MIDDLE PALAEOL. |
JAPAN'S NEW MIDDLE PALAEOLITHIC RESEARCH |
Assumptions and Stereotypes |
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by Charles T. Keally September 20, 2003 last revised: October 4, 2003 |
The comments by leading archaeologists on the new "Middle Palaeolithic" finds that are being published in the news media reflect a lot of unstated assumptions and stereotypes, most of which are unsupported, unfounded or clearly wrong. Unfortunately, even the "scientific" discussions are riddled with implicit assumptions and stereotypes and personal biases. To be valid, an hypothesis (or statement) must meet three criteria: (1) all assumptions must be made explicit, (2) all personal biases must be made explicit, and (3) the hypothesis must be testable.
The following list tries to summarize the assumptions and stereotypes that are being used in discussions of the first human settlement of Japan, and in the discussions of a Japanese Middle Palaeolithic. Those with links are discussed further on separate pages.
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