Providentia

Making a Prophet (Part 3)

Continued from Part Two

Throughout the 19th and early 20th century, Jamaica was a stunning contrast of natural beauty and stark poverty.  The twin legacies of slavery and colonialism left the island with a population consisting primarily of former slaves, people of mixed race ("coloured"), and white colonists who, despite beinga small minority, owned most of the land and resources.  While formal independence from the U.K. would come in the 20th century, life in 19th century Jamaica was often harsh for the freed slaves and their descendants. 

It hardly seems surprising that religion would be a major influence among the island's inhabitants.  Not only with the various branches of Christianity, but also more exotic religions based on traditions imported from Africa.  Obeah and Myalism were widely practiced despite attempts at suppression by the  authorities.  These traditions were often incorporated into more mainstream religions and helped fuel the Christian revivalist movement.  The 19th century was marked by religious clashes and spiritual missions that quickly attracted believers.

Which brings us to Alexander Bedward.

He was born in southeastern Jamaica in 1848 into extreme poverty.  His mother had a local reputation as a healer though his father was unknown.  Never having learned to write and with only minimal reading, he had little choice but to work on one of the big sugar plantations in Colon, Panama.  Whatever future he may have planned changed after a massive fire swept through Kingston, Jamaica in 1882.  Following the fire, Bedward began to have disturbing dreams and erratic behaviour that so frightened his family that they tried to have him put away for lunacy.  He insisted that the dreams meant that God had chosen him for a divine mission.  By 1889, Bedward was formally installed as one of the 24 elders of August Town's Native Baptist church and his religious crusade began.

And what a crusade it was!  By October 1891, Bedward had resigned from his plantation job to launch his healing mission.  Using water from a spring on his property near Jamaica's Hope River, he conducted healing ceremonies based on a divine vision that told him that "the water of the Hope River would be miraculously converted into medicine for soul and body".  Along with his healing, Bedward delivered sermons on a large rock overlooking the river and thousands of people gathered every Wednesday to hear him. 

The descriptions of Bedward's crusade were closely followed by reporters from Jamaica's Daily Gleaner.  Although the newspaper dismissed Bedward as "an ignorant black man living somewhere in the Long Mountain", his movement certainly made news.  In one less-than-complimentary account, Bedward's crusade was described as "one of the most painful and saddening [phenomena] that could possibly be witnessed by anyone of ordinary intelligence, who has his country's good at heart …. [T]he seething mass of ignorance … congregates in the vicinity without a blush of shame at the credulity and infatuation which is [sic] on every side exhibited". 

Not only did Bedward's followers gather to hear him speak, they also brought bottles, jugs, and anything else capable of holding the precious spring water to bring back to their homes.  There were also the invalids who came hoping for divine healing including "lepers, people with running sores, the crippled and deformed, blind, consumptive, asthmatic and in fact every complaint known in the medical world".

The local authorities and clergy were especially outraged by the healing sessions featuring nude men and women bathing together by the thousands. Medical doctors denounced Bedward for his outlandish claims and the false hope he gave patients.  Stung by his numerous critics, Bedward remained defiant during his Wednesday sessions and people still gathered at the river for healing.  The Daily Gleaner gave regular editorials denouncing the "Bedward craze" and unsavory hints at his family's previous attempts at having him committed began to surface.  Meanwhile, the "Bedwardites" (as they were being called) were making arrangements to build a temple to honour their prophet.  Colonial authorities were increasingly worried by Bedward's sermons directed against the upper-class Jamaicans who "grabbed the substance of the poor". 

On January 16, 1895, Alexander Bedward gave a sermon denouncing the white minority and predicted the end of the world in which the wicked would be punished and the faithful rewarded.  He railed against the government and the Clergy as "vagabonds, thieves, robbers and liars" and called on his followers to drive out the white population.  That was enough for the government to lay a charge of seditious language against him and Bedward was quickly arrested. His subsequent trial in April of that same year (with an all-white jury) returned a verdict of Not Guilty By Reason of Insanity.  Although Bedward was sent to a local asylum, he was released a few weeks later after a successful appeal.  Bedward returned to his mission and the healing sessions went on as before (though he eventually insisted that his followers be fully clothed when they bathed in the river).

