There is a reason for this madness. Trust me.
The anthropology department here at Penn is pretty damned interesting. I'm not talking about our museum or the classes themselves, although they're pretty good, too. I'm talking about the faculty. One in particular stands out to me since this guy, I kid you not, is the spitting image of Peter Griffin. 
Aside from the bizarre joy of hearing intelligent words spewing out of Professor Griffin, it's also great that he can present his lectures in an entertaining manner, which makes him something of a rarity in this particular field.
If you want to pin Dr. Griffin to any ideology, it's to the idea that people in the field need to approach archaeology like they would an actual hard science like biology or chemistry. It may seem obvious, but let me tell you one of his favorite stories to illustrate the problem.
A team of archaeologists come upon one particular site* containing the remains of a population of hominins. Of the adult bones, some appear to be larger than the rest. Thus, as the excavation continues, the intrepid team proceeds to place all the large remains in one category A, and all the smaller bones in another category B. After running statistical analyses on these two groups, they find that, indeed, they seem to be dealing with two different species simultaneously sharing the same territory. The average heights of group A were significantly different from the average heights of group B--there could be no doubt. Are you with me? Do you see the fallacy?
Of course you do. And of course group A would be significantly different from group B, since they were categories that the brilliant archaeologists created. It was ONE population of extremely variable and fairly sexually dimorphic individuals that the team took upon themselves to divide arbitrarily. I can imagine that it came as a shock to them as they realized that the reality they believed in was one of their own making. It must have been a lot like life when you realize that things are the way they are because of something you did to yourself.
Well, that's always hard to deal with--we're all human, and let's face it, things are just better when we can blame someone or something else for everything wrong in our lives. My grades are horrible, my family hates me, I have no friends, etc. And so we come to the point in my little post where I start to sound obnoxiously pedagogic and overbearing. Don't mistake me for an instant that I'm implying that there are no extenuating circumstances or things beyond a person's control. That's not what I'm saying at all. I am merely distressed that there just doesn't seem to be any real sense of personal responsibility anymore--in anyone. Very few people that I can think of truly confront the problems in their lives by first asking themselves what they themselves did to bring about their current situations. Hell, I could definitely stand to be on the receiving end of this entry myself.
Much more common is the scapegoat method that takes away most or all of the personal accountability. This professor is unreasonable, everyone is just plain crazy, that's just the way fate treats me. That's great. There was nothing you could have done in the face of all that, is there? Fabulous, because now you can absolve yourself and proceed to do exactly what you've been doing--a real bang-up job. Really, congratulations. Six months later when the same things happen again, you can blame your allergies and damn God for creating histamine.
I don't mean to come across as boorish and insensitive. To people out there with problems that they really had no control over, I have all the sympathy in the world. Even the ones who are in bad places solely by their own design, I feel for. I truly do. All I ask is that everyone at least attempt to sincerely acknowledge their mistakes in hopes of not having repeats of the same issues ad infinitum. Even those archaeologists, as grotesquely incompetent as they were, eventually recognized their mistake--and I'm willing to bet that they never made the same error again.
*I'll fill this in once I check my notes. Ha, like you're really dying to know.
Aside from the bizarre joy of hearing intelligent words spewing out of Professor Griffin, it's also great that he can present his lectures in an entertaining manner, which makes him something of a rarity in this particular field.
If you want to pin Dr. Griffin to any ideology, it's to the idea that people in the field need to approach archaeology like they would an actual hard science like biology or chemistry. It may seem obvious, but let me tell you one of his favorite stories to illustrate the problem.
A team of archaeologists come upon one particular site* containing the remains of a population of hominins. Of the adult bones, some appear to be larger than the rest. Thus, as the excavation continues, the intrepid team proceeds to place all the large remains in one category A, and all the smaller bones in another category B. After running statistical analyses on these two groups, they find that, indeed, they seem to be dealing with two different species simultaneously sharing the same territory. The average heights of group A were significantly different from the average heights of group B--there could be no doubt. Are you with me? Do you see the fallacy?
Of course you do. And of course group A would be significantly different from group B, since they were categories that the brilliant archaeologists created. It was ONE population of extremely variable and fairly sexually dimorphic individuals that the team took upon themselves to divide arbitrarily. I can imagine that it came as a shock to them as they realized that the reality they believed in was one of their own making. It must have been a lot like life when you realize that things are the way they are because of something you did to yourself.
Well, that's always hard to deal with--we're all human, and let's face it, things are just better when we can blame someone or something else for everything wrong in our lives. My grades are horrible, my family hates me, I have no friends, etc. And so we come to the point in my little post where I start to sound obnoxiously pedagogic and overbearing. Don't mistake me for an instant that I'm implying that there are no extenuating circumstances or things beyond a person's control. That's not what I'm saying at all. I am merely distressed that there just doesn't seem to be any real sense of personal responsibility anymore--in anyone. Very few people that I can think of truly confront the problems in their lives by first asking themselves what they themselves did to bring about their current situations. Hell, I could definitely stand to be on the receiving end of this entry myself.
Much more common is the scapegoat method that takes away most or all of the personal accountability. This professor is unreasonable, everyone is just plain crazy, that's just the way fate treats me. That's great. There was nothing you could have done in the face of all that, is there? Fabulous, because now you can absolve yourself and proceed to do exactly what you've been doing--a real bang-up job. Really, congratulations. Six months later when the same things happen again, you can blame your allergies and damn God for creating histamine.
I don't mean to come across as boorish and insensitive. To people out there with problems that they really had no control over, I have all the sympathy in the world. Even the ones who are in bad places solely by their own design, I feel for. I truly do. All I ask is that everyone at least attempt to sincerely acknowledge their mistakes in hopes of not having repeats of the same issues ad infinitum. Even those archaeologists, as grotesquely incompetent as they were, eventually recognized their mistake--and I'm willing to bet that they never made the same error again.
*I'll fill this in once I check my notes. Ha, like you're really dying to know.