Still kicking...

For any out there who may not know, while others are out in the proverbial "field," I stay closer to home, which is to say, I don't really go anywhere -- save the library, historical society, what-have-you. To my fellow cohorters, let's just say, the graveyard research has been proceeding as planned, i.e., lots of silence and alone-time to get my work done.

Here's a puzzle for the more materially inclined: any connection between these two images?

The first is a petroglyph of Native American origin (Western Abenaki?) from Vermont of unknown date. The second is a gravestone from Rowley, Massachusetts carved about 1690. The more I investigate the nature of intra-cultural exchange in seventeenth-century New England, the more I'm tending to think, yes. The problem is, there is little to no evidence to back up a connection.

On a more upbeat note, here is my ethnographic observation of the summer: I was driving through Cranston en route to Greene Farm one morning (I did a little work out there with Krysta, et al.), when what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a six?-year-old being walked by a pug. In this strange role-reversal, the child was running from side to side on the sidewalk while this little proud dog strutted along in front, tail up. While I can't necessarily get on board with the painful lack of parental oversight, I wholeheartedly approve of sending rambunctious children to be herded by more intelligent animals.