, it really sucked: the teacher was bad (very bad, actually), the classes were a joke, the tests were too long and though we read come interesting books, I didn’t learn. The saddest thing of all is that I really had expectations about the subject, so the impact was stronger.
This semester has been awful, not only because of the stress and all the things I had to do, but of the subjects I had. The most of them are not as good as I thought at the beginning, I really expected more, especially from the contents. But I can rescue three: Social History of Chile is the best subject of the semester, the teacher is very good, and the contents are very interesting, the classes are good; Methodology Workshop, it’s kind of boring, but the idea is good, it’s a very useful subject; and Anthropology of gender, because I’ve learned a lot of new things that probably I will not going to take up again.
Well, I really haven’t had much time to do other things besides the University, but I can’t deny that I really enjoy the degree and, though this semester in particular had been boring I have learned a lot; not only in classes, but in the investigations I had to do for the subjects. But this doesn’t mean that things can’t be better next year, I really have expectations that the next year it’s going to be better that this.
Penny

Anthropology Challenges

Anthropology faces a lot of problems, one of them in terms of technology. In contrast to other careers, we don’t use a lot of technology, except for computer programs to analyze data. One of them, for example, is the SPSS. The thing is that, related to education; in University doesn’t teach us how to use these programs properly. We have statistical courses, but there are very basic and beside SPSS, we haven’t met other programs so far. This is related, once again, to educational and methodological problems, because it is believed that anthropology only uses qualitative techniques, but we use quantitative techniques too, like surveys. I think there are computer programs to analyze qualitative data, but we haven’t met them either.
In terms of education, the anthropology challenges are related to the curricular program, the courses, and their relation with the application of this science in the work field. Our courses are very theoretical and not practical (especially in archaeology and physical anthropology), but is more than that, because we have only a few subjects about investigations techniques. This is very important, because when you work in something related to social sciences you have to know how to design a properly investigation problem (this is not only for the people who want to work in public policies). The other problems are mentioned in the preceding paragraph.
I think that the problems I mentioned before can be resolved easily, because they depend of the University (in this case I only speak about my experience in this University), but I think that the methodological problem is general. But one of the biggest problems is that the social sciences are not valued in Chile. The State doesn’t give money to these degrees in the “public” Universities, and in the work field there are only a few spaces to develop these careers. They are not very good paid, and there are a lot of people who doesn’t know what anthropology and archaeology are and what they do. The State and other careers doesn’t value or appreciate what the social sciences can do, or how they can contribute.
These problems can be resolved, at least the first ones, easily; because these kinds of subjects, related to methodologies, for example, can be introduced in the curricular programs, but all this depend of the University. But the last problem is difficult to resolve, a lot of things would have to change before the State and the people appreciate social sciences.
Regards,
Penny

Anthropology and/or money

Money, its a crime.Share it fairly but dont take a slice of my pie.Money, so they say is the root of all evil today.But if you ask for a raise its no surprise that theyre giving none away(8).

When I got into this degree I always thought about the possibility of having no money, but I didn’t care. The first thing my father told me when I informed him that I wanted to study anthropology was: “But you’re not going to find any work, why don’t you study sociology?” The thing is that I never thought about money when I got into this degree, maybe because my mother always told me that I had to study something that made me happy and something that I liked, and that when you need money you always can find a way (not steeling) to get it. Besides, all the people think that if you study anthropology you’re going to be unemployed, but you can work in many things if you know how to search and how to apply the anthropology. This science has a work field, if you know how to use the knowledge that it gives you.
I think that when I got into this degree I was thinking more in social sciences than in money, in using anthropology in social aspects. Actually I never thought that I will be unemployed or something like that, I don’t know why, but I’m very hopeful about my future even when I don’t know well what I’m going to do when I graduate. If you want to earn money you can work for the government in public policies, or in a ONG, or in the University as a professor, or in projects of different institutions, etc. For me Anthropology is more important, as a science you can use with social and political purposes, than money, as long as I have enough money to support me and my family (if I have). I always knew that I wouldn’t be a millionaire if I study this, but I didn’t care, and I still don’t care. The only thing I want is work in something related with anthropology, or in something where I can use it, and earn enough money to pay my bills, the rent, my food and any other basic necessity.
It would be stupid say that I don’t care about money, but is like I said before. You always care about money, because in this capitalist world if you don’t have money you can’t survive and, in our case (Chile) if you don’t have money you can’t pay your education or your health. But as long as I can pay my basic things and as long as I enjoy what I’m doing I’m going to be happy.
At the moment I’m not working, because I don’t have time to work in anything, buy I intend to in holydays. I’m lucky, because my parents can pay my education and my life in Santiago. But I want to earn my own money so I want to work this summer vacations.

