DECIPHERING EAST-SIDE SOUTH AMERICANS INDIGENOUS POPULATIONS DYNAMICS

Resumo

The impressive results of the editorial project featured in this dossier on the
prehistory of the Amazon viewed from the Atlantic flank of South America outline
a scientific and ethical success story. The works presented can be seen as a vindication of Max Planck (1950) sinical views of change in science. “A new scientific truth
does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but
rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is
familiar with it” He re-emphasized the some view in another part of the same book,
asserting that “an important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents: it rarely happens that Saul becomes
Paul. What does happen is that its opponents gradually die out, and that the growing
generation is familiarized with the ideas from the beginning: another instance of the
fact that the future lies with the youth”. Thomas Kuhn (1962) “Structure of scientific
Revolutions” provided a rational explanation and helped understand what happens
in the mind of working researchers, scientists and scholars.