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If we didn't have heavily entrenched imperialist tendencies that allowed us to destroy so-called "inferior cultures" at will, we'd probably have learned a lot m
by mmjaa 8y ago
If we didn't have heavily entrenched imperialist tendencies that allowed us to destroy so-called "inferior cultures" at will, we'd probably have learned a lot more from our fellow man than we have.
The Australian aborigines knew about anti-septics and anti-biotic preparations hundreds of years before we, in the West, claimed the victory for ourselves. They even had a Hippocratic oath hundreds of years before Western physicians, who were still practicing blood-letting as a norm. Colonists arrived, and those injured who stayed in their camps for treatment by the blood-letters, died. Those who consulted the locals, learned bush medicines, were healed and survived.
If only some rational souls had been there to observe, we could've had antibiotics a hundred years sooner. One wonders what sort of world it would've been if we'd paid more attention to the aborigines, rather than massacre them.
- cgb223 8y agoDo you have a source on that? I’d love to read more about it
- mmjaa 8y agoFrom the Journal of Anthropological Society of South Australia: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:e4nc6Ke_QEEJ:www.friendsofglenthorne.org.au/wp-content/uploads/Clarke-Vol-33-2008.pdf+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=at&client=safari http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:e4nc6Ke... There are a few other studies out there on this issue .. quite revealing. EDIT: a nice quote which highlights the issue: Colonist and author Dame Mary Gilmore stated in her reminiscences of growing up in rural New South Wales that: … the white forgets the uncounted ways in which he [was] … unintelligent (and still would be unintelligent) but for what the blacks taught. As parallels to the treatment of snake-bite by sucking, take the use of eucalyptus, the application of weak wattle tan-water for burns and blisters, of clean mud as poultices, of native gums in dysentery, the eucalyptus beds and steam pits for colds and rheumatism, and ask was it a black or a white intelligence that was first to find and apply these(Gilmore 1935: 232). She stated that a whole industry in making medicines owed its existence to Aboriginal practices: It is true there is a eucalyptus extract industry now; but the knowledge that led to that was originally derived from the natives, who used eucalyptus leaves in steaming, and for wounds. For rheumatism steam pits were made, heated by fires, raked out, lined with leaves and then possum-rugs laid over the top. Another use of the leaves was as a strapping for wounds that needed closing in order to heal. These uses came to the pioneers from the blacks (Gilmore 1935: 226).
- partycoder 8y agoStrictly speaking, the Sumerians had a higher degree of technological advance than the Inca. They reached that level of sophistication in great part due to the availability of high yield crops and valuable agricultural animals (horse, goat, sheep) of the fertile crescent. Europe benefited significantly from fertile crescent innovations: irrigation, writing, metallurgy, the wheel, animal-powered transport, horseback riding, etc. By the time of the conquest of the Americas they also benefited from additional foreign innovations: steel metallurgy, gunpowder, the precursor to the sextant, the compass, mapmaking... However, in the end what inflicted the most damage were the diseases and plagues that emerged by bad sanitary practices like living in proximity to animals: smallpox, cholera, typhus, etc. Those plagues practically emptied the American continent and the Caribbean. Meanwhile the only American disease passed to Europeans was possibly syphilis. Andean cultures did not develop such level of technological advance in great part because their lifestyle and survival did not require it. Potato, quinoa and corn agriculture, combined with llama and guinea pig farming effectively supported their large populations to the extent they had no famines. Then, Andean geography is not a good use case for wheeled transport.
- agumonkey 8y agoEven chemotherapy came after a group of researchers decided to try random plants. Western greatness is quite often mitm hiding very simple stuff. Some say that we made it large scale .. but still
- tboerstad 8y agoI thought chemotherapy was discovered as a side effect of chemical warfare during World War II? My source is “The Emperor of all Maladies”
- agumonkey 8y agoSorry, i didn't mean the principle, the yew tree extract used for paclitaxel
- afarrell 8y ago> chemical warfare during World War II Aside from Italy's campaign of Ethiopia and Germany's campaign against a variety of civilian groups, I'm not familiar with chemical warfare being used in WWII. Was it discovered as a result of one of these?
