Re: The Dawn of Art

On Oct 7, 2:26 am, Doug Weller <dwel...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
On Sat, 06 Oct 2007 21:38:29 -0000, in sci.archaeology, Tom McDonald
wrote:

<snip>

I ask again for you to surprise me by learning how to discuss
archaeology scientifically with other scientifically-minded lovers of
the human past.

My viewpoint is that he cannot give an informed opinion not just because
of his own problems but because he lacks the background. Just reading a
few articles won't do the trick. You've got 2 years graduate study,
others have even more. I've got the least but I have some - to be
specific, 3 courses of a 4 course diploma taught at the University of
Birmingham by University archaeologists, if I had taken the fourth course
I would have had automatic entry to the 2nd year of Birmingham's
archaeology degree (UK degrees are typically 3 years, think the last 3
years of an American undergraduate course). And I got A's. Oh, I've got a
good library, used to read the journals a lot, but there is nothing like
seminars and sweating over essays and exams to help develop your knowledge
of a subject.

So, without that, his opinion won't be worth much IMHO.

I agree with you about the need for a better background in archaeology
than Carl betrays. I think once he might have been able to do an
adequate job of preparing himself, even absent academic training.

But by now, it seems clear to me that he has lost that ability to
whatever it is that drives his dysfunctional behavior.

Even now, he does not seem to see that posting quotations from others,
and either asking for agreement/comments, or stating that the quoted
person's ideas are either valid (because they have an academic
background), or controversial, or both.

He promises to summarize the ideas of Conards from the Archaeology
article (although I don't think he has troubled to read the whole
Archaeology article; although even that article is inadequate to
really discuss what Conard is getting at). I think it'll be another
exercise in futility, for the reasons both of us have presented.

But I'm going to give him a little rope and see if he, once again,
hangs himself with it.

.

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