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11 - Discussion and Conclusion

Move Forward, Critically

from Part II - (Re)Discovery of Evidence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 November 2019

By
Cathy Willermet  and
Sang-Hee Lee
Edited by
Cathy Willermet  and
Sang-Hee Lee
Cathy Willermet
Affiliation:
Central Michigan University
Sang-Hee Lee
Affiliation:
University of California, Riverside
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Summary

As far as I (Sang-Hee) was concerned, the attraction of biological anthropology was in its scientific approach. The lure of hypothesis testing using empirical data where the only bias to worry about was small sample size was such a powerful position for me, who had been on the humanities track until graduate school. During the 1990s in graduate school I was surprised to find out that the very premise of the scientific approach was questioned by my cohort in cultural anthropology. I quickly dismissed it without engaging in further discussion. Questioning the objectivity and the neutrality of research design was unthinkable.

Type
Chapter
Information
Evaluating Evidence in Biological Anthropology
The Strange and the Familiar
 , pp. 202 - 216
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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