The Rainbow Marshalltown: An Allegory for the Archaeology of the 21st Century (Plenary lecture given at the Archaeological Institute of America meetings, San Diego, California, January 2nd, 2019 by Sarah Parcak, PhD, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham)
Thank you all so much, and it is wonderful to be here. Jodi, when you invited me I asked, “Are you sure? You know I’m going to speak my mind about the current state of the field. Do you read my Tweets?” I am so grateful, and honored.
We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the incredible AIA Staff, Ann Benbow, Kevin Quinlan, Kevin Mullen, Christine Dziuba, Jennie Leghart, Judith Rust, Bruce Keeler, Samantha Austin, Ben Thomas, Meredith Anderson Langlitz, Laurel Sparks, Sarah Smith, and so many others. Can you all stand. Let’s give them a warm thank you. I also want us to thank the staff and employees at the Marriot Marquis- — these things don’t happen without you.
I never imagined myself *here*. I remember how I felt as an undergraduate, and then graduate, and then young professor at the AIA and other conferences, and I carry all those selves inside me. I honor all stages of archaeological careers today. I want to acknowledge my immense privilege as a white, tenured, abled, cisgendered full Professor- and the safety that gives me. I also acknowledge that we attend this conference on unceeded Kumeyaay lands. If you have a chance, visit the San Diego Museum of Man to learn more.
I’ve been spending the last year in my own head. I decided it was a good time to write a popular book. In 9 months. That was a terrible idea, leading me to remind you that I would rather be a horrible warning than a shining example. In the process of writing Archaeology From Space: How the Future Shapes Our Past, comes out in July, I got to write historical fiction, where I bring to life a 4200-yr-old anonymous woman from the Egyptian Delta, and science fiction, where I imagine what the field of archaeology will be like in 100 years. I had more fun than I’ve ever had doing the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Book writing for a broader audience across diverse genres and writing about areas outside your area of experience will push you- and we need more of you doing that. I’ll touch on that later- but my book, which is a grand vision for our future, and the role that archaeology should play in it, made me think about everything that is affecting our field: the Metoo movement, sexism, racism, ableism, colonialism, Aliens on TV, repatriation, and the role of public outreach. There is nothing that makes you question your own existence and life choices more than an empty Word doc on your laptop — -or make you wish you were actually digging.
What matters anymore in archaeology- is it theory and science? Or who has the right to share stories about the past, and who gets the platforms to do it- and for those that do, how are they using their power and privilege to help others rise? That’s what I want to talk about. This is, I think, the fundamental issue of archaeology in 2019, and will be for some time. Jeremy Sabloff in his 2011 article in American Anthropologist referenced AAA President Jim Peacock as saying “Public or Perish.”[i] That statement has only become more important.
My book got me thinking about the seminal article that we all read or teach first when we take Introductory Archaeological theory- The Golden Marshalltown [ii] For those that haven’t read it, here’s an overview: Kent Flannery, the author, boards a plane after the SAA meetings. He sits next to an archaeologist who can’t dig but loves epistemology and theory- the Born again Philosopher. He also meets a Child of the 70’s, an ambitious young academic with no original ideas. Finally, he meets an Old Timer, an old school archaeologist in his 60s. The Old Timer gets retired early because of his belief in culture, and then the four of them have a debate about the role of archaeological theory versus people that know how to dig.
We read that article with reverence. I assign it when I teach archaeological theory — and I have my students write their own versions for term papers. I’d never before really *questioned* it. I reread it without rose colored glasses. And holy smokes. Let me paraphrase my article summary: Four privileged white men, all of whom seem to be tenured, get to define what archaeology is, who belongs, and what archaeologists should be doing. No women are mentioned as important to our field. No people of color. Only white men are cited. And *this* article is what launches our students into discussing what matters in archaeology? We need a rethink and a reboot. We need new heroes, and to provide context for the problematic texts we teach.
