University of California officials reject science
Shades of the fight over Kennewick Man. Scientists at the University of California, San Diego, are outraged because administration officials have moved to give two 10,000-year-old skeletons to a Native American tribe. The local Kumeyaay tribe has asked for the skeletons, which were discovered in 1976. University of California president Mark Yudof and UCSD chancellor Marye Anne Fox are seeking federal authorization to do that even though the bones are so ancient that they cannot be linked to any extant Native Americans.
[S]ome anthropologists say the decision is based on politics, not science.
“This is scandalous,” says Robert Bettinger, an anthropologist at the University of California, Davis, who is on the panel that oversees how archaeological remains are handled at all ten University of California campuses. The panel was not consulted on this transfer proposal.
Paleoanthropologist blogger John Hawks points out the absurdity:
So let me get this straight. The University of California has an expert panel to consult on matters of exactly this kind, matters in which University facilities and collections may intersect with federal agencies or laws regarding archaeological remains.
[…]
And the president and chancellor just decided, “What the heck? Who needs experts? Time to rebury these bones!”
Chancellor Fox offers a pathetically bogus defence of her anti-science decision:
Fox declined an interview, but said in a statement that the transfer “seems an appropriate balance between the interests of science and [those] of the Native American community”.
What nonsense! If the skeletons are handed over, they will quickly be buried at an undisclosed site. Remains of great scientific value will be lost forever. Any “balance” exists only in Fox’s mind. Political correctness trumps science.
h/t: Faith-Science News
[...] IDEOLOGY RULES! University of California officials reject science …. [...]
You can get some insight into what motivates the UCSD bureaucrats from Evan Sayet latest video. What he says is all too true, and he is often funny, so it is not too heavy. The video is one hour and two minutes. His talk is on why the left inevitably hates what is good, promotes the wrong as right, and celebrates behaviors that lead to failure.
The Ace of Spades HQ has the video and a link to download the talk. http://minx.cc/?post=284342