Although skeptics claimed that Bedwardism would eventually "run its course", the movement continued into the early years of the 20th century.  By 1910, Bedward and his followers had built an impressive compound in August Town complete with a chapel.  While Alexander Bedward was still seen as a threat by the colonial authorities, he had enough support to prevent any attempt at arresting him again.  It's hard to say how  far the movement might have gone if Bedward hadn't had one final vision...

In 1920, believing that the millennium was at hand, Alexander Bedward announced to this followers that he would ascend into heaven on December 31, 1920. As you might expect, the Gleaner scoffed at this revelation but thousands of his followers gathered at the compound in hope of being "saved".  Many of these followers sold all their possessions and the tailor shop on site provided simple white gowns for them to wear for the big event.  Due to fear of rioting (and a possible black uprising), a military regiment was sent in to maintain order.  Throughout the day, Bedward's followers were repeatedly told that his ascension was postponed (he had originally promised that it would happen at ten in the morning).  By late afternoon, the followers were told that the ascension would be "spiritual" rather than physical and, by evening, most of the followers went home disappointed.

Although this event broke up much of Bedward's support, he was still able to rally six hundred followers for a "manifestation" in Kingston that following year.  Police took no chances and promptly arrested him and many of his followers.  Once again, he was declared Not Guilty By Reason of Insanity but there was no release this time.  Up until his death in 1930, Alexander Bedward was held in Jamaica's Bellevue Asylum. 

Much like Richard Brothers and Joanna Southcott before him, Bedward's supporters slowly drifted away following his imprisonment and death.  Many of these followers later became part of Marcus Garvey's Pan-African movement as well as the growing Rastafarian religion.  In some circles, Bedward is still considered a martyr and an early leader in Jamaican nationalism.  Leaving aside questions about his mental state, his religious crusade inspired tens of thousands of people at the peak of his popularity.  

Although I have focused on three very different prophets in this series, the similarities among their movements and the people who believed in them seem apparent enough.  So why do some religious leaders launch major movements that continue after their death while others sink into obscurity?  Heaven only knows.

Does Social Status Predict Loneliness in Seniors?

Much has been written about the important role that subjective social status plays in older adults’ well-being and subjective health. Less is known, however, about the potential role played by subjective social status in people’s sense of loneliness. In a new study published in the journal Research on Aging, the author examined the role of subjective social status as a predictor of loneliness in adult day care centers (ADCCs) and continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) over a 1-year period. The main analyses consist of data from 245 respondents (141 ADCC participants and 104 CCRC residents) who completed the interviews in Waves 1 and 2. A significant interaction between subjective social status and type of long-term care setting was found. Higher levels of subjective social status were associated with lower levels of loneliness in CCRCs, but no such association was evident in ADCCs. These findings are interpreted in view of the characteristics of the CCRC as a total institution versus the ADCC as a setting that provides support for only several hours per day, several days per week. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract

Witchcraft Accusations Lead to Increase in UK Child Abuse Cases

Child protection workers across the United Kingdom are reporting a startling rise in recent cases of child abuse linked to accusations of witchcraft, possession, and black magic.  Cases linked to harmful cultural practices such as female genital mutilation are also reportedly on the rise.   

While the highest number of cases were reported in Lancashire, Bradford, and Leeds, nearly two thousand child protection cases resulting from matters of religion and belief in supernatural causes were reported nationwide.  This amounts to thirty-eight new cases coming to light each week.   While incidents of abuse linked to faith or belief were less visible in the past, high-profile cases have made social workers agencies better able to identify religious and cultural factors that can underlie child abuse.  

Abuse in these cases often result from a belief in evil spirits that can “possess” children.  Since possessed children are believed to be able to infect others through sharing food, or simply being in their presence, they are often subjected to torture in an attempt to "drive out" the evil.    Other signs of "possession" can include normal rebelliousness, nightmares, or simply falling ill.   Children are also sometimes made into scapegoats due to various family misfortunes including job loss,  financial problems, marital difficulties,  illness, or death.

Among the cases that have come to light in recent years was that of fifteen-year-old Kristy Bamu who died in 2010 during the course of an attempted exorcism by his sister Magalie Bamu and her partner, Eric Bikubi.   Kristy and his sisters had been accused of witchcraft and subjected to horrific torture that only ended when Kristy confessed to being a sorcerer.  He was then drowned and an autopsy found over one hundred injuries on his body.   Bikubi and Bamu both received life sentences.

