Harold Dibble: Skepticism, Null models, and p < 0.05

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Establishing the Science of Paleolithic Archaeology: The Legacy of Harold Dibble (1951–2018) Part II" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Harold Dibble thought that one of the most important attributes of a good scientist is deep skepticism. He brought a persistent skepticism to every aspect of his scientific curiosity whether it was in his own field of prehistory or elsewhere. His skepticism also made him argumentative, a trait he relished more than many of his colleagues. Most often these disagreements were rooted in the null model or what initial conditions we can attribute to past hominin behavior. In his view, one of the primary responsibilities of prehistorians working on the origins of human behavior was to carefully guard against including particular behaviors into the suite of past hominin behaviors too quickly (meaning also too early in time). Thus his null models were viewed as drastically underappreciating the range or state of past hominin behavioral repertoires. This starting point combined with his need to demonstrate the contrary at p < 0.05 type levels of confidence on what is a nearly always flawed archaeological record meant that Harold’s views on topics like Neanderthal use of fire, burials, symbolism, etc., remained conservative. This presentation will elaborate these points with examples from his life and career.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Establishing the Science of Paleolithic Archaeology: The Legacy of Harold Dibble (1951–2018) Part II   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37123.0