Dr Alex Fitzpatrick
@animalarchaeology.com
13K followers 450 following 5.1K posts
Zooarchaeologist. 🏺 Museums & Heritage Researcher. 📜 Science Communicator & Writer. 🧪 Chinese-American Immigrant in the UK. She/Her/她. All views my own. 🏳️‍🌈♿️ https://dralexfitzpatrick.carrd.co/
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animalarchaeology.com
I’ve got a bunch of new followers this week, so just a friendly reminder that I am unable to check any DMs at the moment due to the age verification nonsense.

Instead, you can find my contact details - and links to my work - here!

dralexfitzpatrick.carrd.co
Dr Alex Fitzpatrick
Links to find me and my current work.
dralexfitzpatrick.carrd.co
animalarchaeology.com
Ahmed has been on here for a while trying to raise funds for his family - you can donate here: www.gofundme.com/f/a-humanita...
animalarchaeology.com
Please donate to Mohammed if you can - even with a ceasefire, Palestinians are facing astronomical costs for food, shelter, and medical treatment.

www.gofundme.com/f/z6pc5k-hel...
Reposted by Dr Alex Fitzpatrick
marspidermonkey.bsky.social
As a primatologist, Jane Goodall was a huge inspiration to me. I admired the way she describes chimpanzee behavior with such detail and empathy, and she’s inspired so many people and advocated for chimpanzee conservation and welfare.

However, I'm dismayed at what her narrative leaves out (1/10)
Photo of Jane Goodall in the center, signing a book, with three women standing slightly hunched behind her. A very young Michelle is to the right, smiling.
animalarchaeology.com
It’s already disappointing to see folks lash out at anyone writing about her legacy with a more critical lens (particularly as so many of these posts are still quite respectful!) - again, the reluctance of a critical perspective, even to those we like, is how we end up in the world we are in.
animalarchaeology.com
RE the last few reposts: I didn’t want to say anything when news of Goodall’s death hit as I know she is a hero and inspiration to so many, but I really hope we don’t lose sight of the valid criticisms of her work, especially as it gets revisited with rose coloured glasses.
Reposted by Dr Alex Fitzpatrick
sgwong.com
LRT
“In 2017, Kenyan conservationist Dr Mordecai Ogada published the book The Big Conservation Lie, which criticised ‘white saviours’ like Goodall...Have any African conservationists received a damehood or regular well-paid speaking opportunities across the world for their work?”
jackmcgovan.bsky.social
With Jane Goodall's death last week and the Nobel Prize announcements this week, I wrote about why it's a big problem that we lionise individuals for achievements that resulted from the work of collective groups of people.
We spend too much time lionising people like Jane Goodall
Idolising people only entrenches the idea that it is spectacular individuals, not collectives, who change the world.
www.sower.world
Reposted by Dr Alex Fitzpatrick
freyaa.bsky.social
I actually remember being appalled by this when I learned about it years ago, around the same time that evangelical teens were doing medical stuff with no training to kids around the African continent, but her brand is strong af and I totally forgot all about it.
(Repost with alt text)
By Mordecai Ogada

2 October at 14:17

So, Jane Goodall has left us. I watched the BBC article on her passing and the opening line said everything. "Jane arrived in Africa aged 26 with no scientific knowledge..." As a black African conservation scholar, this is what I've learned over the years;

1. She retained Gombe stream national park as her private research site since 1975. This was easy because she was then married to Derek Bryceson the director of Tanzania national parks

2. She used her power to protect the reputation of chimps, suppressing news articles of predation on human babies, including one belonging to one of her staff.

3. She talked constantly of "overpopulation" in Africa, but created children's programs in India, knowing that Indians wouldn't stand for that shit. Her stand on African population resonated with the western oligarchs and she became a regular greenwashing prop at the world economic forum.

4. In her own words, she was inspired by the racist myth of "Tarzan" that showed communion between a white noble and African apes in Africa without any black people.

She talked so much about our carbon footprint, but I personally heard her say she travelled for

over 300 days every year (mostly to give talks) and she even passed away while on one such trip.

5. I personally met her and understood why people said she was "humble", because talking to her felt like talking to your mum, or grandma. She would even offer you a chance to cuddle her little toy stuffed chimp. However, she ran a global organisation centered on her name and persona, even the logo was her image. No decision was made independent of her opinion (hence the constant travel)

She was one of the last symbols of the grand absurdity that Mbaria Wa Mbaria and I referred to as "The big conservation lie".

I will always remember Jane Goodall, but I won't miss her. I am too old, too African, too educated and too honest for that. Kwaheri Jane
Reposted by Dr Alex Fitzpatrick
divyampersaud.com
13 hours left ⚠️ Please share. Six families are STILL at risk of dying from famine, exposure, illness…

The same core legends always share and personally I’ve maxed out every friend & family member! I have donated every paycheck for months. It’s a statistics game to reach people who can give.

7/879
Keep Hope Alive: a Gaza Giving Circle
We are a team of volunteers in the US and UK, led by two sisters passionate about helping our friends on the ground keep their families and neighbors alive with food, water, & shelter. We saw that…
chuffed.org
animalarchaeology.com
The last time I excavated, I sat on a bucket in a cave for 8 hours.

Very glamourous!
animalarchaeology.com
Unfortunately a daily cross-country commute really undercuts my ability to do stuff like this lately, but I’ve still managed to help out three different FLL groups with their projects via email.

