Peoplehood: A Model for the Extension of Sovereignty in American Indian Studies

In 1962, in his book The Structure of Scientific Revolution, Thomas S. Kuhn used the term "paradigm"—an example that serves as a model or pattern—to explain the idea that the sciences possess core assumptions on which most research is based or from which it stems. 1 For example, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection revolutionized the natural sciences because it replaced the assumption of divine creation with a rational, progressive, and seemingly objective view of extinction and the rise of totally new species of animals. Darwinian theory, because it had great explanatory power, rose from the status of theory to a core assumption or paradigm. Today, if a field biologist writes a paper on the star-nosed mole, he or she need not begin with a complete explanation of natural selection. Evolution by natural selection is assumed, and any theoretical construct to explain the star-nosed mole's existence in a particular environment is rooted in this supposition. Significantly, the social and behavioral sciences have embraced the Darwinian paradigm and developed theories that underpin the notion that humans have "naturally" progressed through time. It is assumed that economies, governments, cultures, philosophies, technologies, and social relationships have evolved from the simple to the complex in reaction to various stimuli or as a result of man's innate curiosity. Humans are dynamic and are the perpetrators and the victims of continual change. Similarly, it is assumed that human beings must adopt economic, political, social, and cultural strategies to survive in a End Page 7 competitive world. Each discipline within the social and behavioral sciences rests on a core assumption. Hypotheses regarding human behavior are extrapolated from the discipline's paradigmatic umbrella, a jargon is created that has meaning within the paradigm, and models of human behavior are constructed to support the paradigm's basic argument. Like the old philosophical problem of which came first, the chicken or the egg, no one can really be sure whether or not disciplines came from paradigms or vice versa. Academic disciplines are always marked by their core assumptions, whatever they may be.