Behavioral science is my major at U.V.S.C. and it is referred to as Anthropology at the
University of
Utah. I plan to transfer and that is why I felt it was important to provide that information. It falls into the categories of social and behavioral science. I would like to have an emphasis in archaeology or human evolutionary ecology. Growing up as a kid I always thought it would be great to be a paleontologist or an archaeologist. The reason I still don’t want to continue into those professions is that, I felt that I can do more good as a doctor in the field of medicine. I think that my major is more intended in my perspective to give me, a more unique character than what I currently have and it is a field of interest that will keep me intellectually stimulated throughout my life.
Archaeology is the study of the past. I have taken the course at U.V.S.C. and found it to be one of the most interesting and difficult courses I have ever taken. Though the text book and the professor tried to explain that the Indiana Jones of the field were just a Hollywood image and sometimes a collection of all the dangerous situations and adventures that have ever happen as whole to the profession. Listening to the adventures of my professor I knew that I would be completely satisfied with life if I only got to have a fraction of the experiences that my professor had. I have always loved digging in the dirt and that is where the majority of an archaeologist’s time is spent out in field (unless, your specialty is marine archaeology.) Finding a lost civilization or a missing pharaoh is the dream of many an archaeologist. Who often spend most of their time asking where to begin? The archaeologist must have a good working knowledge of the site that he/she is working on. A clear understanding of the people that they are trying to learn more about that lived in the area that they are exploring. As the professor explained, most archaeologists specialize in one field and have good working knowledge of surrounding fields. As an archaeologist who specializes in Roman archaeology, you might be expected to have good working knowledge of New Testament archaeology, marine archaeology, and Babylonian Archaeology all in one site.
As to me personally, I would like to study the Rapa Nui of Easter Island and find out what caused their civilization to develop along the path that it did. They are the only culture of Oceania that has/had a written language; I wonder what caused this feature to only develop among the
Rapa Nui and not the other people of the geographic region. The scholars in my field have asked how the
Rapa Nui moved the constructed Moai to their locations. There have been a lot of different theories. The archaeologists that have studied the culture of
Easter Island know the archaeological timeline of the island, what are left is the details. Such questions as to where certain foreign influences came to be on the island and other unknown questions that people ask.
