La antropología biológica experimental en el contexto de los sistemas complejos

Abstract

The use of the experimental method in biological anthropology has enabled us to solve a set of problems that could not be addressed using the classic methodologies within the descriptive-comparative method. However, from an epistemological perspective, experimentation implies a reductionist approach that is called seriously into question with the advent of complexity theories, due to the tension that is generated between them. Complexity theories does not reject the experimental method but places it in a different context, one in which experimental practice loses its privileged status as a method of validating knowledge. The aim of this study is to analyze the scope and limitations of the experimental method used in biological anthropology faced with the perspective of complexity theories. It will conclude that the shift from reductionist perspectives centered on experimentation to complex approaches focusing on integration represents a genuine paradigm shift, in Kuhn’s terms, both in the field of biology in general and in anthropology in particular.