Pertaining to People Podcast

This episode features an interview with Hayley Aschenbrenner, an MA student studying medieval Roman gender, particularly the unique history of eunuchs. We discuss how historians approach understanding gender and identity in the past, the role of eunuchs in Byzantine society, and Hayley’s topic of particular interest, the eunuch general, Narses. This episode was full of fascinating stories and inte...

We are back! The fact of the matter is… you can’t talk about people (and certainly not about archaeology) without talking about death. Lulu, Kelsey and Gill are back after a multi-year hiatus to talk about a big, juicy grief-filled topic, which partially explains them being away from the podcast for so long. They dive into personal experiences with death and grief, along with how different culture...

In this episode, we are joined by Matthew Ayre (PhD), a post-doctoral fellow with the Arctic Institute of North America. He has always been fascinated with the British Arctic whaling trade, and has made impressive jumps from geography, to historical climatology, with a dash of archaeology thrown in. Matthew's research, using the logs from the British Arctic whaling boats to reconstruct the past Ar...

We're back, baby! Gill, Lulu and Kelsey took some time off to finish up the school year, but we are back with a second season for all our lovely People! Since Kelsey is currently in the Yukon, and Gill also focuses on Arctic Archaeology, we thought our first episode back after our hiatus would be about the history of the resourceful, resilient people that inhabit the Circumpolar North, as well as...

Have you ever played a video game and thought: “How accurate is this?”? That is the essence of what we hoped to discuss in this episode, and to do it, we were joined by Gillian’s “gaming” boyfriend, Luke Smith. A more conversational episode than many others, Luke brings his experience with many video games, and especially the Assassin’s Creed series, and Kelsey, Lulu and Gill discuss the historica...

Our sincerest apologies for the looooong unintended hiatus before the release of this episode. This semester really got the best of us (mostly Gillian) and I dropped the ball on this episode. Very sorry about that! “Peas” forgive us. Hope you still enjoy :) Yes, we took a break, but we’re “bok” now. In this episode (recorded way back in October… and supposed to be released then), Kelsey, Lulu and...

In this episode of our “Careers in Archaeology” series we interview Kayleigh Speirs, the Curator and Manager of Kay-Nah-Chi-Wah-Nung (Manitou Mounds) Historical Centre owned and operated by Rainy River First Nation in Northwestern Ontario. In this episode Kayleigh shares with us her experiences and knowledge in museum curation, and advice on the benefits of volunteering. She discusses how she navi...

Following up on our very fun and informative interview with Dr. Kimberly Williams, we thought we would explore the Wild West a bit. More specifically, sex work in the Wild West! We explored the archaeology of brothels and search for answers to some questions: What was it like for sex workers of the time? How did Madams (brothel managers) integrate sex work into the local economy and way of life? W...

While we had hoped to continue our “Careers in Anthropology” series, this is a slight deviation from that, although no less interesting nor less informative! In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Kimberly A. Williams, a feminist scholar, award-winning author and public speaker. She is an Associate Professor and Program Coordinator of Women & Gender Studies at Mount Royal University. She teache...

For our second interview in our “Careers in Archaeology” series, we’re very excited to be joined by Stevie Sheppard, a Parks Canada Terrestrial Archaeologist. In this episode, we discuss the rigorous application process for a coveted Parks archaeology job, her previous experiences in archaeology that landed her this position, as well as the differences between Terrestrial and Underwater archaeolog...

This is a special episode of our “Careers in Anthropology” series. In this episode, we interview Margarita de Guzman. Margarita is a female entrepreneur who started her own CRM (Cultural Resource Management) company in Calgary, Alberta. In this episode Marg describes her beginnings in archaeology, her tips for success, and provides candid advice for any budding archaeologist. Stay tuned for our up...

Join us this week as we talk about only a few of the many amazing womxn in anthropology! In this episode, we give a brief synopsis of the lives of Margaret Pattison Staples-Brown (or Makereti Papakura), Jane Goodall, and Dr. Alexandra Jones; an anthropologist in the past, one that really “changed the game,” so to speak, and one that is currently making her mark. There’s also a little bonus woman i...

