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One of my favourite kooks is an artist named Stanislaw Szukalski[0]. Although he had some heinously racist ideas (yeti inbreeding with humans), his art skills
by aa-jv 1y ago
One of my favourite kooks is an artist named Stanislaw Szukalski[0]. Although he had some heinously racist ideas (yeti inbreeding with humans), his art skills are unmatched, and his critical analysis of ancient art led him to develop the concept of the "Protong", the 'mother tongue of all humanity', which - he claims - can be observed in the style and means of much ancient art. His theory was that, before The Cataclysm™, humanity was united across the globe and spoke the same language, and after the fall of that ancient civilization, the survivors attempted to warn the future by encoding messages in their art.
Although he inhabits the lunatic fringe, I still find the concept of Protong highly interesting, and now that more settled minds are looking at the possibility of a global language, I do have to wonder just how much he got right in terms of identifying the language, itself, in ancient art. I also wonder whether modern researchers could gain anything from his investigation, using more appropriate techniques to glean fact from fiction.
Anyone else know of Szukalski, and can weigh in on this? I confess that my interest is pretty glib (because the yeti thing is repugnant), but I can't help feeling, deep down inside, that maybe the Protong idea has some legs ..
[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanisław_Szukalski https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanisław_Szukalski
"Beginning in 1940, Szukalski devoted most of his time to examining the mysteries of prehistoric ancient history of mankind, the formation and shaping of languages, faiths, customs, arts, and migration of peoples. He tried to unravel the origin of geographical names, gods, and symbols that have survived in various forms in various cultures. Through his research in these subjects, Szukalski claimed to have discovered Polish origins for various ancient places and people, in a language called Protong."
- actionfromafar 1y agoLanguages develop too quickly to be traced that far. Even if there was a protolanguage (there could have been one in Africa I guess) by the time continents were explored, the languages would have no relation to any "ur-language".
- aa-jv 1y agoTrue, mostly. The point with Protong, however, is that there was a globally-spanning civilization which did not have the latency we commonly associate with early human development. The language was supposedly spoken globally by a world-spanning human civilization which was destroyed by the cataclysm, requiring us all to re-develop ourselves. Like I said, Szukalski was a kook. But contrasting his findings with more scientifically appropriate methods, is certainly of great interest to those of us following along...
- jibal 1y ago> The point with Protong, however, is that there was a globally-spanning civilization which did not have the latency we commonly associate with early human development. So the "point" is that it's completely counterfactual.
- aa-jv 1y agoThere may be more to ancient life on Earth than we currently allow for in our academic institutions, and language may be the way we start to open the door to understanding just how far back it goes. Its the same with the cyclopian architecture that can be found all over the world in places we once considered disconnected. The point is, there is still a lot more to be discerned.
- jibal 1y agoSure, all of our scientific data could be wrong and the idle speculations of random people on the internet could be right, But I know where I'm putting my money. > the cyclopian architecture that can be found all over the world in places we once considered disconnected. They are in fact disconnected by anything other than the facts of physics. This is called independent invention. > The point is, there is still a lot more to be discerned. Oh yes ... but not the way you're going about it.
- jibal 1y agoThe fact that his notions of evolution were bonkers nonsense is a huge indication that all the rest was too.