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Why Should We Care about the Past?

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We’re very pleased to share this guest post by our friend Jonathan Bailey. Jonathan is a photographer specializing in conservation, cultural resources, and public land. He is also the author of Rock Art: A Vision of a Vanishing Cultural Landscape. You can follow him on Instagram and Facebook.

Jonathan will be speaking at the Loft Cinema in Tucson, Arizona, on November 19, 2019, at 6:00 p.m. Join us for this free discussion to get first looks at Molen Reef rock art. Learn more here.

Jonathan Bailey, Photographer, Author, Conservationist
Jonathan Bailey

(November 15, 2019)—If you hang around long enough in archaeology or a related field, you will inevitably be asked why it matters. Most likely, you will have been disciplined on how to respond—that by studying the past, we may cultivate a better future, and that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” (an oft-quoted text from The Life of Reason by George Santayana).

Negative handprint paintings with Ancestral Pueblo structure, Bears Ears National Monument, San Juan County, Utah. Image © Jonathan Bailey
Negative handprint paintings with Ancestral Pueblo structure, Bears Ears National Monument, San Juan County, Utah. Image © Jonathan Bailey

Envisioning human history as an exploitable resource is not, by any means, inaccurate. Through archaeology, we have a better sense of how people responded to a changing climate in the past. We have also observed, in various settings, what happens to people when an ecosystem is stressed to its maximum (hint—it’s extinction), and that’s just the tip of the quickly melting iceberg.

Honeycomb structure with white pictographs, Ancestral Pueblo, Bears Ears National Monument, San Juan County, Utah. Image © Jonathan Bailey
Honeycomb structure with white pictographs, Ancestral Pueblo, Bears Ears National Monument, San Juan County, Utah. Image © Jonathan Bailey

Yes, archaeology has provided some stark premonitions of the future if we fail to reduce our carbon footprint, but it has also painted the past in rich colors, blotching in the details of daily and ritual life once thought to be impossible. Over a century ago, an archaeologist (there are some indications it was Edgar Lee Hewett) famously stated that the field of study was a “sucked orange”—drained of any further progress! He had failed to consider the unimaginable—radiocarbon dating, 3D modeling, and DNA testing, to name just a few technologies that have since revolutionized how we think about the past.

Mesa Verde Corrugated ceramic cooking vessel in the Bears Ears region. It was created during the Pueblo III period (~ A.D. 1150 – 1300) Image © Jonathan Bailey
Mesa Verde Corrugated ceramic cooking vessel in the Bears Ears region. It was created during the Pueblo III period (~ A.D. 1150 – 1300) Image © Jonathan Bailey

In one of my favorite passages from Braiding Sweetgrass, author and plant ecologist Robin Wall-Kimmerer notes that “Science can be a language of distance which reduces a being to its working parts; it is a language of objects. The language scientists speak, however precise, is based on a profound error in grammar, an omission, a grave loss in translation from the Native languages of these shores.”

Ancestral Pueblo structure with intact roof beams. An adult footprint (represented by just the toes) is visible on the left side of the structure (out of frame). Image © Jonathan Bailey
Ancestral Pueblo structure with intact roof beams. An adult footprint (represented by just the toes) is visible on the left side of the structure (out of frame). Image © Jonathan Bailey

Although research has provided us with a wealth of knowledge, believing that the past matters only because of its ability to provide data and statistics is an omission. As members of the conservation community, we have been given a sacred opportunity to extend the definition of value. We have been witnesses to the creation of the Bears Ears National Monument. We have seen the depths to which Indigenous knowledge testifies to the value of place and heritage. We have planted our feet beneath sacred places and sensed there was something greater. I can’t help but feel as if we should know better. If no amount of documentation or research can render the sacred dispensable—which it can’t—then academic scrutiny is far from being the only source of its value.

Fremont pictographs created with a crayon-like mineral block. The pictograph on the left displays an anthropomorphic (or human-like) character with spread arms. Image © Jonathan Bailey
Fremont pictographs created with a crayon-like mineral block. The pictograph on the left displays an anthropomorphic (or human-like) character with spread arms. Image © Jonathan Bailey

Paul Tosa, former governor of the Pueblo of Hémes (Jemez), says that the past holds “living spirits”—a landscape consecrated by hundreds of generations that have inhabited (and still inhabit) these sacred spaces. I am reminded of a newborn child’s footprint pressed into the mortar of a structure in the Bears Ears, each toe distinctly visible above the lintel. One could imagine the child as if they were still clutched in the hands of their parents, wrapped in both arms, as their right foot was dipped into the wet mud.

Newborn child’s footprint pressed in the mortar above the entrance to a structure in the Bears Ears. Image © Jonathan Bailey
Newborn child’s footprint pressed in the mortar above the entrance to a structure in the Bears Ears. Image © Jonathan Bailey

Personally, I believe the past to be a gift, one that is often available without prerequisites (on public lands, which are ancestral territories), for better or for worse. At some point, you may come to the conclusion that the value of the past, or the sacred, is not a question that needs to be asked or answered in a society where the only resources worth justifying seem to be those that are self-serving. We are not alone on this planet. We are not the only culture, or the only species, and many would argue that we are not alone among ancestral spirits. I believe we have a responsibility to the sacred even if humanity is no longer there to partake in its observation. Although, certainly, it is a profound privilege that we are.

Ancestral Pueblo paintings in an alcove gallery. Image © Jonathan Bailey
Ancestral Pueblo paintings in an alcove gallery. Image © Jonathan Bailey

I fear that this question, and answer, allude to a greater misunderstanding. The past matters because it is sacred. Like wilderness, it is a concept that needs no defense, only defenders.

Haunting Barrier Canyon Style images that are nearly invisible during many hours of the day. The prominent character seems to be holding plants and/or seeds. Image © Jonathan Bailey
Haunting Barrier Canyon Style images that are nearly invisible during many hours of the day. The prominent character seems to be holding plants and/or seeds. Image © Jonathan Bailey

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