An area of science largely unencumbered by facts

From Mapping Human History: Genes, Race, and Our Common Origins by Steve Olson. Page 140.

The origin of language is an area of science largely unencumbered by facts, so hypotheses tend to multiply out of control. This problem is not new. In 1866 the Linguistic Society of Paris banned all discussions of the origin of language from its meetings as a a waste of time.