Look at our field today, and the diversity of our students. The majority of archaeology students in the US are female, and there are more international students coming to the US or Europe to study who become leaders in their own cultural ministries or universities. More students and faculty and archaeologists are open about their sexuality, buoyed by the landmark supreme court decision legalizing Gay marriage and supported by anti-discrimination employment laws. We also have to take a hard look at #metoo. In reaction to #metoo, and following the SAA, ASOR, and other organizations, the AIA has written up anti-harassment and ethical guidelines. I applaud them for doing this, but lets face it ladies- I am so DONE with badly behaving men. If I had listened to the terrible professor who told me I couldn’t possibly cut it as an Egyptologist, and to go into another field, I wouldn’t be here. And that was mild compared to some of the abuse suffered by others at the hands of male colleagues and supervisors. I acknowledge the amazing strength of survivors, and also who we have lost, because of these abuses. Men, it’s time to step up and be better allies. Because #metoo.
According to a TIAA survey, faculty diversity is increasing, but off the tenure track. In 2016, this survey found that of all full professors in academe 36.1% were women- and only 9.1% of the total number of women in academe were full professors,[iii] Numerous studies have come out recently laying out the barriers for women and how they drop off as they move up the career ladder, due to lack of support, sexual harassment, and no childcare. We know that academic men who have children see their careers advance, while women in academe who have children see their careers stall. Peer reviewed articles show that women get on average a full point lower in course evaluations versus their male colleagues, and we are paid 24% less than our male colleagues.[iv] For academics of color- black, Asian, indigenous, the numbers are far worse.
We can begin to reverse this making archaeology more diverse, more welcoming, and more open- but a pipeline doesn’t begin with undergraduates. It starts by inspiring the next generation of archaeologists, when they turn on their TVs, open magazines, play apps, and go to movies. If people can see it- they can be it, as shown by the new Congress inaugurated today. We must make a commitment to engaging with the broadest audience possible, to welcome the young, our elders, and everyone in between.
How many parents or caregivers do we have here? I see you, especially those with young children. Going into the field is hard with no help. I can’t give a talk on public engagement without acknowledging what fundamentally changed the way I think about how and why I engage with the past and the thing that gave my genes a shot at having a future-sorry, no face shots till he’s old enough to say it’s OK. I filmed my BBC Rome show while I was 16–21 weeks pregnant, and you can track the belly as the show progresses- this photo was taken from the belly up. My husband, Greg Mumford, also an archaeologist, and I didn’t go into the field properly to run an excavation till our son was 3.5, and managing his care while we’ve been away is hard- thank god I have a mom who is able to travel. Taking your child into the field isn’t easy, and no, it’s not as simple as “bring a nanny”, or “find someone local.” Everyone who says that either isn’t a parent or has a large trust fund. How can we make archaeology more accessible if it’s hard to do fieldwork as a young mom? What, are we supposed to disappear for 5–6 years? Trowelblazers, a wonderful online group making women in archaeology and paleontology more visible, did a wonderful thing last year and asked women to post pictures of themselves digging while pregnant. It opened eyes and showed the potential for a new normal. FWIW I wrote the bulk of this talk with He-Man blasting in the background, over our break, or in snatches of semi consciousness on the couch after a full day of childcare. Like all mothers in archaeology do. Can I just say that Skeletor gets a super bad rap?
Speaking of popular culture- from Wonder Woman to Black Panther to Star Wars: Into the Multiverse, we are seeing a shift in popular culture to a stronger emphasis on representation, identity, and cultural diversity. That has translated into major box office successes- and sometimes, we see archaeology and heritage issues that can open doors for bigger dialogues. = Did you catch that Wonder Woman was a curator of the ancient near east and Mediterranean at the Louvre? LADIES- all of us in this room are wonder women! Ready your lassos of truth for the next few days. In Black Panther, the Killmonger faces a museum display case with objects stolen from Wakanda, and he takes back what is his by birthright. These conversations are happening in real time. What was acquired, and when, and by what means? Are the objects in museums connected to or do they belong to living cultures and groups? We need to be vocal in these conversations and in repatriation efforts- for too long our silence has been seen as complicity, our lack of action supporting those that stole objects or acquired them illegally. Our field has a lot to answer for, and we should be leading public discourse on issues around ownership. For example, this article on returning the Benin Bronzes that just appeared in the Guardian is appalling.[v]
The question of who owns the past is only a part of a bigger question after all- to whom does the past belong? We need more voices to show the complexity of that question- and to reflect the full diversity of all the groups for whom the past means something.
