> Is archaeology intrinsically anti capitalist?
Allow me to say that a science cannot be capitalist, or jealous, or
morbid. Scientists can. As e.g. building our huge arsenals doesn't make
chemistry, or physics, criminal.
If a scientist is falsifying/concealing evidence to project/strengthen
his/hers own beliefs, or to just make money, it's still his/hers
problem. If a national, or an ideological of any kind, group of
scientists do the same, it's still their problem. This is not
capitalist, or communist science. It's false science. And false science
can be whatever one wants it to be.
So, we'd better talk of capitalist scientists, as we can talk of
communist scientists, or as we can talk of criminal scientists.
Furthermore, practice of a science cannot define the science itself.
Medicine has -and is- been used to torture and to kill. Should we think
of it as sadist?
Institutional/state funding can be oriented to serve alien purposes.
Funding cannot produce science, it can only lure scientists to produce
false science.
Scientists of human/unstrict sciences seem also all too jumpy to assault
on anything they disagree with, under the pretext of some "flag", be
that of nationalism, or of any other -ism. And while all -isms have
greatly contributed at their own time to false science, one should not
forget that this kind of criticism, the attack on the flag and not on
the army(/evidence and coherence), it's usually nothing more than an
indication of the critic's -ism.
And if archaeologists are willful to accept that their area of knowledge
can be capitalist, or anti capitalist, they should rather remove the
"science" part from their field of expertise. Unless we can have
capitalist geometry and nationalistic geology as well.
Last and not least, terms so vague as "capitalist" are quite susceptible
to confusion, especially when taken apart from their meant context. E.g.
was the Soviet Opera capitalistic or not? Is it "spending money by
capitalists for something that it's worthless in capitalist terms (i.e.
wont have a enough resale value to merit the investment) anti
capitalistic?" What about e.g. our capitalistic bio-chemical arsenals?
Do they have enough resale value?
Oversimplifications are our shortest way to misunderstanding. And I
believe that I am not the first one to say so. -
Christos Galanis
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