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Re: Ad Yurii Gloriam (Was Re: maize in ancient india: strong
Yuri Kuchinsky wrote:
> You see, Thomas, if maize was a staple for those communities, as I
> claimed, and if archaeological research identified the staples consumed by
> these peoples, and failed to identify maize among them, this will disprove
> my thesis. Yes?
By George, you've almost got it. But here you fall into the
fallacy of Argumentum ex silentio. Negative evidence can't prove
or disprove something. If you failed to find them (repeatedly) it
would support that your thesis is wrong. You can disprove the thesis
that maize was not grown by finding some or a quantity of pollen.
Regards,
August Matthusen
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