In a similar case, seven-year-old Khyra Ishaq was deliberately starved to death in 2008 by her mother Angela Gordon, and her partner, Junaid Abuhamza, in a Birmingham apartment.   While the motive for this crime was never made clear, police linked it to the "strong belief in evil spirits" shared by Gordon and Abumhanza.   Both received extended prison sentences.  

But cases of female children as either having had or at risk for female genital mutilation are also at a record high.   In 2018/2019, there were 1000 such cases reported, up six percent from the previous year.    “Rising cases of FGM and child abuse linked to faith or belief are extremely worrying and are destroying the lives of children and young people in communities across the country,” said Cllr Anita Lower, the Local Government Association’s lead on FGM. “Social workers have become better at identifying the signs of FGM and belief-related abuse, but the true incidence rate is likely to be higher as these crimes are under-reported.”

Though FGM remains illegal under UK law, girls ranging in age from infancy to the onset of puberty are often 

Despite the rising number of cases reported, most of which involve people from cultures with a strong tradition of witchcraft and spirit possession, Metropolitan police warn against stigmatizing immigrant communities as belief in the supernatural can be found in all cultures.

For more information

 

 

Is Quality or Quantity of Social Relationships the Key to a Healthy Old Age?

What is a social network?   And no, I don't mean the movie.

Though it can often mean the network of friends, family, and neighbours we deal with on a regular basis, a social network can be much more than that.  Many people describing their own social networks may also include the people they interact with online, professional contacts, old classmates, or casual acquaintances. 

Along with these informal  social networks, there are also the formal support networks in place to help people in need.   These networks include health care professionals, volunteers, charity workers, or anyone else who could be counted on to provide emotional or physical support when needed.   This is why having such networks in place can be an essential part of preserving our mental and emotional health.

To read more, check out my new blog post for Psychology Today

 

Making a Prophet (Part 2)

Continued from Part One

If the English government had hoped that imprisoning Richard Brothers in an asylum would end his millenarian movement, they were sadly mistaken.   Those followers who became disillusioned with Brothers and his prophecies quickly found a new prophet to take his place. 

Or rather, a prophetess.  

Born in Devonshire on April 4, 1750, Joanna Southcott was the fourth daughter of William and Hannah Southcott and showed no sign in her early childhood of her remarkable destiny.  Although her family had once been very prosperous, Joanna grew up on a small farm with very little education and had little choice but to go into domestic service in the Devonshire area.  Her employers would later describe her as being honest but prone to episodes of "melancholy" (depression).   In her own writings, she would state that the "Spirit of Truth" first descended on her when she was eighteen but her mission in life didn't really begin until Joanna was forty-two.

There's no way to tell what her employers thought when Joanna announced to them that she was a "prophetess" and that the Lord had appeared to her to "warn her of what was coming upon the whole earth".  Since "higher powers" were using her to spread their divine word, Joanna dedicated herself to writing an elaborate series of prophecies, usually centered around war and destruction.  Bundles of her prophecies were sent off to various clergymen and bishops who were urged to examine them. 

While most of the clergy ignored Joanna and her warnings, she attracted the interest of one vicar, James Pomeroy. As a successful preacher in Cornwall, Pomeroy seemed to give Southcott the attention that she craved.  From 1796 to 1801, she besieged Pomeroy with her prophecies and demanded that he get her work examined by a clerical committee.  Eventually, Pomeroy broke off the association when he realized that his involvement with her was exposing him to ridicule. 

Since Pomeroy refused to deal with her any further and no other clerics had any interest in her prophecies, Joanna decided to publish her prophecies instead.  In February, 1801, the first installment of her book, The Strange Effects of Faith was published with five additional installments being added over the next year.  On the first page of the book, she issued the following challenge: "If any five ministers who are worthy and good men, will prove that these writings come from the Devil I will refrain from further printing. If they cannot I will go on."  Her followers would trumpet that same challenge long after her death.

