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Title: Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race by Michael A. Cremo, Richard L. Thompson ISBN: 0-89213-294-9 Publisher: Torchlight Publishing Pub. Date: January, 1998 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $44.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.43 (68 reviews)
Rating: 1
Summary: A Book in the Realm of Pseudoscience
Comment: Wade Tarzia published an extensive review of this book in _Creation/Evolution_ 34:13-25, 1994 (National Center for Science Education), also available on-line at "Doug's Archaeology Pages" website. Here are some key extracts from that review:
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...Despite all this hard work, I think the book falls short of a scientific work primarily (but not entirely) because (1) its arguments abandon the testing of simpler hypothesis before the more complex and sensationalistic ones, and (2) the use of so many outdated sources is inadequate for a book that seeks to overturn the well-established paradigm of human evolution -- scholars must not work in isolation, especially today, when multi-disciplinary approaches are needed to remain on the cutting edge of knowledge. However, for researchers studying the growth, folklore, and rhetoric of pseudo-science, the book is useful as 'field' data. ... Forbidden Archaeology [is also] ... a well-written example of pseudoscience -- its looks like the real thing, a phenomena discussed in Williams (1991, 15) [ _Fantastic Archaeology_; see also K. Feder's _Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries_ ] ...
Mass of Details -- The mass of details with attached analyses would require book-length responses from specialized reviewers to confirm or critique. This style is a common diversionary tactic in pseudoscience. Since the authors have not aired their arguments previously through professional journals, as many scholars do before writing such a huge synthesis of material, the task of validation becomes a career itself. Such a style burdens an analysis with long leaps between broad assumptions (i.e., scientific cover-up) to the detailed evidence (i.e., minutiae of strata and dating from obscure sites) -- all on the same page. ...
Use of Old Sources -- Quotations of the 19th-/early 20th- century material are copious -- comprising, I would guess, at least 25 percent of the book. ... I do not indict the sincerity and ground-breaking of 19th century scholars. However, because knowledge seems to accumulate and research techniques seem to improve, assuming a blanket equivalency of research level between 19th and 20th century science is just going too far.
Rusting Occam's Razor -- A major flaw of Forbidden Archaeology is its quick leaps toward sensational hypotheses (see in general Williams 1991, 11-27). Sensational ideas are not intrinsically bad -- plate tectonics was pretty astonishing at one point (Williams 1991, 132), but also true. However, the cautious investigator hopes that less sensational, or simpler, hypotheses are first proposed and well tested before more complex or less likely explanations are considered. ...
Missed Evidence -- While presenting a voluminous amount of detail, sometimes Forbidden Archaeology has missed important points. For example, the book discusses the Timlin site in New York, where researchers reported finds of ancient eolithic tools dated to 70,000 YBP (p. 354). Yet Forbidden Archaeology does not mention the responses to these claims by several professionals, which casts the nature of these finds in doubt (Cole and Godfrey 1977; Cole, Funk, Godfrey, and Starna 1978; Funk 1977, Starna 1977; a reply to the criticisms is in Raemsch 1978). I found it interesting that a student created similar "eoliths" by rattling the same source material in a garbage can (Funk 1977, 543); the simple experiment has much to say about eoliths! ...
Acceptance of Poor Evidence -- ... Similarly, when the book documents a claim for a modern-type human skeleton (reported in a geology journal of 1862) in a coal deposit 90 feet deep, we learn the authors wrote the Geological Survey to date the coal to about 286 million years (p. 454). But we are not treated to a contextual discussion of the bones -- how they were found, who found them, what was the site like, and how these allegedly 286 million year old bones came out of the earth with only a loose black coating that was easily scraped away to reveal nice white bone, etc. The impression left is that, if a tabloid reported Jimmy Hoffa's corpse was found in Triassic deposits, then the authors would no doubt perform rigorous research to date those deposits and then include the data in their next book. ...
Faulty View of Science Process -- One of the most striking themes of Forbidden Archaeology is the notion that scientists are slaves to tradition, which slows down or stops the adoption of new ideas. Yet, scientists have often overturned paradigms in the face of a social tradition that penalized them for it. Galileo pushed his 'wild' views of a heliocentric solar system until threatened by state-officiated torture. Modern cosmology is another example, a branch of knowledge under such motion and revision that I suspect astronomers are giants among coffee drinkers. Similarly, paleoarchaeology is revised often in the face of new evidence (see Tuttle 1988 for a feel for the controversy). The "knowledge filter" would have to be impossibly acrobatic to span all this change. ...
Conclusion -- ...This book, and other creationist texts that use similar techniques, is most useful as ethnographic data in studies of comparative religion, cult movements, popular movements, anti-science, fantastic archaeology, rhetoric, folklore -- the book can be studied in any of these fields. With its emphasis on "secrets" and "hidden history" and "cover-up," the book participates in the popular genre of the conspiracy, akin to popular beliefs about the Kennedy assassination and crashed alien spaceships kept in guarded Air Force hangars ... I see Forbidden Archaeology fantasizing about a past open-mindedness to legitimize a vast restructuring of our present understanding -- without good evidence.
Rating: 5
Summary: Scary Pseudoscience
Comment: I stumbled upon this title being someone of interest in alternative versions of the origin of humans (and life in general) but this book is a sheep in a wolf's clothing. It looks impressive and like it will say something, but turns out to be another sham. Although many reviewers are impressed by the multitude of "facts" in this book that uncover the deceptive secrets of scientists, in reality their argument extracts selective references from very (!) outdated evolutionary ideas or data from scholarly papers and places them out of context. The "facts" are then, with a generous amount of spin, placed into a new hypothesis that has no actual data. This book tries to show modern biology as an entrenched discipline fighting off critics of Darwin, when nothing could be further from the truth. Many of the harshest critics of Darwin's theories are biologists themselves so to pitch this book as an objective view that will "threaten the establishment of science" is ridiculous. If you are spending your time reading this book in search of a version of truth, I think you should also read a scholarly archeology textbook or talk to a practicing scientist. I can guarantee that either approach will show the paucity of the authors' data and the emptiness of their arguments.
Rating: 4
Summary: Darwin
Comment: The only thing evolving in reference to the theory of evolution is the theory itself
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Title: Forbidden Archeology's Impact: How a Controversial New Book Shocked the Scientific Community and Became an Underground Classic by Michael A. Cremo ISBN: 0892132833 Publisher: Torchlight Publishing Pub. Date: January, 1998 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Human Devolution: A Vedic Alternative to Darwin's Theory by Michael A. Cremo ISBN: 0892133341 Publisher: Torchlight Publishing Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Technology of the Gods: The Incredible Sciences of the Ancients by David Hatcher Childress ISBN: 0932813739 Publisher: Adventures Unlimited Press Pub. Date: May, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings: Evidence of Advanced Civilization in the Ice Age by Charles H. Hapgood ISBN: 0932813429 Publisher: Adventures Unlimited Press Pub. Date: January, 1997 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Fingerprints of the Gods : The Evidence of Earth's Lost Civilization by Graham Hancock ISBN: 0517887290 Publisher: Three Rivers Press Pub. Date: 02 April, 1996 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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