On that note, we have enormous work to do regarding debunking aliens. We need all your voices. With the rise of fake news, a President who has lied or made misleading comments more than 6,000 times and lies or misleads 80% of the time, and TV shows like Ancient Aliens getting millions of views, more Americans now believe in aliens, Atlantis, and paranormal junk. Don’t believe me- believe the math. Chapman university has done a Survey of American fears from 2015 onwards- and more can be found in the book by Chris Bader, Paranormal America. In 2016 ¼ Americans believed aliens had visited Earth in the past. In 2018, 41% of Americans do- a rise of 14% in 2 years. That’s huge. We can’t just blame Ancient Aliens. Many websites exist that peddle in this nonsense, fueled to a large extent by the rise in White Nationalism and Aryan visions of greatness. This was also shown in a recent book by Dr. Donna Zuckerberg, which describes how online groups are using the classics to fuel toxic masculinity via alt-right groups.
Why live in the real world where the West rests on the foundations and innovations of great civilizations, from Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, and North America, when you can create a fake world to fuel your racist visions of a white future? What do you think underpins the current Administration’s desires to build a wall between the US and Mexico, deport thousands of innocent individuals, support policies that protect police as they commit crimes against people of color, murder and imprison innocent children fleeing violence in Central America, and strip Indigenous peoples of the right to vote? That’s what belief in ancient aliens does- it takes away agency and de-legitimizes the existence of cultures outside of and within North America. It’s all part of the same movement- we see it here, and we see it globally, based on racism, bigotry, and hatred. We, of all professions, know that walls don’t work- I am sure the Mongols had opinions about large walls. We must be louder.
I am reminded of an article from Forbes[vi] earlier this year by Dr Sarah Bond Of the University of Iowa on the Whiteness of classical and other sculpture, and the role that “white” had in distorting views of the past. She points out that this understanding is deeply rooted in our cultural values, with whiteness equating to beauty, and color to barbarism. As we all know, sculptures and indeed temple walls were not white, but painted in a myriad of colors. Understanding that past peoples- from the Egyptians to the Romans, and indeed, even people like the Puritans- existed in a technicolor world- makes them more real, and far more connected to us. Dr Bond points out that this “creates a false color binary of the ancient world,” extending to the whiteness we see in academe, and in pop cultural representations of the ancient world.
Anyone doubting the power of seeing things in color, and bringing things back to life should see the new Color of Time book by digital colorist Marina Amiral, who has colorized hundreds of images, with commentary by UK Historian Dan Jones. Some of you may have seen Peter Jackson’s WWI movie, They Shall Not Grow Old, where his team restored over 100 hours of WW1 footage, and selected 2 hours of it to tell the stories of the men in the trenches, much of it colorized, with realistic sound effects, and lip readers for the silent footage. I went with my family, and it was a chilling, eye opening, moving experience.
We have to talk about Megan Fox’s new show, Legends of the Lost which just aired its first…and given the ratings likely its last…season. True story I can finally share publicly…to shine a little bit of light on the TV world process: This summer, I was contacted by a major TV channel,, who showered me with ego-swelling praise like “World class scholar”, “fresh and globally respected voice for ancient history” and “exactly what we need to engage a new generation in archaeology.” If only my end of term class evaluations had that. They wanted a new TV series to capture the attention of millions of new viewers, and they had a budget to match. Whoa! Opportunities like these come rarely. I worked together with a lovely TV executive producer to develop a TV series that would have seen us travel around the world to diverse archaeological projects, focusing on and working together with Indigenous scholars and scientists, using remote sensing and mapping tools to empower those teams to do what perhaps resources or lack of access to technology had prevented them from doing before. Total win- supporting local archaeologists doing cutting edge work while featuring them on a global stage, and using the show to tell stories of amazing civilizations and cultures. Everyone was blown away by the pitch. Except the Channel, who, after hearing about what we were doing and encouraging us along the way, said to my collaborator, and I *quote*, “We can’t take this. There aren’t any monsters! Also, Sarah is too much of a *real archaeologist*.”
