CRM Archaeology as a Career
Description: Summation for the course; careers and prospects in cultural resource archaeology; professional organizations.
Learning Objectives:
• Examine career opportunities in cultural resources archaeology.
• Appraise career satisfaction and challenges.
• Analyze professional organizations in cultural resources archaeology.
Readings:
Lynott, Mark J. and Alison Wylie, eds., Ethics in American Archaeology. 2nd revised edition. Washington, D.C.: Society for American Archaeology (2000).
Zeder, Melinda, The American Archaeologist: A Profile. Walnut Creek, CA: 1997, 45-115.
I. Careers in Cultural Resources Archaeology
A. In the class on "The Business of Archaeology" we reviewed the many different types of job available in cultural resources archaeology. These include administrative and planning positions in federal agencies (e.g., Advisory Council, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management); state agencies (SHPO, highway department, parks department); municipal offices (city environment department); and tribal authorities (THPOs, tribal preservation programs). Private sector jobs are mainly positions in cultural resource management firms or organizations.
B. Career Satisfaction and Challenges: The 1994 Society for American Archaeology survey of archaeologists in the Americas (Zeder 1997) revealed some interesting facts about archaeologists employed in the government and private sectors. For example, salary levels in the private and government sectors compare very favorably to those in academic and museum archaeology, and compensation in the private/government sectors is less strongly tied to possession of a post-M.A. degree. The private sector offers the greatest and quickest potential for salary growth. Also, the gender differential in earning between men and women is lowest in the private sector compared to the others. Government archaeologists tend to have the broadest levels of employee benefits, while private sector archaeologists receive the fewest comprehensive benefits. Finally, job satisfaction is high among private and government sector archaeologists.
1) Discussion Topic: One of the most interesting results of the SAA survey was the finding that, despite high levels of job satisfaction among cultural resource archaeologists, most people retain a traditional preference for academic jobs. Thus, even though the growth area in archaeological employment continues to be in the private sector, and academic archaeology continues to struggle in terms of job opportunities, archaeology students still see an academic position as their career goal. Talk about this with your students. Ask them about their own goals and desires. Do they feel the same way? If so, why?
2) Despite the seemingly rosy picture of private sector archaeology painted by the SAA survey, the field is beset by numerous challenges. Contract archaeology can be a very stressful business, as groups struggle to win bids and juggle staffing and scheduling issues in a demanding, competitive, and sometimes cutthroat environment. Employees at the lower levels—the field and laboratory technicians—are often poorly paid and hired without benefits or the promise of long-term employment. Living and working from project to project, and end-of-season layoffs, are still a common reality for many workers. Also, the disparity between employees at the top, management levels of a consulting firm and those at the bottom tends to be very great, and, as in many immature or developing professions, bridging that gap is not an easy thing to do. Workers who only know how to dig test pits and wash artifacts do not easily learn skills like project management, proposal writing, client relations, etc. And in the absence of cultural resource archaeology education in the schools, where these skills might be imparted, many diggers will remain diggers while newly minted M.A.s and PhDs, often with scandalously little CRM knowledge, will be hired by consulting firms to fill supervisory positions. The result is stagnation for the technician cadre and a burdensome training period for the new supervisors.
II. Professional Organizations in Cultural Resources Archaeology
A. Background: As CRM archaeology developed as a new discipline within the field of archaeology in the 1970s, it became apparent that new professional associations would be needed to address the special needs and concerns of applied archaeology. Early on, archaeologists recognized that ensuring professional standards of performance was a critical issue, as many untrained or unscrupulous individuals rushed to fill the need for consulting archaeologists. These concerns led to the creation of new organizations, two of the most important of which are described below.
B. Register of Professional Archaeologists (RPA): The RPA was founded in 1998 as the successor of the Society of Professional Archaeologists (SOPA), which originated out of a conviction among archaeologists that a system of professional standards and accreditation was needed for the new field of cultural resource management. The idea was, and is, to accredit experienced professional archaeologists who undertake to be held accountable to the profession for high standards of performance. RPA's Code of Conduct and Standards of Research Performance derive from the original SOPA codes of 1976. There is a grievance procedure whereby registered archaeologists may be charged with violations.
1) Class Discussion—The RPA: Have the students explore the RPA (www.rpanet.org) and learn about their application procedures. Lawyers, accountants, doctors, and nurses are accredited; how do the students feel about accrediting archaeologists?
C. American Cultural Resources Association (ACRA): ACRA is an association of more than 500 for-profit cultural resource firms founded in 1995 to serve the needs of the industry. The mission of ACRA is to serve the business needs of the professional community; to encourage professionalism; to provide training opportunities; and to promote public policy and public awareness for cultural resource management. This group is a trade organization; membership is open to businesses, not individuals. See www.acra-crm.org/
D. Additional Information: For further discussion of professionalism in archaeology and cultural resource management, see the lesson plan for "Professional Ethics" in my MATRIX course, "Archaeological Ethics and Law" (www.indiana.edu/~arch/saa/matrix/ael/ael_mod05.htm).