1st December 2008, 02:03 PM
Been thinking about this for some time...
At the moment, all we have is a range of very disparate and very detached voices. We are all trying to get OUR (whatever we are in archaeology) views across (murmuring, ranting, whingeing... whatever) into a void of our own creation. Every time we shout, all we hear is our own voices or, worse, the echo's of someone elses past whinges and gripes. This has been going on for years. We consume, digest, re-model and then re-gurgitate our own misery (ad nauseum). Some would call it progress.
We have a "professional organisation" that is representative of it's members (fair enough), but it doesn't represent archaeologists as a whole. Hardly anyone can afford to join it, not everyone wants to join it and, lastly, it actually doesn't want everyone to join it (sorry, being very cynical and, probably, very misguided).
Some of us are members of a union, but even there we only need its services when we (personally) get into difficult times. Then there are those who aren't members of a union simply because they can't afford the subscription fees... probably because they just don't get paid enough. Stupid eh?
Yeah, we DO need an organisation that is representative of ALL of us. Maybe it will take (as old Indiana Jones found out) a "leap of faith".
At the moment, all we have is a range of very disparate and very detached voices. We are all trying to get OUR (whatever we are in archaeology) views across (murmuring, ranting, whingeing... whatever) into a void of our own creation. Every time we shout, all we hear is our own voices or, worse, the echo's of someone elses past whinges and gripes. This has been going on for years. We consume, digest, re-model and then re-gurgitate our own misery (ad nauseum). Some would call it progress.
We have a "professional organisation" that is representative of it's members (fair enough), but it doesn't represent archaeologists as a whole. Hardly anyone can afford to join it, not everyone wants to join it and, lastly, it actually doesn't want everyone to join it (sorry, being very cynical and, probably, very misguided).
Some of us are members of a union, but even there we only need its services when we (personally) get into difficult times. Then there are those who aren't members of a union simply because they can't afford the subscription fees... probably because they just don't get paid enough. Stupid eh?
Yeah, we DO need an organisation that is representative of ALL of us. Maybe it will take (as old Indiana Jones found out) a "leap of faith".