The goals and motives of the Cardiff Giant and the Piltdown Man hoax were quite different. The Cardiff Giant was intended to prove George Hull’s argument that many individuals blindly believe religious stories and tales, and then was later motivated by the monetary profit that was brought from the public interest of the “real life” giant. The Piltdown Man was intended to create national pride in the United Kingdom’s historical contributions to ancient human populations similar to that of France and Spain. The Cardiff Giant hoax was successful because George Hull chose a biblical story that was ingrained into society’s ideology. The biblical tales of Giants and the heros of man were important moulds for the ideal qualities of a man at the time. By choosing a topic so prominent in society, Hull was able to draw people in to achieve the monetary benefits he received, as well as prove that people would easily believe the biblical idea of giants. People wanted the giant to be real for the same reason Hull chose this biblical tale: the men in the stories were idolized. To have evidence of a past giant gave evidence to a high degree of truth in the bible. The Piltdown Man hoax was successful in creating national pride because it gave birth to a popular understanding that had not yet been proven through skeletal findings. No English or Euopean person wanted to discredit the discovery that proved the “brain centered” hypothesis of evolution by a well respected man like Charles Dawson. Along with society wanting to believe the remains were real, Dawson refused to allow anyone to doing testing on the bones, and by doing this, he forced the population to believe it was all real.

The Piltdown Man had a large effect on the scientific understanding of the human past. It proved the theory of the human brain and brain cavity growing before the rest of the body: a widely believed theory at the time. For almost half a century society believed the early man had the skull of a human and the body of an ape, which then evolved into the modern physical body of humans. It was not until the early 1940s when chemical testing was done in the remains that it was definitively proven to be a hoax; having a very large impact on the scientific understanding of human past. Whereas the Piltdown Man was believed for half a century, the Cardiff Giant was only believed for about 4 months. The Cardiff Giant had a much lesser effect on the scientific understanding of human past. Although it did not last long and did not have as long of a lifespan, the Cardiff Giant was extremely famous in the United States and drew the attention of people from all around the world. The Cardiff Giant gave proof to many biblical ideologies and backed many religious beliefs, impacting the understanding of human past in religious perspective. 

I believe that both hoaxes show the self-corrective nature of science. Science is constantly changing, especially in terms of understanding the past. As the scientific community gains new information, it adapts and changes. When the Piltdown Man was discovered there was not advanced fluoride testing being used on the bones. Scientists were making the best inferences they could using what they had. As technology changed, so did the scientific community’s understanding of human evolution. This does not mean scientists cannot be trusted, it means new questions will be asked and new answers will develop. The Cardiff Giant and the Piltdown Man are both fantastic examples of scientists’ ability to change their understanding of findings.Both of these discoveries were almost immediately declared a hoax by scientists. Almost only a year or two into the Piltdown findings Gerritt S. Miller and David Waterson declared it to be a mandible of an ape, and only a few months after the discovery, J.F. Boynton and Othneil C. Marsh criticized people who did believe in the discovery. In both instances, it was not necessarily the scientific community that instantly believed in these findings, as much as it was the public who believed these findings. Science often accepts things quicker than the public, and scientific understandings change much more quickly than the public learns about them.