Introduction

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Hi, and welcome. I’m Amanda, and I am an undergraduate student at the University of Victoria. This blog was created for an undergraduate course, “Anthropology 397: Archaeology of Death,” instructed by Dr. Erin McGuire.  The principle purpose of this blog aims to meet the goals of the course as Erin has outlined, namely, using this form of social media as a means for us students to reflect upon the concepts of the course within the context of our own lives, and what we can observe in the world around us. It can be seen as something of an opportunity for students to practice and develop our anthropological “lens” and voices that we may, or may not already know we have.

A couple years ago, I went to a ten-year reunion for my elementary school (yes, sounds a bit strange, I know), and every student in the school made a contribution to a time capsule that was opened on  “reunion day”. Our class decided to make a book detailing where each student predicted we’d be in ten years time. I wrote that I was going to have a dog, live in my own apartment, and that I was going to be an archaeologist. (This made me laugh because at the time I had my own dog, my own apartment, and I was working on my bachelor’s degree for anthropology.) My interest in archaeology, and a newfound interest in the broader scopes of anthropology unwavering, I find myself constantly reflecting upon the everyday interactions that I have, or observe, between other people, and I think it has made me a better person. I digress.

Anyhow, the title of my blog is taken from a longer quote from a French philosopher named Louis Claude de Saint-Martin: “dans la graine, la vie est cachée dans la mort; dans le fruit, la mort est cachée dans la vie” [In the seed, life is hidden in death; in the fruit, death is hidden in life]. This quote depicts the cyclical nature of life and death; death being an essential and integral part of life. I hope that through this blog I can “uncover” some of the ways death is hidden in life, and the ways life is hidden in death.