It is not all that bad. Some of us have always been members of the
Australian [now Australasian] Society for Historical Archaeology - I
am a "Life" founding member - and have always been familiar with their
excellent newsletter and journal. Also in 1978 when I edited the source
book on the field I did include a chapter on an Australian site. Members
of the ASHA have always come (along with some from New Zealand) in small
numbers to the SHA meetings and in 1993 (?) three of us Yanks (Mary
Beaudry, Pat Martin and myself)were in Sydney where we were royally
treated by our colleagues Down Under.

The ASHA is right up there with the SHA and SPMA in being one of the early
and major associations for our global discipline.

Alasdair - I was not aware that you were in Australia. Where are
you and what are you doing. Perhaps the Gods sent you there because
Bill Adams has returned to North America or perhaps you got
"transported" by Her Majesty's Government for stealing a loaf of bread.

                                                        Bob Schuyler

P.S. I wise I had an early (late 1960s to early 1970s) photo of
Judy Brimingham in the field for the "Images of the Past" column
of the SHA Newsletter. Can anyone "Down There" help??



At 09:30 AM 1/21/2002 +1100, you wrote:
>> Pertinent question: who on the list has heard of the ASHA and AACA journals
>> and does anyone apart from us read them? As these journals are our main
>> avenue of expression if their usage is mainly insular then it would be no
>> wonder that the international world don't know we exist.
>
>I can give a perspective of sorts from a university point of view for the UK
>and the USA, but obviously this is a narrow personal perspective, and makes
>no claims towards being representative - especially since it partially
>depends on experiences that happened up to 15 years ago.
>
>In the early years of working on my doctorate in the UK (before moving to
>Australia), one of the members of my advisory panel, Lawrence Butler (also
>the first editor of 'Post-Medieval archaeology') did encourage me to read
>the Australian literature, particularly early issues of AHA and Graham
>Connah's book ('Of the Hut I Builded').  However, I think Lawrence was
>encouraging me to add context to work that was already based on
>international comparisons, so I have no idea of how typical this was.  And
>were it not for running into Susan Lawrence in Quebec City, I wouldn't have
>been that aware of more recent work before arriving here (nor would I be in
>Australia at all).
>
>It's obviously rather unfair to compare graduate work with undergraduate
>work, but when I was an undergraduate in the USA in the 80's, I can
>confidently state that no Australian work whatsoever was on my assigned
>reading list, largely because (for who knows what reason) I still seem to
>have a copy of my "Anthropology 450 - Historical Archaeology" course
>syllabus, and there's nothing Australian on it.
>
>Alasdair Brooks
>
Robert L. Schuyler
University of Pennsylvania Museum
33rd & Spruce Streets
Philadelphia, PA l9l04-6324

Tel: (215) 898-6965
Fax: (215) 898-0657
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