For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact

Post by lostlogin » Wed, Jan 30, 2013, 5:24 AM UTC

nandemo wrote: post #199

freehunter wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depending on how their created civilization viewed sexuality, there might not be this created taboo. There might be the natural aversion to incest, or there might not be. Since they were religious, there might be religious reasons to abstain. If the kids are that heavily religious that they are terrified of modern technology etc, it seems doubtful they would struggle too much with resisting temptation. That's just my…

They didn't create a new civilization. The couple was born and raised in Russia. Their religion was a sort of Russian Orthodoxy. Whatever quirks they had, it's pretty fair to assume that they had an incest taboo (as do practically all human societies). On the other hand, it's not obvious at all that resisting breaking that taboo would be as easy as not using modern technology. This was hinted in one of the book's rev…

Post by kragen » Wed, Jan 30, 2013, 5:52 AM UTC

madaxe wrote: post #132

lkrubner wrote: post #92

There were 4 children, and one died. I have often wondered why the world's homo sapien population did not grow faster during the period 200,000 BC to 10,000 BC. In his book Extinct Humans, Ian Tattersall has argued that fully modern homo sapiens took shape around 200,000 BC and left Africa around 150,000 BC. http://www.amazon.com/Extinct-Humans-Ian-Tattersall/dp/08133... The growth of the population was very slow. So…

Also, don't forget that agriculture only arose recently, in the grand scale of things - somewhere around 20,000 years ago, and these folks had agriculture - in fact, their suffering is largely based around the fact that they're attempting agriculture in isolation, which doesn't really work with a "tribe" of their scale. You have to have trade, as, as we saw with them, if you lose your seed stock (carrots, almost rye)…

Post by beemoe » Wed, Jan 30, 2013, 6:34 AM UTC

scoot wrote: post #140

callmevlad wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My grandfather was born in Abakan, and published several books on the history of the region. He visited Agafia several times by helicopter with my uncle, after the other members of her family had passed. When I was around 15, he showed me a video of their first encounter with her, and to this day I cannot get the image of the pure terror on her face out of my mind. She had multiple visitors before, but something abou…

It turned out that this was the first visit where someone in the crew had brought video equipment, and Agafia would later tell my grandfather that she thought this thing would 'steal her soul.' Sorry? It might as well have been a log on his shoulder. Now, if it was viewing video of herself on this camera that brought a look of "pure terror" to her face (that you can't get out of your mind to this day, no less) I coul…

Post by astral303 » Wed, Jan 30, 2013, 6:43 AM UTC

resatori wrote: post #20

pav3l wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whoever is interested, here are two very good academic articles about persistent hunting (subscription required): http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/508695 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047248408... Also, here is a video of a modern persistent hunter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=826HMLoiE_o

How do they bring the prey home after hunting it 30km?

Post by dredmorbius » Wed, Jan 30, 2013, 7:42 AM UTC

dalke wrote: post #183

dredmorbius wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually possible to swim in very cold water -- "polar bear" swimmers do this regularly, and Lynne Cox notably has swum for extended times in 40F and 25 minutes in 32F water during her Antarctic swim. She seems to have a unique ability to maintain core temperatures despite a very cold environment. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynne_Cox The two biggest dangers are panic and shock when you first enter the water, h…

The SS Empire Howard, though it was after they fell asleep. See http://books.google.se/books?id=2Zc9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA73&#38... . The story you read was likely from Bill Bryson's book "A Walk in the Woods", which talks about 12 Danish fishermen, but that story doesn't seem to be correct in its details.