Robert Bettinger on the Cost of Doing Business

Science, and especially archaeology, is always going to be plagued by crackpots and crackpot hypotheses. That's because science makes room -- in essence, provides a 'niche' -- for any hypothesis, no matter how silly. Indeed, it is progress in knowledge, evidence, and understanding that separates plausible hypotheses from the silly ones, which are simply abandoned and pass from scientific consciousness. Paradoxically, as research and thinking moves further and further from the silly hypothesis in pursuit of more plausible ones, the more the silly hypothesis has the potential for passing as 'innovative' thought, simply because most scientists are not thinking that way anymore (almost always for good reason). This is why exponents of silly, long-discarded hypotheses are often portrayed in the public media as creative innovators willing to buck the establishment. Thus, the more archaeology progresses in its pursuit of plausible hypotheses, the more it invites challenges from the lunatic fringe.

It's just a cost of doing business.

Robert L. Bettinger, commenting on the persistence of the Moundbuilder Myth, Society of American Archaeology Meetings, Seattle Washington, April 1998