French anthropologist Marcellin Boule said that the skulls of Peking Man
(Sinanthropus, now classified with Homo erectus) are
"monkey-like."
Others have pointed out that this was based on a poor translation, but the
monkey quote does not misrepresent Boule's text.
Source:
Gish, Duane T., 1979. Evolution: The Fossils Say No! 3rd ed. San
Diego:
Creation-Life Publishers, pp. 139-140.
Gish, Duane T., 1997. Gish responds to critique. The Skeptic
5(2):
37-41. http://mypage.direct.ca/w/writer/gish-response.html
Response:
Without question, calling the skulls monkey-like is a major
misrepresentation of Boule. In the pages immediately following the
quote in question, Boule emphasized that he was not dismissing Peking
Man as a monkey.
Some creationists have rationalized that the French word singe
used
by Boule can mean either monkey or ape, but it is clear from context
that the ape meaning was intended.
Events surrounding use of this quote show the poor behavior by
several creationists:
O'Connell (1969) misrepresented Boule's ideas, apparently
deliberately, by mistranslating him.
Gish (1979) failed to reference O'Connell when repeating his
mistranslation.
Gish and others show abysmally poor scholarship in the first place
in thinking that calling Peking Man monkey-like is even a viable
scientific view.
When corrected about the mistranslation, Gish and Answers in Genesis
attacked their correctors and refused to fully correct their errors
(Foley 2003).
