In light of Pokémon animation and some cool-with-the-kids references, Professor Simon Holdaway and Kasey Allely’s presentation seemed kind-of… far-out and arbitrary?
While it was interesting to hear about the process of investigation, and how it was carried out in a unique way, it almost as if the means didn’t justify the outcome. At the end of their research process, they concluded that the shell-mounds have never been as they were and they never will be that way again, and that they really didn’t suggest anything about human behaviour. My preliminary reaction was “So what?” What does it matter that we investigate shell-mounds if they don’t tell us anything about the past?
Now, this may have been a pessimistic/ glass-half-empty view on their research (not to say that the research wasn’t interesting itself; having to sift through large amounts of cut out shell-mound is 💯), but I couldn’t figure out the importance of their findings were in the grand scheme of things. Maybe their findings suggest that everything we do doesn’t actually have any meaning, and we’ll all be a part of a shell-mound sooner or later? Clarity in the potential implication of the research would have helped me “care.”
Reflecting on my own research topic, I think that it incredibly important to highlight how my findings/research are relevant to our society today, and what my findings actually mean.