*Record scratch. Freeze Frame*
“If only they had known, somehow, along the way, that she was a real archaeologist.”
Instead of my show- which would have been OUR show, because you bet I would have worked closely with the AIA and many of you, you got Legends of the Lost.
Why have an archaeologist with 20 years of experience and a track record of public engagement, when you can have a pseudoscientific dumpster fire? This hurt me…a lot. I’m still processing the anger, obviously. This is a great public therapy session for me by the way. You may rail against racist TV shows like this and Ancient Aliens and others, and complain that no one in our field is doing anything, but when major TV Channels approaches you, asks you to make a show, tells you you’re incredible, loves your idea, empowers you to make your dream TV show, and then tells you no because they don’t want a real archaeologist, and then hire a self-named “mystic” actress who could be schooled in archaeological knowledge by my 6yo…what the hell can we do?
A lot, actually. I’m here today to tell you this is a fight, and we will win, eventually but we all need to start working together. I need you to commit to more time working in the trenches, or being far more supportive of those that are- often at great risk to their careers.
One of the biggest issues is that, public engagement does not count towards hiring or tenure and promotion. It gets swept into the broader category of “service”, which we all know doesn’t count much at all. It’s true. It’s the numbers of articles and the journal ranking and books with great reviews and grant dollars and ongoing fieldwork and above-average teaching scores but mainly the hopefully glowing letters from outside reviewers and non-passive aggressive Deans who don’t want your department shut down. Thank you all for coming to my TED talk.
So, where does public engagement even fit into academe? Let’s first define what it is. The category is broad. This extends to TV work, social media, podcasts, open access writing, blogs, outreach in schools and with children and elders, writing op ends, writing books- and so many others.
I can hear you now. “Where am I going to find the time? I’m on 4 committees and 3 journals editorial boards and have elder care.” I am not taking away from anything personal or professional. Every person in this room has commitments of those natures. I’m suggesting, perhaps your enthusiasm for your work may have waned slightly- not your dedication, but the embers that spark big new ideas, projects, and collaborations. I’m telling you that, should you decide to become more engaged publicly, it might light new fires, and focus you in ways you never would have expected. Connecting to broader audiences, professional and public, being one of the first to learn of major new discoveries and breakthroughs, learning from diverse voices and perspectives across disciplines…if you aren’t in some way inspired, energized, or re-engaged, then, congratulations! you are dead inside.
Well, perhaps this slight prodding has you wondering, how and where can I get started? Learning how to be an effective public communicator, whether via presentations, TV, or writing, doesn’t just happen effortlessly. There are some award-winning teachers here in the audience- university, high school, middle school, and elementary. None of you- none of us- were particularly good when we started. Good pedagogy can be taught, but then it must be learned via years of in classroom teaching, tweaking, and experimenting. The same thing goes for public communication- or anything. Look, Arnold was once a skinny gangly teenager, and he trained for over a decade to become Conan the Barbarian. We can all become Conans- it just takes time, practice, and an endless reservoir of hatred and desire for revenge against the man who murdered your parents while you were a small boy.
I did not get into archaeology expecting to do scicomm. It just happened. I was lucky that, when I was being filmed for my first Discovery Channel show, I had a very kind Director and a Director of Photography- both worked with me to help me put my best foot forward. When I did my first BBC show, they put me through an intensive TV presenter training program. While on the shoot in Egypt, one of my co-presenters, and now dear friend Dallas Campbell, himself a professional actor turned science show presenter, would take me aside in between takes and give me camera pointers- not mansplaining put me downs at all, but completely generous, warm, professional advice for which I’ll forever be grateful. I’ve practiced, for endless hours. I’ve spent a lot of time being bad, and even more time being utterly mediocre. And that is 100% fine, and normal, and necessary. There are no naturally good actors- or presenters-or teachers- just people who are really passionate about who they are and what they do. And that’s what all of you have, in spades. You can’t fake passion, or expertise, although we’ve seen a lot of the latter in the last few years.
