Are you talking about how things are in the actual sciences of anthropology and evolutionary psychology, or about the pop-evo-psych used by the media and advocates of various causes? If the former, mind linking a few published peer-reviewed articles making this mistake?
I am talking about the pretty much anything that refers without references to the idea that ‘humans evolved to X’ or ‘it is human nature to X’. My background is in anthropology, with comparatively little exposure to evolutionary psychology, but in my experience the ethnographies, papers, and meta-studies that this information would ideally be based on are very clear about their shortcomings.
However, even when your data is a handful of surviving and marginalized ethnic groups, field notes from the 50s, and some promising bones, you can make some good strong statements about behavior, diet, etc. This leads to conclusions that are highly technical and precise, but with limited scope. Most science writers want exactly the opposite—non-technical and broadly applicable. So they latch onto some factoids, make ‘reasonable’ generalizations, and ignore the fact that most anthropologists are very clear on what is known and what is supposed.
There are examples of anthropologists giving interesting theories and arguing with limited data—the aquatic ape hypothesis is a perennial example (now long obsolete). But this is in no way a problem in the field; every science has hypotheses, and within the field the evidence, or lack of evidence, is clearly stated.
However, even when your data is a handful of surviving and marginalized ethnic groups, field notes from the 50s, and some promising bones, you can make some good strong statements about behavior, diet, etc. This leads to conclusions that are highly technical and precise, but with limited scope. Most science writers want exactly the opposite—non-technical and broadly applicable. So they latch onto some factoids, make ‘reasonable’ generalizations, and ignore the fact that most anthropologists are very clear on what is known and what is supposed.
Would this be the same “pots not people” anthropologists who insisted there was no population replacement in pre-historic times?
No—The debate has been exaggerated a bit, but the old-school ethnologists who wanted to defend that the peoples that they were studying were the One True Tribe were really very old school. There have been people who are hesitant to ignore the original interpretations, but there have been few if any anthropologists in the last 70 years that would deny that conquest and population movements were a major cultural factor in most areas of the world.
Edit: P.S., Tu quoque and argumentum ad hominem are both fallacies. Trying to suggest that my argument ‘that people should look at the evidence’ is wrong by pointing to people like me who have not looked at the evidence is hardly LessWrong worthy behavior.
Are you talking about how things are in the actual sciences of anthropology and evolutionary psychology, or about the pop-evo-psych used by the media and advocates of various causes? If the former, mind linking a few published peer-reviewed articles making this mistake?
I am talking about the pretty much anything that refers without references to the idea that ‘humans evolved to X’ or ‘it is human nature to X’. My background is in anthropology, with comparatively little exposure to evolutionary psychology, but in my experience the ethnographies, papers, and meta-studies that this information would ideally be based on are very clear about their shortcomings.
However, even when your data is a handful of surviving and marginalized ethnic groups, field notes from the 50s, and some promising bones, you can make some good strong statements about behavior, diet, etc. This leads to conclusions that are highly technical and precise, but with limited scope. Most science writers want exactly the opposite—non-technical and broadly applicable. So they latch onto some factoids, make ‘reasonable’ generalizations, and ignore the fact that most anthropologists are very clear on what is known and what is supposed.
There are examples of anthropologists giving interesting theories and arguing with limited data—the aquatic ape hypothesis is a perennial example (now long obsolete). But this is in no way a problem in the field; every science has hypotheses, and within the field the evidence, or lack of evidence, is clearly stated.
There’s your problem right there. :)
Would this be the same “pots not people” anthropologists who insisted there was no population replacement in pre-historic times?
No—The debate has been exaggerated a bit, but the old-school ethnologists who wanted to defend that the peoples that they were studying were the One True Tribe were really very old school. There have been people who are hesitant to ignore the original interpretations, but there have been few if any anthropologists in the last 70 years that would deny that conquest and population movements were a major cultural factor in most areas of the world.
Edit: P.S., Tu quoque and argumentum ad hominem are both fallacies. Trying to suggest that my argument ‘that people should look at the evidence’ is wrong by pointing to people like me who have not looked at the evidence is hardly LessWrong worthy behavior.