Hey, fellows.
 
Back to the original premise.
 
Historical Archaeology is global. Dan Mouer established that at the
beginning of the thread with a masterful statement of the international
scope of our subject matter.
 
You really ought to do that one as a movie, Dan.
 
Speaking as a specialist in the Middle Atlantic, I see nothing wrong with
spending an entire career wallowing in my own little patch of archaeologial
mudscape. It may take a lifetime to grok the fullness of any region's
culture through time. Some of us need to do that.
 
But regional commitment does not mandate xenophobia or chauvinism, or any
of those other "bad things" that commonly are attributed to place-specific
specialists.  When working in any area, no matter how intensely we
concentrate on local issues, we must be constantly aware of global
implications.
 
To understand Virginia seventeenth-century clay tobacco pipes, I first
needed to understand circumstances surrounding introduction of tobacco into
The Gambia during the sixteenth century. But I did not look for papers on
Gambian historical archaeology in the SHA journal. Nonetheless, I published
the results of this research  in the Virginia quarterly bulletin, which
also was appropriate. We give and take all over the world.
 
Sometimes I find Charles Orser's definition of historical archaeology a bit
too catholic, as expressed in his journal's recent contents. Orser's
definition may be extreme, but there's nothing wrong with looking into
subjects outside one's own back yard.
 
On the other hand, the old definition of historical archaeology as the
archaeology of European expansion may be too confining and too eurocentric.
Bob Schuyler's date of 1400 as a beginning point I find a bit too precise.
History is littered with landmark dates, but their value as historical
landmarks is questionable. No topic should be circumscribed by externally
imposed temporal or geographical parameters.
 
With these caveats in mind, we need to cobble together a worldwide
theoretical consensus that will facilitate long-distance synthesis among
the tribe of people who call themselves historical archaeologists.
 
We need to routinely consult sources and colleagues across national and
continental boundaries.
 
We need to  ...
 
Hey, fellows, isn't that what we are doing, right here?
 
 
Ned Heite                 Never ordered a pizza delivered.
         _____            Don't own a microwave.
     ___(_____)           Never took the kid to Disney.
     |Baby the\           Ate a bagel once.
     |1969 Land\__===_    Not on cable, never have been.
     |  ___Rover   ___|o  Never made a car payment.
     |_/ . \______/ . ||  ...and somehow survived nonetheless
________\_/________\_/_______________________________________
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