Although the five ministers she asked for didn't come forward, Joanna Southcott certainly attracted a diverse group of followers.  After Richard Brothers was incarcerated, his disillusioned believers were quick to turn to this new religious leader.  Among them were included three ministers and other prosperous members of society.  After these followers took her existing prophecies with them to London, Joanna Southcott decided to safeguard her new prophecies in a way that added to her mystique.  She decided to "seal" her prophecies with a special seal (including the initials "I.C" with two stars) and place them in a special container that was kept in the care of one of her followers.  The legends surrounding the "Great Box" that contained her prophecies quickly took on a life of their own. 

Her prophecies had a surprisingly feminist tone for that era.  As a "daughter of Eve", she would challenge the Devil to mortal combat and "cast back upon him the guilt which women originally incurred by transmitting his temptation to man in Eden".   As the chosen instrument for destroying Satan, Joanna would be the "Bride of the Lamb" who would usher in a new kingdom on Earth.  By 1802, she began "sealing" her followers to be among the select few who would be saved.  When one of her wealthy followers, Elias Carpenter, brought her a ream of paper from his mill, Southcott cut it into squares and inscribed each piece with a circle.  Inside each circle, she wrote "The sealed of the Lord, the elect and precious, man's redemption to inherit the tree of life, to be made heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ."  By 1807, she had distributed 14,000 of these squares to be among the 144,000 to be saved according to the Book of Revelation.

Her crusade continued for the rest of her life with continued challenges to the Church of England to examine her prophecies in detail.  The sealing ensured that her followers stayed loyal to her despite other "prophets" launching similar crusades.  This loyalty was put to the test in 1814 when 65-year old Joanna Southcott announced that she was pregnant "by the power of the Most High".   According to one final vision, she had been chosen for a "virgin birth" and that her son would be "the Shiloh" who would redeem the world. 

Although newspapers quickly denounced her as a "deluded, elderly virgin", her followers enthusiastically waited for the miraculous birth.  They presented Joanna with an expensive crib made of satin wood and gold.  When a team of physicians confirmed her pregnancy, she married one of her followers to avoid the scandal of being an unwed mother (James Pomeroy declined the honour).  In December of that same year, Joanna reluctantly called her supporters to her bedside and confessed that "it all appears delusion".  Her followers were devastated and rumours began that her son had been "snatched up into Heaven" to escape the dragon of Revelation.  Joanna Southcott went into decline afterward and died on December 27.

Four days after Joanna Southcott's death, a team of physicians met for a post-mortem examination.  Aside from gallstones, they found no evidence of medical problems or other abnormalities.  In a signed statement, the doctors concluded that "We the undersigned, present at the dissection of Mrs. Joanna Southcott, do certify that no unnatural appearances were visible, and no part exhibited any appearance of disease sufficient to have occasioned her death, nor was there any appearance of her ever having been pregnant". 

Despite her death, Joanna Southcott's movement lingered on.  Although the number of her followers dwindled, legends of Joanna's "Great Box" and the hidden prophecies that she left behind were still common.  She left instructions that the Box should only be opened in times of "national crisis" with a full gathering of the Church of England's bishops in attendance.   After attempts by her followers to have the Church open the Box during the Crimean War and World War I, it was finally opened in 1927 (only one prelate agreed to attend).   The only contents of the Box were some "oddments and unimportant papers" including a lottery ticket.  That didn't deter some of the followers, though (they insisted it was the wrong box). 

While rumours of the Great Box still crop up in the news from time to time, most of Joanna Southcott's prophecies are available online.  Among them is a memorable prediction that the world would end in 2004 (Sadly, she didn't see the 2012 movement coming.  If she had added another eight years to her prophecy, she might have earned herself a new generation of believers).   Her story continues to be a fascinating example of religious mania and the persistence of belief.

Her sad ending hardly deterred other would-be prophets however.   We'll explore a third case next Friday...

Continue to Part Three

Making a Prophet (Part One)

We may never know for sure what first inspired Richard Brothers to declare himself "Prince of the Hebrews" but his strange career as a prophet, and the followers who believed in him, makes for quite a story.

He was born in Placentia, Newfoundland in 1757 (on Christmas Day of course) and his father, an English soldier stationed there during the Seven Years' War, arranged for his son to be educated in England.  After graduating from the naval school at Woolwich, Brothers embarked on a naval career and was promoted to Lieutenant before retiring in 1783.  Serving in the merchant marines, he traveled across Europe before settling down and marrying in 1786.  The marriage didn't last long (it ended quickly when he learned about his wife's infidelity).  Whether due to his marital breakdown or growing religious fervour, Richard Brothers began to question whether his oath of loyalty to the British government was consistent with his religious beliefs.  This refusal to swear the oath cost him his military pension.

