Buried Civilizations of the Americas

2. Science, Social Science, and the Scientific Method

• Archaeology, Anthropology, and the Scientific Method
• Science and Concepts of Scientific Explanation
• Social Science
• Anthropology
• Archaeology (next session)
• Science
• Characteristics of the scientific endeavor?
• Concepts in Scientific Explanation
• Research Problems: general topic of research.
• Theories: arguments that integrate diverse observations of the world, often, a statement of causal relationships among variables.
• Hypotheses: testable propositions relating theoretical predictions to observable entities
• Assumptions: statements that are assumed be true
• Indicators: observable entities that show the state of a variable
• Test Implications: operational (observable) statements implied by an hypothesis
• Confirmation: Increased confidence in hypothesis due to positive test (NOT PROOF)
• Testability: The ability to operationalize and test a theory or hypothesis
• Causality
• Social Science
• What is a social science? - Scientific effort to understand individual and collective human behavior.
• What are the Social Sciences and how do they differ?
• Why is Social Science is harder than physical and biological science?
• Anthropology
• What is anthropology & how does it differ from other social sciences? Its purpose is to understand social or cultural behavior - the "science of culture."
• What is Culture? The set of characteristics of a (usually self-identified) group that distinguishes it from other groups.;
• material culture - physical items made or used by a culture.
• ideology - a conceptual framework or social construction of reality
• The Goal of Anthropology is systematic understanding of those aspects of human behavior that are attributable to culture.
• Anthropology tries to account for cultural differences and seeks to understand the operation of cultural institutions
• Holism. Anthropology assumes a reality of social wholes - a culture is more than the sum of the parts.