During my undergrad studies, I took a number of history classes with Dr. Anne-Marie Wolf, who specializes in the Middle Ages. (Don’t call them the Dark Ages, that’s rude. We know a lot of things about that period, it’s not a lost era.) When she told us how to parse information from ancient laws, I felt like I was let in to a secret logical door out of a supposed dead end alley of knowledge.<\/p>\n
If there is an ancient law text that says “Anyone who steals a chicken will be fined 20x<\/em>,” you cannot say with authority that people who stole chickens were ever<\/em> fined 20x. This does not mean it is a statement bereft of information. You can know for sure that\u00a0people stole chickens<\/strong>. If people did not steal chickens, they wouldn’t bother writing the law down. You can also tell that they had a monetary system, and that chickens were of enough value in that community that it was worth writing down a law about their abduction. Differences between punishments can also tell you about societal values and priorities. A society that has a lesser sentence for killing a woman than killing a pregnant woman considers a pregnant woman to be of greater value. You might infer that the society was focused on growing larger and needed a greater military or manual labor force.<\/p>\n This has stayed with me, so when I see signs that say “No Smoking” I know that people have smoked there, and seeing a sign that says “Do not leave belongings unattended,” tells me that at some point, someone left their belongings which led to a problem large enough to merited making a sign about it.<\/p>\n
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