Consider medicine.

The federal government has created laws regarding
the practice of health care.  These laws surround
drugs, practitioners, and research.  Medicine is
for the public benefit, and the laws surrounding
it arise from the protection of that benefit.
Individuals preserve the right to practice or
pursue whatever kind of health care they wish,
including alternative medicines and therapies.
The center of the mainstream remains well
protected from quacks and hucksters and the fringe
develops a comfortable place where people can
pursue them if they wish.  The alternative
medicine people are not forced out of existence,
and we may even see them working side by side with
professionals in the future, but just you try to
operate on someone without a license!  This system
seems to be running somewhat successfully,
although like all such social institutions, there
is some healthy debate and contested ideas.
Nobody seriously accuses doctors of limiting the
practice of surgery to trained individuals as
harming the public's right to practice whatever
job or experience some kind of connection to human
biology by clandestine surgery!

It strikes me that this is the same as the
archaeological issue.  The balance of public good
vs. public rights is the same, and the
justification is similar.  Perhaps a real close
comparison of these two areas might lead to some
fruitful conclusions.

Don't get me wrong. Check out the top 10 best
selling "archaeology" books on Amazon.com. If it
weren't for mummies, mainstream archaeology would
be on the list.  I am a post-modern relativist,
but I am also certain that we do need to define
the relative authority of different voices.  There
is still something to be said for discipline and
learning.  I think we, as a group, talk a great
deal about 'public involvement' and 'public
outreach' but until we start rewarding people for
publishing in the popular press and actively
pursuing avocational scholars on all levels, we
are just blowing smoke.  That goes for the academy
AND CRM.

Cheers,
Tim
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Timothy Scarlett
University of Nevada, Reno
Department of Anthropology / 096
Reno, NV 89557-0096

355 West 500 North
Salt Lake City, UT 84103
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Do you know the difference between education and
experience?  Education is when you read the fine
print; experience is what you get when you don't.
--Pete Seger
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