Free archaeology

[kevin wooldridge]

I think soccer is a good analogy. There are some folk who make a full-time living from the game, some who do it part-time (semi-professionally) and some who do it for fun. There are some people who get to play for free and some folk who have to pay for the privilege. What is clear about soccer is that a desire to be paid for doing something you enjoy (sometimes love) rarely translates into reality.....but what is also clear from soccer is that there are many levels at which you can play and finding the level that best suits you is part of the fun....anyone who remembers the football scene from the movie 'Kes' will understand the point I am trying to make.....

.....the question of interns is really an irrelevance, when the majority of participants in archaeology in the UK are unpaid. I think one needs to examine the reasoning that lies behind 'internships'. Being unpaid itself doesn't make an 'intern' (otherwise all unpaid participants in UK archaeology could call themself 'intern'). No, what makes an intern is a 'I scatch your back, you give me a job' attitude......If being really caustic, (which I am not), I'd say that people who believe in such a philosophy deserve to be exploited!!