Re: Are you suggesting that archaeologists, that is *anthropologists* (American archaeology is not, as is the Continental tradition, a field independent of anthropology), a field whose basic fundamental premise is the common validity of all human being's claim to "humanness" is actively engaged in a racist conspiracy to raise a false history of N. America where Whitey was here first? I find that incredible.
Derek
Incredible?? How naive you're! LOL! More accurately --and seriously-- I'd say that I don't rule out such a 'racialist conspiracy' --so many issues at stake (on-line casinos, etc)!
To begin with, dear Derek, you should be aware of how unreliable social sciences are.... Ever heard of the Sokal Affair? Here's a primer:
physics.nyu.edu
And the link hereafter is what I'm hinting at:
physics.nyu.edu
The so-called 'Sokal parody', when published a couple of years ago, just infuriated the whole social-sciences community as it demonstrated that many allegedly rigorous PhDs who regularly display their pieces of research in reputable, highbrow, scientific magazines were merely academic quacks vieing with each other to carve up the grant-aided loot.... Hence their propensity to write bogus papers filled with mathematical artistry.
However, other controversial essays by American scholars, such as The Bell Curve, show us that so-called educated racists might be tempted to use their academic clout to warp some historical, sociological, paleontological,... matters to make them fit in with their political/ideological agendas. Just think of the book I was referring to on this thread, The Chamberlain-Hitler Collusion, which brilliantly dismantles the rigged mainstream version of a 'softy, pacifist Chamberlain vs. a bellicose, con Hitler'. American anthropology sure is not immune to such deviances.
Actually, even hard-core, exact sciences are not immune from their researchers' cultural background. A first, notorious example that springs to mind is Einstein's anxiety to come up with a cosmological model that would not challenge a divine masterminding --a Judeo-Christian match, that is.... After all, why do you think the Catholic Church has wholeheartedly endorsed the so-called Big Bang fancy? Because it smoothly fits the biblical fairy tale claiming that God created the whole universe from scratch: first the chaos (a Dirac ocean filled with quantum ripples), then a big flash (the initial billion-degrees blast), and successively, the galaxies, the planets, the earth,.... Or does it really fit holy Genesis? Hold your breath:
spaceviews.com
The above article hints at the current philosophical divide between godsquad astrophysicists and orientalist ones: the formers will do their best to twist the omega ratio to confirm the Judeo-Christian belief in a linear, evolutionary universe doomed to be terminated on Judgment Day, whereas Orientalists have no prejudice against a cyclical, never-ending universe whose inflation phases always settle in retrogressive collapses. Such a pulsating universe perfectly fits most Oriental philosophies (Buddhism, Hinduism,...).
Yet, exact or pure sciences such as (astro-)physics rely on universally accepted premises, that is, basically, a set of mathematical formulae. Hence the strong likelihood that any culturally biased theory will be successfully challenged by other, objective, culture-blind scientists.
But other, less exact sciences will likely remain prey to their scholars's cultural contingencies. Take biology for instance: about ten years ago, Jean-Pierre Changeux, a French neurologist, published a book (L'homme neuronal) in which he told the reader about human feelings, emotions, memories, etc. all from a hard-nosed, materialist stance. The soul? the spirit? Zilch! JP Changeux had no time to spare for such churchy gobbledygook.... The following days, several of his fellow doctors --mainly working for Catholic academies-- retaliated, claiming that Changeux had stretched his scientific premises beyond any legitimate validity.....
Now, tell me about white American archeologists digging the Rockies to wave at us a bespectacled skull of some 9,000-year-old blond guy! Gimme a break....
Gus. |
