Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Several years ago while visiting Africa, we went on a private night time safari with our very knowledgeable ranger and guide. They pointed out the constellations and led a fascinating discussion on how "the ancients" as they called them, noticed a correlation between their crops and the arrangement of stars in the night time sky.
This aspect of belief was one I hadn't thought about for a long time so when we returned home I did some research on my own. I never tire of learning about how different civilizations brought belief systems into their daily lives. MQ's mention of the night time sky reminded me of how ancient civilizations looked for explanations and answers wherever they could find them.
Several years ago while visiting Africa, we went on a private night time safari with our very knowledgeable ranger and guide. They pointed out the constellations and led a fascinating discussion on how "the ancients" as they called them, noticed a correlation between their crops and the arrangement of stars in the night time sky.
This aspect of belief was one I hadn't thought about for a long time so when we returned home I did some research on my own. I never tire of learning about how different civilizations brought belief systems into their daily lives. MQ's mention of the night time sky reminded me of how ancient civilizations looked for explanations and answers wherever they could find them.
Yes. I think archaeology and sociology and anthropology are coming together with the help of DNA -based evolutionary instinct to explain animal behavior, including humans, though we have a far m re developed problem-solving instinct which we call intelligence.
I see in cave painting the thing that was uppermost in their minds - hunting. They had hunting magic and painting it on the walls was as important to themas painting religious scenes in cathedrals was to 16th c Italians. It changed when agriculture and herding became the thing, and fertility and the weather and seasons became the Religion, and led to celestial studies as the religion and I think fertility and mother -goddess cult.
The bronze age became more conflict orientated with wars between states and so on, and the religion reflected these developments in human doings. In a real sense, Man has made gods in his own image and always has.
The modern god has no home and has to rely on church hand -outs for survival.
Several years ago while visiting Africa, we went on a private night time safari with our very knowledgeable ranger and guide. They pointed out the constellations and led a fascinating discussion on how "the ancients" as they called them, noticed a correlation between their crops and the arrangement of stars in the night time sky.
This aspect of belief was one I hadn't thought about for a long time so when we returned home I did some research on my own. I never tire of learning about how different civilizations brought belief systems into their daily lives. MQ's mention of the night time sky reminded me of how ancient civilizations looked for explanations and answers wherever they could find them.
Sometimes indigenous people connected things that were correct but didn't have all the information. I remember reading about how a virus would come through to an area somewhere in this country every few years. A lot of people would get sick. Then it would be less severe for a while, then there'd be another outbreak.
The local native tribe told the medical people looking at it, "The sickness comes in the years when such and such a tree produces a lot of nuts." Turns out mice ate the nuts, and mice carried the virus. Lots of nuts, lots of mice, lots of virus. The natives had connected the proliferation of nuts with the sickness, but didn't know about mice carrying germs.
Sometimes indigenous people connected things that were correct but didn't have all the information. I remember reading about how a virus would come through to an area somewhere in this country every few years. A lot of people would get sick. Then it would be less severe for a while, then there'd be another outbreak.
The local native tribe told the medical people looking at it, "The sickness comes in the years when such and such a tree produces a lot of nuts." Turns out mice ate the nuts, and mice carried the virus. Lots of nuts, lots of mice, lots of virus. The natives had connected the proliferation of nuts with the sickness, but didn't know about mice carrying germs.
Interesting stuff. Generally speaking, miasma/'bad air' theory of disease dominated the world right up until it was supplanted by germ theory
Interesting stuff. Generally speaking, miasma/'bad air' theory of disease dominated the world right up until it was supplanted by germ theory
Yes. I remember once reading a biography of Dolly Madison, whose first husband died in the yellow fever outbreak in Philadelphia thought to be caused by miasma from all the swampland surrounding the city, although one person believed it was started by a pile of rotting coffee on the docks. Dolly Madison also had the disease but recovered. It's recorded that there were so many funerals that the streets in Philadelphia became jammed and nothing moved due to the all the hearses and processions on their way to bury the dead.
One of the doctors treating patients kept a journal, and as a sidebar he also noted that to there seemed to be an unusually high number of mosquitos in Philadelphia that year. It would be another 90 years before somebody finally made the connection.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
