by Kristopher Oppegaard

Created on: April 23, 2010   Last Updated: April 29, 2010

Stating that Indiana Jones is bad for archaeology implies that archaeology is suffering because of the existence of the character, as if there are thousands of starving archaeologists out there, and the movie series is desensitizing the public to their terrible struggle. I am not even sure that anyone really views the fictional Jones as an archaeologist. It's not exactly the most exciting part about what he does.

In fact, when I think of archaeology, I picture paleontologists. Perhaps paleontology is bad for archaeology, with their exciting dinosaur skeletons and all. The point I am getting at is that the idea of Indiana Jones having a negative influence on the field of archaeology whatsoever is completely irrational.

I would say, at best, the only impact Indiana Jones had on the field of archaeology is, and I'm estimating here, a couple dozen deluded fanboys or so decided that they wanted to be archaeologists, only due to the fact that being a Jedi is currently impossible.

They started attending college, majoring in Archaeology, and soon found out that it is literally nothing like the movie and promptly switched to Film so they could emulate it later on. Keep in mind that this is all entirely hypothetical. But if Indiana Jones managed to have a negative impact at all, that is what happened.

If anything, the Indiana Jones franchise has probably helped archaeology. Perhaps more students, with a new-found love of history, took archaeology; and I'm sure any male professor now enjoyed his students' notion that he could possibly be like Indiana Jones and they would never know.

Perhaps more people in general, with a new-found love of history, flocked to their nearest history museum, which is largely responsible for keeping those starving archaeologists fed.

I just hope that they did not confuse the history museum with the natural history museum. Those paleontologists are always stealing the thunder.

To be frank, Indiana Jones is a wholly unrealistic movie. Someone who does not already have pangs of delusion will not be taken in so far as to believe that the world of archaeology is actually like this. And even if someone did, what harm is that to the field itself?

Indiana Jones does not do any damage to the field as it is still just as respected a field as it was prior to movie and the character. There is no evidence to support otherwise.

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