ways of knowing the past: the nature of science and humanistic values

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 info@lindaethier.com

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