Anthropology, History and Jigsaw Puzzles

Are those three items in the title related? In some ways yes they are related; but in some important ways the answer is no.

The study of the past no matter what field of study it is in is strongly dependent on what factual data is available. To understand the events of a given point in time, you need to know what was going on in the big picture from interaction between countries or kingdoms, how the ruling class lived, how the working or subordinate classes lived and all the details in between. To be considered history, these facts are recorded on some preserved media and double checked by verification of recorded media from another source.

The issue is did the culture and society at a set time and region record that needed data and did those records survive to the current day. If those records do not or did not exist, we are stuck. This is information we do not know. No matter the opinions, speculations or assumptions of ‘experts’, the information is still unknown.

Anthropology is defined on WordNet by Princeton University as:

“Noun - the social science that studies the origins and social relationships of human beings”

Social Science is defined on WordNet by Princeton University as:

“Noun - the branch of science that studies society and the relationships of individual within a society “

History is defined on WordNet by Princeton University as:

“Noun –

1. The aggregate of past events;
2. A record or narrative description of past events;
3. The discipline that records and interprets past events involving human beings;
4. The continuum of events occurring in succession leading from the past to the present and even into the future;
5. All that is remembered of the past as preserved in writing; a body of knowledge; “

What does this all have to do with Jigsaw Puzzles and Curriculum? To properly capture the entirety of the society in the USA today, one would likely have to write a number of books so someone else not familiar with it would comprehend the complexities of life in the USA in the year 2007. Consider this if you will a rather complex snapshot. This snapshot or picture of the past (in about 18 days) can be compared to a jigsaw puzzle. In order to get the full picture you need all of the pieces.

The study of the past is akin to a jigsaw puzzle. Each proven fact is a piece of the puzzle for a specific timeframe or snapshot of the past. However, the fewer facts you have the harder it is to get a complete picture. The fewer pieces of a jigsaw puzzle you have the harder it is to finish it.

The danger comes when that which is outside the realm of History or the recorded past is speculated on or guessing. It is fine to speculate and submit educated guesses for peer review provided that it remains at the appropriate level. Teaching speculations and anthropology to K-6 grade kids when it is a complex collegiate level topic smack of either incompetence or devious intent on the part of the curriculum authors.

To give the proper respect to Historians and the field of Anthropology, do not think of your Spiderman 50 piece jigsaw puzzle from when you were 8 yrs old. (I still have that somewhere.) The fields are far more complex than that. Try something more like this:

“A challenging puzzle concept where nothing is quite as it seems - for a start the puzzle in the box is not the picture on the lid! Just to confuse you even further, the completed puzzle is the picture on the lid as usual - but viewed through a mirror!”

As always, there are also two (or more) ways of looking at the same topic. So let us add in another detail. Let us have the same picture printed on the back but rotated 90 degrees with similarly cut pieces printed equally on the front and back. That would be an appropriate approximation of the topic of Anthropology vs. History and the challenges of creating an accurate picture of the past but with a twist. We have no lid to reference to.

History is based on clear cut facts recorded on multiple media sources. Anthropology tries to insert meaning between the facts. If you have only 50% or less of the puzzle though, your picture is likely wrong. Filling in the missing part with opinion and teaching it as if it is fact is disingenuous at best.

There is no place for teaching opinions to children in what is supposed to be a neutral education environment. Keep it to the facts and let the children formulate their own opinions.