Comments on: Antiquities, the Black Market, and Economists http://www.ethnography.com/2007/09/antiquities-the-black-market-and-economists/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=antiquities-the-black-market-and-economists A group blog on a wide variety of topics realted to anthropology Fri, 03 Sep 2010 04:46:44 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Donna http://www.ethnography.com/2007/09/antiquities-the-black-market-and-economists/comment-page-1/#comment-26 Donna Fri, 21 Sep 2007 23:34:40 +0000 http://www.ethnography.com/2007/09/antiquities-the-black-market-and-economists/#comment-26 OK, I've thought more about this, and what bothers me the most about this is the assumption that the traffic in antiquities is problematic because of economic concerns. That what would really fix it is for countries to be well-paid for all of their cool stuff. And especially the assumption that archaeology is all about the Cool Things We can Put in Museums. What the leasing solution would do is encourage countries to excavate their cool things and lease them, and to damn the archaeological context to the Might-Have-Been. It would NOT be a boon to World Archaeology. It would not advance knowledge about The Past. It would just result in More Cool Things in Museums. Pretty much not what we're going for, here, guys. OK, I’ve thought more about this, and what bothers me the most about this is the assumption that the traffic in antiquities is problematic because of economic concerns. That what would really fix it is for countries to be well-paid for all of their cool stuff. And especially the assumption that archaeology is all about the Cool Things We can Put in Museums.
What the leasing solution would do is encourage countries to excavate their cool things and lease them, and to damn the archaeological context to the Might-Have-Been. It would NOT be a boon to World Archaeology. It would not advance knowledge about The Past. It would just result in More Cool Things in Museums.

Pretty much not what we’re going for, here, guys.

]]>