Part I: On the Creature Called Man, Chapter II: Professors and Prehistoric Men Summary and Analysis

The science of anthropology, which supposes that it can reconstruct not only the skeletons but also the daily lives of man-like creatures which are supposed to have lived ages ago, differs from other sciences in its inability to correct its mistakes. The inventors of the airplane, for example, always knew when they made a mistake, because their machine would not fly. An anthropologist can make a mistake, though, and there is nothing to correct it. When this fact is coupled with the extreme, and unjustified, confidence that permeates the field, what results is a proliferation of incredibly detailed but entirely unsupported theories about prehistoric man. For example, one anthropologist claimed that a certain prehistoric race did not...