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6 The Refutation That Never Was |
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SUMMARY Elaine Morgan’s work has been rejected or ignored by scientific researchers in the human Evolution field since the publication of her first book on the subject The Descent of Woman in 1972. This chapter considers the reasons for this reaction which persisted in the absence of any adequate refutation of the Aquatic Ape Theory (AAT). It is argued that no refutation was forthcoming because there was a lack of consensus among the scientific workers themselves regarding the central issues of bipedalism and hairlessness. The rejection of Morgan’s work is considered to be primarily due to her outsidership, a position exacerbated by the barrier which human evolution researchers had understandably erected in the face of the speculative, outlandish and amateur attentions which the topic, by its very nature, tends to attract. On examination, her work does not fall into this category. It conforms to current theories of speciation better than the savannah-origins model, and accounts for a number of diverse phenomena hitherto not seen as connected – which is also generally considered to be a major virtue in a scientific :theory. Finally, it is argued that the behavioural and psychological aquatic affinities of modern humans are sufficiently marked to require an evolutionary explanation, at least as much as other behaviours well established on the evolutionary research agenda. |
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