Regards,
Penny

My beloved faculty

I'm in the faculty of Social Sciences of the Universidad de Chile, and it's located in the Juan Gómez Millas Campus. I'm in the Ahthropology degree, and we share the faculty with sociology, psicology and education. In infraestructure we are a little bit disadventaged, specially because it's cold in the winter, and because our bathrooms are too smalls and there're not enough for all the people. The rooms are too small for all of us, and the biggest problem is that the library have just a few books, so there are not enough books for all the students. On the other hand, it is too small and everybody talks, so you can't study in peace. But after all I like it.

In other aspects I think there are more important troubles to resolve, like the order and continuity of the courses or curricular program. There are many subjects that aren't enough, there are very poor in content and sometimes they are not useful; for example, there are subjects that there're not necessary, or some of them are really important but we don't have them, or we have them but there are not good enough. The other thing is that there are participation problems (in some ocasions), because nobody votes to choose the people of the FECH or the CECSo, or nobody comes to the assemblies or meetings; but I think that this is the result of politycal positions. This last think is something that depends more of the persons, and sometimes I share their position, or I understand it. So it doesn't depend of the faculty or the other students.

Actually the curricular program problems are been resolved by the students and some professors of every career. But there are many things to do in this way.

The only way to resolve both problems, like infrastructural and academic,is to get more financing from the University, because nobody cares about our faculty, because we are social sciences; we are devalue. And this take us to a bigger problem that lies in the fact that the State doesn't finance the public Universities. The other solutions are related with the us, with the students, because we are the ones that have classes in here, so we have the right and the duty to demand improvements in this place.
The first steps are in our hands.

regards,
Penny

M u s i c

Music is one of the most important things in my life, it's like "the doors" song: "music is you special friend...until the end". I can't be without listening to music for a long time, every day I have to listen something, maybe because I feel good and calm when I listen to it, and sometimes is useful to vent myself.

I listen different kinds of music, from rock to folk . For example, I like to listen music of the 60's and 70's, and even earlier music, like jazz and blues, swing and soul. Well, I like classical music too, because my father listen that kind of music, so he instill it to me. In the other hand, I like Latin American music, of different ages and of different styles. I like grunge too, indie rock,and other "isolated" bands (like Emir Kusturica and the no smoking band, and Goran Bregovic, for example). But maybe my favourite band is "The Doors", though I like "Pink Floyd" a lot too, and "the beatles" and "Led Zeppelin". Other singer I think I like a lot is Silvio Rodríguez and Manuel García, so maybe I don't have one favourite band or singer. I hear a lot of rock music, maybe because I hear that kind of music since I was a little girl, and the same thing happen with folk music (of Chile).

I think I have a lot of favourite songs, for example "revolver" and "the white album" are some of The Beatles albums that contain many of my favourite songs. There are a lot of songs of Silvio Rodríguez, Angel Parra, and Vìctor Jara that I like a lot. But my favourite songs are, in this moment: "Happiness is a warm gun" (The Beatles), "Mr. Tambourine man" (Bob Dylan), "The lemon song" (Led Zeppelin), "Since I've been loving you" (Led Zeppelin), "I am the walrus" (The Beatles), "When the music's over" (The Doors), "Love her madly" (The Doors), "Unza Unza time" (Emir Kusturika), "Hyacinth House" (The Doors), "hello, I love you" (The doors), "canción de elegido" (Silvio Rodríguez), "sonrisas de papel" (Silvio Rodríguez), "yo te invito a caminar conmigo" (Silvio Rodríguez", "La era está pariendo un corazón" (Silvio Rodríguez), "hoy no quiero estar lejos de la casa y el árbol", and "free bird" (Lynyrd Skynyrd).

