I believe that all archaeologists have a certain responsibility to confront psuedoarchaology in their given field, but not within the field at large. There is such an abundance of archaeological data that it could be considered almost impossible to be an expert in every field– archaeologists specialize just like doctors, narrowing their focus to master a specific subject rather than aiming to have a more general knowledge over a wide range of topics. It seems like a bad strategy to ask a historical archaeologist specializing in Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest to rule on whether or not a viking rune stone is authentic or relevant to a certain argument. Opinions carry much more weight when they come from someone who has spent a significant amount of time studying a particular topic. This is also why other academics (like geologists or neurologists) are unqualified to give a definitive scientific opinion on archaeological matters.
In addition, we cannot devote ourselves to a constant state of vigilance over a field as broad as archaeology. If every individual archaeologist kept an eye out for every single psuedoarchaeological act in anticipation of having to respond and debunk the claim no one would ever have time for individual research to further the field. This one reason why our society has dedicated police officers instead of asking each civilian to be on the lookout for minor infractions like busted tail lights or cracked windshields.
It would be interesting to contemplate the idea of a designated force of archaeologists to monitor social and academic circles for pseudoarchaeology. These archaeologists would not necessarily have to be experts across the board. I think that it would be enough to have an archaeological academic background and be aware of the certain red flags that often indicate pseudoarchaeology. If a claim raised enough flags it could be investigated further, or sent out to experts for further investigation.
However, I believe that the best way for the archaeological community to combat pseudoarchaeology is by having each person maintain an awareness in their chosen field of expertise. Thus, an expert in Mayan archaeology would only be expected to pay attention to pseudoarchaeological claims made pertaining to the ancient Maya, an Egyptologist only be expected to pay attention to claims made pertaining to ancient Egypt, etc. This ensures that each claim is being evaluated by someone with the right amount of knowledge to evaluate its validity without overburdening archaeologists by asking them to filter through too much content.
I definitely agree that it’s better for archaeologists to focus on arguing against pseudoarchaeology that involves their area of expertise. If you try to argue against someone when you don’t have all the facts, you’ll probably end up making them feel even more sure that they’re right. A “divide and conquer” strategy is more effective. I do see a possible issue in this though, in that some archaeologists would have way more pseudoarchaeology to deal with than others- the Egyptologists would never get any rest.
Also, I agree that archaeologists do have to draw the line somewhere regarding what arguments are actually constructive to have, and which are futile and just taking up time that could be spent doing real archaeology. There will almost certainly always be some people out there who believe pseudoarchaeological ideas and just won’t listen to reason or respond to facts. That’s why I think it’s most important to try to prevent these beliefs from spreading any further, instead of trying to change the minds of people who have their heads stuck firmly in the sand.
The idea you mentioned of a “pseudoarchaeology task force” is interesting and something I had never considered before. I’m not sure how that would work logistically, though. Who would be responsible for putting together the force? Would they be their own organization, or answer to an academic institution or something like that? Who would pay for it? What exactly would they spend their time doing? I am curious to know.