Why National Science Foundation Funding -- and Archaeology -- Matters

[Coyotl]

Paul Mullins
President, Society for Historical Archaeology
Posted: 11/06/2013 - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-mullins/why-national-science-foun_b_4228125.html

Why National Science Foundation Funding -- and Archaeology -- Matters

For much of the past year Representatives Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) and Lamar Smith (R-Texas) have led a call for tighter control of National Science Foundation (NSF) funding. Cantor and Smith have singled out NSF social science funding, bemoaning why the taxpayers should want to support programs such as archaeology. Their apparently reasonable claim for fiscal sobriety conceals their skepticism about the value of social science, and it underscores an anti-scholarly agenda that aspires to erode the nation's longstanding commitment to science.

Cantor and Smith's strongest rhetoric is reflected in their September suggestion that "Congress is right to ask why NSF chooses to fund research on Mayan architecture over projects that could help our wounded warriors or save lives." The Representatives certainly realize that no NSF reviewers weighed the choice between archaeology and neurological research on wounded soldiers. That suggestion is a contrived appeal to our national commitment to soldiers, staking a deceptive emotional claim on our sense of justice and fiscal sanity.

The Representatives reject the research priorities crafted by scholars and the NSF and propose a more assertive federal overview of the peer-review process to monitor spending and scholarship. In this call for scholarly accountability, Cantor and Smith single out a few research project titles as symptomatic examples of ill-conceived scientific research priorities that fail to provide "demonstrated return on investment."

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[Judi Lynn]

1. A new low. This leaves a person stunned and amazed.

Why on earth do they imagine it is their place to try to control ever cent of the budget for this country, and that every thing must go other than permanent war, and pork to Red states?

They don't even intend to attend to the needs of the veterans when they return home, in various stages of health, often needing help desperately.

They must have decided against allowing further study in this area because archeologists have been known to point out so many finds which are over 6,000 years old.

Have never seen anything this stupid from U.S. Congresspeople.