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Ways of Knowing the Past:
The Nature of Science
and Humanistic Values
ANTH E316, Prehistory of North America
Larry Zimmerman
Indiana U-Purdue U Indianapolis
How are we connected to the past?
History—written documentation of events provides detail
Seems straightforward, but is it?
What is an historical “fact?”
Revisionist history. How does it happen?
"History is written by the victor." Unknown
"I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge -That myth is more potent than history,I believe that dreams are more powerful than facts.”
Robert Fulghum
Received Wisdom—what our ancestors tell us about the past
Seems “true,” but is it? Myth and its meanings
What are its sources? Experience, intuitive learning, imitation
Historical Memory—what our culture tells us about the past
Seems “true, “ but just how true?
What are its sources? Shared, common beliefs and experiences
‘Contested’ memory
How are we connected to the past?
Reverend Weems Recounting Washington/Cherry
Tree, Grant Wood, 1930.
How are we connected to the past?
Oral tradition — powerful stories with moral consequences
Master narrative — authoritative, dominant, and powerful stories of How the World Works that is supported and validated by society as a whole that guide societies over time
Counter narratives challenge them
Usually told by subordinate groups
Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way (Westward Ho), Emanuel Leutze, 1861
American Progress, John Gast, 1872
How are we connected to the past?
Objects — their contexts and relationships
Material remnants of peoples’ lives
Sentimentality vs. reality
Powerful demonstrations of the realities of past activities
Parts may be missing
Symbolic content of the material
The power of context
The realm of archaeology
But how do we know what we know?
Epistemology
the nature of knowledge, its presuppositions and foundations, and its extent and validity
the way that knowledge claims are justified
How do people deal with the unknown?
The big problem?
We realize that our knowledge is limited.
We also realize our own mortality, which keeps us from becoming omniscient.
We face the ultimate brute question:
How you answer the question depends on your needs.•Something is explained when it is the result of a sentient (thinking) being
Example? God’s will
•Something is explained when it is the result of a general law
Example? “What goes up, must come down” results from the law of gravity
•Something is explained when it is an example of a commonly understood principle
Example? Why is this water going downhill? Because water always flows downhill.
•The co-occurrence of two or more events is explained when can find the factors that connect the events.
Example? The tree and house came down at the same time because a storm came along with very high wind and hit both of them.
We are forced to ‘hypothecate’ relationships between the known and the unknown…
…but using only the terms and concepts of the known.
An Unknown Mancast glass with pate de verre inclusions
Linda Either [email protected]
When you ask a question, how do you know the answer is correct?
•When it satisfies you
•The approach of magic or the idiosyncratic
•When someone tells you it is
•The approach of religion
•When it meets pre-established criteria for ‘correctness’
•The approach of science
Explanation―developing relationships between the known and the unknown. Stories, myths, tales, theories
Prediction―if/then statements. Taboos, adages, hypotheses
Control―gives confidence and power that if you do certain things, you will get a certain result. Rituals, experiments
Three steps for dealing with the
unknown
Magic―
•A "black box"
•Part-time specialists
•difficult to control
•Accepts explanations without question
How do we respond?
Religion―
•A formalized system with detailed beliefs,
•full time specialists,
•social arbiter,
•explanations accepted without test
Science―
•Systematized observations and tests of proposed explanations
•Full-time specialists
•Explanations accepted only with tests
Ways of Knowing
Perception
•The senses
•Language & the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Language helps structure our realities.
"Received" wisdom
Ways of Knowing
•Simple parental training
•Oral tradition
•Written word
•Faith
Science
Ways of Knowing
Demands evidence, which makes it materialistic
Hypotheses―testable statements of relationships
Tests are meant to falsify the hypothesis (prove them wrong)
A theory is a body of interrelated hypotheses that have been difficult to falsify.
Truth vs. Validity
Truth is a matter of belief or faith.
Validity is a matter of how well an argument meets the requirements of the system of logic within which it operates.
For scientists truth is an unattainable goal, and in
fact, is dangerous.
However, scientists constantly question
validity.
Epistemology and North American Archaeology
•From the start, there was the vexing question of who the Indians were and how they got here.
•A wide range of questions demanded a wide range of answers.
•The result was the use of several different epistemologies from theological models to hard core scientific method