During this same period, he began an intense reading of the Bible as well as various other religious works (including the mystical writings of Emmanuel Swedenborg).  Losing his pension meant that he had no money to pay his rent and he was forced into a workhouse to support himself (this was mandatory due to the UK's Poor Law system at the time).  For whatever reason, Brothers began to experience religious visions during the six months he spent in the workhouse, most of them focusing on the role that the British people would play in the reclaiming of Palestine and his own unique role as a prophet.  In one of these visions, Brothers heard the voice of an angel proclaiming the fall of London (which the angel called Babylon the Great).  After Brothers pleaded with the angel for mercy towards the city, God reportedly agreed to spare London for a time.  He also reported that a "heavenly lady" would eventually descend from Heaven to shower him with the love and happiness that his religious views convinced him he deserved.

By 1782, Richard Brothers had a new mission.  In addition to being a prophet of the Lord, he also had the gift of healing.  Although large crowds dutifully gathered, his spiritual gifts were never all that spectacular and his "miracles" tended not to impress too many skeptics. For that reason, the doubters were hardly convinced when Brothers announced that he had been chosen as an apostle of a new religion.  As the new "Prince of the Hebrews", it was his responsibility to lead the Jews back to Palestine and reclaim God's kingdom.  As a descendant of the House of David and "Nephew of the Almighty",  it was Brothers who would identify the "hidden Jews" among the people of England ignorant of their true heritage.  Armed with a rod of rosewood that he had carved himself, the new Prince announced that he would use it to work miracles much as Moses had done before.

A pamphlet that Brothers published in 1794 was titled, A REVEALED KNOWLEDGE OF THE PROPHECIES AND TIMES, Book the First, wrote [sic] under the direction of the LORD GOD and published by His Sacred Command, it being the first sign of Warning for the benefit of All Nations; Containing with other great and remarkable things not revealed to any other Person on Earth, the Restoration of the Hebrews to Jerusalem by the year of 1798 under their revealed Prince and Prophet (i.e., Richard Brothers). In his work, Brothers declared that the people of Western Europe (and especially the British people) were the descendants of the ten Lost Tribes of Israel and that the "hidden Jews" of England would be part of the new Kingdom of God on Earth.  While he wasn't the only prophet preaching the notion of Anglo-Israelism, Brothers was definitely the most flamboyant.  He actually attracted a quite a following for a while, including  prominent clergymen, politicians, and writers. 

Richard Brothers' crusade was sabotaged by his own lack of good judgment, unfortunately.  Not only did he prophesy the death of King George III, he also denounced the war against France as "many men fighting against the Spirit of God".  After declaring that "God will break the Empire in pieces" due to British colonialism, he was soon charged with "fond and fantastical prophecies" and quickly declared to be criminally insane in 1795.  Still,  the intervention of one of his disciples (who also happened to be a member of Parliament) led to Brothers being sent to a private asylum in Islington instead of Bedlam.  Despite his incarceration, he kept on writing pamphlets and made numerous predictions relating to world events.  Brothers also spent the last thirty years of his life designing palaces, government buildings, and uniforms for the New Jerusalem that would arise after he was revealed as Prince of the Hebrews and Ruler of the World on November 19, 1795.  Suffice it to say, this particular prophecy didn't pan out. 

In writing about his imprisonment in the asylum, Brothers wrote, ""No man must be deemed insane who is inoffensive in his actions, and is civil in his actions, and is civil in his language, who is able to work at any kind of employment for a livelihood, to receive or give instructions, or to take proper care of himself. All men are not born with the same faculties for learning, teaching, inventing or executing; and wisely has God ordered it so, to make the diversity of properties in the mind appear, by the greater variety of ways and improvements for the general good of all."  The fact that he and his followers were considered to be lunatics weighed heavily on him but he never recanted his crusade.

Richard Brothers was finally released from the asylum in 1806 but his followers had largely abandoned him by then.  He died in the home of his last follower, John Finlayson in 1824.  Even after Brothers' death, Finlayson continued writing pamphlets and manifestos describing the new Christian kingdom and generally trying to keep Brothers' crusade going.  Despite his best efforts, Richard Brothers was quickly forgotten although other prophets with a similar message developed followings of their own. 

