Word: gardners
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Fell is respresentative of a particular tradition of writers who make wild claims about American Indians, he is also part of an even larger tradition of purveyors of pseudo-science. In his book Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, Martin Gardner, a columnist for Scientific American, describes the conditions in which theories such as Fell's tend to develop...
...Gardner says that such theories usually develop in almost total isolation from the legitimate scientific community. Archaeologists and linguists at Harvard have frequently asserted that Fell has never consulted them. The result, they say, is Fell's profound lack of familiarity with the current literature on the topics he deals with in America B.C. They say he uses outdated sources, and that he is ignorant of conflicting evidence...
...Gardner points out that another result of such isolation is that other scientists are usually not aware of the outsider's theories until they reach the popular press. In fact, Marshall McKusick, who wrote a book in 1970 detailing how the Davenport tablets (one of which Fell relies on for evidence) are most likely frauds, was not even aware of Fell's claims until he was informed of them after Fell wrote his book. It seems reasonable to expect that a responsible scientist would have communicated with McKusick before making such claims as Fell advances for the Davenport tablet...
...Gardner says the isolation of a theorist like Fell may be either self-imposed or the result of the rejection of his theories by the established authorities. In Fell's case, his isolation seems to be the result of both. Gardner says the rejected psuedo-scientist usually "speaks before organizations he himself has founded, contributes to journals he himself may edit." True enough: Fell publishes his epigraphic work in a journal which he founded and which he edits. Fell says the Occasional Publications of the Epigraphic Society began four years ago after his work had been consistently rejected...
...book, Gardner notes that pseudo-scientific theories are sometimes the work of brilliant men who can construct quite intricate puzzles for others to undo. Ives Goddard of the Smithsonian Institution makes the same point about Fell's work: "Fell spends years putting together his information...He's constructed an elaborate puzzle for us to solve...Recently I spent a couple of hours with a reporter and we looked up several of these words [from Fell's lists comparing ancient European languages and modern Indian tongues]...they can all be refuted, but in the end it's a waste of effort...