Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Acknowledgments
- SECTION I AN EARLY FORMATIVE MESOAMERICAN PROBLEM
- SECTION II ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATA
- SECTION III DERIVING MEANING FROM THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD
- 8 Data and Expectations
- 9 Conclusion
- Appendix 1 Temporally secure excavation contexts at Cuauhtémoc with detailed ceramic data
- Appendix 2 Temporally secure excavation contexts at Cuauhtémoc without detailed ceramic data
- References Cited
- Index
8 - Data and Expectations
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Acknowledgments
- SECTION I AN EARLY FORMATIVE MESOAMERICAN PROBLEM
- SECTION II ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATA
- SECTION III DERIVING MEANING FROM THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD
- 8 Data and Expectations
- 9 Conclusion
- Appendix 1 Temporally secure excavation contexts at Cuauhtémoc with detailed ceramic data
- Appendix 2 Temporally secure excavation contexts at Cuauhtémoc without detailed ceramic data
- References Cited
- Index
Summary
[Ideas] are given in experience and derived from the external world. [They] must therefore somehow correspond to that world…
Childe 1956: 55Some sort of empirical basis is required to evaluate competing theories proposed to explain the past. If not, archaeological fieldwork does not expand our knowledge, and preference for one explanatory model over another is simply a matter of taste. Regardless of the source of theories, or the manner of data presentation, better explanations must be favored when they more fully, logically and simply explain the material patterns documented by archaeologists. This perspective gives equal weight to inductively and deductively derived ideas, although I can think of no reason not to frame questions in a broadly deductive manner when possible (Nagel 1961: 15–28). Although deductive presentation is to some degree a matter of style, it tends to generate a more logical explanatory scheme with emphasis on the explicit treatment of expected material patterns. My attempt to elaborate expected patterns for the three models presented at the end of Chapter 3 might be a bit cumbersome but it forces a formal evaluation of who says what and exactly what data favor which models. Even more importantly, it forces a formal evaluation and choice of the model that best corresponds to the current state of the data.
In this chapter, I propose that a pragmatic positivism most convincingly allows competing hypotheses to be evaluated.
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- The Beginnings of Mesoamerican CivilizationInter-Regional Interaction and the Olmec, pp. 259 - 290Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009