The dangers of human error surround us all, but they cannot be avoided; it is inevitable. As I have gone through my high school career I have thought, though I know realize it is a very elementary thought, that science is one of the most stable curriculum and thus not susceptible to human error. I was very wrong.
This week in my science class, Reading and Writing Science, we studied Archeology. Archeology is a field that requires the background information of history and the scientific methods of science. This profession, like most others, is very susceptible to the dangerous of human error. Through my own experience in class after viewing seven, foreign pictures, I have learnt that archeology has to do almost entirely with human observations and perspectives. After a body or an artifact is dug up, it is the job of archeologists to figure out as much as they can about the different objects. Because humans are not omnipotent creatures, sometimes they are wrong in their assumptions and conclusions on the history of these artifacts. After revisiting the pictures and being told the story and professional findings of each one, I too found there were errors in my observations; sometimes I omitted some artifacts and made unknown prejudice or cultural assumptions on the deceased individuals, which in turn caused me to interpret the evidence incorrectly.
There were many instances where I was a victim of human error by unintentionally omitting some artifacts in the pictures. One occurrence of this was my initial observation of picture seven. My original observation was as follows: This person’s skull looks like it is smiling. The mouth is open wide and the head is rested on a white rock. The spin is going down straight so it looks as i...
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...man was left outside to decay. Once his body decayed, they collected his bones and respectfully placed them into some sort of basket. Then he was buried. There were gifts that I did not notice that were placed in with his bones. Although the bones are scattered and look gruesome to me, for this culture, this is considered a respectful burial. Because of my unconscious cultural prejudice assumption on the burial, my conclusions on the picture were completely false.
Although not all of my observations were faulted, two of them greatly were. After much contemplation, I have concluded that though archeology is susceptible to human error, so is pretty much everything else. One can never truly escape human error; but one can learn to work with and around human error. Once someone masters working with and around human error, I think they become an expert in their field.
“Skeletons in the Closet”, written by Clara Spotted Elk, is a well-built argument, but it can be enhanced to become immensely effective. Firstly, Elk’s position is effective in obtaining her purpose and connecting her audience to it, because she includes a broad scope and background of the problem in the first few paragraphs. She describes the amount of Indian skeletons preserved and contained by American museums, through the use of data and statistics. For instance, Elk states: “we found that 18,500 Indian remains…are unceremoniously stored in the Smithsonian’s nooks and crannies” (13-15). By using this data, the background of the argument is illustrated to assist the audience in understanding her argument. Now, by knowing this statistic, readers can connect with Elk and her assertion, since we realize that there are plenty of skeletons that
The show portrays that forensic anthropologists are responsible for almost every aspect of the death investigation, which does not correctly depict the role of forensic anthropologists (Wood,2017a). The method of which components of the biological profile, like sex of the remains, is also incorrectly portrayed as Dr. Brennan estimated the sex using a trait that does not accurately indicate sexual dimorphism (Wood, 2017c). Lastly, the complexity of personal identification, which is one of the most important aspects of forensic anthropology casework (Krishan et al, 2016), is not portrayed correctly as Dr. Brennan and her team based the identification of the remains on one trait that has questionable reliability (Charles & Levisetti, 2011). All in all, ‘The feet on the beach’ episode of ‘Bones’ does not accurately portray the forensic anthropology as it is romanticized for entertainment and overly simplified for a lay person to
...uried. The way Heaney describes this cleansing of the body and clothing it was depicted in a very ritualistic and loving way. It showed how important it was to Heaney that his cousin was buried correctly and humanely.
Processual Archaeology, was a movement in the archaeological field that began in the 1960‘s and changed the course of archaeology forever. Anthropologists such as Julian Steward were absolutely influential on many archaeologists and anthropologists during the early 1960s with his theories of cultural ecology which established a scientific way of understanding cultures as human adaption to the surrounding environment (Steward, 1955: 36-38). It was approaches such as Stewards that led eventually led to a rejection of culture-historical approaches to the archaeological record and propelled the ideas of cultural evolution and its reaction with the environment. This approach to cultural systems was essentially a rejection of the culture-historical approach of determinism by suggesting that the environment influences culture but is not a deterministic feature and that both culture and the environment were two separate systems that are dependent on each other for change (Steward, 1955: 36).
