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5 - Methods without Meaning

Moving Beyond Body Counts in Research on Behavior and Health

from Part I - The Strange and the Familiar

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 November 2019

By
Robin G. Nelson
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

Biological anthropology is an intentionally integrative discipline incorporating methods from various fields. As such, data collection techniques ranging from morphometric analyses of hominin fossils to assessments of human cardiac output via fitness trackers are being added to the methodological catalog. This reflects a trend toward an increased reliance on quantifiable data. These data enable researchers to identify ever more finite differences in individual physiologies, and to discover the threads that connect this variability to our evolutionary past. Thus, it is attractive in its appeal to seemingly more objective scientific approaches to our most enduring areas of inquiry. However, it also signals movement in the field away from a reliance on and confidence in qualitative and descriptive methods, and our unwillingness to ask experiential questions differently in evolutionary anthropological research than our peers in other biological sciences. Thus, these methodological innovations both enhance our findings and limit the plurality of the data that is valued in the field.

Type
Chapter
Information
Evaluating Evidence in Biological Anthropology
The Strange and the Familiar
 , pp. 86 - 100
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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