Grötkräkla, "porridge sceptre"
The Four Stone Hearth blog carnival first opened its gaudy tent flap almost four years ago, in October 2006. Since then, 50 blogs have hosted it, 32 of which are still active. The record for most 4SH hostings is shared by Afarensis and Remote Central, both of which have hosted seven carnivals. Well done, everybody!
Here are the submissions for the 100th instalment:
- Krys at Anthropology in Practice discusses the Piltdown hoax.
- Dan at Neuroanthropology writes about linguistic relativism, the idea that our language forms our world rather than the other way around.
- Raymond at The Prancing Papio presents a study suggesting that a girl having brothers delays her menstruation and sexual activity.
- Eric (formerly of The Primate Diaries), meanwhile, discusses a paper on the evolution of menopause in women.
- Franco at Culture Potion talks about eskimo art with loads of wonderful pics.
- Ciarán at Ad Hominin discusses the recent study suggesting that tool use may be a million years older than we thought.
- Judith at Zenobia presents Queen Boran who was made Great King of Persia in AD 629.
- Colleen at Middle Savagery talks about archaeological field schools and management styles.
- And finally, I've got a paper out that stimulated some interesting blog discussion regarding the goals of archaeology.
The carnival rarely gets many submissions: as you can see, even this even-number instalment got only nine counting my own. This means that bloggers don't care much about the Four Stone Hearth. Does the carnival have regular readers that follow it around to the various venues where it appears? Dear Reader, if you are a committed 4SH regular, please say so in a comment.
Blog carnivals seem to be going out of fashion. The Skeptics' Circle, The Tangled Bank and The Carnival of the Godless have all folded. Months pass between instalments of the History Carnival. And I've decided to let go of the Four Stone Hearth. Anybody want to take over as its coordinator? I've paid the domain registration for the next twelve months. Will #100 be the last time the Four Stone Hearth is lit?
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I'll take over if you can't find anyone else
I have enjoyed this carnival, tracking it down wherever it was.
As a retired child psychoanalyst, I am fascinated by the nature/nurture discussions.
I am so glad it will continue. Thank you Afarensis!
I read most editions of the 4SH.
FWIW, I read each issue of 4SH and link to it from my blog. I was going to volunteer to take over coordination duties, but Afarensis definitely has more domain knowledge than I do.
It's been the summer season. The neighborhood is empty.
Bloggers shouldn't be so lazy. I got a lot of new readers from hosting 4SH #98, some of whom seem to have stayed. Anyway, as an archaeologist, it's good to update myself on what's on in anthropology so it was enjoyable putting the carnival together. I'll gladly volunteer again next year.
I like the Four Stone Hearth will definitely host it again soon.
i follow the FSH and this has been helpful in providing useful bits of information to those who got no access to journal articles.
I always enjoy Four Stone Hearth and read nearly every installment. While, one of my posts is mentioned from time to time, I see my own work as, at best, on the fringes of the mission of this carnival. Four Stone Hearth keeps me more or less up to date on interesting developments that I often wouldnât see otherwise. I would be sad to see it go away and, if it would help, I would be willing to host it if need arises.
I love the carnival! I share the link when its posted on FB and on Twitter, but I have also had trouble getting submissions when it has been my turn to host--even beyond the summer ghost town.
Still, thank you Afarensis for volunteering. I'd be happy to play host anytime.
I'm a reader, not a blogger, and have only just discovered the FSH carnival. I hope it doesn't go out of fashion!
I have always enjoyed reading 4SH - though I thought it had been around longer than this?
In any case, well done to Martin and others who have kept it running this long and who have provided so much interesting material to read.
May I humbly suggest that whoever takes over coordinating also set up a twitter account so that calls for submissions can be more widely disseminated (perhaps automatically). New recruits are important!
I adnittedly only read 4SH because you always link it here; I wouldn't remember to look for it otherwise. But I do read it, and usually click one or two of the links, which given I'm a medieval historian and text-based is not bad really. Besides, occasionally I'm in it.
I just hosted Carnivalesque, a historical carnival, at mine, and got all of three submissions. The time I did it before that I got six. This time I'd already been squirrelling away good blog posts for the relevant couple of months because I knew there'd be no submissions. But, as Judith says, it's certainly still good for the readership to host, there's been a definite boost to my viewing figures.
One other thought: perhaps 4SH should move to a monthly schedule, which would halve the trouble of finding hosts and possibly submissions as well.
I read it! I'm also a blogger, and most of the time when it comes out, I link to it.
I follow 4SH. Monthly would be fine, if that ensures continuation of the carnival.
I have been an irregular reader for a couple of years I guess. When someone links it, I try to read. But if it doesn't come up on one of my regular haunts, I'm liable to miss it, and so I usually don't find 4SH until at least a week or so after it goes up. I'll fix that right now, with a bookmark.