Kaiti > Recent Status Updates

This is interesting but, as is common in microhistories focusing on one thing used across vast times and spaces, I find myself disagreeing with how this is organized!

The 3 main options for organizing a book like this are generally chronological, geographical, or thematic. This book went for thematic, and I understand why, but I would love it if this were more chronological instead.

The first part on stone tools is making me remember my undergrad prehistoric archaeology course and that prof's utter passion for the wonder that is the acheulean handaxe.

This is fun!

Crocodilopolis is a fantastic name for a city and we definitely need to bring that back somewhere.

"We have been encouraged to see the history of Africa as a passive participant in European or Mediterranean history, rather than a part of a dynamic exchange of cultures and stories. [...] Much of the African continent [...] is ignored or even discarded, unless it plays a part in the story of either Rome or Greece."👌👌👌

"Official law is not always reflected in social reality." (In the context of "just because a law said soldiers couldn't marry doesn't mean they weren't having relationships and kids anyways")

This book is very insightful in the shortcomings of previous histories that touch on the regions and periods it explores!

This is so interesting!

👌 the introduction spending a significant amount of time getting into how the edges of a society are defined by what people in that society consider to be the centre, how Greek and Roman sources have been emphasized to the detriment of others, and how studying interactions between rulers tells us nothing about how average citizens of different cultures interacted. So good!

Audiobook listen!

One page later and just because one municipal archivist asked, the archive started analyzing human remains found years ago? Within a day? Who is paying for that?!?

I don't think the author did a single page of reading about how archives and other heritage professions work. And I was impressed with the research that I felt went into the first half of this!

Now I question the quality of the rest of the research too.

Matthew why are you giving an artifact, even unaccessioned, to a random member of the public? The CRA will revoke your institution's charitable status if you get caught doing that, Matthew. The fact it was not accessioned doesn't mean you can give it to whoever, even if you believe her to be the proper heir to it???????? What is going on.

"I'm not surprised to see how simple he keeps his surroundings. He is an archivist. He likes things organized, and the fewer things he has, the easier it is to keep it all filed away."

Where is this stereotype of archivists as hyper-organized coming from? I've spent over a decade in a career working closely with archivists and have never come across it. Nor does it match with my personal experience of archivists lol

I love Vera Wong!

Wait what do you MEAN this man has a husband in 1920s Montreal and everyone is fine with it? I have so many questions. When was marriage equality achieved in Quebec? This is before the Quiet Revolution so how did the Church let that happen? What are the social implications of being gay in this world? What caused the push for marriage rights here? What's happening in the Rest of Canada and elsewhere in the world??????

Books that don't use quotation marks for stylistic reasons are always hard for me. But I like this book otherwise!

Yeah definitely don't read this book if bugs aren't your thing!!!!!