GEN-MEDIEVAL-L Archives

Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 2002-03 > 1016667238


From: Arthur Murata <>
Subject: Re: Plantagenet Descents from Ancient Judea
Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2002 15:34:04 -0800 (PST)
In-Reply-To: <3C9816CC.6030908@interfold.com>


I forgot to add that I am not necessarily referring to the
specific question that this thread addresses nor to the
specific individuals who are participating in it. Bronwen



--- "Todd A. Farmerie" <> wrote:
> Arthur Murata wrote:
>
> > You know, it seems to me that some of you take the need
> for
> > documentation to an extreme. Granted, when one is ready
> to
> > officially publish the results of their research, the
> > documentation is crucially important. But one does not
> get
> > to theory without hypothesis and one does not get to
> > hypothesis without brainstorming and creativity. The
> idea
> > must occur to someone before it can be researched;
> then,
> > after sufficient testing, it either stands or it
> doesn't. I
> > think we should encourage creative thinking with the
> caveat
> > that it is part of an early step in the process of
> doing
> > genealogy (or any other pursuit based on the principles
> of
> > scientific inquiry). Loosen up. Best, Bronwen
>
> The problem is that creative thinking usually leads
> people to
> create links that never existed. Without requiring
> evidence,
> then there is nothing to root genealogy in reality - it
> becomes
> an artistic exercise rather than a scholarly pursuit.
> Hypotheses
> and brainstorming have their places, but even they must
> have some
> sort of link to evidence - to say that a Hungarian
> married a
> Khazar, and that some of the Khazars had been jewish for
> a while,
> is simply insufficient to even merit consideration of a
> genealogical descent of the Plantagenets to the Kings of
> Judea.
> If the necessary documentation does not survive, then the
>
> speculation is entirely futile, while if the
> documentation does
> not exist, then the speculation is superfluous, as you
> have the
> evidence (or not).
>
> taf
>


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Movies - coverage of the 74th Academy Awards
http://movies.yahoo.com/

This thread: