The politics and power of American archaeology

Cahokia...I avoided archeology field school in university because I'd have to spend the summer in Cahokia Illinois. That is in southern Illinois, very hot and humid - between St.Louis and Collinsville. When I was growing up and after high school, Cahokia the actual town - not the archeological site, was a place black people avoided. Well-founded, based on my high school experience. I did had one good friend from there. Anyway, no freaking way I was spending summers there! I avoided archeology in the New World - North, Central, and South Americas. Rich histories that culminated in oppression and decimation. Can't immerse myself in that without guilt and anger. Just not interested. North America, I refuse to disturb indigenous ancestors of living peoples, bad karma. The rest of the Americas - GIANT and numerous insects, jungles, heat, humidity. (I can still see the Americas cockroach exhibit at the Field Museum of Natural History - I was 4 years old the first time I saw it. A huge pin board of roaches, the largest in the center was half my height long. Future visits I noted the further south you travel, or towards the equator, the bigger cockroaches grew. Brazil was a no go, ever.) Same old, favorite, story... I wanted to do archeology in Denmark. Came so close! Okay, c'mon, Vikings?!!! What?!! YES. Nice climate in summer and the midnight sun, no heinous insects or vermin, digs in peat bog and soil fields, Queen Marguerite is very fond archeology - it is funded. I had studied, sort of, Old Norse and culture forever, and wanted to learn Danish. Be in Denmark! None of which my Danish peeps could remotely comprehend, at all. "I want to learn Danish!" "Why?! Only 5 million people in the world speak it." "Because it's so cool!" "ha ha ha ha!" "I'm going to come back to study in Denmark!" "Hey, that's great! What will you study?" "Prehistoric Archeology!!!!" "Oh." I had visited the University of Copenhagen. Ultimately, I got verbally accepted into the prehistoric archeology program, no exam needed**(see below). They don't have grad school - they planned to advance me far into the program. Ah wait people, I haven't learned any archeology or whatever else you teach. **Prehistoric Archeology - one of the absolute most unpopular programs in the Danish university system, second only to theology at the bottom. They wanted me. This means there's no competition to get in. Popular programs require exceptional students and exam scores - like anthropology. YES, anthropology has, as they told me themselves, "the cream of the crop of Danish students...we don't give them exams at all", etc. Beautiful facility, big, spacious, bright white with huge color photos of indigenous brown and black people on the walls. I was shocked and suspicious, "What planet am I on?!". Few Americans, or any one else, even know what anthropology is. "Oh! You want archeology? That's over..." in the old buildings. Later I realized many educated Danes, especially girls, seem to have a thing for dark people - of the opposite sex. Getting sent to Africa or South America is a dream come true I imagine. Nay, say I!! Deadly everything, bugs, snakes, animals...like Australia. Live in a village in a hot jungle or hot plain? Eat and drink... whatever THAT is? That stuff I had studied. Sorry, no lies here, no way. Get thee to prehistoric archeology please.
Source:
The politics and power of American archaeology
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Archaeologists and anthropologists don’t just study the dynamics of power and politics. They are actively mired in political systems - a position which they need to embrace