Abstract

The opening keynote session at the 2019 Australian Archaeological Association (AAA) annual conference on the Gold Coast was designed to allow reflection on how archaeology has developed in the 50 years since John Mulvaney (1969) published his landmark Prehistory of Australia (Clarkson 2019; David and Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation 2019; Hodgetts and Ross 2019; Jacobs 2019; McDonald 2019). In reflecting on that issue myself, I wonder whether the kind of generalist practitioner that John and others (including his contemporary Isabel McBryde) epitomised, is endangered, or perhaps even extinct? In this paper, which is an expanded version of the spoken comments I offered in response to the AAA keynote presentations (Wallis 2019), I contemplate our current position as Australian archaeological practitioners in the broader context of shrinking research funding, increasing bureaucratisation of universities, an unhealthy attention to metrics as the primary measure of research value, and increasing levels of specialisation, offset against a burgeoning cultural heritage management (CHM) sector. In keeping with the 2019 conference theme, I suggest we require some conscious and deliberate ‘disruption’ of the discourse if we hope to have another productive 50 years.

摘要

2019年澳大利亚考古协会（AAA）在黄金海岸举行的年会上的开幕主题演讲旨在反思约翰·穆尔瓦尼（1969年）发表具有里程碑意义的澳大利亚史前史（克拉克森2019年;大卫）以来的50年中考古学的发展。和Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation 2019 ; Hodgetts and Ross 2019 ; Jacobs 2019 ; McDonald 2019）。在我自己思考这个问题时，我想知道约翰和其他人（包括他的当代伊莎贝尔·麦克布赖德）所代表的那种通才医生是否濒临灭绝，甚至灭绝了？在本文中，这是我为回应AAA主题演讲而提供的语音评论的扩展版本（Wallis 2019），我考虑了在更广泛的研究背景下，我们的澳大利亚考古工作者的地位，即研究经费的缩减，大学的官僚化程度的提高，对作为研究价值主要衡量指标的指标的不健康关注以及专业化水平的提高，从而抵消了新兴的文化遗产的影响管理（CHM）部门。为了与2019年会议主题保持一致，如果我们希望再有一个富有成效的50年，我建议我们需要对讲话进行有意识的和故意的``干扰''。