Collie's Bestiary

(Since I seem to be musing about honesty recently… a short college paper written in 1999 for a primate anthropology class. Enjoy!)
A current 'hot' topic in primate studies today is the issue of infant killing. Our readings contain three articles on the subject.
The first was the 1977 Hrdy article "Infanticide as a Primate Reproductive Strategy," [...]

Now that I think about it, I realize there was a constant emphasis of the Pharaoh — a symbol of rightness and order? — triumphing over entangled, combative animals. Do the raging animals symbolize the disorder and "unright" chaos of the assaulting foreigners? Further (in a personally exciting moment of inspiration) I wonder: does this [...]

For my birthday in October, my wonderful housemate took me to see the display on King Tutankhamen at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco. It was, quite simply, amazing. Not only were the precious items quite breathtaking, but the information which accompanied the display was fascinating. There was some history on King Tut, including probable [...]

This month's Firestarter is a (badly needed) review and reflection on How Do We Keep Honesty? I figured since February is traditionally a month for love, this time I'd attempt to achieve love of self, and gently engage in some internal reflection — always a scary proposition. :-) Fair warning: this Firestarter will make the [...]

(Originally written some time in 1999 for an Independent Study anthropology class on various seminal works in the field)

Roland Barthes' exploration of the mythologizing characteristics of bourgeoisie society in France is an absorbing read. He starts out by investigating the possible mythical meanings of many of the conventionally accepted societal norms or rituals in France, [...]

I try not to write "hop on the bandwagon" postings about the current "hot" topic in the news. I like to have a bit of time to consider and reflect on issues and situations. Within that timeframe I frequently find that simply quietly helping however I can is all I wish to say on the [...]

I've come to the conclusion I don't agree with the definition of Gatekeeper. I do agree there's more than just the two extremes — regardless of whether you call them "Warrior" and "Forgiver" or "heavy-handed militarism" and "turn-the-other-cheek pacifism." I suppose Gatekeeper is as good a term as any for that "middle of the road" [...]

Part of a quick "reflection" written for my aikido class.
Huzzah! My aikido class has a list of recommended readings. The first of those books, which I requested at the library, has come in and is now successfully in my hot little hands. I'm the proud new borrower of Richard Strozzi Heckler's "Aikido and the New [...]

This is an invite to the Open House being held for the Master's program I'm in. It has been, quite frankly, life changing for me, so if you're at all intrigued, please come out to hear more about it.
Open House & Information Session
Saturday, January 23, 2009
at 12:00 p.m.
with Co-directors
Judy Grahn and Dianne Jenett
We are pleased [...]

I don't know if this is common knowledge, but I'm an Amazon.com Associate. In my postings here, I put links to all the books and movies and things I review, so people can easily purchase them from Amazon if they so wish. I figured that would allow my readers and friends to get a nifty [...]