Anthropology is a study of mankind that goes beyond the fragment of ones skeletal remains. Anthropology Studies involved within this science include the culture and surroundings a person once lived in.Anthropology, (2014) A example scientist often conduct archaeological digs. Their findings reveal many different aspects of that person or person’s life. The weather a person could have been exposed to. The environment or activities that person might have participated in. The scope of life that can be recovered from human remains is astonishing. Forensic Science as a whole is an impressive and interesting science that can be used within many different realms.
Archaeologists are trying very hard to understand the ethnographers. They do this because they want to understand just what it is that they are digging up, and the best way to find out is to ask the people who use them. Of course they are not perfect, and some archaeologists dig competitively (almost like tomb raiders), but overall, we can learn a lot about ancient people from the work of these two groups of scientists working together with the past and the present.
At the same time, those reburying the dead would present new goods, many from those not from the moving village, that would be added to the graves. This increase the number of artifacts present, and if someone analyzing these graves did not know that such an event occurred, it may be interpreted that the deceased were of a very high status. Since bones appear sexless to those who aren’t trained to notice it, male and female bodies may be mixed up, depending on how carefully the bodies are moved, meaning that while men and women are only originally buried with their respective sex or with certain goods, reburial may change how the data appears. Along this same path, old burials are likely mixed with new, so trends in how bodies are oriented and the goods they are buried with may be lost with each reburial. Ultimately, it is important to consider each burial within its culture’s specific context before attempting to make any assumptions about mortuary practices. By failing to note how reburials impact the context of a grave, especially mass reburials like the Huron Festival of the Dead, important information about these mortuary practices is lost due to one’s own
People may say that mistakes just hold scientists back and provide obstacles. John Denker says, “scientists worked to avoid mistakes.” He says that scientists did not just make one mistake that led to a big discovery, but they invented their products little by little, trying to make it perfect. Mistakes may hold you back sometimes, but they also really help you learn what to do at work.
Diamond, J. (1987). The worst mistake in the history of the human race. Discover, 8(5), 64-66.
Archaeology is the closest thing we have to a time machine. It is the only way we can know the unrecorded, and sometimes even the recorded, past. History may be written by the victorious, but archaeology is about the common people. There are archaeological sites ranging in age from thousands-of-years-old prehistoric habitations, to the Egyptian pyramids, to World War II military bases. As a means of obtaining knowledge about our collective past, archaeology has been unsurpassed. It is the literal and figurative digging up of the forgotten past.
The role of reflexivity and objectivity are both important concepts within archaeology. Beginning with reflexivity, according to Johnson, “Reflexivity refers to the back-and-forth, double-edged nature of academic enquiry, in which what we learn about the past is always and immediately bound up with practices in the present,” (Johnson 2011: 141). Archaeologists and other researchers who adapt a reflexive approach to the field, acknowledges personal or professional biases that could potentially cloud the results of the findings. Reflexivity simply allows the researcher to recognize how their own culture or political climate could alter their findings. It not only allows the researcher to better understand their findings, but also helps others
Therefore, it’s difficult to start a conversation between geologists, archaeologists and historians. It’s vital to narrow the research prospects in these fields but also I think there needs to be more scientific discourse between different fields that affect each other in one way or another. The human historical paradigm is grounded in the research of archaeology. However, Hancock debates that the field of geology has more to teach humans about our history than we think. He debates that around 15,000 to 8,000 BC, during the last ice age, an unprecedented world-wide cataclysm was overlooked that led to the extinction of countless species, including the megafauna (Hancock
When people (mostly scientists) make mistakes they can sometimes come out in a good way. People can try over again, and agian, and agian but never succeed, but still find something knew. That is why Sir Isaac Newton found gravity, he just was sitting under a tree and found that an apple fell on his head. Later he said that the reason that things fall is because of gravity that the earth has.
Verbal accounts of historical events have been disproven many times through scientific investigation. However, some have been reinforced as well with archaeological findings to back up verbal accounts. Unfortunately the credibleness and plausibility of verbal accounts have suffered leading to conflicts and disagreements over facts, both in the past and present day.
Archaeology is the study of very old continues, and recent human past through material remains. The aim for an archaeologist is to find out the past, reconstructing heritage history, who was where, when, with what, how and why do heritage change or stay the same, interoperating past heritage, and interpreting what did people’s inhabits mean. In numerous ways archaeology helps us realise the past and how the present became to be now.