Epistemic Design: Theory and Data in Harvard’s Department of Social Relations

Abstract

In the spring and summer of 1946, John Milton Roberts, a graduate student in anthropology at Yale University, conducted fieldwork among the Navajo Indians in the Ramah area of western New Mexico. Among his observations, Roberts recorded the actions of three households as they butchered and cooked one of their sheep. In a report published in 1951 by the Peabody Museum at Harvard University, Roberts, by now an assistant professor in Harvard’s Department of Social Relations (DSR), recounted the three scenes in some detail.1 Each sheep was slaughtered close to the family dwelling by a team of two persons, who completed their task in less than one hour. Similar containers were used to catch the blood after the throat was slit, and in each case, cords were used to tie the animals down and, later, to hang the carcass. In all three instances, the viscera were carefully treated: the bladder and gall bladder were thrown away, while the stomach and intestines were cleaned and saved for food.