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Kayak and Canoe Design Bulletin Board
Re: Inuit rules for kayak design.
Posted By: Will Brockman In Response To: Re: Inuit rules for kayak design. (Ross Miller)
Date: Thursday, 21 October 1999, at 12:58 p.m.
> Nick,
> By focusing on my last sentence you make me sound as paternalistic and
> condescending as the scientists I criticize. I hope that my post in its
> entirety makes my meaning clear: that whether or not it can be proven
> scientifically, it is more than likely that conscious and deliberate
> innovation did occur.I don't know whether you've had a chance to read the "scientific" article yet (it's very short), but I think it condescends more to science than it does to past Inuit culture. The author seems incapable of imagining a more robust notion of hypothesis, contrasting it only with Shamanism. "Conscious and deliberate innovation" requires close observation, attention to complexity, and highly refined skills, and it surely is not "primitive." But it also is not scientific if it does not involve the formulation and testing of hypotheses. Evolution in Inuit kayak design could have proceeded from trial and error. ("Let's try a longer boat and see what happens.") Or it could have proceeded from serendipity. ("I accidentally made my kayak too long and discovered it was faster.") Or superstition. ("The Shaman told me of a dream in which he went out over the water in a long boat and caught many fish, so I built a longer boat, and it was faster.") Or blind rivalry. (Two men smeared in seal blood challenge eachother to a competition in boatbuilding and racing; the competitive process produces incentives to differentiate their designs, and the builder of the longer boat wins the race.) Or it could have proceeded from hypothesis. ("I think a boat's length is related to its speed because the bow wake....; I will test my theory by building a longer boat and comparing it to my short boat.")
None of these methods is simple or primitive, but only one is scientific. The author of the article gave little evidence that it was the method that was operating to produce variety in kayak design. (And as Nick points out, what little evidence she does give is not very persuasive because it seems to misunderstand the properties of different hull designs. Her speculations should therefore be regarded as a failed hypothesis....)
--Will
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