Perhaps part of it is that our European ancestors left their sacred
sites behind when they came here and never came to relate to native
sites. "Not our ancestors." Some of it is the emphasis placed on
"scientific" explanation as the only explanation in our society, and
part is the insistence of Protestant Christianity that if spooky things
exist, it means they are devilish and creepy and to be avoided. We don't
rely upon our own cultural traditions about magic because we have
elected to consider what few of them we know about to be unscientific
and downright silly, i.e., if you can't explain it scientifically, it
isn't real. Traditional magical practices are not widely learned about,
especially by budding scientists, and therefore seldom identified in the
field. The one time I saw a magical concealment feature uncovered, the
response to my suggestion that it was one was met with a sort of
"Ewww..." and "let's not get into that" attitude.

Martin Pickands
New York State Museum

>>> [log in to unmask] 3/28/2007 9:51 PM >>>
About two or three years ago, someone sent me a news article about a
local  
community in England that rose up in arms over a proposed bulldozing of
a  
natural rock pile. The bulldozer operator worked for a real estate
developer and  
both were shocked to find several dozen really angry senior and elderly
people 
 standing in front of the dozer. At issue was a deeply ingrained and
ancient  
belief that fairies live in and around the boulders. In the end, the 
developer  backed-off and directed the bulldozer to leave the site. Now
this plays 
back to  Laurie Burgess' comment on how historical archaeologists react
to things 
like  shoe concealments in fireplace chimneys. American archaeologists
seem 
capable of  accepting that a Chumash native can believe that spirits
roam the 
earth and are  more sensitive in some seasons than another, but
completely deny 
that British or  European Americans are capable of belief in things
like 
fairies. I find that  just amazing, even for archaeologists who do not
come from 
anthropology  programs.
 
Ron May
Legacy 106, Inc.



************************************** See what's free at
http://www.aol.com.