I've been to many concerts, actually, of different bands of different ages, but my last concert was last semester, of Kiss. I went with a friend and with my father, my sister and my brothers; there were a lot of people, of different ages, actually, there was a couple of old people. I also went, a couple of years before, to a Franz Ferdinand concert, to a Deep Purple concert; I've seen Emir Kusturika, Inti Illimani, Quilpayún, Congreso, Los tres, Angel Parra Trío, James Brown, and many more. I've been to the opera too, many times with my father and sister, and I really enjoy it.

I used to play the piano, but I haven't played it in a long time, I also can play some songs in the guitar, but I'm not so good, maybe because I'm just a beginner.

Regards,

Penny

GooD FooD

I have a lot of favourite food, because I'm a food lover.I don't know what are my favourite food, because I like to eat different kind of things, from sweeties and desserts to "normal" and healthy food. I love eating pasta, salad, fruits, desserts, cakes, soups, stew, pizza, empanadas and "exotic food", like arabian, chinese, and indian food; maybe I'm a little bit fussy with meat and animal derivatives, because I don't eat a lot of them, and I only eat certain kind of meat. But if I have to choose, I prefer always the desserts, ice cream, salad and sometimes "junk food". Desserts or cakes and ice cream are my vices, and I like/try to eat them everytime I can,specially when I'm with my family or my friends. It's nice when you go out with your friends and you buy some pizza, or hot dogs to eat; or when you are in a friend's house and you prepared something to eat, or when you're sharing with your family. I like to share desserts and junk food with my friends.

I like to cook, and I can prepare many tipes of food, because I live alone and if I don't cook to myself nobody will, so I have to cook sometimes. But when I have time, I like to cook cakes an desserts, like lemon pies, cakes, brownies, cookies, etc, I think that "sweet" food is my speciality, and they taste really good, actually.

I think that brownies trigger some memories, because I learned to cook them when I was in school, so I cooked to one of my best friends and I taught him how to make them.

If I had to take a meal course, definitely I would take the desserts course, I love desserts and I love to cook them, and it's always good to learn more about the things you like; specially when it comes to food.

A full stomach means a happy heart

Penny

A d d i C t i O n S

Addictions????...mmm....well, I don't know if I have any, maybe I'm a little bit obssesive with some things, but they are not addictions. I think that something that can be considered as an addiction is my gluttony...the food: I always have to eat something. Maybe some people would think that it's a need, or the result of my anxiety but the fact is that I eat even when I'm not hungry. But it's more serious that that, because I have a special weekness to sweets and candies, and cakes...to sugaaar!!!. I eat all kind of things, but I always need to eat something sweet in the day. When I drink tea, for example, it have to be sweet...
Actually, while I'm writing this I'm eating a candy...it's so embarrasing. I don't know if it affects my life in a bad way, but I know that it's not healthy, although I always (and I try to) eat healthy food. But it makes me feel bad, because I create a kind of dependence. I think my life wasn't so different before this, because I have always been a "sweet person" (in a figurative sense; like a person who likes sweets). Actually, my first word, the first thing I said, the first time I talk I said: "cookie" (galleta); maybe in my adolescence it became stronger specially when I got into college. I think all this have a relation with my anxiety, when I have a lot to study I have to eat something. But I think it's not difficult to beat, maybe I just have to foster my willpower, and every time that I had the "need" to eat something, I could try to not do it. And I'm going to start to make sport, so it's nots that bad.
Almost all the people have addictions to something, even when they don't noticed it, but I think that mine is not that bad...it's preferable to be an addict to sweets than to be an addict to alcohol, drinks, cigar or any kind of drugs; though I think that any addiction is bad, because you depend on something(someone), and maybe sweets can be considered as drugs, because your body changes and you feel good an different when you eat them. Maybe a lot of things can be potentially addictive. Sweets are nutrients, but obviously everything in excess is bad, specially when it's accompanied by a sedentary life. Regards,
Penny

