The Cardiff Giant and the Piltdown Man hoaxes are both important within the history of pseudoarcheology. The motives for both of these hoaxes were led by the desire to further one’s agenda. The motives behind the Piltdown Man began with the discoveries of various remains of early humans. While England’s neighboring countries were making progress researching human evolution by using their archaeological discoveries of early human remains, England was left behind because of its lack of discoveries in this field. The “discovery” of the Piltdown Man also brought fame to the founders, Charles Dawson and Arthur Woodward. The motives behind the Cardiff Giant began as a type of experiment to see how religious ideology could influence the audience into believing the statue was a true giant. George Hull, an atheist, had the giant statue created to prove that religion has a large impact on the beliefs of its followers. Money was also an important motivator. It may not have begun as that but with the large sum of money it accumulated over just a month of being on exhibit made it difficult for them to come out with the truth.  

Each hoax was successful in its own way. The Piltdown Man made people believe that England had made an important discovery to contribute to the research of human evolution. It was successful in a sense that it brought England pride to be able to contribute to this field. The Cardiff Man was successful because of the biblical tales of giants roaming around in the earlier periods of life. People wanted to believe this hoax because it would bring truth to their faith. The impacts of both of these hoaxes was a huge deal. The Piltdown Man put people at odds for years because they could not agree on what exactly the remains were from. Years later, scientists were able to test the remains and agree that they were not old enough to affect our outlook on the human past and some fragments weren’t even human remains. The Cardiff Giant was a short-lived hoax that had a large impact in that short amount of time. While people who lived by the bibles words wanted to believe it was the truth, train professionals were not so easily convinced. Unlike with the Piltdown Man hoax, not a single professional believed this could be the remains of a true giant. They could easily tell that it was a statue and not a fossilized man.

I agree that, “both hoaxes show that even ‘objective’ scientists cannot be trusted to apply a skeptical eye,” when the data in question fulfills exactly what they wanted. During my first experience on an archaeological sites, someone told me that I should always go into a dig with an open mind, or as open as I can be. The reasoning behind this is because if you go into a situation thinking you’re going to find exactly what you are looking for- you will. Your mind will be unconsciously persuading you that you are seeing something that isn’t there. I feel like that is the case with both of these hoaxes. In both situations, while the motives differ, the audience saw what they wanted. In the case of the Piltdown Man, they saw their contribution to science; for the Cardiff Giant, the people saw their faith being brought to life.