Hi there, angry citizens,

Let's not carry hoes and pitchforks to the castle just yet, shall we?

Kindly reread what I said in previous messages. I need one (1) generic word
to describe collectors (not necessarily of shells) who are not paid for
working on shells. That is not an extensive classification system. Without a
vocabulary of at least 2 terms, it is difficult to discuss how the line
between "amateur/private/avocational collector" and "professional collector"
is becoming blurred and less important as time goes by. As I intend to bring
this up as the subject of a talk in a couple of years at a geological
convention to an audience consisting mainly of paleontologists, I need a
word. It would be awkward and ineffective to contrast "professionals" with
"Art, Tom, and Lori".

As it stands, "amateur" raises problems with many people although it is the
word used most historically, so I'm casting about for a substitute. "Private
collector" seems about as good as any, although as Art and others said, it
has its faults. Bob Nuelle's discussion (which, like mine, was partly
tongue-in-cheek) was useful lexicographically, because he defined terms that
are actually in use today. I don't think anyone should take the "Serious
Collector, Stages 1 to 3" as a *completely* serious classification of
collectors, although there's more truth than joke here, as his later message
made clear. Anyway, as Linda Bush pointed out so heatedly, it's not even
possible or desirable to put collectors accurately into a set of categories.
(I'm sorry to have to break this news to our "advanced collectors"!)

Actually, I'm not sure what went wrong with the word "amateur", which used
to be an honorable one but is now often used with contempt. Let's take a
look at the dustjacket of Abbott's "American Seashells", 1974 edition.
"Dedicated amateur collectors will now find names for the rarest shells..."
"The professional malacologist and serious amateur shell collector will
appreciate the monographic reviews, the identification keys, and the
up-dated nomenclature." "Besides its value to the research worker in marine
mollusks, it will serve as source material for the marine geologist, the
ecologist, the oceanographer, the zoologist, the taxonomist, scientists, and
the amateur shell collector." Evidently, in 1974, the word "amateur" was the
standard one, and could still sell books. Did anyone complain to Tucker
Abbott that he was insulting collectors by calling them amateurs? What has
happened to the word since my undergrad days? It doesn't feel like all that
long ago to me. In this aging body there beats the heart of a man in his
20's even now.

To sum up, even to discuss how categories are becoming unimportant requires
having at least two categories to discuss. I am not proposing to use all
these terms as categories, but to rid ourselves of most of them. "I come not
to praise Caesar, but to bury him." Anyone who does good work should receive
the same merit for it whether they have a university degree or not, and if
they aren't being paid for the work, they deserve more praise, not less.

Andrew K. Rindsberg
Geological Survey of Alabama