THE DEARTH OF INTERDISCIPLINARY-BASED BOOKS: THE HISTORIAN AS CULPRIT

Abstract

It is stating the obvious that historians reneged on their promises of a concerted application of the interdisciplinary research approach in the reconstruction of the histories of motley acephalous societies, especially to the southeast of Nigeria. It is disheartening to learn that only a few historians are equipped and disposed to this approach having received little or no tutelage on interdisciplinary-based studies. This method has received lipservice patronage for about sixteen decades, and moreso, since the 1970s. Instead of pursuing this effort, the historians, for a larger student clientele shopped for, and got attached to, Pentecostal disciplines, such as International Relations and Diplomatic Studies, among others. These would as of necessity been part of an all-embracing history curriculum. And those who have used this methodology are either disowned or become pigeonholed into the other disciplines that form part of the interdisciplinary research vanguard. The paper concluded that the reconstruction of the vast histories of acephalous societies, especially where writing tradition did not exist are scanty non-indepth essays since the interdisciplinary approach was not employed. There are, therefore, no turnkey books that could serve as general reference materials for interdisciplinary research methods. Archaeology alone cannot solve this problem because it ought to be used in conjunction with disciplines, such as sociology, anthropology, ethnography, ethnobotany, linguistics, phylogenetics and the physical sciences in general.