3 ms·
imagine when people first starting telling stories 50k years ago, how it must have felt to listeners at the time "but these people you speak of don't exist!"
by vbuwivbiu 8y ago
imagine when people first starting telling stories 50k years ago, how it must have felt to listeners at the time "but these people you speak of don't exist!"
- lolc 8y agoWe can assume (but not prove) that people back then were deeply animistic. You could talk to them about the soul of stones and they wouldn't flinch.
- vbuwivbiu 8y agowell ok people vary - there are people today who see spirits within everything and others who take everything literally & don't get jokes or metaphors
- usrusr 8y agoIt's an interesting, even if highly speculative thought experiment: would there be much animism before storytelling? I don't think that the answer is clear. (now I'm off on a tangent reading https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deception_in_animals https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deception_in_animals )
- lolc 8y agoI would assume that our drive to see intent even in happenstance is older than language. But yeah, highly speculative. Sapir & Whorf would disagree :-)
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]