Saratoga News
Education
Photograph by George Sakkestad
West Valley College anthropology and archaeology teacher Andrew Kindon will spend the next three summers in Belize. Kindon and two other researchers will excavate Mayan ruins, thanks to a $123,000 grant from the National Science Foundation.
Kindon is into archaeology, but Andy is no Indy
West Valley College teacher 'breathes life into history'
By Michele Tjin
Many employees complain their work environment is toxic and deadly, but Andrew Kindon can legitimately make that claim. After all, poisonous snakes and wild boars don't make for pleasant office mates.
Kindon, chairman of the anthropology department at West Valley College, will spend the next three summers in Belize, battling those wild animals, thanks to a $123,000 grant he recently received from the National Science Foundation. Kindon is a co-principal investigator on a field study in Belize, where he and two other researchers are excavating Mayan ruins.
"I breathe life into history," Kindon said.
Kindon teaches anthropology and archaeology courses at West Valley, but he isn't your typical college academic. At 32, he sports two tattoos on his arms and sings in a punk rock band.
"It's not enough to satisfy and define yourself in one way," he said.
He was first hooked on archaeology after watching the Indiana Jones movies as a child and went on to complete his doctoral studies at UCLA. Kindon has had his share of exciting moments. He has killed a deadly 10-foot fer-de-lance, a venomous viper, and has seen what happens when a wild boar comes charging. However, Kindon spends time with his students dispelling the myths that romanticize the field of archaeology.
"Many people have seen the video portrayals," he said. "The shows on Discovery Channel are overly sensationalized. I am not Indiana Jones. He was no better than a looter."
His research in Belize attempts to answer questions of when and why certain political systems, such as city-states, emerged. He and his team work closely with the local villagers who live where the excavation site is. The villagers can get work digging and helping the researchers, who in turn have plans to possibly turn the site as an eventual tourist destination. Tourism is one of the primary sources of income for Belize.
"We want to help them understand the cultural significance in the site and instill pride," he said.
Kindon is excited about the grant, and his peers at West Valley agree it's a big deal.
"This grant enhances the reputation of our college for having professors of noted scholarship," said Pat Andrews, division chairwoman of the social sciences. "Andy is already well-known in his field among anthropologists. We expect him to be well-renowned in our community."
Because Kindon teaches full-time at West Valley, he can't devote as much time as he would like to working in Belize, but that's just fine with him. There needs to be a balance between teaching and fieldwork, he said. The point of digging holes and finding artifacts is not to put them in museums.
"How is this contributing to a greater good?" he said.
Teaching, on the other hand, allows him to do something constructive.
"I get a huge enjoyment out of seeing students who have never contemplated and suddenly they see the light. That's the beauty of teaching," he said.
Archaeologists toil in obscurity for many years; patience is a required character trait. It's a good thing that Kindon's wife is already used to his routines and that the two of them have figured out how to make long-distance relationships work.
Currently, she teaches art at Sacramento City College and comes home to Los Gatos, where the couple lives, only on weekends. What's more, Kindon and his wife have been married for more than two years, and on both of their anniversaries he was in Central America working.
"It makes us stronger," he said. "It works. The distance makes us appreciate each other when we're together."
While his fieldwork is set for the next three years, Kindon's punk rock band, End on End, is on its last legs. Kindon joined the group as a vocalist when the band formed in 1998 as a distraction from grad school. Since then, the group has enjoyed success as it toured the United States, as well as Japan and Europe. But recently band members have moved, and one just had a baby.
"We're all grown up in our 30s," he said.
Andrews said she thinks she has a performing opportunity for him, albeit a low-profile one.
"I am trying to talk him into performing for our students in the spring as part of a career development day that the social science division is contemplating," she said.
The best part of anthropology, Kindon said, is that he is a student of culture. Whether he is teaching, working in the field, singing or even advising West Valley's honor society, his world is ripe with opportunities to study and analyze the story of humans.
