2nd February 2012, 04:33 PM
quintaine Wrote:So whatever happened to respect for other cultures and beliefs?
and the motto "Archaeology for All", is that "all" who believe exactly like you do, or a grand encompassing "all"
Why not claim that all who hold beliefs that differ from you are crackpots and then you can have a pure untainted archaeology or at least modify the motto.
After all we can't have people roaming around believing what they want, they must be governed, dictated to, have every trace of individuality erased, or all hell would break loose.
They must learn our ways- we must not be silent, jeez, how colonial is that.
Do archaeologists exist to learn from our own and other cultures of the past and/or present or dictate to them?
The outlook on this forum is so depressing, that you are so convinced of the sactimonious propaganda you decree, not debate, makes archaeology more like the cults you claim to be crackpots.
Hi
There are some problems by not addressing the beliefs and view of people with alternative ideas about archaeology. We have seen already how a minority with certain pagan beliefs refuse to accept the argument that the retention (and preservation) of (prehistoric) human remains can be justified because scientific techniques improve. If this view was left unchallenged it would seriously erode the potential for understanding the past as there would be no re-assessment of remains as new techniques are developed.
I fundamentally do not accept the premise that all views have equal merit and that anybody can say what they like and have it respected by others. I was once asked (in an accusational way) by someone who believed their dowsing results should be prioritised over the geophysical survey results to influence a targeted evaluation "who are you to decide what is important and what should be investigated?" My response "A trained, qualified specialist who has been employed to advise members who are democratically elected by their local community to represent them"
So, instead of investigating the "mass baby burial from the civil war massacre" discovered by the dowser we trenched some of the industrial features of the DMV shown by the aerial photography, geophysical survey and documentary records.
Do you think in this case both interpretations were of equal merit, and both had the same legitimacy? Do you think an unrepresentative, unaccountable individual should have made the decisions in this case that or the accountable specialist might have a better understanding and therefore make better value judgement?
Steven