Interviews: structured, open questions

Since at least a few people are, I was reminded, inconsiderate enough to read what I write, I now feel obliged to write something for them to read, even if it's only a set of structured, open questions I've been working up to generate relevant, informative interviews.

I'm off on a site survey early tomorrow morning, so I should try to get five or six hours' sleep, but the initial plan (section?) of the interview runs thus:

What was the place like?

• How was the place architecturally?
• How was the place socially?

How has it changed?

• How has it changed consensually?
• What has been destroyed?
• What has been allowed to decay?
• What has remained?

What were and/or are archaeologists' roles in the area?

• [Not asking, but observing, how they construct Cypriot history as a history of Cypriots, a history of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, or a history of Greeks and/or Turks in Cyprus.]

What were and/or are archaeologists' roles in society?

• [Possibly asking, probably observing whether they address forensic human rights archaeology's role in recovering missing persons.]
• Should archaeologists work in the North/Occupied Areas?

  • If so, would they be condoning or contributing to the Occupying Powers' human rights violations?
  • If not, would they be enabling or contributing to the Occupying Powers' human rights violations?

• If the Turkish Cypriot administration is violating Greek Cypriots' human rights by allowing the destruction of churches and cemeteries, is the Greek Cypriot government violating Turkish Cypriots' human rights by allowing the destruction of mosques and cemeteries?

  • Are both the government and the administration violating both Greek and Turkish Cypriots' human rights by allowing the destruction of either mosques or churches?
  • Are archaeologists not protecting or violating both Greek and Turkish Cypriots' human rights by not doing what they can to stop the destruction of cultural property in the South/Free Areas and in the North/Occupied Areas?

• Both the Greek Cypriot government and the Turkish Cypriot administration were or are not protecting or violating the human rights of many persons in areas under their control by enabling or contributing to their being trafficked and/or forced into domestic or manual labour or prostitution. (This is particularly true with their tolerance for "cabaret" clubs, many of which are fronts for the prostitution of the "artistes" and "entertainers" "working" - frequently enslaved - in them).

  • Are archaeologists not protecting or violating those persons' human rights by working in the South/Free Areas while it does not do what it can to stop people trafficking and prostitution in areas under its control?
  • Should they continue to refuse to work in the North/Occupied Areas even if the administration's violations of other human rights stop, if it continues not do what it can to stop people trafficking and prostitution in areas under its control?

Well, two or three hours' sleep, then, so I can only hope the coffee will sustain me; still, I'm glad that it's a site survey and that if I do get one or two interviews out of it, the questions are structured but open, as I don't think I could be quite as sharp as I'd like after less than half-a-night's kip.