Most people know of "The Game" by Strauss. Well, that's not the game I'm thinking of. Not really. It is part of it in much the same way baggy sweatshirts are part of a kleptomaniac; you could have one without the other but come on, what's the point? This Game tends to be more complicated and far-reaching. I suppose you could say it's Life... but then failing at it would really be quite the death sentence wouldn't it? Failing at this Game isn't going to drop you into a casket, but it may put you in a monotonous and meaningless existence. Or an insane asylum.
I am reminded of a boring theory class that suddenly turned mind blowing in a matter of moments. One of those, "Holy shit, my perspective has changed so much and so quickly that I'm not entirely sure what I'm even looking at anymore," moments. Here I am forced to take a chance. Any person who might doubt my field of study and its significance will no doubt believe fully in their opinions by the end of this, which is greatly unfortunate. I can only hope that people will realize the point rather than simply taking the example as confirmation to their beliefs.
My professor presented us with a simple statement to begin with: "An Archaeological theory class is not about learning theory. It's about surviving." At face value, any student will think they understand completely. Hell, I've lived most of my college career by the "just get through it and hope for the best" mentality. But this statement on theory isn't as simple as that, because it really is quite literal. The point of the theory class is akin to a trial by fire. You walk through it, experience excruciating pain, and at the end you've got to decide whether you still believe in what you're doing. After experiencing theory you're forced to realize that no matter what you do and no matter how hard you try to remove all your bias from the equation, you're still looking at everything through the same lens. You can't actually know the past because it simply doesn't exist. You're the one writing history through your perspective. Much the same way Stephen Jay Gould claimed Sociobiology to be the "Art of Storytelling". If someone were to ask you, "Well, how do you really know what you're saying about the past is true?" you'd have to admit simply that, You Don't. Not really. You can't know. The past is dead.
But are you willing to play the game? If you aren't then you might as well go study something more concrete. You have to be able to keep your mind from falling apart. Any theoretical discussion can be continuously broken down again and again until you get to these simple facts. We can't actually KNOW ANYTHING. But, of course, that doesn't mean the study is useless. Much can be learned and understood about things and for a lot of people curiosity is excuse enough. But that's part of the game. You have to be able to keep your mind from breaking down because there really is some good that can be done.
That's just one facet of the Game of course. Hours upon hours and lines upon lines could be spent writing about it because it's so all-encompassing. And that's really what I intend to do, partly for the sake of keeping the mind from degenerating, but mostly for the shits and giggles.
