12th March 2007, 02:51 PM
Well, it's the perception of a former undergraduate about his own university teachers in America - probably (?) doesn't apply to people in UK commercial archaeological units.
I think the general public's perception of archaeologists in the UK (derived from TV) is as a bunch of cartoon-caricatures with strange haircuts/beards/sweaters/accents, filled with an almost pathological degree of over-exitement about very little. A bit like minor characters out of a TinTin book.
Non-archaeologists who deal with us professionally (e.g. developers, construction contractors) see us rather differently - often as a bunch of hippies/new-age travellers using their money to pursue our own hobby, while breaking as many of their health-and-safety rules as we can.
None of those perceptions is fair, of course, but they all hold a tiny grain of truth.
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished
I think the general public's perception of archaeologists in the UK (derived from TV) is as a bunch of cartoon-caricatures with strange haircuts/beards/sweaters/accents, filled with an almost pathological degree of over-exitement about very little. A bit like minor characters out of a TinTin book.
Non-archaeologists who deal with us professionally (e.g. developers, construction contractors) see us rather differently - often as a bunch of hippies/new-age travellers using their money to pursue our own hobby, while breaking as many of their health-and-safety rules as we can.
None of those perceptions is fair, of course, but they all hold a tiny grain of truth.
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished