ABSTRACT
It is not just archaeologists who value knowledge of the past. That is the message of this book, repeated by contributors from Europe, North and South America, Africa, India and Australia. ‘I like roots. Plants don’t grow well without them. People are the same’ wrote a Southampton parent quoted by Emmott in Chapter 1. Mbunwe-Samba (Ch. 9) writes of West Africa ‘Our present is a re-embodiment of the past for, although some values have changed and are still changing, the past is with us today’. Anawak (Ch. 2) writes that the harsh environment of the Inuit (Arctic Eskimo) demands ‘actively practising the traditional skills and attitudes and coping mechanisms … these skills are only attained through incorporating the past into the present’. Pandey (Ch. 4) challenges the Western assumption that the study of prehistoric times in India was a British innovation. Contributors show that there are a number of reasons for attempting to preserve an accurate record of the past.
