4th November 2011, 02:31 PM
RedEarth Wrote:It's a shame, because my agenda is a belief that anyone can do pretty much anything they want given enough opportunity and training. Maybe they won't be the best ever at it but they could still give it a go. I do feel, and I'm not saying that this applies to you (as you say, I don't know you), that there are a lot of people in archaeology who enjoy the field side of the job so much they can't face the idea of not doing it, and it is assumed that the role of management will make this happen. Eventually, however, perhaps they will realise that those field skills, including (I presume) the ability to organise, delegate, and deal with people, make them perfectly able to manage and that this is not a bad thing. In the meantime others will be doing just that - will those who don't carry on griping about useless management?
I'd say that although that seems a worthy agenda........its also one I apply to myself (when I'm being lazy and thinking that I can't do something and give up)..........I'd probably fall more on the negative side.
We are not all genetically equal. Some will be predisposed towards certain activities.
Equally a lot of a humans ' basic skills ' are taught from a very early age.
Some of these seem to get kinda fixed at a later age.
This further predisposes an individual towards certain skill-sets.
Hmm...that doesn't read like it makes sense. Guess what I'm driving at is humans don't all end up equally able to do all tasks and whereas 'anyone can '...try to...'do pretty much anything they want given enough opportunity and training'. Some will find it a breeze and others will just not get it.
There does seem to be a limited number of people who seem to be able to do almost anything with ease though..........but I suspect that is a function of their upbringing and a genetic predisposition.
Some of this also seems to be down to 'social programming'. Many people wont do or try certain things as they see it as 'not what everyone else does'. Driving at 30mph in a 30 zones comes to mind.
I classify people into two crude categories......those that follow (the sheep) and those that challenge (the thinkers).
Sheep tend to check what everyone else is doing before they decide whether to do something. They find the unusual silly, or worthy of mocking or destruction. You can see them look up and check to see if anyone is watching before they do something that might be out of the norm. These folk also tend to believe stuff on face value i.e. what the TV tells them, or what Joe bloggs down the pub said, or its in a book so it must be true. Folk who start a 'fact' by saying.....'They say that...' Sheep also love to dress like everyone else so that they don't stick out in a crowd. When questioned about, or presented with a discussion about something they aren't sure about they get defensive, angry or dismissive.
Thinkers forge their own (often seemingly overly difficult) paths. They day-dream, they question most (if not all) the treasured 'truths' just for the hell of it. Thinkers like to demonstrate their individuality and mock anything they see as uniform as grey and boring. Thinkers do strange things just for the experience and love to endlessly debate unsolvable problems and theories (getting no where). Thinkers are drawn to the 'big questions' like moths to a flame. Thinkers often suffer bouts of depression and/or paranoia but also get obsessed by something trivial for days/weeks until it is conquered.
I see the sheep as the forces of order and stagnation and the thinkers as the forces of chaos and disruption.
Society needs both as out of the conflicting motives and objectives of the two factions a balance of adaption with stability is created.
So to bring this ramble (it is Friday after all) back to its source..........I'd argue that not everyone can do everything. Its a part of evolution for Humans to be different.
Unless you start training them young enough that is, but even then, some will be better at some things than the others.