It’s been really nice to talk about mental health and disability in archaeology with these kids!
animalarchaeology.com
🏺 There’s been a lot of need for archaeologists lately with the First Lego League Challenge so if you’re able to commit an hour or so to chat, it’s worthwhile! ⬇️
sarahmackattack.bsky.social
Here I am. Once again. I'm out of archaeologists.

We matched 576 groups w/archaeologists, leaving 13 groups unmatched. This brings me pain! We've never run out of scientists like this before. 598 requests for one category is A LOT. But still.

Archaeologists 🥺
www.skypeascientist.com/sign-up.html
Sign Up
Skype a Scientist gives you the opportunity to connect with students and the public around the world. ​
www.skypeascientist.com
animalarchaeology.com
📜 Dunno if I’ll have time to nip into this while I’m in London in a few weeks but this looks amazing.
ursulakleguin.com
Today, The Word for World: The Maps of Ursula K. Le Guin opens at AA Gallery in London! Curated by Sarah Shin and Harriet Jennings, the exhibition presents a selection of Ursula's maps, including some that have never been exhibited before.
A photo of the entrance to The Word for World exhibition, with two banners hanging vertically down outside the doorway to a brick building with white-paned windows. A row of bicycles are parked in front. The banners are purple and white and say the name of the exhibition and Ursula K. Le Guin's name. A cord-wrapped rock rests on a vivid blue background next to a map of and program for The Word for World exhibition. A stack of copies of The Word for World book, which shows the title in vivid blue against a black cloth cover.
Reposted by Dr Alex Fitzpatrick
workshops4gaza.bsky.social
These come 2 yrs after Esmat Elhalaby’s “No Palestinians Involved” laying out the history of the prize, its legitimating function for the entity, how its affiliation with Tel Aviv University makes it part of the international cultural boycott, etc. pastandfuturepresents.blogspot.com/2023/03/no-p...
No Palestinians Involved: An Open Letter to My Colleagues
Palestine Exploration Fund map (1876). Via Palestine Open Maps . Dear colleagues,  Since the new Dan David Prize has arrived on  the shores ...
pastandfuturepresents.blogspot.com
Reposted by Dr Alex Fitzpatrick
Reposted by Dr Alex Fitzpatrick
ianboudreau.com
It simply should not be possible for the president to repeatedly claim that a major city is burning without a wall of live standups happening in that city clearly demonstrating that it is not
ianboudreau.com
American broadcast journalism has utterly failed and is a dead industry, there's nothing left worth saving
Reposted by Dr Alex Fitzpatrick
thejenna.bsky.social
The companion video I mention in Nintendo's Museum Problem is NOW UP!

youtu.be/8GWeO7glE-4

The lower level of the Nintendo Museum features games, both analog and video, that commemorate Nintendo’s past. But you won’t be able to play them all! So which ones are actually GOOD?
Reposted by Dr Alex Fitzpatrick
Reposted by Dr Alex Fitzpatrick
blackballer.bsky.social
Oops, gave the peace prize to another fascist freak who just so happens to be pro genocide. Im sure that was accidental.
nerdjpg.com
Wow! Interesting

Nothing to see here for sure
However, following the
announcement, many have started to point out that the 58-year-old is a strong ally of Israel and openly backs the country's decision to bomb the largely unarmed civilians of the Gaza Strip. While there is no known evidence to argue that she supported the one-sided attack on the Palestinian civilians, Machado is undoubtedly an ally of Benjamin Netanyahu. In the past, the centrist-right leader had even declared that if she gains power, she will restore diplomatic relations with Israel. In 2020, the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner's party, Vente Venezuela, signed a cooperation agreement with Likud to cooperate on "political, ideological and social issues ... strategy, geopolitics and security." For the unversed, Likud - National Liberal Movement is the right-wing Israeli political party whose chairperson is Benjamin Netanyahu. "The struggle of Venezuela is the struggle of Israel," she had said on X in 2019.
There is a claim that in 2018 Machado sent a letter to Netanyahu asking for the use of "power" (possibly including military intervention) against the Venezuelan government. She had
animalarchaeology.com
I’ve said this before but it bears repeating how the lack of uncritical thinking has gotten us to this moment.

And yes, these demands for “women supporting women no matter what” performative feminism and “vote blue no matter who” political worship is part of this.
animalarchaeology.com
Watching people celebrating the recent Nobel Peace Prize winner despite her allegiances to Trump and her support of Israel’s genocide…as well as folks cheering on Japan’s first woman as PM who is a straight up fascist…like, c’mon.
animalarchaeology.com
It’s 2025, can we please let go of uncritically and unthinkingly celebrating and supporting any woman who does anything noteworthy?

Women can be fascists, they can be reactionaries, can be just as cruel and destructive as men!

Why buy into biological determinism as shallow “feminism”?
animalarchaeology.com
Please donate to help Nesma and her children if you can, and share widely.

www.gofundme.com/f/donate-to-...
Reposted by Dr Alex Fitzpatrick
digitscotland.bsky.social
It's thought that a great auk head was added to the foundation of an Iron Age wheelhouse on Eilean Leòdhais (the Isle of Lewis) during its construction over 2,000 years ago 🐧

Now extinct, it's possible that these flightless birds held some ritual significance: www.digitscotland.com/the-archaeol...
Illustration of a great auk with a juvenile: resembling a penguin with a black back and white underside, a heavy black beak with grooves, and tiny wings
Reposted by Dr Alex Fitzpatrick
diplomatofnight.com
A lot of people on here, in multiple directions but primarily in the left-bashing formula, are less interested in Gaza or Palestine itself than what they can achieve out of it vis a vis their online arguments.