Egocentrism: a Rant of Sorts.

         Over the past few classes I have caught myself thinking something I have come to consider maladaptive. When discussing case studies I often find myself wondering, is this what their culture has intended for our culture to find 100's (and in some cases 1000's) of years down the road? My first thought was: I would make an awful archaeologist. Second thought was: I am a westerner. For some reason this status alone allows a tendency to rely on egocentric thinking. But to me the idea that I have become so engaged in a question that does not seem plausible is almost fascinating.

         I have found it increasingly difficult to disengage myself from the fact that archaeologists are digging up graves to interpret how a past society may have operated. I keep wondering if this is how they wanted us to find them. I understand in this weeks reading of Gillespie's, Personhood, Agency and Mortuary Ritual: A case study from the Ancient Maya, the Ancient Maya could have manipulated their written record in order shine a favourable light onto a particular leader. But I find myself applying that to graves as well. Would the Mayan culture, and others, also engage in placing grave goods and shrines for the purpose of foreigners to see how amazing they were?


        Surely there would not have been burial procession so long ago with even a slight intention of a foreign culture digging up their loved ones for the purpose of interpretation. This issue has created conflict between the archaeological community and ancestors of excavated graves. I believe that archaeology is just a reason to understand how the people of the past (who archaeologists believe are connected to us through collective identity) somehow is being compared to our lives today. This connection is long gone. Cognitive thinking has evolved and the reasons for people of the past engaging in burial is not for our benefit. Has anyone ever informed the archaeological community that dwelling in the past has potentially negative impacts in the future? This makes me question the first blog prompt we received this semester, asking what would be in our graves. This becomes an even more egocentric view of what we want people in the future to perceive our society or us as an individual. In the end, practicing the placing of grave goods today, puts food on the plates of starving archaeologists tomorrow.


       However, this could just be my own personal misinterpretation of the entire field of archaeology.

From: http://www.ahajokes.com/cartoon/future.gif