What is really "Archaeology"?

Earlier today, the ASP (Archaeological Studies Program) was visited by some Grade 8 students from some random private school. They came to ask about archaeology as part of their field trip. Dante, Jay, and I became the informants for the interview. One of the questions that they asked was, "What made us pursue archaeology?". This is, however, not an isolated case. It is as if everyone has been asking a lot, "Why archaeology?". Of all the careers? Why would I choose to dig the bloody dirt? My simple answer was that:

 

1. I have watched Indiana Jones and Tomb Raiders. I like the professor's character. Little did I know that Indiana and what he does is far from what archaeologists really are.

 

2. The second thing is that I loved reading history books when I was young. I saw Paleontologists digging the ground, and I wanted to be part of something like it. It was just lately that I fully understood the difference between Paleontology and Archaeology (the time depth).

 

3. Third, I met a certain archaeologist at Palawan State University, and we talked about it after presenting our paper at a conference in Cagayan de Oro. He introduced me to an excavation in El Nido Palawan, and from there, I went straight to archaeology.

  

Surprisingly, Dante and I have the same, or should I say almost the same, story. It's either Archaeology was a childhood dream. It became dormant, and it recurred with a vengeance. I believe that a lot of people are interested to know the reason why we chose archaeology is that archaeology is not seen to be for one thing; they do not see it as profitable, and for the other thing, we give less importance to science, and it includes the understanding of our past.

 

Our schools have taught us too much materialism and consumerism that conditioned us to behave that only material wealth is the only thing that matters and anything that has no monetary value is not important. We forget that we are humans because we give value to our past, to our arts, and to our human expressions. It takes much to realize how we are enslaved by the system we are in.