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Homo Floresiensis: An Update on the 'Hobbits' of Indonesia

© John Walsh

The reports of the discovery of Homo Floresiensis on a remote island of Indonesia have proved something of a problem for Indonesian scientists and, in particular, archaeologists. As good Muslims - Islam is of course the state religion of Indonesia - they believe in the creation of the earth and its life, together with the rest of the universe, by God a few thousand years ago and in accordance with a six day schedule.

Now that discoveries have been made in their own country which might lead to the further discrediting of that belief, they must attempt to refute the proofs of the findings. It will be recalled that the findings on Flores Island centred on the remains of hominins - early versions of humanity - which included the skeleton of a woman of just three feet tall. The small size has led some to name Homo Floresiensis rather fancifully as 'hobbits.' It is thought that they decreased in size as a result of their isolation and spent much of their time hiding in trees from large predators.

Teuku Jacob, a paleoanthropology professor from Gadjah Mada University, has argued that the bones date to only 1300-1800 years ago, that the skeleton was really a combination of a male and a female and that it is impossible for Homo Floresiensis to be the ancestors of Indonesians. This argument would cast serious doubt on the methodology of the Australian team (Mike Morwood and Peter Brown) and rather misses the point of their findings, which is that there is good reason to believe that Homo Floresiensis may have coexisted with the ancestors of modern Indonesians, not actually been those descendants. Some tangential proof of this in the form of the persistent dwarf myths held by people of Flores Island have also been investigated.
That the remains are reported to be 18,000 years old seriously challenges creationsit beliefs. Yet to demonstrate to the world that Indonesia is a sophisticated, modern republic, media and academia, not to mention some politicians, need to demonstrate their acceptance of proper scientific method. The debate is moving not from religion versus irreligion but from the complex versus childish understanding of the world and our place in it.

References and Further Reading

Fointuna, Yemris, "Dwarfs in Flores Mythology," The Jakarta Post (November 30th, 2004), downloaded from: http://www.thejakartapost.com/Archives/A...

Santoso, Dewi and M. Taufiqurrahman, "Archaeologists Divided over 'Homo Floresiensis,'" The Jakarta Post (October 30th, 2004), downloaded from: http://www.thejakartapost.com/Archives/A...