Well, since nobody (that I noticed) has mentioned it yet I'm going to suggest mineralogist.
They classify and study minerals in pretty much the same way biologists study life forms. Since you study the history of a subject as part of analysing it then determining if it was created by life, and how if that is so, then they would be fulfilling the function you outline.
One problem (and this was VERY confusing to me when I first studied geology) is that since all rocks are made of minerals and many rocks and minerals even have the same name, the actual difference between them is more a matter of emphasis than actual knowledge, methods etc. The difference between them and geologists remains in that they study what the rock is made of. The geologist's emphasis is on the rock itself.
I know that seems oversimplistic but it was a major problem that I had to sort out before I could really wrap my head around several things I had to know about general earth studies
They classify and study minerals in pretty much the same way biologists study life forms. Since you study the history of a subject as part of analysing it then determining if it was created by life, and how if that is so, then they would be fulfilling the function you outline.
One problem (and this was VERY confusing to me when I first studied geology) is that since all rocks are made of minerals and many rocks and minerals even have the same name, the actual difference between them is more a matter of emphasis than actual knowledge, methods etc. The difference between them and geologists remains in that they study what the rock is made of. The geologist's emphasis is on the rock itself.
I know that seems oversimplistic but it was a major problem that I had to sort out before I could really wrap my head around several things I had to know about general earth studies
