This one really hit home with me. This year I have been trying to reconnect with my special interest of primitive technologies (i.e. stone tool making, aka flintknapping, friction fire making,natural fiber weaving, etc). I at first abandoned this special due to negative associations that became attached to them from having been bullied while in grad school. I got my MA in Experimental Archaeology at the University of Exeter in Exeter UK. Because my MA was in Experimental Archaeology the pursuit of primitive technologies was highly relevant to it. My grad school experience was what radicalized me as a neurodivergent person and prompted me to take up writing and speaking for the cause of neurodivergent liberation which I feel to be a much more pressing and urgent matter than anything primitive technology or experimental archaeology related even though anthropology and archaeology still hold a fascination with me.
Now that I've healed and moved on from my grad school experience, which my writing has been helpful in that regard, I find that I simply don't have time for any of my primitive technologies anymore. This is largely due to my slower working speed due to dyspraxia and the fact that it is utmost imperative that I adhere to a very strict and time consuming health regimen that includes very precise, comprehensive and rigorous physical exercise. So between my writing and my health regimen, it's hard to fit anything in that involves actual craftsmanship. I may just resolve to have my special interests evolve more towards traditional archery and recreational academic reading on anthropology as those are easier to incorporate into my lifestyle as it has developed.
A lot of it is based around retrieving remains, but there was some pretty cool stuff I did on placement documenting structures of illegal animal derivatives using SEM-EDX
I've lost one of my special interests that I'd had for 30 years because the author has turned out to be a serial abuser who tried to blame being autistic for it. It really hurts.
This one really hit home with me. This year I have been trying to reconnect with my special interest of primitive technologies (i.e. stone tool making, aka flintknapping, friction fire making,natural fiber weaving, etc). I at first abandoned this special due to negative associations that became attached to them from having been bullied while in grad school. I got my MA in Experimental Archaeology at the University of Exeter in Exeter UK. Because my MA was in Experimental Archaeology the pursuit of primitive technologies was highly relevant to it. My grad school experience was what radicalized me as a neurodivergent person and prompted me to take up writing and speaking for the cause of neurodivergent liberation which I feel to be a much more pressing and urgent matter than anything primitive technology or experimental archaeology related even though anthropology and archaeology still hold a fascination with me.
Now that I've healed and moved on from my grad school experience, which my writing has been helpful in that regard, I find that I simply don't have time for any of my primitive technologies anymore. This is largely due to my slower working speed due to dyspraxia and the fact that it is utmost imperative that I adhere to a very strict and time consuming health regimen that includes very precise, comprehensive and rigorous physical exercise. So between my writing and my health regimen, it's hard to fit anything in that involves actual craftsmanship. I may just resolve to have my special interests evolve more towards traditional archery and recreational academic reading on anthropology as those are easier to incorporate into my lifestyle as it has developed.
Thanks for writing this. I feel less alone.
I studied Forensic Archaeology at Uni of Bradford ☺️
Forensic archaeology can be quite fascinating. I especially find it interesting when they get into really deeply historical criminal cases.
A lot of it is based around retrieving remains, but there was some pretty cool stuff I did on placement documenting structures of illegal animal derivatives using SEM-EDX
Stunning
I've lost one of my special interests that I'd had for 30 years because the author has turned out to be a serial abuser who tried to blame being autistic for it. It really hurts.
I think i know which author you're referring to and it stung me too