Expert: Ernest Tufft - 5/4/2008

Question
Why is it helpful to have observations of African societies from Arab travelers and historians who lived during the historical period?

Answer
Yvonne,

Sorry for the delay in answering this question.  Though your question is a good one, you probably can figure out the answer for yourself.  Before I answer this question, I would like to compare four professions:  Anthropologist, Archeologist, Historian, Sociologist.  These scientific investigators are each interested in learning how people live to better understand how we live today, but because of the time frame of interest, different methods of study are required.  Anthropologists depend up the study of bones and artifacts that are very old, and must trace the lives of pre-human primates living hundreds of thousands of years ago.  Archeologists study the remains of buildings and artifacts found within them to understand how people lived in a period before writing, from about 10,000 years ago until well after the invention of writing.  Sociologists, of course, study current data of all types to understand current society.

Historians, learn about how people live by studying any available written documents--personal letters, business, church, and government transaction records, and from historians living earlier in time--to collect observations made by others.  In studying how slaves lived and how they were treated by Arab traders, or when studying how African tribal societies lived, for example, the letters, records, and other written observations made by Arab traders can be studied.  The main problem with this type of data is that whoever makes the observation and writes it down also voices his opinion.  Obviously, the observations of tribal and slave life by outsiders or slave masters will be distorted in the view point.  Thus, it is always an advantage to find writers sympathatic and knowledgeable about their own society, rather than another.

Does this help?  If you have more questions, please ask...Alan