Don't import your own presuppositions

We may conclude that, in most cases, however, genealogies were intended to serve other functions in other spheres—most often as a charter of some sort, as mentioned above. A presentation of the past may occur, but this is a secondary function, subservient to a primary function of charter. Another way to put it, quite often when the past is presented in a genealogy, its most important functions have to do with what it accomplishes in the present. —Toward a Poetics of Genesis 1-11, pages 84-85

<idle musing>
Why do we insist on importing our own agendas into the text! Probably because we don't even realize we are doing it!

It's really a miracle that communication happens at all...
</idle musing>