It’s summertime, and a lot of us are drinking beer or other cold bevies while sitting *physically distanced* with our friends outside. Wheat has been domesticated for a very long time. Humans have been brewing beer and other fermented beverages for a very long time, as well. But has beer always been how it is now? Kelsey, Gill and Lulu discuss how beer has actually changed immensely over the past...

Gill and Lulu get to pick Kelsey's brain about digital heritage! What is it? How is it useful? What are the pros and cons? How can it be used for archaeology? These are just some of the topics covered in this episode. Go to pertainingtopeople.com for all references and links relevant to this and all our episodes! CHECK OUT: preserve.ucalgary.ca

In this episode, Lulu, Gill and Kelsey continue the conversation from episode 7 on racism and specifically how our field has, and continues to, contribute to racism and "race science." At what point do we throw out the whole discipline and start from scratch? Listen to these three struggle to get their thoughts out, and ultimately conclude that listeners should listen to more knowledgeable BIPOC w...

***The point of this is in NO WAY for you to listen to this podcast episode instead of melanated voices. This episode is for people who don’t think there is racism in Canada, don’t understand systemic racism in Canada, or don’t know where to start. If you listen to this episode, you should ABSOLUTELY not stop here. You need to look at the references and resources we and others have posted, and con...

As a follow-up to our last episode focusing on the history of language, we thought we would release a super short episode to talk about some linguistic achievements! The "Rosetta" (Rashid) Stone and the Behistun Inscription are both examples of deciphering of ancient languages, while the Indus Script is an example of one we still don't quite get. Visit our website pertainingtopeople.com to see all...

Communication is everything for humans. It’s how we tell people what we want, what we need, that we love them, that we just can’t stand the way they do the dishes (we can’t help it… We’ve been cooped up inside for a long time), so when did speech start? And how? These are the questions the three musketeers try to tackle this week in episode 5: The Beginnings of Language. Visit our website pertaini...

How many cool female monarchs in history do you know? Tamar of Georgia? Hatshepsut? Zenobia? Do you know what matrilineal societies are? Inspired by Victoria day on May 18th, Gill, Lulu and Kelsey will be discussing these topics, among others. Three women talking about some cool women in history, does it get any better than that? See http://pertainingtopeople.com for a full list of references and...

This is the final part of our current exploration into the history of anthropology and archaeology (for now! Give us another 20 years and we’ll be back at it). Going off of Part 2, in which we discussed Processualism and Post-Processualism, we wanted to take some extra time to talk about the incorporation of indigenous and feminist perspectives into the discipline, how that manifests and what it m...

In part 2 of The Origins of Anthropology, Gill, Lulu and Kelsey review the history of anthropology and archaeology after ~1950 and after culture historical archaeology and anthropological thought, starting with early functional processual archaeology and ending with post-processualism. Exciting, no?? (Honestly, it’s a bit of a slog, bear with us). We will have one more part 3 of this series, wrapp...

Following up on their first episode, Origin Stories, Gill, Lulu and Kelsey delve into the "origins" of anthropology and archaeology. Where does archaeology start and anthropology end? What nefarious deeds did Napoleon commit in Egypt? Who is Franz Boas? What's that darned name of the guy who also had the idea of evolution at the same time as Darwin? Find out the answers to these questions and more...

In this special episode, Gill and our new host Kelsey use Earth Day as an opportunity to reflect on humans' long history with the environment, how that has changed, where we are now in the "Anthropocene", and where we might get to in the future. They also chat about fun facts surrounding material culture. What our ancestors might have used instead of plastic bags, or if you are worried about runni...

For our very first episode, we want to focus on some firsts in human history. There's a lot, so we just chose a couple. Who was the “first” modern human ancestor? What about the first technology - stone tools? And with those human ancestors, what did the beginning of farming look like, and what are the origins of large human settlements? These are the questions Gill and Lulu attempt to answer in t...