A three-day scientific symposium had been scheduled, so that the experts could examine and discuss the bone which had already been named, Orce Man, for the southern Spanish town near which it had been found. The French caused problems, however. The embarrassed Spanish officials sent out 500 letters canceling the symposium. Compared to other sciences, the mythic element is greatest in paleoanthropology. Hypotheses and stories of human evolution frequently arise unprompted by data and contain a large measure of general preconceptions, and the data which do exist are often insufficient to falsify or even substantiate them.
Many interpretations are possible.
The unscientific and doctrinaire character of this whole field of study is well-epitomized. So much glamor still attaches to the theme of the missing link, and to man's relationships with the animal world, that it may always be difficult to exercise from the comparative study of primates, living and fossil. The kind of myths which the unaided eye is able to conjure out of wishful thinking.