Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries

Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology

Kenneth Feder (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

344 Seiten

2025 | 11th Revised edition
Oxford University Press Inc (Verlag)
978-0-19-775779-6 (ISBN)

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A common goal in virtually all social science courses is to teach students to think critically. Most students who sign up for this "fun" archaeology course have not been asked to think deeply about how we know what we know. Clearly, it is important for anyone interested in the human past to know, for example, that there is no evidence for a race of giant human beings, and no broken shards of alien's laser guns under Egyptian pyramids. Debunking such nonsense is fun and useful in its own way, but of much greater importance is the process we employ to determine that such claims are nonsense. Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries uses archaeological hoaxes, myths, and mysteries to show how we can truly know things about the human past through science. Frauds is not just a book about how we know what isn't true about the human past; it's also about how we know what is true.

Kenneth L. Feder is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Central Connecticut State University. He is the author of several books, including The Past in Perspective: An Introduction to Human Prehistory,Ninth Edition (OUP, 2024), and Linking to the Past: A Brief Introduction to Archaeology, Second Edition (OUP, 2007).

Preface
Acknowledgements
Pseudoscience Cheat Sheet

Chapter 1. Science and Pseudoscience
1.1 Spoiler Alert: It's Not a Conspiracy
Alternative Facts
Belief in the Unbelievable
Touched by the Paranormal xxx
1.2 The Morning of the Magicians
1.3 Pseudoscience and Archaeology
1.4 Expertise: It's Not a Guarantee, But It Sure Beats the Alternative
1.5 Why I Wrote This Book
Frequently Asked Question
Critical Thinking Exercise

Chapter 2. Epistemology: How You Know What You Know
2.1 Knowing Things
Collecting Information: Seeing Isn't Necessarily Believing
Collecting Information: Relying on Others
2.2 Science: Playing by the Rules
There Is a Real and Knowable Universe
The Universe Operates According to Understandable Laws
The Laws Are Immutable
The Laws Can Be Understood
2.3 The Workings of Science
2.4 Childbed Fever: A Case Study in the Application of the Scientific Method
2.5 Science and Nonscience: The Essential Differences
1. Hypotheses Must be Testable
2. Don't "
2.6 The Art of Science
Where Do Hypotheses Come From?
Testing Hypotheses
Skeptics, Not Cynics; Doubters, Not Deniers
The Human Enterprise of Science
Frequently Asked Questions
Critical Thinking Exercises

Chapter 3. GIANTS! Anatomy of an Archaeological Hoax
3.1 Introduction
3.2 The Cardiff Giant: The Goliath of New York
Setting the Stage for the

Erscheinungsdatum	10.04.2025
Verlagsort	New York
Sprache	englisch
Maße	158 x 232 mm
Gewicht	567 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Archäologie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Empirische Sozialforschung
ISBN-10	0-19-775779-0 / 0197757790
ISBN-13	978-0-19-775779-6 / 9780197757796
Zustand	Neuware