Anthropologists for years asked questions about other tribes/cultures/peoples, but I love reading the contemporary anthropologists that study themselves. One of the more memorable projects (way to go Professor Bartlett!) in my Intro to Archaeology class was to go through my garbage to learn about myself, or if I knew nothing about me, what my trash would infer about my habits. My professor was mimicking this study (or one like it)
"We are what we throw away"
These anthropologists have been cataloging and analyzing trash for 30 years to learn about OUR society. Sounds fun, right?
When I googled it, look at these fun things I found about anthropologists studying trash:
Have you heard of Discard Studies? Studying our discard culture
The Anthropology of Garbage
This story is about a professor at University of Washington who is using his archaeological skills to study the trash left behind at resting places in the desert as illegal immigrants are crossing from Mexico to the United States.
What would your trash say about you?
My recycling today would reveal that we drink lots and lots of milk and use lots of butter.
This conversation makes me think of the trendy belief that zombies will take over someday. If that does happen and way down the road humans come back. What will they think of giant stores life Scheels?
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