Thesis, Schedule, and an Explanation (But Not In That Order)

So I just got the e-mail giving me the go-ahead to do my thesis.

This means that starting next year, I literally HAVE to hang out in graveyards. Oh, woe is me.

Also, I finish my degree and college requirements fall semester. I think I'm going to pick up a minor... dunno what in, though. Maybe gender studies? I think that would be a good minor for me, seeing as how marginalization is my thing.

Have I told you guys what marginalization is?

For those who don't know, it essentially means to confine to the outer limits or edge. Marginalized people are people who exist in one way or another at the edge of a society. Think of it like a fruit, like an apple or a peach or something: You have the seeds- that's the center, and (from a biological perspective) the most important part. The seeds are what makes it into the history books/grows up into a tree. It has a sort of eternal living memory- you remember "oh, this is the tree that came out of a seed." Then you have the fruit- that's the majority, the middle. You remember that part- you remember the taste, remember the scent, remember the texture- but you don't remember individual bits of it, unless there's a bruise. And it doesn't really have a commonly-held eternal memory of the individual- you remember that you ate an apple, but not that you ate lots of little fragments of apple. And then there's the peel- that's the marginalized people. They've been pushed out away from the seeds by the fruit itself. Often, they're peeled away and discarded and you simply don't think about them. Sometimes, though, one will stick out- a particularly red apple or a hairless peach. These anecdotes show up on occasion- think about Mary Read and Anne Bonny, two women pirates. We remember them, but we don't remember any others. Or think of the prostitutes Jack the Ripper killed. Generally, things happen to marginalized people- they don't do them. During their lifetime, marginalized people are generally unimportant. But after death, they become a great indicator of the values and beliefs of the society. And after all, don't we associate the concept and memory of an apple with its rosy redness?

Generally, women are one of the most prevalent groups that falls victim to marginalization, as are minority groups. Children are almost always marginalized, until they hit adulthood.

It's not a perfect metaphor, but I think it works pretty well.

But, back to that minor thing! Checking out the requirements, it's only fifteen credit hours. If they let me take Perspectives and Intro at the same time, I've already taken a crosslisted elective, I think.

And finally, here's my schedule for next year:

The schedule generator only let me put in twenty characters, so I'll explain a bit better.

Perspectives: My last requirement, Perspectives in Anthropological Analysis. It's a theory course. Normally, you take it in your first year of the major. Whooooops.
RMM:Religion, Myth, and Magic- a class about the anthropology and archaeology of spiritual beliefs.
Intermediate French: Exactly what it says on the tin.
Irish-American Tap: I think I'll get in shape much better if part of it is for a grade. Also, it's a time-honored tradition to take this course. All anthropology seniors do it, I think. It's actually an anthropology credit.
Verbal/Oral Trad.: Verbal Arts and Oral Traditions, a course on storytelling, folklore, and folksongs. I took a similar course last year by the same instructor specializing on Irish folk history, and it was really something. The final paper that I wrote for that class was a work of art.

So yeah, pretty excited about that! It's pretty finalized. Only thing that I might do is switch to an earlier French, but I think the only other section that I could take had holds on the rest of its seats. We shall see.