Next installment on Sunday.

Continue to Part Two

Accepting an LGBT Child

Parental reactions to a child’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) identity are impacted by a process of cognitive-affective experiences and behavioral responses that are influenced by contextual factors that may include parents’ religious value system. A new study in the journal Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity tested a theoretically based model of parental acceptance that included cognitive-affective factors (cognitive flexibility, emotional regulation), religious-value based factors (religious fundamentalism, parental sanctification), and demographic characteristics (parent gender, parent sexual identity, child gender, and years out). Participants were 663 parents of LGBT children who submitted responses to an online survey. A Tobit regression analysis with a single-indicator latent variable approach revealed that higher levels of the control component of cognitive flexibility, lower religious fundamentalism, higher parental sanctification, parent gender (female), and parent sexual identity (nonheterosexual) were significantly associated with higher levels of parental acceptance. Findings suggest that attending to these factors in future research and clinical practice may be important to the health and well-being of families that include LGBT children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract

Self-Proclaimed "Werewolf" Bites Ear off "Vampire" Neighbour

A 44-year old Michigan woman is in custody after reportedly sexually assaulting and biting off the ear of another woman living in her apartment building.   Police were called to an apartment building in Rochester Hills, Michigan after a neighbour reported hearing someone calling for help.   On arriving at the building, police responded to moans coming from an upstairs apartment.   There they discovered two partially-dressed women, covered in blood, lying on a bedroom floor.   

According to police, one of the women had bite marks all over her face and was missing part of her left ear.  The other woman, later identified as Allison Weaver, was hovering over the victim until police intervened.   She was taken to the Oakland County Jail while the other woman, still unnamed, was taken to hospital for treatment.   The victim reported that she had invited Weaver, who was a former neighbour, to her apartment for drinks.   While she declined when Weaver made sexual advances, they had then gone to bed in separate rooms.  Later, the victim found a nude Weaver in her bedroom who then proceeded to bite and strangle her.  

When interviewed by police, Weaver reportedly stated that she was a wolf and that she had attacked the victim who she accused of being a vampire.   After determining that she was under the influence of alcohol and drugs, some of which had been found at the scene, Weaver was taken to hospital for detox and a medical evaluation.   While still not arraigned, she is facing charges of  assault with intent to do great bodily harm, and attempted sexual assault.   If convicted, she faces at least ten years in prison.

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Do We Really Love Villains?

Villains make for good TV and movie watching.

I'm not talking about movie monsters such as It or the predators in A Quiet Place, I mean those very unpleasant people who seem to populate many of the most popular television and movie dramas that seem to revel in the chaos they cause for everyone around them.   Remember Frank Underwood (played by Kevin Spacey) in the HBO political drama series, House of Cards?   How about Gordon Gecko (played by Michael Douglas), in the hit movie, House of Cards?   And, for those of you of an older generation, there was J.R. Ewing of Dallas fame (played by Larry Hagman) and Alexis Carrington of Dynasty (played by Joan Collins).    Whether or not these characters ever received the comeuppance we felt they deserved, they were inevitably the reason most people kept watching.

Certainly, given the appeal these characters seem to have for viewers, it's hardly surprising that Nthey crop up in so many television shows and movies.   After all, watching movies and television shows are a major part of American culture.   Not only does the average American over the age of fifteen spend three or more hours watching television, but over eighty percent of American homes subscribe to video-on-demand services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu.    While the kind of media content we enjoy changes from one generation to the next, characters that we love to hate continue to exert a strange fascination.

To read more, check out my new Psychology Today blog post. 

 

 

The Case of the Calaveras Skull

In February, 1866, miner Jim Matteson first reported finding an oddly-shaped object in a mine shaft he was sinking on a hill near Angel's Camp in California's Calaveras County.   Once the limestone encrustation was chipped away, the object proved to be a human skull.   Not being an expert on human remains, Matteson then passed his discovery on to Doctor William Jones at Murphy's Diggings.  Along with being a physician, Dr. Jones was also an amateur archaeologist with a reputation for collecting and studying fossils.  

