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This particular story is new to me but when I was in high school, a teacher once presented me with the idea that this is the origin of many if not most cultural
by LordKano 10y ago
This particular story is new to me but when I was in high school, a teacher once presented me with the idea that this is the origin of many if not most cultural/religious taboos.
It made perfect sense to me.
Don't eat pork. They didn't know about trichinosis but they did notice that people who ate pork got sick and sometimes died.
Don't sleep around. They didn't understand what syphilis was but they did notice that people who had lots of indiscriminate sex got sick and sometimes died.
- Shorel 10y agoWasn't syphilis acquired from the Americas? But yeah, there are many other illnesses that can explain sex taboos.
- LordKano 10y agoI don't think it has been definitively proven but it could have been.
- seanp2k2 10y agoThis was also discussed in a sub-thread of this article from 2 days ago if anyone wants to dive a bit deeper into this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13549173 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13549173 I personally find it fascinating when cultural wisdom turns out to have a scientific explanation which reveals the real [lost] truth to that lore.