Nomadic Thoughts: It's "just a theory"

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

It's "just a theory"

Been working on Chapter 2 of the thesis this week. It's the theoretical framework chapter...the one where I explain where my research is in relation to the decades of other studies that have looked at ancient communities and water resources. One reason this chapter will be one of the hardest for me is because I have to come up with a definition of "community" that is...get this...both archaeologically testable and recognizes the "imagined" aspect of social groupings. The first part is easy: you see a bunch of ancient house mounds grouped together it's pretty safe to assume that they thought of themselves as a community. Or can you? That's the hardest part about theory of this kind. You can't assume anything. You have to demonstrate it, show evidence, back up your claims, etc. My head hurts.

Today's monkey picture: a monkey utilizing a water resource? Was he part of a community? Prove it!

Posted by Will at September 12, 2007 04:44 PM in Graduate School

Comments

Have you read Boyd and Richerson? I don't know if they have a bigger impact in the US with archaeology being tied to anthropology there. One big idea they have is that you're looking at norms that emerge from populations. I suppose if you find repeatable patterns then you can argue for shared organisational strategies across a region and the repeated patterns are communities.

It might not be a universal solution, but it may be sufficient for the questions you're asking.

Posted by: alun at September 15, 2007 10:23 AM