Prince George, B.C. - “All those bits and pieces of material culture around us, from the can openers to the tacky souvenirs, can tell us a lot about today’s society, our values and motivations,” says Erin Gibson, anthropologist and traveler who will be visiting Prince George as the Anthropology in Our Backyards Lecture Series first guest speaker. “To me archaeology is about more than finding ‘things,’ it is a way of seeing and understanding the world we live in.”

 

Bringing her own bits and pieces, research and personal experience, Gibson will be appearing at a public talk at ArtSpace (Books & Co.) on Tuesday, March 3rd at 7pm.

 

Nicknamed “the girl who walks” by local inhabitants, Gibson crisscrossed the deserts of the Middle East and Cyprus exploring roads and trails, seeking to understand the paths taken by travelers, explorers and pilgrims through the centuries.

 

“I spent seven hot months researching social interaction in the desert,” Gibson explains. “My survey area in Jordan’s Wadi Arabah was located in close proximity to a military base. I remember looking up from my recording forms one day to find two soldiers coming towards me. At first I was worried that they may have changed their minds about letting me survey the area. In true Jordanian style, they had come to give me tea – they must have carried it about a kilometre.”

 

This informal session draws on archaeology, history and ethnography, scrutinizing the complex forces that drive humans to travel. Discussion will include a range of Near Eastern and Mediterranean case studies to explore the motivations for travelling while highlighting the relationship between physical movement and mental or emotional journeys. Ancient maps, archaeological remains and contemporary tourist literature will all feature in this open session.

 

“Anthropology in Our Backyards” invites all Prince George residents to attend this public talk that will be held at ArtSpace (2nd Floor of Books & Co.). This will be the first in a series of presentations that will be bringing the world to our backyard. UNBC’s Anthropology Program in collaboration with ArtSpace (Books & Co.) is sponsoring the talk.

 

“We want to bring the world to Prince George,” explains Michel Bouchard, Chair of the Anthropology Program. “This series will explore some of the of the challenges facing humanity from the melting glaciers of Greenland to wars fought in distant deserts all the way to tropical jungles where the first primates evolved.”