On doing his own investigating, Dr. Jones learned that the skull had been found far deeper underground than human remains had ever been seen before, he immediately alerted Dr. Josiah Whitney.   A professor of geology at Harvard University and chief of the California Geological Survey, Dr. Whitney was probably one of  the most eminent geologists in the country.    Learning where the skull had been found, Whitney rushed to the dig site in an attempt to date the skull from the surrounding strata (which was the only practical method available in an era before carbon-dating).

Based on his careful analysis of the surrounding rock fragments in the spot where Matteson reported finding the skull, Josiah Whitney came to a breath-taking conclusion.  Based on his research, the eminent geologist concluded that the fossil skull dated back to the Pliocene epoch (approximately five million years ago).   Not only did the skull apparently predate any human remains ever found before in the Americas, but seemed millions of years older than human remains found anywhere else in the world, either.  

Given that Charles Darwin had published his seminal work, On the Origin of Species, just a few years earlier, the debate on human evolution was already transforming science.    For Josiah Whitney, the Calaveras skull represented the greatest discovery of his career, something he was sure would  rock his fellow scientists.   And it did, though many others were naturally skeptical.  Had it not been for Josiah Whitney's own professional reputation, they might have dismissed the discovery as an outright fraud.   

Still, despite professional misgivings, the prospect of North America being declared the true birthplace of the human race was far too tantalizing a prospect to be ignored.  And so, the  Calaveras skull was displayed around the country and even crossed the Atlantic to be shown to scholars in Europe.   While many critics suggested that the skull didn't appear to be more than 1000 years old, at best, Whitney and his supporters insisted it was genuine.   

Unfortunately for Whitney, rumours about the actual source of the skull were already being spread in Angel's Camp, not far from where it had been found.   A local bartender named Ross Coon, who apparently had quite a reputation as a practical joker and a "teller of tall tales" began widely hinting about the truth behind the "scientific discovery".   Coon had already gained some literary immortality by supplying Mark Twain with many of the details that went into his celebrated jumping frog story.   Word in town soon began to spread that Coon and another local prankster, J. C. Scribiner, had actually dug up the skull from an old native burial ground and had planted it in the shaft that Matteson had been digging.  

Though Whitney soon learned about this story, which was published in the San Francisco Bulletin just three years after the skull's discovery, he continued to defend his find as being real.  Hardly a stranger to controversy (he was well-known for verbally abusing his scientific rivals), Whitney dismissed all suggestions of fraud up to his death in 1896.   Even into first decade of the 20th century, supporters continued to defend the skull as genuine. 

Ironically enough, however, interest in the Calaveras skull dropped off with the announced discovery of the first Piltdown skull fragments in 1912.  Supposedly discovered by amateur archaeologist Charles Dawson from a gravel pit in Piltdown, England, the skull fragments appeared to be of a previously-unknown hominid with a human-like cranium but with a jaw and teeth more like a chimpanzee.   Dubbed "Piltdown Man" by British geologists, the hominid was quickly proclaimed to be evidence of the long-sought "missing link" between humans and apes.  Though some contemporary experts suspected fraud, Dawson's discovery still became embraced as evidence of human evolution for decades afterward.   It was only with the invention of carbon dating that experts were finally able to announce that Piltdown Man was a deliberate fraud.   The identity of the perpetrator, whether Charles Dawson himself or someone else close to him, has never been determined.

As for the Calaveras skull itself, visitors to the Peabody Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts can still see it on display.   In case you were wondering, researchers finally conducted modern testing  on the skull  in 1986.   According to R. Ervin Taylor Jr., professor of anthropology at University of California, Riverside, results using accelerator mass spectrometry determined the actual age of the Calaveras fossils to be around 720 years (with an error factor of 200 years in either direction).   As skeptics had long predicted,  the pranksters behind the hoax probably dug them out of a Native burial ground originally and planted them in a site where they were likely to be found.

"Our results bolts the door and turns the lock on the skull being anything but a relatively recent Native American,"  Dr.  Taylor said in a 1986 media interview.   Though he acknowledged that nobody today really believed the skull was genuine, formally dating the skull represents a "historical footnote" to a bizarre and little-known episode in the history of science.  Still, while the Piltdown Man fraud remains the most well-known hoax of its kind, the case of the Calaveras skull poses important lessons for researchers as well.

If it seems too good to be true, it probably isn't.