Talk:Palestinology

Dubious?

@Arminden Arminden added the following text into the entry as a "dubious" template; we have no such template, so it broke the entry. Please discuss here instead. Equinox ◑ 20:48, 19 August 2021 (UTC)

"The term has been largely abandoned for the last c. 70 years, as it was never clearly defined. The current wording here is reflecting this problem, and it's not functioning well in English either." — This unsigned comment was added by Arminden (talk • contribs).

Unsigned? I'm not a Wiktionary editor. On Wikipedia phone edits are automatically signed. Also, it seems that the Wikipedia dubious template doesn't work on Wiktionary, but I'm confident that my message here and on the page itself are clear. How to sign? Arminden, anyway.

I have added citations from 1991, 2012, and 2020, so the word is clearly not obsolete. Our definition may, however, need improvement. This word is not in the OED. Equinox ◑ 22:55, 19 August 2021 (UTC)

@Equinox, hi. I appreciate your effort in finding sources for the outdated, amorphous and basically discarded term "Palestinology". I had invited here-above to take a look at the research I have already done on it. It would have saved you the effort. It's all at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Ubeidiya,_West_Bank#"Palestinologists"_category:_meaning_and_usefullness. I never said nobody ever used the word. The point is, it emerged before 1850, in an attempt to separate biblical archaeology from other disciplines relating to the Middle East, probably based on the similarly termed Egyptology and Assyriology. From here it, i.e. biblical archaeology a la Edward Robinson (1830s! Known in his own time as the "father of Palestinology"), it was expanded to comprise more and more related fields, was already stamped in 1925 as "uncouth" by R. A. S. Macalister, the PEF archaeologist who created the pottery-based stratigraphy system for the region used until today, and came out of fashion at the latest in the 1940s. So "biblical archaeology" from maybe the 1830s or 40s for about a century, until it was abandoned. Dead. "Former term". Your sources only support what I'm saying here: Samuel Klein lived in 1886–1940, is defined as a "historical geographer", was a rabbi and is best known as the chairperson of Historical Topography of Palestine at the Hebrew University. So religion + historical geography. His "greatest contribution to scholastic research is his identification of old place names in Palestine during the classical period, drawn principally from the Hebrew Bible, Mishnah, Tosefta, Talmud, and from the writings of Josephus in transliterated Greek form, as well as from other epigraphic texts of antiquity." Religion + antiquity, and died in 1940. Edward Robinson: yes, he is known as the founder of modern Palestinology. When? "The account of his journey of 1838..." So before the mid-19th century. And the term did come out of use after a century, like many 19th-century terms that stopped being useful. Still 7-8 decades ago, as I keep on saying. Third: "Hori". Hori who? Wikipedia only has Horis from ancient Egypt, no less. A bit outdated. Btw, on Wikipedia a source is a source only with a page number and usually a way to find it online, so that people can check. On Wiktionary it's not? Very poor.

Now, here on Wiktionary and copied parrot-like on the Net, but with no source whatsoever, there's an attempt to rebrand it as "The academic study of the culture and genealogy of Palestinians", with the term "Palestinians" linked to the entry "Of, from, or pertaining to Palestine or the Palestinian people." In the absence of any academic source, this is a made-up definition, at based based on popular etymology aka false etymology. There is no base for keeping it in the Wiktionary entry, let alone as the primary definition. Zero.

So one dead term and a made-up one. Not a base for a solid Wiktionary entry. I'm still willing to eat my words & my phone if proven wrong. Please, either you find relevant sources for

1. Palestinology being used at the current time in academia as a synonym for biblical archaeology (a term that itself has widely come out of use), or
2. a reliable source for Palestinology being currently used in academia as an overarching term for the study of all peoples who inhabited the historical region of Palestine, or of the people defined in contemporary history as "Palestinians",

or the entry must be removed, or replaced by - what I wrote above about its evolution from a synonym for biblical archaeology, to a wider field supporting the study of all things relating to the Bible and helping in understanding ancient life in the Holy Land. The challenge is on. Arminden

All words were "made up" at some stage. This is a word that has been used in many books, so we will definitely keep an entry for it; the entry will not be deleted. As I say, the definition may be improvable. Equinox ◑ 23:47, 19 August 2021 (UTC)

I have gone ahead and fixed the definition and added a context label while you lot bickered. —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 23:49, 19 August 2021 (UTC)