Points of You: Is archaeology becoming a bullshit job?

Jaime Almansa-Sánchez

Abstract


It was summer, I was searching for new books for my to-read pile and I came across Graeber’s latest work, Bullshit jobs (Graeber 2018). Right after buying it and reading the short essay it started with, I posted a question on Twitter: “Is archaeology a bullshit job?” Instantly, he answered—without even quoting him in the tweet—that it was not because people valued it. I did not want to engage into a debate, but the question stayed in my head, as I was not so convinced. He suddenly died a few days later. The book was next in my pile and I compulsively finished the one I was reading to start with it as soon as possible. Now, with a forum about the future of public archaeology in this celebratory volume, I thought it would be timely to add this opinion piece to celebrate his memory and wake up.


Keywords


archaeology; bullshit

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23914/ap.v10i0.292

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