I struggle internally nearly every day about what I do being a more publicly facing academic. Am I wasting my time? Will I be taken far less seriously as a scholar or professor? What will the consequences be? Shouldn’t I be writing more (note to everyone: you all should be writing more)? Everything I chose to do takes time, away from my family, my friends, my research, my quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie. But here’s the truth: your articles and books and committee service don’t hold your hand on your deathbed. Nothing matters in the end save the people you love and the lives you have touched. It’s up to you to decide what a life well-lived means, but learning that your work has made a genuine difference in a stranger’s life, well, it’s a blessing.
I got a random email a few years ago from a father- he said his 5th grader daughter had chosen me for art class for painting a female scientist they admire. He sent me this. It’s really good. So, after bawling my eyes out, I somehow managed to type out a thank you. Things like this made everything worth it.
Here’s how to get going. Starting a twitter account is easy.[vii] Just pick a name- Professorsmith, or Caligulaluvr- you know who you are-whatever floats your boat. You can send a tweet in a few seconds. There is a very long list of wonderful archaeologists and classicists in the room that you should follow. I’ve asked in my latest tweet everyone active on twitter to ping me great people to follow- and just go to my page, and follow everyone listed. Nearly every academic journal has a twitter page, by the way, and they love helping to boost your articles once there are published.
It’s now been proven via peer review that articles which are promoted via social media get more citations- and why not? More people know you have it out there, especially people who might not have access to the print journal or an online subscription, you can follow up your article with more photos, fun stories from the field, it might even get covered by media, which your universities will love. Also, and this is one of my favorite parts about twitter- you can follow newspapers in the countries where you work for the latest breaking archaeology news. Ministries have their preferred outlets for announcements- they certainly do in Egypt- and I love hearing about the latest amazing discoveries by my friends and colleagues there. I get to reshare with my community, and answer questions or provide context if I am able. We’re all in this together, and the world is so hungry for good news. Sometimes, sometimes, an overexcited tweet can be reshared by media, so do what I say, not what I do.
One thing you can is Skype a Scientist-it’s a wonderful program that connects you to classrooms around the world. The team is happy to have historians and archaeologists speaking to schoolkids, and they are always so grateful- you’ll get fantastic questions. Just reach out to them!
You can give a TEDx talk. I know some of you have already- on any given day there are numerous TEDx talks around the world, and most universities have them. All of you have wonderful stories and messages to impart- the core strength of a TED talk is the single idea you are sharing- and the experience will help your public speaking regardless. I would encourage you all to put yourselves forward to give one. Most are between 5–18 minutes. All of them end up online, via the TEDx program where you speak, and some of you may end up on ted.com, where you talks may be seen by millions of people.
Your very research may cross over into the public domain. I just saw a wonderful video showcasing the work by Oxford Classic Professor Armand D’Angour, where he worked with a team of classics researchers and musicians to bring the music of ancient Greece back to life, performing the Athenaeus Paean (127 BC) and Euripides Orestes chorus (408 BC) in public. I’ll post the link on Twitter if you want to play it yourselves.
Getting an op-ed in a major national publication isn’t easy, but if enough of us try, some will get accepted. It’s easier if you’re already active on social media- a lot of science folks editors will follow you. I had my first piece in the NYT this year, and I was proud to do it, having been to the National Museum in Rio back in 2014. Several academics I know have regular columns in their local newspapers- reaching thousands of people on weekly or monthly basis is a Good Thing all around- and that will give you good writing practice if you ever decide to write a more popular book. Folks need a break from regular news, and they certainly need perspective on global events via an archaeological lens.
Did you know you can do live events, sharing your classroom teaching, lab work, giving tours of archaeological sites, or your actual excavations via Facebook live or Periscope? I know Facebook has issues right now so some of you might not want to use it, but a single live event can get up to millions of views. You need to get permission from the Antiquities ministry where you work, but if you do an event jointly, starring your local co-directors and collaborators, I bet you’ll not only get their full support, but good local media coverage. This also extends to Youtube videos- some channels have millions of viewers. Doing short videos of you in the field, visiting sites, or museums, and uploading them, may start to build you a following….and you’ll have great materials for the classroom.
