Reasoning, people and Indiana Jones are key focuses of Saint Mary’s re-established anthropology club.
Co-president and junior Teresa Brickey said although Indiana Jones wasn’t the reason she chose to start the club again, the fun Spielberg’s character represents keeps her interested in anthropology.
“I just think it’s so [much] fun,” Brickey said. “With me personally, it’ll be good to have a group of people who are also interested in this subject broadly, and even having diverse thoughts about that because there are different sub-areas of anthropology. I’d be able to learn from other people while also still contributing to what interested me.”
Brickey said she hopes to bring her love of anthropology to the rest of the community. The club’s other co-president, sophomore Olivia Sencion, said she wants to create general awareness about anthropology.
“We’re going to bring awareness to what we do, because I don’t think a lot of people know what anthropology is,” Sencion said. “If you would’ve asked me a couple of years ago, I probably wouldn’t have known. It’s to understand people and to understand what we do and why we do it.”
The core of anthropology is understanding people, Sencion said, and that aspect of the field of study will be the most important part of the club.
“I think a lot of anthropology can help tie in to what [people] are doing now and what it’s like at this age and what’s going on in the community and the culture and everything,” she said. “It can really help us understand more people, and with that, I think it can help bring us closer together. It’d be something good for everyone to get involved in.”
The club will aim to improve society, especially given the current social climate, Sencion said.
“I think with how we are as a society right now, we could definitely use this knowledge of learning about other people by trying to incorporate and bring awareness to all of our differences and similarities at the same time,” Sencion said. “I think it’s really good to know about, just to have the awareness about what’s going on and how we’re wired and everything.”
The knowledge that the club aims to impart is among its greatest assets, Brickey said.
“I think it’s important because people should have a place where they’re able to learn from each other and also have access to academic resources,” she said. “Just to have an open space to really talk through things, because there are different parts of the world — and maybe even our country — that we don’t understand … being able to sit down together and just talk about it and learn is really important, because otherwise how will you ever know?”