TrAnSaNtIaGo

I can't say many things about this transport system, because I'm not from here. I mean, I was born in Santiago, but I've been living here for almost two years. I went to Santiago last year, and I found it awful..it was a nightmare to me. But then, I thought that it wasn't as terrible as people said.
I was used to pay with money (not with the bip card), because I'm from Valparaíso, and the transport systems works different there. But in my opinion, this system is working good, maybe the big problem is that there's a lot of people in Santiago, and the buses and the subway can't cope with all of them. There are periods, specially in the morning, when the buses and the subway are full, and you can't get into them, and you have to wait for the next one; actually, these things can be very terribles, because you can be late to college (in my case).
But I think that there're things that are very good, like the bip system; you can get into three buses, or change from buses to the subway, and you don't have to pay in every one of them, you just pay once. In other cities you have to pay them all, and it's very terrible (specially when you have to go to a further place), because you spend a lot of money travelling.
Other benefit, is that there are designated bus stops, so the driver can't "stop" in any place. Sometimes, in Valparaíso, the bus drivers used to stop in the middle of the street, or sometimes they didn't stop and you had to walk many blocks.
In the other hand, people complains that the system is not working, but some of them don't pay, that is to say, they get into the bus from the back doors, or they don't pass the bip card. One of the problems, also of the transantiago is that the buses are too big, so many of them didn't fit in some streets; but this problem was resolved, because they put into the streets other buses, but smallers.
One of the things that I would change, is that I would put more buses, with schedule (timetable) and with more frequency, so people wouldn't have to wait for the buses.
When the bus is empty, I love the transatiago: is cheaper and fast.

regards,
penny

A country I would like to visit

Actually there are a lot of countries I would like to visit, because I've never been out of Chile, I don't know any country but this. It's very hard to decide wich one of them I would like to visit, because I would be the happiest person in the world if I could visit them all. But the one I always have in mind is Perú.

Well, I dont know many things about Perú, only that is a neighboor country, it's one of the countries that borders with Chile in the North. I know that its actual president is Alan García, and that it was the cradle of a lot of important cultures like, for example, the Inkas, Chavín and Wari...I know that Sendero Luminoso is from there, but that's not a topic I would like to talk right know. I've seen pictures, and I think it's one of the most beautiful countries I've ever seen; it also has a lot of "native" population, so it's a very interesting country to visit, specially for an anthropologist (not only for the native people, but the relations between people, etc.).

I would like to go, because I've always wanted to visit Machu Picchu; on the other hand, I would like to visit Cuzco, and the Uro's floating islands in the Titicaca river. I would like to meet new people, chat with the peruvians, and the most important thing: I would like to go because I've always wanted to know a new culture different from mine.

I don't know if I would like to live there, I think that's something I haven't decided yet. Maybe I would like to study there, or work for a while...or maybe stay there just to "know". I don't know what the fate has in store for me, or what I'm going to do in a couple of years from now...the only thing I know is that I want to go to Perú, and I'm going to work in the summer to have money to travel there on my vacations with a friend.

PennyLane

First terms: good points and bad points

I think the last semester was the most difficult period I've ever experienced since I got in this college, that is to say, it was difficult in the academic side. This is my second year in this career, and the hardest, because the first year was very easy compared with this. I learned a lot of things related with anthropological theories, specifically cultural materialism, and with different aspects of social sciences. For example, I had subjects like: linguistic, psicology, and physical anthropology. I was very stressed up, because in almost every subjects we had a lo of things to read and a lot of pieces of work, essays, investigations reports to do; and the hardest thing of all this was that the most of them were in group, so it was very difficult, because doing them took a lot of time.

Actually I was very tired, so I didn't have the chance to do other activities, besides I didn't have many free time, but when I had it, I listened a lot of music, I went out with my friends, I read things for my own and not for the college's subjects, I saw a lot of movies, and I went to Valparaiso to see my family. I didn' t do any sports!!!!, but I walk a lot during my daily life. I started to participate in a project of popular education (educación popular) called "la escuelita", doing workshops to kids. Sometimes I felt very bad, because I couldn't lay out my time in my family and friends, college and "la escuelita"; on the other hand, I'm a very "slow" person, and everything I do take me lot of time; but I'm trying to achieve my purposes of making things right.