- wtallis 8y agoWikipedia has decent coverage: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_cancer_chemotherapy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_cancer_chemotherapy Use of mustard gas in WW1 led to post-war research into its effects. By 1942 the US was conducting human trials of nitrogen mustard for treating lymphoma. Separately, a German air raid on US ships occupying a port in Italy during WW2 resulted in the release of mustard gas that was aboard one of the US ships. Autopsies and tissue samples from that incident also pointed to the potential medical uses.
- eveningcoffee 8y agoI have many times wondered if the world would be a better place if we could unify our world to use a common language. What horrifies me would be the horrendous loss of cultures that we will loose access to.
- tnzn 8y agoI doubt the world would be a better place. Different languages often go hand in hand with different cultures, trying to unify everything may not be a good idea to make the world better.
- mmjaa 8y agoI believe the answer is that we must teach our children to be multi-lingual, at all costs, and eschew any and all cultures which, on the basis of the value they place on their own language, render other cultures words 'inferior'. The spirit of the desire to render a world language is a good one. There are many ways this can be accomplished; at a personal level, it is made through the decision to honour every word, every symbol, every sign on Earth, with equality.
- ardent_uno 8y agoIf your real goal is "unity and equality", then everyone should learn one language. Then, because different languages often foster different cultures, we will eliminate significant differences in culture which are so often the source of human conflict. One of the greatest gifts any superpower bequeaths to the world is a de facto universal language, such as Latin in Roman times. America being so dominant economically and culturally has given English to the world, which has reached a level of popular ubiquity unlike the world has ever known. This is a very good thing for the world.
- artificial 8y agoGuess French is out :/
- fallingfrog 8y ago
- Y_Y 8y agoVisiting Australia from Europe is very expensive, especially in the Age of Exploration. Who would bother to do it just to "observe"? Almost tautologically the only people who will do such a thing are those with the morality to try to extract vast wealth. Those who wouldn't let themselves do that stay at home doing something else.
- mmjaa 8y agoWell, perhaps there is a chance for us to learn from history, still, and quit assuming that there is One Way™ for human civilisation to proceed/progress. Those who have the technical skill to go to Mars, are probably among the first examples of colonists/empire-builders who won't be trampling on the natives; a truly revolutionary moment for the human species in that regard. At least, one can hope ..
- adrianN 8y agoIf there are any Martian natives we'll probably trample on them quite literally.
- aaron695 8y agoThe "Australian aborigines", is a confusing term. There were many tribes with many languages and many different supernatural beliefs. But in general they were the worst of humanity. They killed, raped and were cannibalistic (Which is a bit loaded, in general this was ritualistic and post war, not that they killed others because the food was easier, so who's to judge really) I've never seen any real evidence that they contributed any medicine to humanity. And given the Hippocratic oath is 275 AD (Written proof) it's impossible to say they had it before since only a fool would believe verbal histories more than a generation. Kinda like Snopes, a friend of a friend. It's a strange world that people think a culture so primitive they don't even have a writing system could somehow have complex ideas.
- spraak 8y agoThanks for sharing that! To me it also speaks to that it seems the general perception is that we as society especially in the West are always moving up, and that it's perceived to be impossible that earlier times had technology or awareness greater than what existed after that, or now. I think it could help to explain a lot of unresolved or not well understood artifacts from ancient civilizations.
- swayvil 8y agoConsider the epistemology blob. A bunch of axioms. A bunch of backstories justifying the axioms. A system for deriving good ideas (from axioms, observed phenomena and other ideas). A mountain of ideas derived from the axioms and observed phenomena, ideas derived from those ideas, and so on. We call these epistemology blobs things like "scientific culture", "western culture", "Christian culture", "Inca culture" and so on. Epistemology blobs appear to be invariably mutually antagonistic. They can't suffer each other to exist. They compete and self-preserve with a nigh biological zeal. It's weird. Charles Fort discusses it a bit in his "Book of the Damned".
- marcosdumay 8y agoAround here on the American continent I don't think the choice was available. Native cultures were destroyed much before most of the colonizers got here, because the continent was experience a downcycle, and because of diseases that came with the first Europeans.
- shams93 8y agoThe other fact most people don't know is that the first agriculture appeared not in the middle east or even Africa but in New Guinea. People we write off as "savages" invented the cultivation of plants for food.