Michael Cremo

Michael A. Cremo
Michael A. Cremo
Born	(1948-07-15) July 15, 1948 Schenectady, New York
Nationality	American
Occupation(s)	Author, editor
Website	www.MCremo.com

Michael A. Cremo (born July 15, 1948), also known by his devotional name Drutakarmā dāsa, is an American freelance researcher who identifies himself as a "Vedic creationist" and argues that humans have lived on the earth for billions of years. Cremo's book, Forbidden Archeology, has attracted attention from mainstream scholars who criticized his unorthodox views on archeology.

Early life and education

Cremo was born in Schenectady, New York. Cremo's father, Salvatore Cremo, was a United States military intelligence officer. Michael Cremo lived with his family in Germany, where he went to high school. They spent several summers traveling throughout Europe. He attended George Washington University from 1966 to 1968, then served in the United States Navy.

Religious views

Cremo is a member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness and the Bhaktivedanta Institute. He has written several books and articles about Hindu spirituality under the name Drutakarmā dāsa. He has also been a contributing editor to the magazine Back to Godhead and a bhakti yoga teacher. Cremo told Contemporary Authors that he decided to devote his life to Krishna in the early 1970s, after receiving a copy of the Bhagavad Gita at a Grateful Dead concert. In the end of 1990s he authored a paper on the official ISKCON statement on capital punishment. His work on "Puranic Time and the Archaeological Record" was published in ISKCON Communications Journal and Time and Archaeology.

Forbidden Archeology

In 1993, Cremo co-wrote Forbidden Archeology with Richard L. Thompson. The book claims that humans have lived on the earth for millions, or billions, of years, and that the scientific establishment has suppressed the fossil evidence of extreme human antiquity. He speaks about a knowledge filter (confirmation bias) as the cause of this suppression. Although Cremo has made very certain claims pointing to not only science but those who support it as being dishonest, Cremo has yet to submit any of his experimental data in support of his claims for peer review.

Forbidden Archeology has attracted attention from some mainstream scholars as well as Hindu creationists and paranormalists. While some scholars of mainstream archeology and paleoanthropology have described the work as pseudoscience, some critics have acknowledged some positive aspects of the book.

Anthropologist Kenneth L. Feder wrote in his review of Forbidden Archeology: "While decidedly antievolutionary in perspective, this work is not the ordinary variety of anti-evolutionism in form, content, or style. In distinction to the usual brand of such writing, the authors use original sources and the book is well written. Further, the overall tone of the work is far superior to that exhibited in ordinary creationist literature."

Archaeologist Tim Murray wrote in his review of Forbidden Archeology: "I have no doubt that there will be some who will read this book and profit from it. Certainly it provides the historian of archeology with a useful compendium of case studies in the history and sociology of scientific knowledge, which can be used to foster debate within archaeology about how to describe the epistemology of one's discipline." He also commented on the similarities in argument with those of Christian Creationists: "This is a piece of ‘Creation Science’ which, while not based on the need to promote a Christian alternative, manifests many of the same types of argument: first, an attempt to characterize the opposition as motivated by the need to preserve their view of the world rather than a desire to practice unfettered inquiry; secondly, to explain the currently marginal position of your alternative as being the result of prejudice, conspiracy and manipulation rather than of any fault of the theory itself; thirdly, to present the opposition (in this case mainstream palaeoanthropology and quarternary [sic] archaeology) as being united as a ‘secret college’ to manipulate the public mind and to exclude non-professionals from being able to control science for the benefit of all."

Cremo has presented his findings from the book at mainstream conferences of archeology and history of science, at leading scientific institutions, such as the Royal Institution in London, and some of his findings have been published in mainstream academic publications. For example, his paper "Puranic Time and the Archeological Record", presented at the 1994 meeting of the World Archaeological Congress, appeared in a peer-reviewed conference proceedings volume edited by archeologist Tim Murray and published by Routledge, a major scientific publisher. The paper incorporates extensive evidence from Cremo's book Forbidden Archeology. Cremo's paper "The Discoveries of Carlos Ribeiro", which he presented at a meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists, was published in a peer-reviewed archeological journal.

