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

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

#221

Post by ekianjo »

awakeasleep wrote: post #202
ekianjo wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is actually common in many cultures. In South-East Asia I have heard this many times, that people have/had this belief that taking pictures of them "steal their souls". You can see it mentioned in a movie from Wong Kar Wai, Chungking Express, if I remember correctly, when the protagonist talks about his father.

I've always been fascinated by what people could mean when they say this. I believe many people mean 'the part of me that thinks' or 'the part of me that makes decisions' when they say souls... but what could it mean for that part of you to be stolen? An inability to think or make decisions? Or something about vanity and getting wrapped up in images of yourself? Or fascination with a device that looks like a big eyeb…

Nope, I think it stems from the idea that a representation of someone=someone.

I remember reading a book from an american guy who recalled what happened to him when he was travelling in another country. He suddenly realized that he had lost his wallet (it was stolen) and it contained pictures of his children inside. Those were just simple pictures and he could have made copies once coming back home, but instead he wandered in the dangerous quarters of the city to try to find back the pictures from his wallet. He could have been robbed or worse, but he explained he was not aware of those risks at that time because the only thing he was thinking about was that "I have to find my kids back". He made a clear association between the pictures and the persons.

He then said he could understand the saying regarding pictures and souls, since he went through this experience.

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

#224

Post by conradfr »

amolsarva wrote: post #178
Someone wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It isn't that hard to see satellites in the sky. The ISS, in particular, can be very bright, to the point where you can see it in daylight ( http://www.hobbyspace.com/SatWatching/ , http://blogs.crikey.com.au/planetalking/2009/06/18/how-to-se... ) The 1950 ones would have been a lot harder to spot, of course, but might at times have reflected the light of the below-the-horizon sun.

I have seen the ISS. In New York city! Flying past the tops of buildings. http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/

Cool application !

And done with Bootstrap ;)

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

#225

Post by arethuza »

grecy wrote: post #185
RivieraKid wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds quite extreme... What do you do for living?

I'm a Software Engineer, so I'm inside all day. I also ride my bike to work every day, and I ski patrol at the local mountains on the weekend. I went camping in -35C two weekends ago, it was great!

I think I'd rather camp at -35C than at 2C with driving rain and wind - which is far more likely here in Scotland! (-35C is about the coldest I've experienced at altitude in the Alps).

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

#226

Post by Aramgutang »

astral303 wrote: post #218
seanalltogether wrote: post #21

I found this post which indicates that Agafia is still alive and now trying to recruit church followers to live in the mountains with her. http://www.byzcath.org/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/363063/A...

That's a Google translation and one cannot extract any fine meaning from its results, this being a case in point. I read the Russian original post and the following is my translation of the excerpt from her letter: "... I bow to you down to the raw Earth and wish unto you from God good health, the most spiritual salvation and all sorts of good luck, and let God save the sacred [several kinds of] Church until the end…

I have made an attempt at a more accurate translation:

"""

I bow to the ground before you and wish you in the name of the Lord good health, above all salvation and well-being, and may God save the fatherly Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church till the end of time from discord and herecies, the devious webs of enemies...

I bow before all with a great big request: I need someone to be my helper, I cannot survive alone, and it's not proper to live this way, spending whole weeks alone. Do not leave me for Christ's sake, have mercy on this miserable orphan, suffering in hardship.

A true believer is needed here, believing in Christ as the Old Believers do, and a male is needed to chop wood, cut down hay ... My health and strength have deteriorated.

"""

The interesting thing to note is the terminology she uses in her first sentence to specifically define the church she believes in using the Four Marks of the Church (though she leaves out one), thus proclaiming the orthodoxy of the Old Believers' beliefs (also note that the term "Catholic" here in no way means "Roman Catholic"). One may even infer that the "devious webs" are being cast by the reformed Russian Orthodox Church.

I would also note that the archaic nature of some the terms she uses ("наипаче", "многокозненных сетей вражиих", "не добре", "седмицу"), and the archaic sentence structure is more consistent with the language used in the Russian Bible, rather than with the conventions of the early 20th century. The English equivalent would be the language found in the King James Bible.

A note to astral303: I noticed that you translated "сырая земля" as "raw earth", which is interesting, because while "сырой" means both "raw" and "damp", it most certainly is meant as "damp" when describing the earth. I know "raw earth" sounds more natural in English, but I think simply saying "ground" is the best equivalent, since I can't think of an English turn of phrase that invokes the connotations of describing the ground as damp in the intended manner.

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

#227

Post by 10098 »

patrickgzill wrote: post #166
RDeckard wrote: post #2

Пипец.

Did you mean "пиздец"? What you wrote would be be pronounced more like "peepets" or "pippets".

Yes he did. But it's not a typo. It's hard to explain - it's an intentional misspelling of a curse word that makes it somewhat more socially acceptable.

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

#228

Post by stef25 »

jnhasty wrote: post #23

In 2010 Werner Herzog released a documentary about trappers and their families living in the Taiga. It's called "Happy People": http://www.wernerherzog.com/62.html I really recommend it. The people survive their arduous living conditions by continually preparing for the next season. They've done the same things more or less for generations, always working, and pretty much cut off from modern civilization. Makes you r…

It sounds romantic but their existence seems to be miserable, especially the filth. I'd love to live off the grid for a while as long as there is basic hygiene.

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

#229

Post by 1123581321 »

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…

I assume by fanatic Christian fundamentalist you are thinking this family is similar to David Koresh or perhaps a celebrity TV family such as The Duggers. Her sect, first of all, is an offshoot of the Russian Orthodox Church, not American protestantism. Church-attending Orthodox (as opposed to casual members) would be more likely to have children than this sect. It has more in common with Tolstoyism and its nearest equivalent in the US would probably be Adventism or perhaps Unitarianism in the sense that its adherents are very serious, but they are theologically liberal and opposed to growing the church through baptism and assuming that baptized infants are Christians. So, they were not especially motivated to have children despite being very serious about their religion.

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

#230

Post by gpvos »

saalweachter wrote: post #97
Florin_Andrei wrote: post #65

> Old Karp was usually delighted by the latest innovations that the scientists brought up from their camp, and though he steadfastly refused to believe that man had set foot on the moon, he adapted swiftly to the idea of satellites. The Lykovs had noticed them as early as the 1950s, when "the stars began to go quickly across the sky," and Karp himself conceived a theory to explain this: "People have thought something…

It makes me a little jealous of the quality of sky they must have had.

I'm surprised that apparently so few of you can see satellites going across the sky. I live in Amsterdam and can see a few bright satellites somewhat regularly with the naked eye.

What I'm surprised about is that they came up with the theory of "man-made fires" all by themselves.

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