Science is never devoid of bias, or even somewhat devoid of bias. It is *filled* with bias. Who has the socially given right to define acceptable modes of inquiry in the first place? What are the social, historical, political, economic and cultural foundation of their definition? Who has the power to conduct science as defined? What are their social, historical, political, economic, and cultural foundations? Who has the socially given right to define knowledge? What is its definition? What is the foundation of its definition? Who has the right to "know"?  What are their foundations? Who asks the questions on which "scientific" research is conducted? Which questions are acceptable to ask? Which do not get asked? Which get asked but do not get funded--or published?

It is a cultural myth that "science" as defined in the Western world is "objective" or "unbiased." The best any researcher can do (myself included) is to strive to minimize the impact of our biases on our work--whether we work in the field of breastfeeding and human lactation or elsewhere. Some ways might include: 1) explore and identify our own foundations so that we become familiar with our own biases, 2) work to minimize those biases in the design and conduct of our research (this usually requires some kind of collaboration with people with *different* foundations so that our own biases can't sneak by us because we don't see them ourselves), and 3) declare our foundations in our work so that others have half a chance at identifying what the potential biases in our work might be.

When we talk about "science," we are talking about a Western concept, founded in the worldviews of Western cultures, most often conducted by Western peoples. It is not the only form of inquiry in the world and does not yield the only form of knowledge in the world. It is not conducted by every member of all societies; it is conducted by particular members of some societies. It yields small pieces of the huge puzzle of all there is to know. It always has limitations--from inherent biases to the fact that our observation or measurement of a phenomenon commonly alters the phenomenon.

Struggling with my own biases every day,
Cynthia

Cynthia Good Mojab
Ammawell
Email: [log in to unmask] 
Web site: http://home.attbi.com/~ammawell 

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