Comparative Anatomy, Anthropology and Archaeology as Case Studies on the Influence of Human Biases in Natural Sciences: The Origin of ‘Humans’, of ‘Behaviorally Modern Humans’ and of ‘Fully Civilized Humans’
Rui Diogo*Center for the Advanced Study of Hominid Paleobiology, Department of Anthropology, George Washington University, 2110 G Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20052, USA
Abstract
Natural sciences are considered to be exact sciences. However, despite usually being effectively usually more ‘objective’ than for instance social sciences, they are not immune to a problem common to all sciences: the intrinsic psychological, sociological and/or historical biases of the scientists. In the present paper I will briefly discuss the influence of these biases in natural sciences, using anthropology, archaeology and comparative anatomy as case studies. I will specifically discuss how these influences have lead scientists to ‘actively search’ and supposedly ‘find’ data to support that the first ‘humans’, the first ‘behaviorally modern humans’ and the first ‘fully civilized or sophisticated humans’ were mostly originated in Europe, in some cases to the extent of fabricating false scientific evidence.
Keywords: Anthropology, archaeology, biases, comparative anatomy, cultural revolution, facial expressions, human evolution, palaeolithic archaeology, piltdown hoax..
Article Information
Article History:
Received Date: 25/3/2010
Revision Received Date: 8/4/2010
Acceptance Date: 12/4/2010
Electronic publication date: 5/11/2010
Collection year: 2010
© Rui Diogo, Licensee Bentham Open.
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
* Address correspondence to this author at the Center for the Advanced Study of Hominid Paleobiology, Department of Anthropology, George Washington University, 2110 G Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20052, USA, Tel: 001-202-994-6075, Fax: 001-202-994-6097,
E-mail: rui_diogo@hotmail.com
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Manuscript submitted on 25-3-2010 |
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Comparative Anatomy, Anthropology and Archaeology as Case Studies on the Influence of Human Biases in Natural Sciences: The Origin of ‘Humans’, of ‘Behaviorally Modern Humans’ and of ‘Fully Civilized Humans’ |