Probably the first book I ever read by an anthropologist was Ashley Montagu's "The Prevalence of Nonsense" in which he debunked many popular "myths" including that of race ( a significant issue in my
cultural context). Then came Marvin Harris and "Cows Pigs Wars and Witches" which I might now disagree with, but which at the time, really made me think. In fact, come to think of it, all my favorite
anthropologists are contrarians and debunkers. Clifford Geertz, Melville Herskovits, et al..... Maybe I should sign up for this session! Most assuredly, there is plenty of nonsense to debunk in our field!

4/23/2002 6:10:01 PM, katja kliemann <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>there's also zinn's "people's history of the united states"
>
>> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
>> Von: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]]Im Auftrag von Kris
>> Farmen
>> Gesendet am: Dienstag, 23. April 2002 12:33
>> An: [log in to unmask]
>> Betreff: Re: Myth Busting
>>
>> On the subject of Historical Myth Busting, there's a very good
>> and fun to read book
>> called "I Love Paul Revere, Whether he Rode or Not!" By Richard
>> Shenkman.  I read it
>> for a history class when I was in high school; each chapter sets
>> up a historical
>> "fact", i.e. Prohibition didn't keep people from consuming
>> alcohol, 18th century
>> Caribbean pirates were bloodthirsty, savage barbarians (or,
>> conversely, high-minded
>> democratic and civilized); all the American colonists zealously
>> supported the War for
>> Independence, etc, then he evaluates them in terms of the actual
>> evidence, debunking a
>> lot of these "truths" as myths.  A very good read, certainly
>> along the lines of what
>> you're discussing. . .
>>
>>
>> Kris Farmen
>> Northern Land Use Research, Inc.
>> Fairbanks, Alaska
>>
>
Carl Steen
Archaeologist
The Diachronic Research Foundation
PO Box 50394
Columbia, SC 29250
Web Site: http://diachronicresearch.com