There are many ways you can crowdfund your archaeological work or community outreach work from Patreon to Kickstarter to Gofundme,. This helps to build community, and increases transparency. I can think of the Digventures crowdfunding project, which has seen several projects funded in the UK. Yes, it takes time and effort to set them up, but it’s also a 3–6% chance of getting your NSF grant funded, so, you take your chances.
You might consider citizen science for your research projects. A number of academics in archaeology and beyond have used citizen science successfully- the organization I run, Globalxplorer, has had over 80,000 users to date on our citizen science satellite archaeology platform as part of our Peru project, from nearly every country in the world, save North Korea. Kim Jong-Un, I’m looking at you! Globalxplorer visitors found over 17,000 potential archaeological sites, over 400 of which were considered major sites, confirmed by experts. We have given these data to in country experts, who have used it for survey, and it assisted in the discovery of 50 new Nasca lines, in collaboration with Dr Luis Jaime Castillo. One of our top superusers on the platform is a 92 year old grandmother named Doris Mae Jones from Cleveland Ohio.I mean- look at Doris, she’s amazing- she looked at over 50,000 satellite images. This is the future I want- we need to tap our elders.
In terms of combining innovative pedagogy and public outreach, Dr Stephanie Mulder, Professor at UT Austin, in her upper division Islamic Art course last semester, assigned a series of Wikipedia pages for her students to edit or create over a 3 week period. She told her students they were curators, and needed to create new labels for collection. She used resources from Wikiteach, and partnered with the UT Austin library to share primary resources and show the students that libraries and librarians were essential for research. This resulted in a number of new Wikipedia entries, excited students felt empowered, and better resources for the general public. She has a great twitter feed on the specifics of what she did- I’m thinking of doing this in my future classes, and I encourage you too.
Politics matters, now more than ever. It goes far beyond calling your congresspeople, although please don’t stop. More resolutions have appeared that have the potential to do great harm to cultural heritage. The shrinking of Bears Ears national park- and with the desire of the current administration to build a wall between the US and Mexico, the potential for hundreds of archaeological sites to be destroyed. Keep being loud, set up meetings with your local congressperson’s staff to educate them. When HR 1493 was being discussed+ debated, I had multiple meetings with Majority staff- yes, that’s republicans- and they were grateful to hear expert perspectives. Dr Kathryn Hanson of the Smithsonian testified on this bill. Your opinions and experience carry serious weight. Your universities may have specific lobbying organizations with whom they work, and they can facilitate meetings on the Hill, or at your state level.
Also, we need more popular books by you! We’re the best storytellers in academe in my humble opinion- I mean, that’s our job description, telling stories about the past from scraps of evidence. Brian Fagan made a career from it. Eric Cline was considered for a Pulitzer Prize for 1177 BC and of course he has written many other wonderful books. Also there is our own Jodi Magness- and others. There are countless economists and psychologists and historians who write popular books. Why aren’t there more of us? Yes, it takes time, and you will be humbled before the writing gods, and you will question your very sanity. Is it because it is seen as “selling out,” and won’t count as scholarship? My book has 520 endnotes, some of which are half a page long, and there is a great deal of original research in it. Why not have both? You can. The world needs your wisdom, now more than ever.
You don’t just need to write a book for adults — you can write a young adult or children’s book! Dr Christina Warriner of Harvard and the Max Plank Institute wrote a children’s coloring book called Adventures in Archaeological Science, which has been translated into 20 languages, and is open access.[viii]
What’s the worst thing that could happen, if you decide to become a more public-facing archaeologist? Sometimes its cool. More people might recognize you, you may get more curious emails in your inbox, your classes will fill faster- but nothing, I repeat, nothing, could be worse than what happened to me a few years ago. If I told you I had an entire Hollywood B movie done about me and my work without me knowing, you would dismiss it as pure narcissism. If only that were the truth. I got a message from a friend, saying “Hey, we rented a movie tonight called The Pyramid, and it’s about a blond 30-something Egyptologist who uses satellites to find new pyramids in Egypt and she looks a lot like you.” I though, no, not possible. Pure coincidence. Until I watched the trailer. I put a side by side comparison of a few shots with the BBC Egypt special I did to let you decide for yourselves. Of course we have to watch the trailer now. Now, I know we all struggle in the field, but none of you have to battle 50 foot tall Anubis monsters while excavating. I think my character dies in the end, and unfortunately, the movie was so bad it was just bad, and made no money, so I couldn’t sue. But, your B-movie dreams could come true! I mean I’d pay to see that.
