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Article ID: CBB000831461

Bringing Bones to Life: How Science Made Piltdown Man Human (2007)

Goulden, Murray (Author)

Science as Culture
Volume: 16
Pages: 333--357

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Archaeology Deceptions; hoaxes; frauds Fossils Popularization Definition of human; human nature Science and culture Popular culture Human evolution Mass media Paleoanthropology 20th century, early

This paper has sought to understand how Piltdown's humanness was constructed and why it took particular forms. This in turn allowed a consideration of the link between the knowledge claims made of Piltdown in the science and popular realms. The article showed that any explicit discussion of Piltdown's humanness was strictly limited to the popular realm. True to the empirical requirements of their discipline, palaeontologists declined any attempt to make sense of Piltdown's humanness within scientific papers. They discussed skull capacities, reconstructions of the jaw, the possibility of tool use---all those subjects illuminated by the physical remains. Where scientists stepped outside of their pure science domain was in labelling Piltdown 'human'---a concept far too nebulous, and far too burdened by cultural imaginings, to be evidenced simply by a handful of skull fragments.

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Description Explores the forums and the ways in which scientists and popular media talked about whether the Piltdown skeleton was human or not.

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