Heritage Gristle | Forum — The Modern Antiquarian

StoneGloves May 17, 2009 19:32:43

Replying to nigelswift

There's interesting biological research being carried out at the moment. Mental illness - what survival value does it have? The hobbits, of course; is it H. floriensis? Then the new discovery of butchery marks on Neanderthal bones. Did we out compete the Neanderthals? Nah, we just ate them! But the English language is evolving by use and, in this context, 'pants' means nonsense or rubbish.

There are no prizes for saving stuff. Going out on a limb is a lonely experience. It has no survival value. Or very little - the moral high ground, but that feeling soon wears off. And when the stuff is finally acknowledged - written about and brought into the mass of human understanding - it'll be someone else that is probably credited with the finds or else the civilised world will be under water. What I don't understand, in this process, is how people create an imaginary exclusion zone and refuse to enter it. And considering that one of my best finds is two minutes from a bus route, surrounded by houses, then that attitude is pretty extreme.

Rupert Soskin May 17, 2009 22:55:13

Replying to StoneGloves

Well I can answer some of that from an evolutionary psychology point-of-view:-)
Holding the moral high ground probably comes from the same base instincts as territorialism: You stake your ground and are prepared to fight for it.

The really tedious attitude of academia and experts, that only they can be right, so you are wrong unless they say you can be right, is the flip side of the same thing. They are fighting the ground they have already staked. From an animal point of view, the fact that they are often wrong is irrelevant. They invested a lot of energy into the current position and don't want anyone outside the tribe to undermine it.

If I ruled the world I'd make all academics study EP, then they might think twice about behaving like wankers... which is, of course, also natural.

Hob May 18, 2009 19:50:21

Replying to StoneGloves

Stoneshifter wrote:

...never showed up.

Like heck. You stood me up. I was distraught.

StoneGloves wrote:

Mental illness - what survival value does it have?

There's a Northumbrian author by the name of Baxter who once wrote an interesting tale about the relationship twixt what would these days be called psychosis, (I think the anthology title is 'Evolution') and the development of human culture. All made up of course. You'd not be wanting to read any of that .

Ancient Britain Os map