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Origins of Cannabis Smoking
- dang 7y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20167586 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20167586
- bookofjoe 7y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20183942 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20183942
- xamuel 7y agoSomething I didn't see mentioned in either of the older threads: some people speculate that the mention of "sweet cane" in Exodus 30:23 is actually a misinterpretation and that it should actually be "cannabis". The literal Hebrew [1] is בֹ֖שֶׂם וּקְנֵה־ "ḇō·śem ū·qə·nêh-" or, rearranging that a bit, "qeneh-bosem", which looks a lot like "cannabis". If this speculation is true, it would indicate cannabis was used for religious ceremonies by the early Israelites. [1] https://biblehub.com/interlinear/exodus/30-23.htm https://biblehub.com/interlinear/exodus/30-23.htm
- adrianm 7y agoThe Hebrew word, בשם (fragrant, sweet), is used to describe cinnamon earlier in the same verse...
- xamuel 7y agoYeah, and it's interesting how in English "cinnamon" and "cannabis" both start with "c*nna". Almost as if they're both using a common root.
- digitalsushi 7y agohttp://www.balashon.com/2008/03/cinnamon.html http://www.balashon.com/2008/03/cinnamon.html https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%BA%CE%AC%CE%BD%CE%BD%CE%B1%CE%B2%CE%B9%CF%82#Ancient_Greek https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%BA%CE%AC%CE%BD%CE%BD%CE%B... They don't seem related from a non-scholar's perspective.
- xamuel 7y agoThat first link looks like a long-winded way of saying "LOL who knows". I did find its conclusion pretty interesting, where it was suggested that cinnamon ultimately comes from an ancient Chinese word for "spice". Now what other meaning does the word "spice" carry these days? Synthetic cannabinoids!
- dr_dshiv 7y agoWhat's amazing to me is that smoking with pipes or with leaves was unknown in the old world before Columbus. Though, archaeology in India is massively underfunded. It wouldn't surprise me to find that smoking was much older than the 1500s...
- JoeAltmaier 7y agoAmusing to imagine a European encountering Tobacco from the New World for the first time. "What is this?" "It's tobacco, sir! Comes from the Redmen over the sea." "What do they do with it?" "Oh, they roll it up, stick it in their faces, and light it on fire."