Archaeological Looting on American Television

Since I've run out of exciting Iraqi topics, I've decided to shift my lens of focus from the Middle-East to the entirety of our awesome planet Earth.

Not really what I was getting at, but thanks anyway, Google. 

Southwest Archaeology Today dolefully reported Spike TV's airing of a new, unscripted television show that apparently glorifies looting and the trading of unregistered antiquities. Though I myself am not familiar with the program, it's called American Digger, premiering earlier this year in March. The program centers around the excavating of locations associated with historical documents, generally found through private brokers and on privately-owned land. Part of the drama comes from what the appropriate Wikipedia article describes as "many Americans being protective of their land." Imagine that.

If any items are uncovered in the treasure hunt, their financial worth and accompanying historical significance are assessed by the appropriate experts. Should anything found be deemed valuable, the hosts of American Digger put it up for auction and split the profits with whichever protective American decided to allow Spike onto his or her land.

I guess I can sort of see why Wikipedia stopped pretending to not be biased.

A similar show airs on the National Geographic Channel (this time called simply Diggers), of all places. Susan Gillespie of the University of Florida criticizes both networks, saying that, "“Our main issue is that these shows promote the destruction and selling of artifacts which are part of our cultural heritage and patrimony.” I assume that her use of an inclusive pronoun is an extension of her background in anthropology - although the context isn't made incredibly clear, I've gotten the impression that she's either speaking or portends to be speaking on behalf of the academic community.

The main complaint of professors like Gillespie and such publications as Southwest Archaeology is that shows like American Digger promote the systematic destruction of United States' history. I personally would be inclined to agree with this conclusion, if only to a certain extent - after all, our economy is a capitalist one, and not every important artifact with invariably end up inside the Smithsonian. Should the folks on American Digger present an image more in line with that espoused by ostensibly enraged archaeologists the nation over? Yeah, probably.

I, however, doubt that Spike TV is all too concerned with academic integrity as it is with turning a profit.