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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

#121

Post by martin293 »

rhelz wrote: post #108

Kinda sad that the ritual was a way to curse somebody. 12,000 years of hurting each other. Side Node: computer programing is kinda cool. It is a set of incantations which actually does work. EDIT: Hello, all you down-voters and people who say I should read the article before commenting :-) I to, don't like it when people just start commenting without reading the article. I also don't like it when people take what a p…

That's not how I understood it. From the article:

> "The mulla-mullung would then chant the name of the sick person, and once the stick fell, the charm was complete,"

Which to me seems like a healing ritual.

Re: Aboriginal ritual passed down over 12,000 years, cave find shows

#123

Post by PsylentKnight »

rhelz wrote: post #108

Kinda sad that the ritual was a way to curse somebody. 12,000 years of hurting each other. Side Node: computer programing is kinda cool. It is a set of incantations which actually does work. EDIT: Hello, all you down-voters and people who say I should read the article before commenting :-) I to, don't like it when people just start commenting without reading the article. I also don't like it when people take what a p…

Where did it say it's a curse? The first line says it's a healing ritual

Re: Aboriginal ritual passed down over 12,000 years, cave find shows

#124

Post by digging »

rhelz wrote: post #108

Kinda sad that the ritual was a way to curse somebody. 12,000 years of hurting each other. Side Node: computer programing is kinda cool. It is a set of incantations which actually does work. EDIT: Hello, all you down-voters and people who say I should read the article before commenting :-) I to, don't like it when people just start commenting without reading the article. I also don't like it when people take what a p…

Well, I read an article once discussing the social good of cursing each other. The essence was this:

Yes, it's an attempt to do harm. You're mad at someone, perhaps they wronged you, and you want something bad to happen to them. So ask a demon to spoil their grain, or to tear their clothes. (In other words, pray that entropy will happen - you can't go wrong!) If you didn't have demons you could ask for help and you were motivated to do them harm, you'd have to take matters into your own hands. By slandering them or harassing them or attacking them. Much better for society that we genuinely believe we can get our revenge by not doing anything at all.

Struggling to find the article now though...

Re: Aboriginal ritual passed down over 12,000 years, cave find shows

#125

Post by mmaniac »

rhelz wrote: post #108

Kinda sad that the ritual was a way to curse somebody. 12,000 years of hurting each other. Side Node: computer programing is kinda cool. It is a set of incantations which actually does work. EDIT: Hello, all you down-voters and people who say I should read the article before commenting :-) I to, don't like it when people just start commenting without reading the article. I also don't like it when people take what a p…

It's not a surprise to me that computer programs are so widely compared to magic spells, from SICP to SMT, but it remains a cool observation.

Re: Aboriginal ritual passed down over 12,000 years, cave find shows

#126

Post by cess11 »

busterarm wrote: post #86
rhplus wrote: post #4

I’m surprised by how tenuous the link is between the cave find and the archival find. Is the bar really that low for claims in archaeological papers or am I missing something? It’s a compelling story, but surely Occam’s razor would conclude that poking sticks into dead animals and fire pits is just what people have done for thousands of years? Where’s the evidence that there was chanting and a healing ceremony? Edit:…

Have to agree here. Also just kind of doesn't pass the common sense test. We all learn the "game of telephone" as a kid and how information can change even just being passed once. In fact I've heard archaeologists in the past specifically say that no oral tradition can survive intact more than 100 years. Usually this statement is in reference to certain creation myths being relatively modern inventions. A claim of 12…

Where I grew up "game of telephone" didn't include repetition over and over and over again. It also didn't include meter or rhymes.

Re: Aboriginal ritual passed down over 12,000 years, cave find shows

#127

Post by mqefjh »

giraffe_lady wrote: post #93
InitialLastName wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The similarity between the EoG and Genesis flood stories can probably be laid to the fact that the first major human societies were built around flood plains of rivers in regions that have otherwise stable climates. When your society spends centuries in that situation, floods are the single most important natural event that happens to you. If would be shocking if they didn't feature prominently in your stories.

There are other similarities between the epic of gilgamesh and genesis beyond just the flood, it's a very interesting subject imo. Ultimately both were originally oral traditions long before they were written anywhere, both emerging out of the ancient east mediterranean/west asian cultural milieu. IIRC the current scholarly consensus is that the shared parts represent two surviving variants of an even earlier story t…

[dead]

Re: Aboriginal ritual passed down over 12,000 years, cave find shows

#128

Post by cess11 »

rhelz wrote: post #108

Kinda sad that the ritual was a way to curse somebody. 12,000 years of hurting each other. Side Node: computer programing is kinda cool. It is a set of incantations which actually does work. EDIT: Hello, all you down-voters and people who say I should read the article before commenting :-) I to, don't like it when people just start commenting without reading the article. I also don't like it when people take what a p…

Curses are what you do instead of beating someone with a stick. It's an outsourcing of justice to nature or spirits rather than taking it into your own hands.

Re: Aboriginal ritual passed down over 12,000 years, cave find shows

#129

Post by llamaimperative »

fsckboy wrote: post #109
llamaimperative wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Play is a semi-structured way of learning important skills! Evolution really just has to make it engaging enough for you to learn the skills, not much of a reason for it to persist after that.

> not much of a reason for it to persist after that for working out and keeping fit!... oh, hmmm, I guess that's glaring evidence that working out and keeping fit are not beneficial after all

I am clearly speaking from the perspective of evolutionary pressures. And you're right, there's very little evolutionary pressure on working out, staying fit, staying happy, etc. etc. beyond the bare minimum required to ensure propagation.

Re: Aboriginal ritual passed down over 12,000 years, cave find shows

#130

Post by justsomehnguy »

ViktorRay wrote: post #87
angstrom wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My three-year-old daughter plays this with cat. It's a cross-species thing that is possibly part of mammalian brain development in origin. The cat is less than one year old. Our 17 year old cat does not engage in this at all and hisses at the kitten for even trying to start a game of tag. This makes me wonder if that origin is more related to predator/prey.

In regards to your 17 year old cat… All mammalian species have something in common. When mammals are young we all love playing. This is true for humans, dogs, elephants, primates, cats and so on. But play ends up disappearing as the mammal gets older. Compare a playful baby elephant to an adult elephant. The baby elephant loves playing. Not just with other elephants but with humans and dogs and so on. But older eleph…

It's just knees.
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