Abstract
It is an exciting time in the scientific study of humans and our evolution. The archaeology of Alabama provides particularly powerful insights and empirical evidence adding much to this study. The “new human sciences” are maturing at an ever-accelerating rate from a series of relatively isolated disciplines (including psychology, biology, paleontology, archaeology, anthropology, economics, and history) into a single powerfully insightful “human” science. Moreover, this growing clarity and confidence, in turn, allows us to choose specific opportunities for fruitful study—and Alabama offers an especially elegant case.
Over the course of the Scientific Revolution of the last 400 years, we have had many occasions to watch individual sciences mature. They pass through a predictable series of steps or stages. A new science begins with what is sometimes called “natural history,” the careful description of the phenomena to be described. The growth into a mature science follows. This is when coherent theory, unifying the entire field of study, is developed. We have also learned that this transition from natural history to maturing science always involves unification with other sciences whose insights provide indispensable explanatory components to the emerging newer science.
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Bingham, P.M., Souza, J., Blitz, J.H. (2017). What Can the Alabama Mississippians Teach Us About Human Evolution and Behavior?. In: Lynn, C., Glaze, A., Evans, W., Reed, L. (eds) Evolution Education in the American South. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95139-0_13
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