Archaeology, Living Wages, and the Informal Economy

Working in Latin America for well over ten years now as an archaeologist, I have seen the dollars and cents side of projects from a few different perspectives, though not as many as others and not as an employee. An important issue is pay rates that archaeologists offer folks who work and labor on our projects. This is an incredibly important question because it is a place where archaeologists create and perpetuate class conditions (i.e., McGuire 2008; McGuire and Walker 1999). We enter these communities not as solitary ethnographers or simply benevolent scientists. Rather we enter these places as employers. A friend of mine, who is a socio-cultural anthropologist working in west Africa, frequently tells me that anthropology is, at its roots, exploitation--harvesting of information that, in the very least, is used to enhance ones success as a researcher. Archaeology itself almost seems a perfect Colonial enterprise: just replace minerals and other resources with artifacts. I have observed archaeological projects in Mexico where directors pay local people 90 pesos a day. I have seen pay rates between 100 and 110 pesos a day. Many workers take the money and the physical labor because they have the need (and the hope that a better opportunity will arise).

There is no question that archaeologists contribute to the informal economy in Mexico, though to what extent is probably impossible to quantify. A recent article in La Jornada reports data from INEGI that the informal economy supported about 14 million people in Mexico in 2011, more than 1 million than 2010 and more people than have permanent employment and health/security benefits.

Here is a link:

La Jordada: la economía informal

One in three workers in Mexico, INEGI reports, receives no more than 120 pesos a day. This amount is more than minimum wages in Mexico. Thus, I've heard archaeologists paying around the 100 pesos a day rate slap themselves on the backs for the charitable contribution to local economies. But is this enough? Here is what La Jornada says can be bought with this salary (pardon my Spanish):

Así, uno de cada tres trabajadores remunerados del país tienen un ingreso que, para efectos comparativos, es suficiente para comprar: un litro de aceite comestible (23.5 pesos); un kilogramo de pollo entero (34 pesos); un kilogramo de jitomate (18 pesos); un kilogramo de cebolla (17 pesos); un cuarto de kilo de chile jalapeño (cinco pesos); un kilogramo de tortilla (11 pesos) y tres boletos del Metro (tres pesos cada uno). La suma del costo de esos productos es de 117.56 pesos.

Can or Should archaeologists pay more? There is a tension here between research and ethics, especially considering the enormous amounts of physical labor projects require combined with the limited amount of funding to support them. What should be the choice? My inclination is that many project budgets are set up to short change local workers as much as possible to retain a surplus for unexpected issues (research or otherwise). In fact, archaeologists are often well positioned for such Colonialist behavior.

But the problem is real and not easy to deal with sometimes. It can also create a lot of tension and stress in communities. My former adviser, Liz Brumfiel, who sadly passed away last month, was both archaeologist and activist. She pursued a living wage in archaeology agenda. I don't know to what extent she raised this item as an ethical issue generally in the field (though knowing her she did), but I know she invested considerably in making the people of Xaltocan, Mexico as important as her research. It was challenging to follow in her footsteps when I began working there, especially with funding limited by grad student status. Yet I tried to follow her lead, as did her other students who worked in Xaltocan and the area. We all recognized immediately when we began we were employers first and archaeologists second. Any other attitude is one or more of the following: (1) sheltered, (2) in denial, (3) deliberately exploitative. I'm not trying to put myself or my colleagues on some pedestal, but I know we paid our employees more than any other projects I knew of at the time. I would not hesitate for a moment to put Liz on one, however. She was a model to follow professionally, academically, and ethically. We will always miss her.

Should the SAA try to establish living wage goals for archaeologists working abroad?

McGuire, R.
2008 Archaeology as Political Action. University of California Press.

McGuire, R and M. Walker
1999 Class Confrontations in Archaeology. Historical Archaeology 33(1):159-183 .