25th February 2009, 06:08 PM
Quote:quote:Originally posted by Oddie
Interesting debates.
As expected, I?m unmoved by arguments for retention.
Hi
Interestingly I find myself even more convinced that scientific enquiry and the responsibility of heritage professionals for the protection, preservation and promotion of archaeological and historical material should not be compromised by non-evidential faith based dogma.
Dirty Dave in answer to your questions,
"have archaeologists been appointed the custodians of everyones ancestral remains"
I have been employed by democratically elected members to be a custodian of archaeological/historical material and remains. I can only act on their mandate, which in a political democracy means that I carry out the policies of those people appointed by the public to be their representatives. If however, rather than democratically achieved appointments their was a theocratic system then things might be different, but all in all I think I'll stick with a rationalist democracy.
"but does that still give us the right to retain them indefinately"
It behoves us to ensure as complete an archive of our interventions and to carry out our jobs in the highest professional standards with the inherent knowledge that the non-retention of material will lessen the ability of future researchers.
Steven