If you, after hearing my talk today, don’t want anything to do with anything I’ve said, fair play. You do YOU. But, please, I’m begging you, take a moment to reflect on the enormous impact public engagement has had for the field of archaeology- how it fills our classrooms, helps to keep limited government funding in play for the NEH/NSF/NEA/National Park Service, keep administrators happy who make decisions on what departments to keep open, inspires our future leaders to think more carefully about all the past has to teach us…and then, even if you still don’t want to do anything to become more involved, give more consideration to those of us that do choose to be involved. When you get asked to write letters of support for tenure and promotion, talk about the value of public engagement, and how it is the set of Marionette strings that hold together teaching, research, and service. When you serve on hiring committees or committees to admit new cohorts of graduate students, look at how your potential colleagues or students are actively engaged. When you teach in your classrooms, and your students ask how they can take their excitement for the past into their communities, encourage them- share resources- make an effort to empower them in their efforts to make the past more accessible for people of all ages. Our whole field will be better.
The Golden Marshalltown ends with the Old Timer offering Kent Flannery- who realizes that his entire academic output has been reduced to a series of Hefty garbage bags, a golden Marshalltown, saying “And because archeologists will believe anything, pretty soon you’ve got a mass migration to the margins of the field. And pretty soon that’s where the greatest noise is coming from.”
The Old Timer tells Flannery: “I’d like to establish an award just for commitment to plain, old fashioned basic research and professional ethics. And that’s what this trowel is for. “So, son, some day when you meet a kid who still believes in culture, and in hard work, and in the history of humanity; a kid who’s in the field because he or she loves it, and not because they want to be famous; a kid who’d never fatten up on somebody else’s data, or cut down a colleague just to get ahead; a kid who knows the literature, and respects the generations who went before you give that kid this golden Marshalltown.”
That was nice, back in 1981. But we’ve moved on. We have to, for the good of our field, and for the good of humanity. We are no longer 5 white men on a man-panel — a Manel- you knew I was going to mention Manels once. If we had 4–5 people representing the future of the field of archaeology in a 2019 version of Golden Marshalltown, who would they be, who should they be, and what would they be researching? Who would YOU want at the table versus who would you expect? What can you do to narrow that gap?
Today, I’d extend far beyond the narrow scope defined as deserving a Golden Marshalltown to people actively engaged with broadening participation, making room for marginalized voices, making archaeology accessible for everyone, empowering those with no power, opening doors for grants, articles, and opportunities, creating bigger tables with more seats, challenging those that use history and archaeology for twisted means, being loud about ending colonialist practices, and doing everything to ensure our planet learns from the mistakes of our ancestors. And the reward isn’t a Golden Marshalltown. It’s our work, and the impact that our work makes on our society You’re all here today because you think you have the best job on the planet- that’s why I’m here- and I want more people doing it- because we are the hope machines for humanity, whether we want to wear that mantle or not. We do our jobs to show how people lived, so, ultimately, we can open people’s eyes to how we might live today, and in the future. Thank you.
[i] Jeremy Sabloff, Where Have You Gone, Margaret Mead? Anthropology and Public Intellectuals in American Anthropologist 113(3):408–416 · August 2011
[ii] Flannery, Kent V. “The Golden Marshalltown: A Parable for the Archeology of the 1980s.” American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 84, №2 (Jun., 1982)
[iii] https://www.tiaainstitute.org/publication/taking-measure-faculty-diversit
[iv] https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-00113-6
[v] https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/nov/25/benin-bronzes-why-western-museums-should-keep-treasures?CMP=share_btn_tw
[vi] https://www.forbes.com/sites/drsarahbond/2017/04/27/whitewashing-ancient-statues-whiteness-racism-and-color-in-the-ancient-world/
[vii] Samuel Colins et al.Tagging Culture: Building a Public Anthropology through Social Media Human organization 72(4):358–368
[viii] http://christinawarinner.com/outreach/children/adventures-in-archaeological-science/
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