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The scientific model has its own set of inherent weaknesses and a set of postmodern critics. Scientists assume that the universe and reality exist in the here and now and these can be known through application of the scientific method. This limits science to the natural world and excludes matters of religious faith. Jews and Christians argue that there exist other ways of coming to know such as divine revelation. 

Moreover, some cultural biases influence the objective application of the scientific method since science and scientists exist as part of the culture in which scientists work. Some of these identifiable biases in scientific objectivity include:

• Gender-based inferences about males and females arising from an androcentric bias inherent in male-dominated archaeology (Conkey 1991, Conkey and Williams 1993).

• The distance to be bridged between evidence and hypothesis warrants questioning since the assumption of cross-species conformity and the adoption of animal modeling is highly questionable when applied to early human beings (Longino and Doell 1983).

• Self-fulfilled prophecy dealing with data and its collection i.e., the relationship between the observer and the people to be studied (Conkey and Williams 1993).

• Politically constituted nature of knowledge and its historical embellishments (di Leonardo 1991).

• The "content-stripping" attributes of the scientific research paradigm lying in the assumption that general laws must be "context independent, free of specific constraints of any particular context and therefore applicable to all" although human action and experience remain context-dependent (Mishler 1979:2).

• Other factors a researcher brings to the research situation, i.e., intellectual and emotional baggage. Concerning a shift in applied anthropology practice von Willigen writes "certain anthropologists came to feel that social scientists cannot separate their work from real-world values, and that to do so creates a dangerous illusion of true objectivity" (von Willigen 1993:28).

Such biases, however, not only have had minimal impact but these may be controlled in a reasonable manner. These biases do not exist at such a level nor reach such a magnitude as to warrant the rejection of the scientific method as some postmodernist thinkers seek. The scientific method has demonstrated itself as the most effective means for coming to know.

Page last edited: 02/18/07 10:13 PM

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