Resolved!
I, K. Kris Hirst, your Guide for Archaeology at About.com, modestly suggest the following resolutions for archaeologists and their supporters for 1998:
To foster cooperation over competition among archaeologists.The state of cultural resource management in the United States is, to be frank, abysmal, and a large part of the problem is infighting and rivalry displacing constructive collaboration.
To do more Public Archaeology. Archaeologists should actively participate in public relations, such as in giving talks at Elks Clubs, providing local information to people who are most interested, and are most willing to support the funding of archaeology.
To publish site reports on the World Wide Web. Publishing on the web is faster and cheaper than any print medium, and has the opportunity to reach more people than any other kind of publication, perhaps with the sole exception of Archaeology magazine.
To maintain a safe and pleasant working environment for field crew, and to work actively towards making this difficult and demanding job better recompensed.
To contribute more to the Archaeological Conservancy, which instead of spending money lobbying to protect cultural resources, actually buys up endangered sites and keeps them in perpetuity.
Go-o-olden Rings! (short musical interlude)
To actively support the study of science in the elementary and high schools. Give talks, work with teachers to provide suitable materials, train teachers to communicate the lessons of the past.
To demand a more appropriate graduate education from our graduate schools. There is something seriously wrong with our graduate schools, and although it would take six more features for me to explain it all, I include grounding in ethics, basic techniques and methods, and a belief in cultural relativity.
To actively seek out and work with indigenous peoples who have a stake in the cultural data, and to support their rights and information. Collaboration with native peoples is only sensible; in addition to providing data to the people most seriously concerned with the work, it allows for input from the people most likely to have information concerning the things we study.
To remember, at all times, that we are the first, the last, and all too often the only defense an archaeological site has against the earth-eating processes of progress.
The numbers in this page were collected from Digit Mania, through Bobbie Peachey's Web Clip Art site here at The Mining Co..
See ya next week!
