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To be honest, the attitude of Hoopes, Dibble et al who put out the SAA letter to Netflix sums up the issue with archaeology. They are continuing on with an attitude that has been endemic among archaeologists since regular people saw things differently, saw anomalies that conventional thinking wasn’t explaining.
That said, archaeologists, geologists and in fact, all the ologists have every right to challenge many of the ideas posed by those without PHDs or maybe don’t understand the expectations of scientific rigour when postulating a hypothesis. It’s how it’s done that irks the casual observer.
Hancock learned this from Fingerprints because of the way in which he was eviscerated for daring to have thoughts and ideas that didn’t fit conventional archaeology. He did not employ expected scientific rigour, as he’s not a scientist. In fact, as his work has progressed, anyone who actually reads his work can see the efforts he’s expended trying to remedy the accusations that his approach is non-scientific.
But I’m fairly sure that those most vehement detractors within your discipline know that, or have more than likely never read beyond Fingerprints because their minds are set.
So if you’re wondering why people are railing against you, it’s less to do with challenging the hypothesis and more to do with the tactics employed by those within your profession. It’s clear why many of the usual suspects continually refer to Fingerprints, because Hancock has evolved and responded to critics, yet still stands his ground on his hypothesis, which in itself has evolved and moved with the science, as he sees it.
The efforts, tenuous and dripping with
presentism as they are, to link his work to racism and white-supremacist ideology has been reprehensible. It’s a clearly defined cancel-culture tactic, employed by white, left-leaning academics and something that’s long taken hold of educational institutions.
This, the derision, the arrogant dismissal, the aloofness and egos of those leading the charge against lateral thinkers is why so many simply dislike archaeologists. You’re all the same in the eyes of many, which is a shame and untrue, but that’s down to one group among you.
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