Since I got into college, I haven't seen my family very often, but I try to travel to Valparaiso every weekend. Last semester I was so stressed up that I traveled to Valparaiso every time I could, because I feel very good and relax when I'm with my family and specially when I'm near the sea. Besides, almost all my friends live there, so I try to meet them when I go.

regards,
penny

This is the last blog of the year, I guess.We're ending this semester and the end of this english course is coming, so I think it's appropiate to talk about this "blog thing". Actually, I'd never had a blogg before, so it was a new experience to me, and I think I really enojoyed it, because it's a very good opportunity to write about, in this case, my career, and about my life in general...and because sometimes I was so stressed out that I needed to do something different, like writing in this blog, to clear up my mind. On the other hand, it was very useful, because I think I improve my english. I've always thought that the most adequate way of learning english is writing, and talking and listening to music, because you practice it and have time to think first before you write, or talk, and you try to make and effort to do it well. Maybe I'm not the best english speaker in tha country, or in the University, but I learned a lot of things and I hope to still learning more.
Maybe these are some of the advantages of having a blogg, you can talk about things you like, or write things to unberden yourself, and meet knew people as well (when they write comments in it). You can visit bloggs of other persons and find interesting things to read, or to watch. But,the fact that other people can see and read the things you "publish" could be very dangerous, specially when you put pictures of yourself; but, well, you have to be careful. But in general, I think it's very fun, when you have the time...I would be a very terrible blogger, because I'm not very persistent, and I usually never do this kind of things in internet, and the reason of this is because I get bored easily...though, I enjoyed it too.
Penny

I always think about my ideal job, but in a very utopian way...I've never thought about the real conditions of a job because I still don't know in what area I would like to work, or if I want to work in Chile or in other country. I think my ideal work it would be in an ONG, making investigations about different topics related with the population, and that can tell significant information, that is to say, useful information that can be used. In the other hand, I really like the practical work, that is to say, make interviews, talk to people, and make investigations using the information that people could give me. I think that the qualities that this kind of job requires are related with the research area, that is to say, I need to be a very good investigator, and in case of dealing with people it would be very useful to know how to make the right questions and how to treat people, not being so invasive.
I don't kow if I'm going to be a good anthropologist, that is something that nobody know's, but I hope and I want to be a very good one. Maybe I'm a little shy when it comes to talk and knowing other people, but with time I think that maybe it can change, and I'm always trying to improve.
I think that find this kind of ideal job is not very difficult, but I'm not sure, because I don't know how's the market of jobs. But in case of this, you always can adjust to a job, specially when you really like your career.
Penny

We're ending this semester and it has been really hard, maybe because we have a lot to do. I think that last year the subjects were a little bit easier than this, probably because it was first year and the subjects were introductories. In spite of the difficulty of the subjects, I've liked the most of them, but I think that my favourite subject is Anthropology III. The proffesor who teaches it is called Andrés Aedo, I think that he really likes to teach this subject and actually he teaches very well...sometimes he goes a little bit fast, but I think that all of us have learned with him (but I'm sure that there're people who doesn't like the subject).



I can say that the reason of why I like this subject is because is a theoretical subject,and though I like the practice ( although we haven't had any practice since we're in the University) of anthropology,I really enjoy learning about anthropological theories; maybe because when you learn theory you can put it into practice more easily. Besides, this subject is about materialistic approches and I think that I share most of the ideas of them, maybe because I find them very "logical" and with a big empirical support. In the other hand, as I said before I think that the professor, altough he goes very fast sometimes and it's difficult to follow him, explains very well and always has an aswer for our questions; he knows a lot of economy, and these theories are focused in the economic part of cultures, so he always gives us examples about the "putting into practice" of the theories, the implementation of these approaches in real examples; that is to say, he gives us examples applied to reality. With this subject I convinced myself that I really like this career, and though sometimes I think that it's very difficult I really enjoy it.

Do SchOols Kill crEatiVity?

After watching the Sir Ken Robinson's talk about how schools may kill creativity, a lot of ideas get into my mind. First of all, I think that it depends a lot of the kind of school we're talking about, because there're a lot of schools, maybe not in Chile but in other countries, that encourage the art's development in children. Actually, in other countries exist schools of art, and these allow the development of their artistic capacities, like musical, painting, dancing, etc. On the other hand, the "common" schools, just like Sir Robinson said, are made to "prepare" kids for College or University, so if a kid wants to be a doctor, for example, the school and his/her parents tend to distance him, o her, of arts, because "she's/he's not going to be a dancer, or a musician". Besides, it's very common that some parents and "conservative" schools teach children that arts, or even the humanistic careers are not "profitable", because they are not good paid...they teach that the only reason why you have to go to school and to University is to earn money.
I agree with Sir Robinson when he says that there are a lot of ways of understand the concept of "intelligence", there are kinds of intelligence, and different ways to see the world: that is to say, creativity exist and we don't have to kill it but promote it. If a person doesn't want to be a lawyer, or a doctor, or an engineer, or if a person doesn't like maths or language, or doesn't understand that subjects the answer is that she, or he has other kind of intelligence and wants to develope his or her creativity and the most important thing is that we have to be able to promote the childen's abilities. Maybe their abilities are not in maths, or science, but in music, painting, dancing or acting.

