African influence on foodways in the Americas

An essential component of the scientific process is the formulation and evaluation of theses and hypotheses. In seeking to learn more about the social world, social scientists ask many different kinds of questions about relationships between factors of social life, historical events, historical periods, etc. A hypothesis is a tentative statement that proposes a possible explanation for some phenomenon or event in science, social life, or history. It is an educated guess or prediction about the relationship between two variables. It must be a testable statement, something that you can support or falsify with observable evidence. A good hypothesis will be written as a statement or question that specifies: The dependent variable(s): who or what you expect to be affected. The independent variable(s): who or what you predict will affect the dependent variable. What you predict the effect will be.