In a message dated 7/18/2007 11:05:58 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
[log in to unmask] writes:

We have  stopped referring to "historic" artifacts and "historic artifact 
analysis" and  gone to "Euroamerican artifacts" and "Euroamerican artifact 
analysis,"  admitting up front that items like Chinese porcelain and Haitian Phoenix 
 buttons are not technically Euroamerican artifacts.
That's our happy little  story, and we're sticking with it.
Has your confusion now given you a  headache? If not, then I haven't done my 
job.



Ah, but Jeff, what do you do with a Puebloan (or Chinese or Apache or  
Siberian) site comprised entirely of European style artifacts? What happens  when 
your "Chinese" trash pit is loaded with America-made items? Even more  
confusing, what if the native people continued indigenous traditions by flaking  glass 
bottles and telephone pole insulators and porcelain plates into  traditional 
artifacts? If an Eskimo leaves a trashpit full of European goods, is  he/she 
still an Eskimo? And the models, oh my gosh, the models you can spin and  twist 
with all that fun stuff! Is it as simple as "deposition when people could  
write, but did not leave written records?" Can social history or ethnology  
testing apply in these circumstances? Moreover, would a faculty historian,  
anthropologist, or museum curator even care?
 
Ron May
Legacy 106, Inc.



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