{"id":312,"date":"2012-05-08T06:08:11","date_gmt":"2012-05-08T04:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/?p=312"},"modified":"2012-05-18T02:06:55","modified_gmt":"2012-05-18T00:06:55","slug":"forbidden-archeology-the-hidden-history-of-the-human-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/forbidden-archeology-the-hidden-history-of-the-human-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like Theosophy, traditional Hinduism accepts a much greater antiquity for humanity than does modern science at present. Two members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, a modern organization based on the Vaishnava tradition within Hinduism, set out to \u201ccritically examine the prevailing account of human origins and the methods by which it was established\u201d (p. xxxvi). Michael A. Cremo and Richard L. Thompson did this in their large 1993 book, Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race<\/em> (1996 first edition, revised, Bhaktivedanta Book Publishing, xxxviii, 914 pages). This book provides a wealth of archeological evidence for a much earlier date of physical humanity than is accepted by current science. At the same time, the evidence given in this book provides a subtle critique of current science for its not altogether objective handling of evidence on this topic, described by Cremo as a knowledge filter.<\/p>\n

The amount of material the authors gathered was far more than they expected to find. But the mere bulk of Forbidden Archeology<\/em> was daunting to many readers. Therefore a condensed version of this book was published in 1994 as The Hidden History of the Human Race<\/em> (xxi, 322 pages).<\/p>\n

The scientific community could not ignore Forbidden Archeology<\/em>. They did respond to it, primarily in book reviews. These and other responses were gathered into a 1998 book by Michael A. Cremo, Forbidden Archeology\u2019s Impact<\/em>, with a cover statement or subtitle: How a Controversial New Book Shocked the Scientific Community and Became an Underground Classic <\/em>(2001 second edition, xxxiv, 569 pages). Among the responses to Forbidden Archeology<\/em> was one book, The Antiquity of Man: Artifactual, Fossil and Gene Records Explored<\/em>, by Michael Brass (Baltimore: AmErica House, 2002, 220 pages). The Antiquity of Man<\/em> attempted to counter Forbidden Archeology<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The 900 pages of Forbidden Archeology<\/em> are almost entirely devoted to giving evidence. Much of this is cited from earlier journals, scientific reports, etc. Forbidden Archeology<\/em> concludes (p. 750):<\/p>\n

\u201cCombining these findings with those from the preceding chapters, we conclude that the total evidence, including fossil bones and artifacts, is most consistent with the view that anatomically modern humans have coexisted with other primates for tens of millions of years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because the authors found much more material than expected, they had to postpone giving their alternative view of human origins. As stated in their Introduction to Forbidden Archeology<\/em> (p. xxxvi):<\/p>\n

\u201cOur research program led to results we did not anticipate, and hence a book much larger than originally envisioned. Because of this, we have not been able to develop in this volume our ideas about an alternative to current theories of human origins. We are therefore planning a second volume relating our extensive research results in this area to our Vedic source material.\u201d<\/p>\n

This second volume appeared in 2003 under the title, Human Devolution: A Vedic Alternative to Darwin\u2019s Theory<\/em>, by Michael A. Cremo (xxx, 554 pages). As they earlier pointed out, they use \u201cVedic\u201d in the broad sense to include the pur\u0101\u1e47as and itih\u0101sas. The actual text they draw on primarily is the Bh\u0101gavata Pur\u0101\u1e47a<\/em>. The last chapter of Human Devolution<\/em> is titled, \u201cHuman Devolution: A Vedic Account.\u201d It begins:<\/p>\n

\u201cLet us now review the path we have taken. The evidence documented in Forbidden Archeology<\/em> shows that humans of our type have existed on this planet for the duration of the current day of Brahma, about two billion years.\u201d<\/p>\n

They had not given this number of years in Forbidden Archeology<\/em>, but shortly after its publication Michael Cremo gave it in a lecture, \u201cPuranic Time and the Archeological Record,\u201d at the World Archeological Congress 3, New Delhi, 1994. This lecture is reprinted in Forbidden Archeology\u2019s Impact<\/em>. There, after giving the figures for the lengths of the yugas (the four totaling 4,320,000 years), and then of the kalpa or a day of Brahma (4,320,000,000 years), he says (p. 6):<\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to Puranic accounts, we are now in the twenty-eighth yuga<\/em> cycle of the seventh manvantara<\/em> period of the present day of Brahma. This would give the inhabited earth an age of about 2 billion years.\u201d<\/p>\n

This, of course, is quite in agreement with what Theosophy teaches, as may be seen in H. P. Blavatsky\u2019s book, The Secret Doctrine<\/em> (e.g., vol. 2, p. 68). I did not, however, find any mention in any of these books of the eighteen million year figure for the age of physical humanity given in The Secret Doctrine<\/em> (e.g., vol. 2, p. 69), and found in the Tamil Tirukkanda Panchanga<\/em>. But this is a specific question within the larger question of the antiquity of humanity, on which traditional Hinduism and Theosophy agree. Students of Theosophy are greatly indebted to Michael A. Cremo and Richard L. Thompson for their tremendous labor in doing this research, placing the gathered evidence before the public, capturing the attention of the scientific community with it, and giving thinking people something to think about. In brief, they have done our homework for us on this important topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like Theosophy, traditional Hinduism accepts a much greater antiquity for humanity than does modern science at present. Two members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, a modern organization based on the Vaishnava tradition within Hinduism, set out to \u201ccritically examine the prevailing account of human origins and the methods by which it was established\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-noteworthy-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":313,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312\/revisions\/313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}