I think that "future" is a very recurrent word in my life, I'm always thinking about it, wondering what fate has in store for me; but I think we always have an "idea" of what we would like to be doing in the future, an ideal future. What would I like to be doing 5 years from now??, the first thing, I would like to finish my career more than everything, and maybe applying for a postgraduate course in other country, if it's possible, or in a good university of Chile. After doing my thesis, and with my anthropologist title, I would like to work; but I still don't know in wich area, maybe in politics, education, or economy. I also would like to work in an ONG, making studios related with the topics I named before. Well, maybe it's a little bit ambitious, but I'm thinking in doing a trip, and maybe work in other country. I think is very important to know other realities and places, specially when you're an anthropologist; but I need money and resources, soy maybe this goal can wait.

Personally, I'm always thinking in having a family; but I'm not thinking in getting married because I don't believe in marriage as an institution. I think that if you love someone, you don't need a paper that confirms you that, and you can share lifes with the person you love without being married. Thus, I would like to have children with someone, with my boyfriend...that would be my family.

Nowadays, I live alone with my sister in a flat in Santiago, but in 5 year from now I would like to live in a place far away from Santiago, with my family...but this depends of my work, my boyfriend, my family. Maybe it would be nice to live in other city, or in other country with my family, but if this couldn't happen in 5 years I would like to be real after that.

The best in my area

It's very difficult to decide who is the best in my area, because actually I don't know many chilean anthropologists, except for the ones that are my teachers in the university, and I don't know very much about them. I know a few archaelogists, but I think that a lot my class mates are going to talk about them, so I decided to talk about Marvin Harris. I don't know if he's the best in my area, because I think there's a lot of good anthropologists, and because I'm just starting in my career, and despite I've lerning a lot, I don't know if I'm qualified to decide who's the best in this area. Marvin Harris was a north american anthropologist of the XX century, he developed his theory in the middle of the 70's. He's a very important figure, since he was the creator of a theorical approach in anthropology (and sociology), an anthropological research paradigm called cultural materialism. The reason I like him, is because of "his theory", the theorical content of this paradigm, because it gives and explanation of the progress and evolution of a culture, most specific, he proposed that the social life of a culture and its ideology is the response to the practical problems or the material conditions. I think the cause of why I think that he's the best, is because he always put into practice his theory, since he not only proposed it. All his books and works are testimony of the application of his theory, like an attempt of explanation of a cultural phenomenon through the cultural materialism. Besides, I think he's the best because this theory can explain a lot of phenomena associated with the ideology of a culture in materialistic or practical terms,that is to say, the Marvin Harris Theory can explain irrational practices as the result of infrastructure problems.

About my career

The career I'm studying it's called Anthropology, but there are three different specialties in it, and you can choose one in third year; these are: Social Anthropology, Phisical Anthropology and Archaeology. I get into this career because I wanted to take the first specialty: Social Anthropology; actually I still want to be a social anthropologist, but I like archaeology too, but not as much as I like the first one. I'm studying this career because I'm really interested in the human variability, in the differences between cultures and the differences inside them; in the study of the culture, and the phenomenons asociated with it, like the variability of religions, beliefs, social and political structures, etc. and the relationship between different cultures that share the same space (country, city, etc.). I'm interested in studying the man himself, like a cultural an social entity.

