ANT200H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: The Past (Film), Canadian Identity, Urban Renewal
Document Summary
In any explanation, it is important to be clear about what one is trying to explain whether a specific event, a class of events, or a more general process. Move from description to explanation: description is no longer enough, we need to interpret the materials. Is archaeology objective? (will be tested choose up to 3 min 2) How might theoretical frameworks direct data collection to certain types of data. To what degrees archaeologists can overcome these problems by applying critical thinking skills, following scientific research procedures, and employing scientific techniques. How might researchers" background influence their interpretations of archaeological data. Also, think about individual intelligence vs collective wisdom, long-term vs short-term evaluation. Every step has biases involved, we want to make these biases explicit and address them and solve them. Think about long-term vs short-term evaluation: science is self-correcting over the long term, bad ideas are eventually recognized as bad ideas. Show that you know both the drawbacks and benefits.
