>>> [log in to unmask] 08/05/04 04:27PM >>>
Robert is correct that movies aren't history.  However, the majority of
the
viewing public takes information from a movie and treats it as gospel.


And this is the problem.  Face it, current American movies are the
Krispy Kremes of the storytelling world.  There's nothing wrong with a
bit of junk food, of course...provided you also eat your veggies.
Movies are more successful at communicating their messages than our
educational system is at communicating its messages.

Of course, so many educators use movies as teaching tools these days,
often without any discussion of how fictional interpretations are
different from scholarly ones.  I have a colleague who teaches military
history, who used to show the whole of _Braveheart_ to his
classes...until our Scottish historian had a word with him.

Until we can successfully compete against the fictional messages, we're
going to have to deal with people who believe that the ossuary *has* to
come out from under where they're building their house or they'll end up
like the characters in _Poltergeist_ (I had to cope with this last
February), that Indy and Lara represent our profession, and that Druids
were shamans (however you want to define "shaman").  I'm not saying that
everyone is this ignorant, but I think we all know how disruptive these
kinds of beliefs can be.

Cheers--

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Elizabeth Ragan                  [log in to unmask]
Anthropology                       410-548-4502
History Department
380 Holloway Hall
Salisbury University
Salisbury, MD  21801  USA
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