Mike Polk wrote

>I deplore a narrow focus of attention to historic sites
>much as I deplored the processualists narrow focus on topics of particular
>interest to them with little regard for other things that were important (in
>the larger scope of archaeology).

Agreed. Narrow scope rears its head too frequently in archaeology.

Unfortunately, much of the narrowness is produced by "anthropological"
research designs that should be broad and holistic. Research designs, as
used in CRM, tend to reinforce narrow bias, because they impose the
designers' interests on a project before it begins.

Mike continues:

>Nevertheless, I still believe that anthropological understanding of these is
>paramount to our field.

Absolutely correct, Mike. If you happen to be an anthropologist, you should
be expected to see everything from an anthropological point of view. As I
have said repeatedly in this thread, our training colors our work, but it
must never be allowed to distort the outcome.

Unfortunately, the cloak of anthropology is too frequently used as a
disguise for narrowness. Anthropological training obviously has done
nothing to broaden the outlook of the archaeologist who spends a season
bottom-up in privy pits while ignoring the rest of the site, as Jamie
Brothers so eloquently described it:

>
>With our anthropological blinkers firmly in place we have excavated farms
>without looking at the fields and barns.  We have investigated the domestic
>situation of workers in industrial company towns and ignored the fact that they
>had jobs.  Ignored the fact that most of their time was spent at their jobs and
>the only reason they were there was the jobs.  Because of our lack of training
>in the history of technology and our extensive training in cultural
>anthropology
>we slight industrial sites both during excavation and analysis.  If you don't
>understand it, or worse yet won't understand it, you shouldn't excavate it.
>Industrial waste is just as important as ceramics in the interpretation of what
>went on at a site.
>
>Anthropology is not just concerned with gender, race, master/slave relations,
>and domestic life.  It encompasses everyone and everything.  If we forget that,
>and too many American archeologists do, we sell ourselves and our science
>short.

Amen, Jamie.






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