Carbon Dating

Assignment 9, Article 26
The topic of dating is a very tricky one, be it carbon, argon or social dating, someone always has an opinion. In Article 26: Erectus Rising in the 2005 Annual Editions, James Shreeve relates his findings mixed with a bit of wit for a decent read on dating Homo Erectus. His main point being that erectus could very well have migrated out of Africa before the accepted date of 1 million years ago. He also plays with the idea that erectus is actually a separate form of the African Homo erectus referring to the African erectus as Homo ergaster and the Asian erectus as Homo erectus. He writes in a fashion that gives little to his actual belief on the topic of lineage other than he is acknowledging there are varried thoughts on the matter.
This article takes us for a ride with nearly five full pages of text, all of which very informative but lacking in opinion expected from an article punctuating Shreeves views. This was definitely one of the more text book articles in the Annual Editions with posturing a politician would appreciate. The empty feeling of contempt and open ended argument is non-the-less worth the read. Where the Javan fossils are in fact a separate species or one with the African h. erectus is one expected to be pinpointed. Shreeves never says this is what I interpret the finding to be, he just say here are the facts you decide.
Shreeves even ends his article with this statement “But this tenacious debate is unlikely to be resolved without basketfuls of new fossils, new ways of interpreting old ones- and new dates.” (132). What is that for a closing statement? He is saying yeah we don’t know what we are doing and cannot agree on what we do know. This is not very encouraging for a young student hoping to follow anthropology. This article while informative on the different views accruing in modern anthropology, only showed how much guess work is really in this field. For the record I tend to believe that Java and the African form are both Homo erectus even with all that I have read.