POLS 2150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Dross, A Priori And A Posteriori, Landfall
27 Jan 2016
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How we view the past will affect what we can learn from it about ourselves. We must not assume that since gender hierarchy and same sex desire has occurred in previous historical periods that is has the same meaning or operates in the same way as it does today. Positivist: the historian takes objective stance and observes evidence of events. The historian is both the product of and the spokesperson of the society to which she/he belongs, cannot stand outside, only interpret. Must remain conscious of this or may make assumptions that are ahistorical and from which we may learn little. One such assumption: developing a history of homosexuality that assumes that is has existed at all times the same. We miss the opportunity to learn more about contemporary meanings through engaging the past. Gender is found in the earliest myths: two polarities, tendencies create the universe.
