As an archeologist , Indiana Jones ’ behavior was unimpressive . Artifacts were broken , library floor unceremoniously smashed , and nary a scientific diary was in raft . But , is there an alternate account for his honestly glaring professional conduct ?
After readingthis mail service declaring the famously - behatted professorto be a looter , not unlike the villain he fights , commenterDarth Meow 504suggested an alternate interpretation : Indiana Jones is not really a bad archaeologist , it ’s just that we only see him at his unlawful second occupation .
http://io9.com/why-archeologists-hate-indiana-jones-1636800753/all
There ’s a key difference being glossed over here : that Indiana Jones is never once shown profiting from what he acquires . Yes he gets his missions funded , but he never sells anything and he does n’t have an even remotely overweening life style . He live on his professor ’s salary , and he only works for museums and like instauration . His whole conflict with Belloq is over profiteering . Yes they ’re both looters , both grave despoiler , but Belloq sell what he gets to the highest bidder and Indy give it to museum . Indy decry Belloq as a mercenary , while Belloq calls Indy naive and idealistic to the point of madness .
And it ’s the cosmos of man like Belloq that inform Indy ’s own existence . Looting and hoarded wealth hunting was rearing in those days , and Indy was a man with their skillset working for the good guys . He was a professor of archeology who worked as a freelance treasure hunting watch , nobody ( including him ) claimed that what he did on his risky venture was proper archaeology . It however can be powerfully argued that it was necessary , to get the artifacts for the donnish Earth before they end up on the black market place instead .
In fact , Indy ’s soma of gem hunt was quite beneficial to proper scientific archeology in more ways than simply acquiring treasures for museums before the disgraceful marketeers could . Indy focused on valuables , gold and jewels and treasures that would be the fair game of men like Belloq and leave everything else behind . Once Indy was done with a web site , having empty it of the items that would interest hoarded wealth huntsman , it lost appeal to those gem huntsman . Full archeological crew could then move in and get to the business of real mining and study without vex about competing interest from hoarded wealth seekers . He give out in first , secured the valuable , and when he was done the mercenaries would no longer have any interest in a site and the scientists could then move in unimpeded .
Yes Indy was a cowman venturer looter seeking gem , but he was a white hat one work for the proficient guys .
For our part , while we opine it ’s possible that Indy ’s off - sieve hours were alone occupied in painstaking inquiry and careful reconstruction of the broken library floor left in his wake , it ’s a little hard to imagine that his 2d job did n’t creep into his archeology calling at all .
Indiana Jones
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