Like any science, archaeology relies on trust between actors involved in the production of knowledge. In the early history of archaeology, this epistemic trust was complicated by histories of Orientalism in the Middle East and colonialism more broadly. The racial and power dynamics underpinning 19th- and early 20th-century archaeology precluded the possibility of interpersonal moral trust between foreign archaeologists and locally hired labourers. In light of this, archaeologists created systems of reward, punishment, and surveillance to ensure the honest behaviour of site workers. They thus invented a set of structural conditions that produced sufficient epistemic trust for archaeological research to proceed—a system that continues to shape archaeology to the present day.

与任何科学一样，考古学依赖于参与知识生产的参与者之间的信任。在考古学的早期历史中，这种认识上的信任因中东的东方主义历史和更广泛的殖民主义而变得复杂。支撑 19 世纪和 20 世纪早期考古学的种族和权力动态排除了外国考古学家和当地雇佣工人之间建立人际道德信任的可能性。有鉴于此，考古学家创建了奖励、惩罚和监视系统，以确保现场工作人员的诚实行为。因此，他们发明了一套结构条件，为考古研究的进行产生了足够的认知信任——这个系统一直影响着考古学直到今天。