> slightly charred ends of the sticks had been cut specially to stick into the fire, and both were coated in human or animal fat. Wait, what? Where did they get human fat from…?
I also found this concerning.
Aboriginal ritual passed down over 12,000 years, cave find shows
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Re: Aboriginal ritual passed down over 12,000 years, cave find shows
#62I'm from a Jewish family that has been unable to pass down its rituals over the past few generations. My great-grandparents were observant on both sides. I have no religion or inherited rituals to speak of. So how does a ritual get successfully passed down for something like 500 generations? What must the observer get from it that motivated them so strongly to pass it along with the necessary vigor? Was it something…
I assume by unable you mean they had to stop due to persecution? It sounds from this article that this practice that had survived so long also hit an abrupt stop when faced with persecution from colonizers (at least that's why I'm assuming they have to go by records from 1880 and not just ask the current practitioners). I think this says more about the ability for persecution to shut down a cultural practice more than any quality that practice has to have to survive.
Re: Aboriginal ritual passed down over 12,000 years, cave find shows
#63It occurred to me recently that tig/tag has probably been passed down through oral tradition from child to child for millennia. It's possible that it's older than homo-sapiens, older than the taming of fire. Millions of years of tradition.
And it still being passed on orally, child-to-child.
Re: Aboriginal ritual passed down over 12,000 years, cave find shows
#64I'm from a Jewish family that has been unable to pass down its rituals over the past few generations. My great-grandparents were observant on both sides. I have no religion or inherited rituals to speak of. So how does a ritual get successfully passed down for something like 500 generations? What must the observer get from it that motivated them so strongly to pass it along with the necessary vigor? Was it something…
Australian Aboriginal people, have very advanced social and cultural structure. Australia is comprised of several thousand different aboriginal groups and territories. Acceptance into another community relied on endorsement from the elders of the community you were leaving. Family bonds and ties are extremely strong.
Hence, one explanation may be that participation was essentially mandatory to be considered part of the community at all, and to be recognised as an adult.
Re: Aboriginal ritual passed down over 12,000 years, cave find shows
#65I'm from a Jewish family that has been unable to pass down its rituals over the past few generations. My great-grandparents were observant on both sides. I have no religion or inherited rituals to speak of. So how does a ritual get successfully passed down for something like 500 generations? What must the observer get from it that motivated them so strongly to pass it along with the necessary vigor? Was it something…
Hmm, I’d say this is a problem that Jesus, the Rastafarians, the Amish and your own tradition grappled with.
Jesus was in the world, but not of the world.
Rastafarians step one foot at a time out of Babylon.
The Amish have removed themselves for the most part, but they are still somewhat free riders on the greater society.
Jews celebrate the sabbath. In this way, 6 days a week they are of the world, and can share in its prosperity, but one day is reserved for keeping the traditions.
Re: Aboriginal ritual passed down over 12,000 years, cave find shows
#66I'm from a Jewish family that has been unable to pass down its rituals over the past few generations. My great-grandparents were observant on both sides. I have no religion or inherited rituals to speak of. So how does a ritual get successfully passed down for something like 500 generations? What must the observer get from it that motivated them so strongly to pass it along with the necessary vigor? Was it something…
> So how does a ritual get successfully passed down for something like 500 generations?
Probably some combination of of a large pool of rituals in traditional societies (so the probability of any of them carrying over 500 generations is greater than that of a single given one), high fertility (so if you don't feel inclined to carry it, some of your siblings/cousins do) and utility (some rituals may increase surviving odds of people that follow them). This particular ritual don't seem very useful, but maybe it has some unexpected benefical side effect, say, the plant they traditionally picked the sticks from, when burned, could shoo away insects that were potential vectors for disease (completely made up example, just to make the point clearer).
Re: Aboriginal ritual passed down over 12,000 years, cave find shows
#67> slightly charred ends of the sticks had been cut specially to stick into the fire, and both were coated in human or animal fat. Wait, what? Where did they get human fat from…?
In two books I've read recently (Conquistador about Hernan Cortes, and Civilized to Death which contrasts the lives of modern humans with ancient ones) the authors mention how fat was often poached from the dead -- animals and people alike. It was used like a grease for all sorts of things, including filling wounds to prevent infection. Pretty interesting stuff.
Re: Aboriginal ritual passed down over 12,000 years, cave find shows
#68I'm from a Jewish family that has been unable to pass down its rituals over the past few generations. My great-grandparents were observant on both sides. I have no religion or inherited rituals to speak of. So how does a ritual get successfully passed down for something like 500 generations? What must the observer get from it that motivated them so strongly to pass it along with the necessary vigor? Was it something…
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Re: Aboriginal ritual passed down over 12,000 years, cave find shows
#69It occurred to me recently that tig/tag has probably been passed down through oral tradition from child to child for millennia. It's possible that it's older than homo-sapiens, older than the taming of fire. Millions of years of tradition. And it still being passed on orally, child-to-child.
What is tig/tag?
Re: Aboriginal ritual passed down over 12,000 years, cave find shows
#70Its impossible to tell, but the sense of passage of time must have been dramatically different in earlier periods of human development.
Persistent rituals passed on from elders to youngsters, oral transmission of huge poems and other such "low tech" information tools must have given some structure to what otherwise might have felt as an eternal reboot.