I am not sure I mentioned this to HISTARCH, but last week the San Diego
Archaeological Center ran a story that they received a grant to hire a
professional archaeologist (from their board of directors) to supervise a crew of
Native Americans to map historical artifacts at the battlefield site of the
1846 Mexican War in San Diego. The letters to the editor overwhelmingly
rejected the use of any money for archaeology when the State of California
was in a financial crisis. Suddenly, we are not popular anymore.
Ron Ma
Legacy 106, Inc.
In a message dated 7/23/2009 7:43:52 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
In the case of archaeologists being denigrated, perhaps bottle collectors
and other amateurs are reacting toward the generally negative attitude
that
many professional archaeologists have for them. Many collectors honestly do
not see us as doing anything different from what they are doing. They don't
see the reports and the hours spent in labs analyzing artifacts and writing
results. All they see is strangers coming in and taking what, in some
cases,
they feel "belongs" to them because they live in the area and have a sense
of ownership toward certain sites. They don't understand what we are
contributing to historical records. And they may not care regardless. Let's
face it, history isn't exactly seen as a top priority for most people.
Anna Lunn
On Thu, Jul 23, 2009 at 9:09 AM, geoff carver <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Not what I meant by "example": I meant it more in the Orwellian sense of
> Gore simultaneously being labeled both "intellectual" &
"anti-intellectual"
> as being an example of the nature of the current American "political"
> discourse that makes communication with Americans very difficult:
"liberal"
> is "left," "conservative" is "middle," Obama is simultaneously a
> "socialist," a "communist," a "liberal" and a "fascist," etc. (vs. "war
is
> peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength").
> Having just come back from a cycling trip along the Danube (lots of
Baroque
> & Rococo churches, monasteries, cathedrals, etc.), I would also question
> whether "redistribution of wealth" was ever a "function of religion," nor
> how that relates to global warming. As I understand it, the "religion"
label
> is being used as a form of revenge by those were angered by the
rejection of
> "intelligent design" from school curricula because it was deemed
"religion"
> instead of "science." So this also seems like an example of
> anti-intellectualism, but not in the sense that you seem to intend.
> But to try to steer this back to questions of professionalism before
Anita
> loses patience with us, why does it generally seem acceptable for amateur
> bottle-collectors & grave-robbers to go around looting stuff & denigrate
> "professional archaeologists" & other members of the elite (hey: the
> so-called "scientists" don't know anything about evolution and/or
> global-warming, they're just out-of-touch members of some intellectual
elite
> trying to indoctrinate us all with their sick secular socialist
fantasies),
> while no one ever seems to suggest that hobbyists could start flying
747s,
> or do some brain surgery in their spare time?
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> I used Gore as an example. He is intellectual enough to understand that
in
> general, society is anti-intellectual and easily steered. He's a
> politician...not an expert on global warming. And, the function of
religion
> (if I remember correctly) is to establish social mores or control,
explain
> the unexplainable, and redistribute wealth. Within this context, global
> warming as religion fits nicely in an anti-intellectual society. Global
> warming could just as easily have been championed by Madonna or Bono, or
> Hannah Montana for that matter. At this point, if anyone could
> scientifically prove global warming as natural they would probably be
> ostracized. He has an advantage because he will probably be dead and
gone
> before the next Ice Age:)
>
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