Topic ID #1385 - posted 7/25/2007 1:24 PM
scottyj432
CRM debate in Japan
scottyj432
I was not sure what forum to post this in but found it an interesting news article on CRM vs Academic archaeology in Japan.
Private sector has role to play in archaeology
Koki Okamoto / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer
Problems connected with the increased number of private companies involved with excavating, researching, preserving and displaying of cultural artifacts are on the rise.
Previously, such activities have been handled by the public sector.
This year, the Nihon Bunkazai Hogo Kyokai (Japan cultural assets protection association), which was created by 88 private surveying and excavation companies, created a certification program for researchers of buried cultural assets.
Out of 186 participants at the first lecture and examination this month, more than 90 percent were believed to be researchers at surveying companies.
Although this certificate is awarded by a private body, its introduction is expected to boost the number of private researchers in excavation projects.
Since 1964, when land development surged, education boards at local governments have been responsible for excavating and researching buried cultural artifacts.
However, developers complained that the public sector was too slow at tackling projects and spent too much on research. Also, following a recommendation from the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, since 1996 the Cultural Affairs Agency has officially sanctioned the use of private companies in a bid to make surveying faster and more efficient.
Gradually,the frequency of private surveying and construction companies organizing digs rose and the number of firms in the field now exceeds 100.
Employees in charge of excavation at private companies studied archaeology at college--just like their counterparts in the public sector.
"It's strange that they aren't treated as proper archaeologists just because they found jobs in the private sector," a spokesman for the Nihon Bunkazai Hogo Kyokai's secretariat office said. The spokesman said the major objective of launching the certification was to improve the status of private firms.
The discovery that a number of former chairmen of the Japanese Archaeological Association, including Hatsushige Otsuka, professor emeritus at Meiji University, were members of the advisory committee for the certification program, has caused consternation because it might send a message that the academic world was supporting the involvement of the private sector.
"I received a letter from one of my former students who works for an organization related to a local government complaining that he feared for his job if private companies entered the field," Otsuka said.
"What is important for archaeology as a whole is that the government, private companies and universities improve their skills to introduce competition based on the quality of their reports, regardless of any connections," Otsuka said, stressing the importance of the certification program.
However, Seinan Gakuin University Prof. Hiroaki Takakura, who is dealing with the matter for the Japanese Archaeological Association, which is cautious about the participation of private companies in archaeological projects, remains skeptical.
"What happens if private sector researchers undertake a one-year project to study an important ruin that takes more than a year to survey? I don't want them to take short cuts purely to meet the deadline," Takakura said. "The preservation of cultural assets involves proper research and the writing of reports as well as maintaining and exhibiting the finds. Can the private sector take on such a responsibility?"
About 30 percent of the Japanese Archaeological Association members are researchers in the private sector.
"Recruitment by private research companies has become an important area of employment for archaeology students since local governments stopped taking on new recruits. I don't support privatization, but I wouldn't block them either," Takakura said.
He planned to formulate rules with the association on private companies, such as restricting them from leaving all decision-making concerning archaeological finds to local governments.
The archaeological society is in the course of restoring public trust following a scandal concerning the fabrication of a Stone Age artifact.
Local governments and the academic community should set strict criteria regarding survey methods and information disclosure to prevent the lowering of research quality and problems in the maintenance and use of remains.
Private sector has role to play in archaeology
Koki Okamoto / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer
Problems connected with the increased number of private companies involved with excavating, researching, preserving and displaying of cultural artifacts are on the rise.
Previously, such activities have been handled by the public sector.
This year, the Nihon Bunkazai Hogo Kyokai (Japan cultural assets protection association), which was created by 88 private surveying and excavation companies, created a certification program for researchers of buried cultural assets.
Out of 186 participants at the first lecture and examination this month, more than 90 percent were believed to be researchers at surveying companies.
Although this certificate is awarded by a private body, its introduction is expected to boost the number of private researchers in excavation projects.
Since 1964, when land development surged, education boards at local governments have been responsible for excavating and researching buried cultural artifacts.
However, developers complained that the public sector was too slow at tackling projects and spent too much on research. Also, following a recommendation from the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, since 1996 the Cultural Affairs Agency has officially sanctioned the use of private companies in a bid to make surveying faster and more efficient.
Gradually,the frequency of private surveying and construction companies organizing digs rose and the number of firms in the field now exceeds 100.
Employees in charge of excavation at private companies studied archaeology at college--just like their counterparts in the public sector.
