DIOGO, R. (2010). Comparative anatomy, anthropology and archaeology as case studies on the influence of human biases in natural sciences: the origin of 'humans', of 'behaviorally modern humans' and of 'fully civilized humans'. The Open Anatomy Journal 2: 86-97.
Nov 1, 2010
Natural sciences are considered to be exact sciences. However, despite usually being effectively usually more 'objective' than for instance social sciences, they are not immune to a problem common to all sciences: the intrinsic psychological, sociological and/or historical biases of the scientists. In the present paper I will briefly discuss the influence of these biases in natural sciences, using anthropology, archaeology and comparative anatomy as case studies. I will specifically discuss how these influences have lead scientists to 'actively search' and supposedly 'find' data to support that the first 'humans', the first 'behaviorally modern humans' and the first 'fully civilized or sophisticated humans' were mostly originated in Europe, in some cases to the extent of fabricating false scientific evidence.