Sometimes it is necessary to analyse longer timeframes of discursive processes to reveal

• their strength,
• the density of the entanglement of various related discourse strands
• changes
• fractures
• drying up and re-emergence

In this way we can perhaps reach an 'archaeology of knowledge' (Foucault's ideal) or 'a genealogy', which may take the form of unfolding scenarios, perhaps even predicting discursive events that can be expected in future

A synchronic cut through a discourse strand can find its historic roots by looking back at the main discursive events throughout history, and at the way the discourse has evolved and changed. (A diachronic cut through a discourse would give a cross-section of the range and manner of the discourse being conducted in a particular strand and sub-strands)

However, it is often difficult for us to evaluate history except in our own terms - by our standards, we see nearly all people in history as starving most of the time, and having poor diets. Perhaps this is true, from the point of view of our current discourses of plenty and healthy eating. It is difficult to evaluate what, say, the Ancient Greeks wrote about food - their own discourses about their own food - because we can be "trapped" in our own discourses and our own time.

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