Review and Relevance of the Seven Principles
Lesson Objectives: Demonstrate knowledge of the Seven Principles and expand on them to relate archaeology to modern society and the students' own lives.
Class discussion of the following questions, including material from a good book on public archaeology (Little 2002).
Basic Archaeological Methods: How have you have seen them used to uncover the culture history and process of culture change throughout the world? Whether pollen analysis, radiocarbon dating, or remote sensing, you should know how they are applied in different situations. How do we know where to dig? How do we set up a survey or excavation? What different kinds of analysis will be possible with materials recovered? What different interpretive frameworks can we use to reconstruct the past?
Communication Skills: What is your primary responsibility to establish the basic principles of archaeology? At your next cocktail party conversation, can you clarify how it is NOT dinosaurs, NOT ancient astronauts, how radiocarbon dating must have some carbon, etc.? Can you explain in clear, non-technical language why and how archaeologists sample? You also must know how to write well-organized essay questions on your test.
Professional Ethics and Values: How have disputed interpretations and personal situations affected our reconstructions of the past by different professionals? How does an archaeologist surveying for a new construction respond to offers of more money if nothing is found? How about a donor who wants to give a million dollars to dig the whole thing up? We must remember conservation archaeology. What do you think of the popular kids’ magazine put out by the Archaeological Institute of America whose title is Dig? What about museum exhibits encouraging kids to dig? Was archaeology of the past and as shown in modern movies more looting than science?
Diverse Interests in the Past: Who are all the communities affected by a local dig? In our excavations on campus I tried to include them all: the students who were learning in field methods class; the Native American community; the campus officials who needed to build new construction on the site and so needed compliance with state law; the public, especially local communities, university students, and schoolkids, whom we invited out to see the excavations; and the communications media who came with cameras and tape recorders. I forgot one important community, and it almost was a disaster. The campus parking services required permits for all of us—students, professor, and the public—to be in the lot next to the excavations, and everyone almost got ticketed until I worked things out with the director!
Stewardship: How can the public be encouraged to help protect the sites and artifacts when there are so many other worthy causes out there? Public education is always the answer. The Cub Scouts who came to our site on campus learned of a shell midden on the beach where they meet; they can monitor site erosion and bring exposed features to the attention of officials.
Social Relevance and Real-World Problem Solving: Who cares if the early human cultures succeeded or failed, if monogamy was or was not the original human condition, if warfare is important to build major civilizations, or if Romans died out from lead poisoning in their fancy plumbing systems? Why should we care if all these peoples are extinct anyway and not relevant to the advances we hope to make in modern life?
Many answers should be obvious. What is the original character of human nature? Now even chimp field studies are showing that cultural diversity is natural (e.g., Gibbons 1992). What biases in the Paleolithic “man the hunter” and other models relate to controversial current debates about the nature of humanity, not to mention male vs. female nature? When did hunting become common in our past? (see Binford 1988). What do overkill models for the Pleistocene have to tell us today? How is knowledge of massive environmental change at the end of the Ice Age pertinent now? What about gender in prehistory in terms of plants and animals, not to mention social learning?
How can we relate evidence of prehistoric violence in the Middle East or coca use in Peru or such issues anywhere else to modern politics? How can the heritage of the past be preserved in different parts of the world today when other problems, such as wars and terrorism, may be more pressing? What are the ethical obligations of the archaeologist in foreign countries vis-a-vis artifacts, national and foreign students, local populations, economics, political tensions, wealthy collectors, and other stakeholders? Can you do “emic” archaeology (see Wolle and Tringham 2000)?
What about truly practical contributions of archaeology? Maybe the most important is to contribute long-term data on the effects of humans upon their environments and the effects of environments and ecosystemic changes on human cultures. How has the garbage project (or any other) produced practical applications about our massive waste disposal, pollution, and resource use and wasting problems? (Rathje 2002)?
Students will end the class with the museum caption exercise, addressing all Seven Principles, done for fun on the last day of class.