Dorothy, what I meant to say, and should have said better, is this:
since archaeological properties are most typically considered
significant in 106 contexts under criterion D of the NHPA, i.e., that
they can contribute or have contributed information....etc, the
importance or significance of the "information" value of a site is a
judgement that needs to be made partly in consideration of scholarly
interests, theory, etc. Archaeology is a scholarly pursuit, even when
it is pursued by persons in consulting or civil-service positions.
The abiding tradition of scholarship is that the scholar must have
current knowledge of recent findings, theoretical debates, etc. in
the community of scholars. That's why we cite references, etc., in
order to demonstrate we are knowledgable about current scholarship in
a given theme, area or what-not.
Many archaeologists come to concentrate on the detailed knowledge of
review-and-compliance and/or preservation scholarship without
necessarily following developments in history and archaeology. I do
not think we should permit these persons to set the agenda for
research--and we ARE talking about research. Research agendas proceed
from discourse among research scholars.
The example in question revolved around "ethnicity." Ethnicity is, in
today's scholarly jargon, a "problematic;" that is, it is the subject
itself of the quest for knowledge/information. It is not something
that is given. It is a fluid, changing, dynamic, situational cultural
and behavioral dimension of human life. This sense about what
ethnicity is has developed over about 15-20 years in anthropology and
culture studies. If one has not followed these discussions, one is
not, in my humble opinion, in a position to determine the
"significance" of an archaeological site based on its perceived
ethnic characteristics. I guess what I am saying is that we need
agency and SHPO archaeologists who choose not to participate in
scholarly research to give those who do the right to excercise their
expert judgements about such things.
Dan
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