What do you mean by "white" anyway? There is no monolithic "white"
culture/ethnicity. Or do you mean race? Just as "non-whites", people with
light skin and of general European ancestry come from a wide variety of
backgrounds. As a person of Irish-Italian ancestry, isn't my excavation
of a "British" site just as much of a trap? Yes, people of a dominant
cultural group need to be careful of their biases, but so does everyone
else. And skin color does not necessarily mean one grew up as a member
of the dominant group--there are plenty of "white" ethnic "ghettos".
 
[Please note that this commentary does not mean that I think I am a
member of some downtrodden minority.]
 
On Fri, 3 Jun 1994, JohnB wrote:
 
>         I think that as archaeologists we all have to be concerned about
> our own views mixing in with our research.  The trap of white
> archaeologists excavating African-American sites (or any other non-white
> group for that matter), is that the information is filtered through our
> own views, ideas, and prejudices.  I think perhpas that one way to
> diffuse that might be to diversify your knowledge, and to seek opinions
> and ideas outside of yourself.  Use all the resources available to you,
> don't simply assume you understand the significance of an artifact.
>   While an artifact may have great meaning to you, it might have an even
> deeper meaning to someone of that group.  By realizing you might have a
> bias (unintentional or not), you can help to dampen it somewhat
>                 John Buckler
>                 [log in to unmask]
>