24th May 2010, 05:32 PM
Unitof1 Wrote:CA is cheap and irresponsible ego massaging and defiantly undermines professional jobs in archaeology every single time it is funded and it is funded constantly by bodies that take authority away from the profession and we let them to our detriment. But I know that if I name any examples of projects I will be castigated particularly on this forum but there has been a suggestion in this thread that CA does no harm to the professionals. I wonder if some of these schemes could be named for some analysis?
Hmmm. Always good to let the bile out once in a while. I think this type of comment underlines my theory that archaeologists in the field are very insecure, and quite rightly so in a lot of cases. Low pay, short contracts and thus having to live like permanent students, all feed into the feeling of being 'got at'. I was the same, but had the advantage that my partner had a proper job. I believe that time will show that digging jobs are not threatened by CA to any great extent. Threats to jobs should be seen to be coming from the economic situation first and foremost - no building work no rescue archaeology! (the major supply of work for diggers.) The way diggers can be taken on and thrown out with a weeks notice. The way archaeology is now a business not a service (ohh, a little bit of politics there). The lack of union muscle and thus a united front for diggers. Dodgy/amateur management - builders laugh at how incompetent/amateurish archaeology managers are (no training there either). Cowboy organisations (there are some you know). You name any dodgy CA project and I could name a dodgy unit, but won't of course. Slag of CA, but if you do it to a unit you're blackballed.
There are plenty of projects to be found on the Community Archaeology Forum website, but these are not necessarily representative of the whole. This subject is too varied.