"It's strange that they aren't treated as proper archaeologists just because they found jobs in the private sector," a spokesman for the Nihon Bunkazai Hogo Kyokai's secretariat office said. The spokesman said the major objective of launching the certification was to improve the status of private firms.
The discovery that a number of former chairmen of the Japanese Archaeological Association, including Hatsushige Otsuka, professor emeritus at Meiji University, were members of the advisory committee for the certification program, has caused consternation because it might send a message that the academic world was supporting the involvement of the private sector.
"I received a letter from one of my former students who works for an organization related to a local government complaining that he feared for his job if private companies entered the field," Otsuka said.
"What is important for archaeology as a whole is that the government, private companies and universities improve their skills to introduce competition based on the quality of their reports, regardless of any connections," Otsuka said, stressing the importance of the certification program.
However, Seinan Gakuin University Prof. Hiroaki Takakura, who is dealing with the matter for the Japanese Archaeological Association, which is cautious about the participation of private companies in archaeological projects, remains skeptical.
"What happens if private sector researchers undertake a one-year project to study an important ruin that takes more than a year to survey? I don't want them to take short cuts purely to meet the deadline," Takakura said. "The preservation of cultural assets involves proper research and the writing of reports as well as maintaining and exhibiting the finds. Can the private sector take on such a responsibility?"
About 30 percent of the Japanese Archaeological Association members are researchers in the private sector.
"Recruitment by private research companies has become an important area of employment for archaeology students since local governments stopped taking on new recruits. I don't support privatization, but I wouldn't block them either," Takakura said.
He planned to formulate rules with the association on private companies, such as restricting them from leaving all decision-making concerning archaeological finds to local governments.
The archaeological society is in the course of restoring public trust following a scandal concerning the fabrication of a Stone Age artifact.
Local governments and the academic community should set strict criteria regarding survey methods and information disclosure to prevent the lowering of research quality and problems in the maintenance and use of remains.
Post ID#6092 - replied 3/6/2008 7:54 PM
Jessica
The issue of private sector in archaeological research and artifact purchase is not new. The situation in Japan may be a little extreme but I know of artifacts collectors that would do a lot to own such artifacts.
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http://www.artifactscollectors.com/
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http://www.artifactscollectors.com/
Post ID#6096 - replied 3/6/2008 10:45 PM
georgejmyersjr
I have watched some TV from Japan in NYC (a relatively new enclave of Japanese-Americans is across the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, NJ it's reported. A Zen restaurant on Union Square was once opened when I worked nearby for the archaeologist Joel W. Grossman, PhD, where once around 1945 there was recorded only one Japanese restaurant in all of NYC and a well-known historian reported the first Japanese person arriving in NYC not until around 1870 or so...) and on one of the shows they were discussing available employment for women. For example, coloring animation "cels" at home, and along with the different jobs described, was what I've seen in a similar American film in a library lunch hour in Buffalo, NY, referred jokingly as a "career in ruins". Their archaeology however showed a number of mostly women working with hand hoe excavators for a certain scale of yen per day, that in the upper quarter I'd say of wages described, in what was described elsewhere as about a $1 billion expenditure per year (in US $) by the Japanese in the archeology of their country.
I once worked for Petr Glumac, PhD, in the first "almshouse cemetery" in NYC City Hall Park in 1999 who had just returned from Japan for his private company working on the US military archaeology requirements there, on US base. Another location is currently at issue partly over the rare sea-going dugong, similar to the mostly Florida seen "manatee" (the dugong I remember was noted in the lagoon in Jules Verne's "Mysterious Island") though recently the overlooked historical impacts have been brought up as importantly overlooked in the citing of the US military base. Thanks for this interesting article. Archaeology fieldwork is often in the middle and eleventh hour of things in the public sector, and why it should be planned for. This sounds an interesting development there.
I once worked for Petr Glumac, PhD, in the first "almshouse cemetery" in NYC City Hall Park in 1999 who had just returned from Japan for his private company working on the US military archaeology requirements there, on US base. Another location is currently at issue partly over the rare sea-going dugong, similar to the mostly Florida seen "manatee" (the dugong I remember was noted in the lagoon in Jules Verne's "Mysterious Island") though recently the overlooked historical impacts have been brought up as importantly overlooked in the citing of the US military base. Thanks for this interesting article. Archaeology fieldwork is often in the middle and eleventh hour of things in the public sector, and why it should be planned for. This sounds an interesting development there.
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