I personally find live people every bit as interesting as the dead pieces of pottery or stone they deal in or collect - but perhaps that is unusual for a collector. If people don't interest us, it might be useful to question our motives for collecting artefacts. Do the artefacts stimulate you because you want to learn about the society that created them or are they merely objects for their own sake, subconsciously prized for the very fact that they are now divorced from a society (or at least their original one) and thus free from its contentious realities? Are the artefacts a route to understanding more about real people, whether ancient or modern, or are they merely a safe vehicle for idealised fantasy and escapism? Or is it a bit of both?
An interesting question. Why in fact do people collect artefacts (or do archaeology for that matter)?
I remember reading in the Sunday Times in 1994 or so about a man who dug up stuff with a metal detector. He was pictured, dreamily, long hair flowing, holding an Anglo-saxon belt buckle (vel sim)-- "I can dream for hours about the people who owned this stiff and lived such a long time ago".
ReplyDeleteOf course, he just destroyed the info. that would allow us to know about those people.
I remember reading in the Sunday Times in 1994 or so about a man who dug up stuff with a metal detector. He was pictured, dreamily, long hair flowing, holding an Anglo-saxon belt buckle (vel sim)-- "I can dream for hours about the people who owned this stiff and lived such a long time ago".
ReplyDeleteOf course, he just destroyed the info. that would allow us to know about those people.