The academic enmity in this field, between published authors, is huge and entertaining. These quotes from the article:
Wells’ beef with Witzel goes all the way back to his PhD dissertation on the Indus script, which Witzel tried to block, according to Wells. Later, while escorting Witzel through India, Wells would show him a PowerPoint presentation entitled “Ten reasons you don’t know what you’re talking about” while in the back of a cab.
and
“You would be better off getting medical advice from your garbage man than you would getting ideas about the Indus script from listening to Steve Farmer,”
Witzel comes across as a deeply racist person. I am told that he told an Indian person that "Hindus cant get a chair professorship to study Indology because they will be biased!". He has a long history of viciously attacking other scholars who try to criticize his work in academic fashion.
Having said that his book on world mythology is excellent.
>Witzel comes across as a deeply racist person. I am told that he told an Indian person that "Hindus cant get a chair professorship to study Indology because they will be biased!".
Wells’ beef with Witzel goes all the way back to his PhD dissertation on the Indus script, which Witzel tried to block, according to Wells. Later, while escorting Witzel through India, Wells would show him a PowerPoint presentation entitled “Ten reasons you don’t know what you’re talking about” while in the back of a cab.
and
“You would be better off getting medical advice from your garbage man than you would getting ideas about the Indus script from listening to Steve Farmer,”