4th March 2012, 06:36 PM
The Institute of Field Archaeologists was founded in 1984 with the aim of promoting high standards of practice by all those involved with the investigation and curation of the archaeological resource. It chose its name to distinguish it from learned and scholarly societies on the one hand and narrow role-based groupings such as SCUM (now FAME). (At the time of its founding, there were few 'curators', although there were county archaeologists and SMR staff). It always was intended to cover archaeologists at all grades, not just the managers.
By the mid 90s the size and nature of the profession in the UK had changes substantially and the IFA recognised that some sectors were under-represented in the membership, partly because the "Field" part of the name put off curators who had extensive archaeological experience but little involvement in undertaking excavation. I was on IFA Council at the time that the name-change was first proposed, and I opposed it since I felt that the original name defined the area of special interest well.
The question arose again in c. 2005 and by this time the need for inclusiveness overcame the affection for the word 'field' and hence the change, so that IfA could be seen to represent anyone working in the sector (better reflecting the reality of its membership).
By the mid 90s the size and nature of the profession in the UK had changes substantially and the IFA recognised that some sectors were under-represented in the membership, partly because the "Field" part of the name put off curators who had extensive archaeological experience but little involvement in undertaking excavation. I was on IFA Council at the time that the name-change was first proposed, and I opposed it since I felt that the original name defined the area of special interest well.
The question arose again in c. 2005 and by this time the need for inclusiveness overcame the affection for the word 'field' and hence the change, so that IfA could be seen to represent anyone working in the sector (better reflecting the reality of its membership).