'Hobbit'/Homo Floriensis Skeleton Stolen

I've been talking about this for a month with my friends... why did I not think to bring it up here?


We've all heard about the discovery in Indonesia of remains that are apparently those of a dimunitive human species the media has dubbed the 'hobbits'. Most of us have also heard that the local people have a legend concerning a race of strange, miniature people they call the 'Ebu Gogo'. What hasn't made most papers, though, is the apparent theft of these revolutionary remains by indonesia's most esteemed researcher of human origins:

www.timesonline.co.uk...


www.theaustralian.news.com.au...



So... why did he do it? Is it because the remains undermine his own theories of human evolution? Or... could he have taken them because the discovery of a possibly 'mythic' species undermines the status quo of institutionalized scientific rationalism? If the people represented by this skeleton really did inspire the Ebu Gogo legend it would mean that cultural memories can survive for thousands of years and that other mythological monsters/beings might be rea (or have been real). In a sense, then, this would give some credence to traditional religions... perhaps something a scientist couldn't stand to see?

Or it could be a sign that the remains never really existed, and the story was a hoax, but you have peaked my curiosity.

No this isnt just a lame hoax. I was watchin the science channel on cable t.v. when they had a story about this. It said there could have been a whole land of these mini-people. The only excuse the Indonesian scientist gave was that he need to "study" them a lot more before returning to owner. Hmm, he sounds like a shady guy.

Originally posted by sinatracementshoes
Or it could be a sign that the remains never really existed, and the story was a hoax, but you have peaked my curiosity.

If the bones were stolen by the guys who discovered them I'd say it was a hoax... but, on the contrary, the bones were taken away by a guy who rejected the notion that these 'hobbits' could exist before he even saw a picture of the main skeleton. They were taken by the guy, to be frank, who essentially called them a hoax (or mistake) to begin with.

Originally posted by onlyinmydreams
So... why did he do it?

Apparently he thinks its just a deformed person, not a different species. Hegot it on loan from the origianl reseachers. This skeleton isn't a blow to evolution in anyway and it doesn't 'support' traditional religions either. If the natives were around when florensis was around, then they merely need to have passed along a story about little people in order to still have a story about it, not do something unknown to science.

I'd say that he's definitly interfereing with science here, and is irrationally refusing to give up the idea that these things aren't a different species. I think he's only done a cursory examination, and says he plans on doing one later. Meanwhile, the original researchers would like to study it, they only gave it to him in the first place because he is a regional expert.

The really interesting thing is that this affects the man's integrity, which is very important in science. It calls into question some of his other reaserch, and possibly might mean that he has other interesting skeletons that he is also sitting on. Apparently he does have a large collection and hasn't published much of it (tho thats in itself isn't too unsual)

Nygdan,
First, the line about skeletons in the closet is classic. Right now I'm picturing a housefull of 'forbidden' hominoids around this guy.

But, to get back to what I was trying to say before (but botched)... I wasn't saying that all of science is undermined if these beings existed, what I was trying to say is that kneejerk dismissals of seemingly 'mythical' figures/creatures/beings by the scientific community look somewhat foolish now that we have (possibly) an example of a local myth proven out. Notions of visiting aliens, for example, are blown off by the scientific community WITHOUT looking at any of the evidence because such aliens don't fit into the accepted scientific worldview. Those same aliens, though, are a part of modern/techno-western culture. Now... if an Indonesian myth regarding strange beings has just been proven to be correct, western myths regarding ET visitation cannot be dismissed and blown off by the scinetific community without looking at the evidence any longer. In short, once one 'unscientific' or unbelievable legend has been demonstrated as being based on reality, the scinetific community can no longer use scientific expectations to dismiss similar mythical stories.