Yeah, but the thing is, I don’t see anything terribly important about facts which “contradict their usual model of what hunter-gatherers should be able to accomplish” since I think their usual model should come with a large warning label “EPISTEMIC STATUS: UNCERTAIN”. If you have a collection of guesses based on sparse data, you should be prepared to revise these guesses when new data comes in.
It’s a big deal if you staked your academic career on one of those guesses; otherwise, not so much.
Yeah, but the thing is, I don’t see anything terribly important about facts which “contradict their usual model of what hunter-gatherers should be able to accomplish” since I think their usual model should come with a large warning label “EPISTEMIC STATUS: UNCERTAIN”. If you have a collection of guesses based on sparse data, you should be prepared to revise these guesses when new data comes in.
It’s a big deal if you staked your academic career on one of those guesses; otherwise, not so much.