ARCHAEOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT AT LOGGERHEADS: BUT SHOULD THEY BE?

In a recent South African Archaeological Bulletin (vol. 66, no. 194), two articles on the concerns against coal mining at Vele near Mapungubwewere published (Meskell 2011; Swanepoel 2011). This discussion forum article attempts to respond to some of the points raised in the article by Natalie Swanepoel. More importantly, I aim to take the discussion forward by recommending that we bridge the polarity that exists between archaeologists and those who can collectively be called developers. The latter are considered destructive in their approach, which brings them at loggerheads with the former. Without finding a common ground between us and the developers, we shall remain at loggerheads, and our own purposes will not be served. Some in the discipline might beg to differ. However, I will submit that this is the debate that we must have. I begin by presenting a general perspective I have of the conflict between archaeologists and developers. And in doing so, I argue that they win the support 'race' over us because they play their cards very well. Rather than 'shout' at the outside world, I further argue that we need to undertake an introspective stance and ask to what extent are we cleaning our discipline so that it has the human face developers claim to have. Some of the problems are of our own doing, and until we own up and attend to the problems within archaeology, we would be failing ourselves.