Cremo continued this theme in Forbidden Archeology's Impact (1998) and Human Devolution (2003). Cremo identifies as a "Vedic archeologist", since he believes his findings support the story of humanity described in the Vedas. The Indian magazine Frontline called Cremo and Thompson "the intellectual force driving Vedic creationism in America".

Cremo's work has garnered interest from Hindu creationists, paranormalists and theosophists. But it has also attracted attention from mainstream scholars. Historians of science Jo Wodak and David Oldroyd published a 23-page review article "'Vedic Creationism': A Further Twist to the Evolution Debate" in Social Studies of Science. The review points out positive aspects of the book, e.g. that "Forbidden Archeology brings to attention many interesting issues that have not received much consideration from historians; and the authors' detailed examination of the early literature is certainly stimulating and raises questions of considerable interest, both historically and from the perspective of practitioners of sociology of scientific knowledge." They also write that "On the whole, the work of recent palaeoanthropologists -- in terms of both recent finds and reviews of current theory -- is omitted from the discussion. FA's presentation means that the reader is not offered a thorough review of the relevant evidence, despite the book's great length...To attempt to resurrect an old paradigm the way they do, by analyzing outmoded scientific texts, is one of the recognized marks of 'pseudo-science'."

Cremo's books provided much of the content for the widely criticized 1996 NBC special The Mysterious Origins of Man.

Forbidden Archeology has been criticized for failing to test simpler hypotheses before proceeding to propose more complex ones (a violation of Occam's razor); and for cherry-picking outdated evidence (often from the 19th and early 20th centuries) that supports the authors' position, while ignoring or ridiculing more recent information that refutes or challenges their claims. Tom Morrow of the National Center for Science Education noted that "FA devotes 400 pages to analyzing anomalous stone tools depicted in obscure literature over the past 150 years. Worse, these specimens no longer exist.".

His book Human Devolution, which like Forbidden Archeology claims that man has existed for millions of years, attempts to prove this by citing "every possible research into the paranormal ever conducted anywhere to 'prove' the truth of holist Vedic cosmology which proposes the presence of a spiritual element in all matter (which takes different forms, thereby explaining the theory of 'devolution').".

Academic publications related to Forbidden Archeology

• Cremo, M A. (1999) Puranic Time and the Archeological Record. In Tim Murray, ed. Time and Archaeology, Routledge, London, pp. 38–48.

• Cremo, M. A. (2002) The Later Discoveries of Boucher de Perthes at Moulin Quignon and Their Impact on the Moulin Quignon Jaw Controversy. In Goulven Laurent ed. Proceedings of the XXth International Congress of History of Science (Liege, 20–26 July 1997), Volume X, Earth Sciences, Geography and Cartography. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, pp. 39–56

• Cremo, M. A. (2009) The discoveries of Carlos Ribeiro: a controversial episode in nineteenth-century European archeology. Journal of Iberian Archaeology, vol. 12: 69-89.

• Cremo, M. A. (2008) Excavating the eternal: an indigenous archaeological tradition in India. Antiquity, 82:178-188.

• Cremo, M. A. (2008) Some Angles on the Anglo Debate. Archaeologies: Journal of the World Archaeological Congress, 4(1): 164-167.

Recent years

In recent years, Cremo has organized a number of conferences where ISKCON-associated academics exchanged views and experiences. In March 2009, Cremo appeared in a History Channel television series called Ancient Aliens, and in 2010 a mini series of the same name.

See also

• Gaudiya Vaishnavism
• Creationism
• Creation science

External links

• Official website
• Michael Cremo. "Puranic Time and the Archaeological Record - Vedic Encyclopedia".