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My favorite thing about archaeology is that if they have no idea whatever about the things they find. . . >were used for ritualistic or religious purposes Don
by Loughla 3y ago
My favorite thing about archaeology is that if they have no idea whatever about the things they find. . .
>were used for ritualistic or religious purposes
Don't know what it is? Religion baby.
- Angostura 3y agoIt's kind of a running joke amongst archeologists themselves.
- dejj 3y agoSee: "Motel of the Mysteries" by David Macaulay > "that the toilet seat is a sacred collar one must wear before shouting, down the hole, to the gods below" https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/162247/humorous-story-in-which-future-archaeologists-find-a-motel-room-and-they-believe https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/162247/humorous-st...
- ertian 3y agoSee also paleontologists, and "it was probably for attracting a mate and/or regulating body temperature".
- deely3 3y agoDon't forget fertility rituals.
- stabbles 3y agoSimilarly the overuse evolutionary biology. Obviously this ... seemingly useless feature must have been ... crucial to survival of this species. I guess Thomas Kuhn calls this ordinary science. Explanation within the framework. But it's incredibly dull
- yreg 3y agoBut in biology, any single feature is just a random mutation + not enough evolutionary pressure to weed it out. ('Crucial to survival' is a stretch.) How can the evolutionary explanation be overused? It literally applies in case of and explains any single feature, no?
- stabbles 3y agoThe equivalent of "this behavior too can be explained by the laws of natural selection" in physics would be "this object too follows the laws of Newtonian mechanics". Usually solving the paradox (something looks redundant, but must be useful in some way) requires some creativity, but ultimately it's always a rather boring confirmation of the theory. The danger of normal science is that scientists turn "it can be explained by the theory" into "it must be explained by the theory".
- SamBam 3y agoI mean, in general, yes that is true in biology. The energy required to maintain bodily structures mean that they tend to be relevant to evolutionary fitness. There are very few structures that are entirely irrelevant, even if the specific difference in form between different populations may be the result of genetic drift. That said, I think your example would work by replacing it with "sexual selection." Don't know why bird feathers have complex micro-structures allowing them to reflect UV light? Let's just call it "sexual selection."
- NL807 3y agoOr when they find dicks, drawn, sculpted, or otherwise: >it must be a fertility symbol The ancients didn't do dick jokes/humour apparently.
- huytersd 3y agoWell the Indians still worship Shiva’s penis. Look up Shiva lingams. I like to think about what it would be like if Christians prayed to Jesus’ dick sometimes.
- eigenket 3y agoA very very large number of Christians have prayed if not to then at relics purported to be (parts of) Jesus' dick. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Prepuce https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Prepuce
- morelisp 3y agoLots of dick jokes are also fertility symbols / rituals today.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Someone 3y ago“ritualistic or religious”, and “ritual” has a very broad meaning. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritual https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritual: “Even common actions like hand-shaking and saying "hello" may be termed as rituals.” It almost boils down to “we can’t think of a way in which this got anybody (better) fed, clothed or housed”