Transcript Piltdown Man

Piltdown Man
How fake fossils can be interpreted
by different Social Groups
Presentation by
Marit Heideman and Renato Ponciano
Presentation Outline
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Introduction
Theoretical frame
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Evolutionism
Creationism
The Piltdown man “discovery”
Interpretations on Piltdown case
Conclusions
Presentation ESST 2002 - Module 3
Theoretical Frame
Evolutionism
• Before Darwin
– God created Earth; man is a masterpiece of His creation
– c. 1800 de Lamarck: Linear Evolution
• After Darwin
– Different species stem from the same ancestor (natural
selection, struggle for existence, habitat changes)
Controversy
God designed species
Human just another
animal
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Creationism
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Theory that appears as a scientific response
to evolutionism
Claims that fossils and geological findings
do not contradict the Genesis as described
in the Bible
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Creationist Interpretations of Genesis
The Beginning (Eons Ago)
Day - Age
Glacial Period?
"Day" 1 "Day" 2 "Day" 3 "Day" 4 "Day" 5 "Day" 6
Matter Created
Fossils Formed
Humans Created
The Beginning (eons ago)
Gap or Run
Perhaps Multiple Cataclysms and Creations
& Restoration
Matter and life created
Flood
Geology
The Present
Noah's Flood
(Perhaps Local)
4004 BC
2348 BC
6-day Edenic
Restoration
Noah's Flood
(Perhaps
Local)
The Present
Fossils Formed
Perhaps a Lifeless Earth
6-day
Edenic
4000-8000BC
Creation of
Life and
Humans
(and perhaps even
matter)
Source: Numbers, 1992, pp xii-xiii
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ca 3000 BC The Present
Noah's Flood
Fossils
Formed
The Piltdown Man: Chronology (I)
• 1856: Neanderthal Man
discovered
• 1859: Darwin’s Origin
of Species
• 1908: Discovery of
hominid bone
fragments in
Sussex, England.
• 1912: Public
Presentation of
Piltdown Man I
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The Piltdown Man: Chronology (II)
• 1917: Discovery of
Piltdown Man II
• 1925: Reports on errors
in Piltdown case
(ignored)
• 1949: Fluorine Test on
Piltdown Bones
• 1953: Exposure of the
Hoax: Bones were
fixed up!
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Importance of the Discovery
• Evolution theory launched a major search
for “the missing link”
• Piltdown Man met theoretical expectations:
– Brain size similar to human
– Jaws similar to ape
• First major British palaeo-anthropological
discovery
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Exposure of the Hoax
• Piltdown man didn’t fit with the following findings
(e.g. Peking man– Homo erectus)
• New dating techniques available around 1940 fluorine tests- showed bones more recent
– Cranium – human (± 1300 AD)
– Jaw – Orangutan (± 1500 AD)
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Why Piltdown Man lived so long?
• Scientific Credentials of the Discovery team
• Primitive Analytical Tools available at the
time
• Excellent skill of forgery (Gee, H; In Nature
381, 1996)
• Matched with what was expected from
theory
• Hoax led charmed life.
Presentation ESST 2002 - Module 3
Presentation ESST 2002 - Module 3
Evolution is a Fraud!
Interpretations of Piltdown Case
• Creationists:
– Piltdown shows how Evolution science is fake
– Missing link doesn’t exist (online source, <http://www.pathlights.com>)
• Criticism: Ideological; disqualifies theory based on one case
• Evolutionists:
– Piltdown shows how science will develop its own course
despite fraud
– Man’s evolution is still a fact: other discoveries confirm
theory (Carroll, online source, <http://skepdic.com/piltdown>)
• Criticism: Deterministic view of development of science
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Conclusions
1. Development of science is dependent on
available techniques.
2. In the Piltdown case, early evidence of fraud
was neglected because scientific community
eagerly wanted to find the “missing link”.
Piltdown Hoax doesn’t prove science
right or wrong: shows it as a human
activity, dependent on contemporary
means.
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Thanks for
your
Attention!
Presentation ESST 2002 - Module 3