When I was a kid, I asked for a cast of a Neanderthal skull for my birthday. And I got it. My parents encouraged intellectual pursuits. <\/p>\n
You might guess that I’ve always been interested in primitive man, and so does Google, because I get a lot of stories about it in my newsfeed. <\/p>\n
When I see these articles, I often imagine how other people would react to them. E.g., my fundamentalist friends, my overly “scientific” friends, etc. <\/p>\n
Leaving aside the 6-day creationist POV, I chiefly imagine these three views of early man. <\/p>\n
1. They knew things that we’ve forgotten.<\/b> <\/p>\n
They understood ancient mysteries and were closer to nature. They didn’t need medicines and therapy. If only we could talk to a Druid, or to someone from Atlantis, we’d be so much better off. <\/p>\n
2. They were little more than talking apes. <\/b> <\/p>\n
Who cares what they thought? They didn’t know the most basic realities of their surroundings. They were superstitious and ignorant, and while they may have known some crafts that we’ve forgotten, they really couldn’t teach us much. <\/p>\n
3. They “knew” things that we’ve suppressed. <\/b> <\/p>\n
Our overly scientific, rationalist approach to the world has caused us to ignore and suppress things that ancient man accepted, even though he might not have understood exactly why. As a consequence, we’ve lost some of what it means to be human. <\/p>\n
I tend to prefer views 2 and 3. Our ancestors were certainly ignorant and superstitious, but because they didn’t experience the distortion of post-Enlightenment epistemological worries, their cultures and beliefs can give us insights into human psychology. <\/p>\n
Having said that, it still might be fun to talk to a Druid. Especially Merlin. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I was a kid, I asked for a cast of a Neanderthal skull for my birthday. And I got it. My parents encouraged intellectual pursuits. You might guess that I’ve always been interested in primitive man, and so does Google, because I get a lot of stories about it in my newsfeed. When I … Continue reading “Three views of primitive man”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3105"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3111,"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3105\/revisions\/3111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}