17th July 2009, 02:47 PM
In the past I have worked closley with a field technician with asperger's. I think it it is fair to say that his intergration and treatmnet by the company and staff has not always been great...and at times depressingly small minded. There is much to talk about here, but...confidentiality etc.
Personaly, i wont be forgetting any time soon how narrow minded and short of vision many proffesional archaeologists in fact are - ie beyond the confines of thier own narrow career progresion and conformity with 'coperate in-groups'.
Sad, when it was people far better than they that taught and inspired me.
This is the main problem with being 'mentaly different' in companies of this kind - archaeological companies can (by virtute of thier fundemental charecter)be very supportive/creative/communitee orientated places - however that same nature, when turned towards coperate expansion can be made brutal, clique-ish, and frankly inhumane (ie net loss of 'humanity').
Slight divergence i know..., but i think that mental dissability and more general non-conformity are issues that are linked, particularly because in my view..." The problem is not the nature of the work, but the charecter of ones colleagues...."
I would also like to bring dyslexia into a disscusion more broadly about what people with diverse 'mental architectures' can bring to archaeology, specifically the proffesional aspects.
Strenghts in interpretation, '4D' visualistaion, drawing (to name a few) might all be considered critical in archaeology and excavtion - but do people with strenghts in one area suffer undly because of critiscisms elsewhere (eg tidy records, organised desk, confident speech etc) ? ...... probaly yes.
In my opinion, there are numerous field archaeolgoists (in particular) who would (judgeing from my first hand insight only)test posative for mild to medium dyslexia. What does this mean....?
Not sure in the IFA has clear data on disbility, especilay its spread around the proffesion and up the hierarchy...?
I am a non-conformist, inspirped by non-conformists to be passionate about archaeology - i had always thought that a creative, service orientated proffeison would nurture people like that - but now i am not so sure...
AM I A MISERABLE CYNIC?