Archaeology is this field of research where it is very difficult to build barriers that will make it only high quality discipline. The reasons are two: there is a standard (although wrong) view that every publication of a new archaeological material is a value. In fact, this view creates most damaging situation when instead values reviewers, readers and authors create or communicate pseudoscience and pseudoculture. The cult of new evidence in archaeology damages culture (Durankulak syndrome). Corrupted authors even begin to compare empirical archaeological publications (considered as high value) with theoretical most important archaeological contributions (considered as lower value) without recognizing that empirical is empirical and just first stage while theory is always the highest stage of knowledge although very often under the theme of theory can be seen pseudoknowledge.
In other words, the globalization does not help much archaeology to increase its own values. Publishers have been using from authors for communicating lower empirical value works as high values while critical analyses have been almost forbidden and if there are critics, often there are corrupted goals and pseudoknowledge behind them (Gaydarska syndrome). Then, any innovations and development of standard cultural pattern of increasing the value of archaeology are impressive today.
One of the greatest innovations is World Archaeological Congress online.
View World Archaeological Congress in Jordan online
The organizers were able to mobilize donors and community to make this project successful and having the meeting in Jordan online is the best way to show the world that WAC has really a good WAC President. After 8 years Claire Smith will probably cry at the end of the meeting in Jordan since she has to leave a chair for which she was born and was able to have kept from dark clouds in most of the cases (although with exceptions). It can be believed that archaeological society will not only acknowledge the activity of Australian Claire Smith as 8 year WAC President, but will promote her to more general and fundamental levels of social contribution to globalization today.
In such emotional moment of having WAC online it is also important to recall values that make archaeology a welcome garden for young people despite the heavy heritage from the Cold War. Good example is the opinion of Richard G Lesure on the classic today book on prehistoric figurines by Douglass W Bailey (2005): '...engagingly written and well illustrated...Bailey makes a bold effort to open up interpretation of Neolithic figurines from southeastern Europe...provoking thoughts far beyond any traditional archaeological bounds.' – Richard G. Lesure, University of California (from amazon.com).
Richard G Lesure (2011) was able to have written a book on prehistoric figurines of similar value as Prehistoric figurines by Bailey (2005) and one of the reasons is the strong positive value which he had as an example.
Hopefully WAC online will contribute to increasing of the values in archaeology and development of such high standards that will make possible every new archaeological book to become a classic book in the global library of cultural values.
References:
Bailey, D. W. (2005). Prehistoric Figurines: Representation and Corporeality in the Neolithic. New York: Routledge.
Lesure, R. G. (2011). Interpreting Ancient Figurines: Context, Comparison, and Prehistoric Art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Comments