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‘These rude implements’: competing claims for authenticity in the Eolithic controversy.

Ellen, Roy F. (2013) ‘These rude implements’: competing claims for authenticity in the Eolithic controversy. Anthropology Quarterly, 86 (2). pp. 445-480. ISSN 0003-5491. (doi:10.1353/anq.2013.0029) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:33887)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided. (Contact us about this Publication)
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/anq.2013.0029

Abstract

The acceptance of eoliths as man-made is surprising, given that Victorian science had first dismissed the idea with respect to hand axes. I argue that scientific innovation involves an imaginative impulse that leads easily to over-optimistic interpretation, and that the eoliths were "invented" because they satisfied a requirement of a particular way of thinking. Once arguments in their favor had been accepted, the default "mindset" became one of disproving claims for human fabrication. The debate was conducted at a time when the rules of Pleistocene geology and archaeological interpretation were being established, and it determined the limit of what was scientifically credible.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1353/anq.2013.0029
Additional information: "Estes utensílios rústicos": Reivindicações concorrentes pela autenticidade na controvérsia do eolítico. [Special Collection Laying claim to authenticity: anthropological dilemmas, ed. D.Theodossopoulos]
Uncontrolled keywords: Authenticity; Cultural cognition; Eolith; History of archaeology
Subjects: G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Anthropology and Conservation
Depositing User: Roy Ellen
Date Deposited: 11 May 2013 09:55 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Feb 2021 12:45 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/33887 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Ellen, Roy F..

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