The contributions of this career to the society consist in the knowledge that it gives about a culture, and that the information of the anthropologists investigations can be used for different state institutions, or independent ones . Actually, is a very extended career, is widen, since you can work in very different areas, for example, politics,cultural, economics, social, etc. The professional in this career (social anthropology) need different kind of tools, but it depends in the area of interest. Usually, it's very necessary have a good formation in the investigation area, is very useful for every anthropologist or archaeologist to have knowledge about how to make an investigation, try to have good relationship with the people, not be so invasive (in case of doing a field work). And a very important thing, is that is very necessary that the governement, specially in Chile, consider the social careers and take the knowledge that they give and make it useful for the society. It's very important too that this knowledge can be public, that people can get closer to this kind of science and to the information that it gives, because it's precisely to the society that this science is trying to interfere.
My favourite subject is "anthropology III", it's very interesting since we're learning about anthropological theories, specially the materialistic theories. I really like this subject, because the teacher not only explains this theories very well but he gives real examples, he takes the theories to the real world, to the real society, to the real cultures. Also, he gives space to discussion not only between us but with him too, I think it's very important that the teachers let us discuss about the topics they are talking about. Well, ans, as I said before, I 'll like to study social anthropology, so I really enjoy this subject, I'm very interested in anthropological theories, since they can give the tools to explain social phenomenons.

My favourite photograph

This is one of my favourite pictures, I think it's one of the most wonderful pictures I've ever taken. I took it when I went to Isla Mocha last summer in an archaelogical trip with some of my friends of the University. We went there to work, actually to help an archaeologist in a proyect related with his thesis, but some days we went for a walk in the island. I took this picture in a balcony that was on a hill, so it had a very panoramic view of the island. The reason why I really love this photograph is because it looks like a painting picture and because it shows very different landscapes in different levels, since it shows a part of the beach of the north side of the island, and a part that looks like savannah. Like I said before, I took it in summer, in Febraury. I think it's a very beautiful picture, I hope you like it!!
byeee
Penny....Leo

My favourite piece of technology

My favourite piece of technology is my MP4. I got it two christmas ago, my father gave it to me. Actually, the one he gave me it's not the same that I got know, because the first one was faulty, so I had to change it. I can put in it music and videos, and photos, but I usually use it for listen to music, I've never put videos or photos in it. I use it very often, every time I have to move from one place to another in bus or in subway I carry it with me, or when I travel for vacations I use it for listening to music in the way, or even when I'm in home and I can't listen music in my computer I use it. I like it for two reasons: one, because it has a lot of "space" (2 Gb) so I can put over 400 songs in it; two, because you can take it anywhere, it's very small and light. I think I can live without it, I don't depend of this kind of stuff, but I think that music is a very important thing, and sometimes is very nice, when you walk in the street, listen to music because you don't have to hear the sound of the cars. I feel very comfortable and happy when I take it with me.
Leo

The website I enjoy visiting, related with my career in every aspects, is the one of the Precolumbian Art Museum of Santiago de Chile. I found the website because last year I had a subject called Prehistory, in wich I always had to do papers or homeworks about a specific subject, so the professors were very stricts with the bibliography or booklist. For this reason, we always had to search books or papers who were trustworthy and update, because we need to support our information. The thing is that in this museum there is a library, and the professor told us once that we could search for information and books in this place, so I entered in the website of the museum and I found a link to the library. In this website you can find whole books in line in PDF format, papers and bulletins of the museum that contains essays of differents anthropologists and archaelogist of Chile, and investigations of people who work in the museum. I don´t know if the website is amusing, but I enjoy visiting it, because you always find books and information about the expositions of the museum, you find information of different Latin American cultures, you can find videos, and a lot of information. I don't visit it very often, not because I don´t like to but because I never use internet very much, and because I usually don't have time to read anything but the readings of my subjects. Here is the link if you want to visit it...and if you do, I hope you enjoy it ;)
Leo

http://www.precolombino.cl/es/index.php

a day with kiss

This is the first time that I write in my a blog, actually I never write in my fiends blog's. The thing is that I'm a very boring person. I don`t have so much to tell, and when I really got something interesting to tell I can't find the right words to motivate people to read it. But that's just my opinion, maybe someone believes the opposite. Well, after all this boring introduction, I think I've got a very interesting new to tell to welcome this blog, but that depends of the interests of the reader...so here it comes...
I really like old music, like 60's and 70's bands, and that's a problem, because is difficult to find someone of your age that shares your music likes, but the worst thing of all is that you can never go to a concert of an old band, because (in my case) the most of them are disolved, and in some cases, some of the members of the band are dead. Well, my lucky has changed...because I'm going to a concert this week...a really great concert at the end of the week...I'm gonna to see kiss!!!!!!!!!!!!!...I don`t know if you like it or not, but I thing that the most important thing, beyond the music differences, is that music is always welcome, specially when it comes of a band that you like...
see ya
penny, leo