Joan Gero on Distinguishing the Past from the Present

The archaeologist partakes of, contributes to, is validated by, and dutifully records present-day social and political structures in the identification of research problems and in the interpretation of findings. It remains for reflective, socio-political research in archaeology to decipher the present while we unearth the past, and to distinguish the two whenever possible.

Joan M. Gero. 1985. Socio-politics and the woman-at-home ideology. American Antiquity 50(2):347.