The Footnote: A Curious History

Footnotes are peculiar things.All scholars use them to demon strate that the state ments they make in their work are not arbitrary, but based on a careful con sider ation of data, sources, and research findings.In sert ed in greater or smaller num bers at the bottom of the page or some times at the end of the piece, or in socio logical and scien tific work as 'paren thetical refer ences' in the text, they are not par ticularly well-liked, how ever.Gen erally set in a smaller font size than the main text, foot notes are for many people a chore that they like to 'crack lazy jokes' about, but which they need to attend to nevertheless. 1 Strin gent argu ment, ex plan ations based on evi dence, and good writing in the main text con sti tute the tour de force that allows authors to demon strate their skills (at least in the human ities).This is where they can put on dis play their specific know ledge, cap acity for inno vation, and ability to ex press them selves-where they can prove their ex pert ise.Foot notes, by con trast, are some thing owed to 'the discipline'.In other words, while the main text demon strates indi vidu ality, foot notes docu ment a team effort.They call up data, sources con sulted, and what has already been dis covered about the Trans.by Angela Davies (GHIL)