A Book Uploaded to Academia Mentions the Name Carl Feagans.
When information technology comes to fighting pseudoarchaeology or junk-archaeology, it'due south piece of cake to find a target to assail. Turn on the television, open up a Facebook group, visit Barnes and Noble'due south "archaeology" shelf, talk to a co-worker at the h2o cooler.
Enquire someone else that is in this war of real-vs-fake/fantastic/fraudulent archaeology who the enemy is, and they'll rattle them off like they had a deck of cards with their names and faces: Hancock, Foerster, Däniken, Tsoukalos, Osmanagich…
But are they they actually the enemy? The answer to that is "yes," simply I think they're the enemy nosotros allowed. I'one thousand not justifying their existence in the slightest. Equally long every bit they refuse to adhere to reason and scientific principles, they should be permitted no quarter. But I think at that place'southward a battlefield archaeologists aren't fighting on when they could be.
Nosotros need to make archeology less mysterious and more than inclusive to the lay-public. We should stop writing for ourselves and start thinking more most the average consumer. Nosotros tin't just give boob tube producers our word that archaeology is interesting. They're non ownership it. I know of more one archaeologist that's pitched ideas for television shows that present good archeology or debunk junk-archaeology. They're not going for it.
It'due south easy to say this is what the public wants and give up, but I don't call back that'southward truthful. Aboriginal Aliens got it's leg up on the rest of united states because that sort of media was popularized by the likes of von Daniken as early on as the 1960s. Through books.
In 1981, when Carl Sagans' Cosmos was on the New York Times Bestsellers List, the closest thing to an archaeology all-time seller was Clan of the Cave Conduct by Jean Auel. And that was fiction. In the decade earlier, von Daniken'southward Chariots of the Gods? was on the NYT Bestsellers list for at least vi months in a row.
Making science appealing to the lay-public isn't hands mastered in any field. And archeology is no exception. In fact, there are probably fewer science writers that consistently put out archaeologically-themed works for the average consumer than about other fields of science. I can actually but retrieve of ane or two off the top of my head, and that's Brian Fagan and Eric Cline. I really like Cline'due southThree Stones Makes a Wall then far and his 1177 B.C.: The Year Culture Complanate seems to be doing well. I'm sure there are others, they only don't come to mind correct abroad.
I wonder if sometimes archaeologists aren't a bit leery of being that popular author—we're often and then critical of each other, reverse to the pop notion among pseudoarchaeologists that there is an "orthodoxy" in play. The fact is, we need our Carl Sagans, Richard Feynmans, Neil Tysons, Sean Carrolls, and Stephen Hawkings. We just don't seem to accept many of them. If you lot search Amazon for best sellers in archaeology, you go Hancock. We're at mistake for that.
And the result is that fine, smart folks spend years reading what nosotros've allowed to dominate the best seller list and it seems dogmatic, authoritarian, and arrogant when nosotros, professional person archaeologists, write web log posts and comments on Facebook that run opposite to a "best selling author" in our ain genre.
I take 2 books I've started writing, ane is a "consumer's guide" to pseudoarchaeology in which I make an effort not to be overly cavalier (I'g sure some perceived condescension will be unavoidable) and try to offer an alternative or substitute for the affair I debunk. And the give-and-take "debunk" probably won't even be in the book. Another is going to be an rational-archaeologist'southward betoken of view on the Lost Ark of the Covenant. I'1000 doing it mostly for funsies: in that location are some fascinating stories throughout history that environment Ark lore as well as some fantastic archaeology. I too take a few other book topics in mind, ranging from moonshine archaeology in Western Kentucky to early iron industry in the U.S.
I don't expect to be that best-selling author, but I figure I can't very well criticize archaeologists for not writing for the general public if I don't. The public is hungry for topics in archæology and ancient civilizations. We can either complain almost what they consume, or provide them with content.
Okay, and then maybe nosotros're not the enemy in the war on pseudoarchaeology. But we aren't always doing ourselves a favor.
Source: https://ahotcupofjoe.net/2019/03/pseudoarchaeology-i-have-seen-the-enemy-and-it-is-us/
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