Re:Scientists have traced folk stories back to the Bronze Age
by JonnieCache on Wednesday January 20, 2016 @04:52PM
(#10941662)
If this is interesting to you, then check out this frankly astonishing series of lectures from Jordan Peterson at the university of toronto. It's a psychology 40something course, and it covers the bible, ancient egypt, mesopotamia, jung, freud, piaget, skinner, dostoevsky, nietzsche, hitler, lots of evolutionary biology, lots of neurology, etc. etc. All tied up with the question of how to act in ones life. It's a truly amazing synthesis.
That's the playlist for last year's course. The 2016 course has just started, with a better camera this time. The first lecture is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjnvtRgpg6g
Re:Scientists have traced folk stories back to the Bronze Age
by lobster_johnson on Wednesday January 20, 2016 @06:27PM
(#10942244)
They mention Australian Aboriginal myths, and this was explained in David Attenborough's new series about the Great Barrier Reef. Apparently they have oral tales [1] and dances about how their coastline was slowly flooded (thus creating the reef, which used to be the coast of Australia) over a period of less than a hundred years. This coincides with a rise in sea levels around 6,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age.
Re:Scientists have traced folk stories back to the Bronze Age
by theoh on Wednesday January 20, 2016 @07:53PM
(#10942623)
AIUI The Great Barrier Reef is a living coral reef which grew under water. I am not sure if the sea level changed twice - once to reveal it to become the coast of australia, and once to return it to the sea - or maybe the programme was referring to a larger area of continental shelf being above sea level, with its edge approximately coinciding with the reef? I'm interested in knowing more but the linked paper doesn't seem to be downloadable.
The continental shelf is quite flat. The reef follows exactly along the rim of the shelf. I believe the coast used to extend all the way to where the reef now ends. The reef started growing as this part was slowly submerged in shallow water. Coral reefs only build in the photic zome (<50m) since they (specifically, the algae which produce the nutrients that coral polyps live on) require photosynthesis.
Re:Scientists have traced folk stories back to the Bronze Age
by mc32 on Wednesday January 20, 2016 @04:42PM
(#10941598)
Being able to trace oral tradition back in time and discerning origin and carrier is eye opening... The aspect of peeking into the past is alluring... However, what's the confidence level here? What are the basic assumptions?
Re:Scientists have traced folk stories back to the Bronze Age
by pc2g4d on Wednesday January 20, 2016 @05:47PM
(#10941977)
Exactly what I was wondering. These sorts of studies usually make assumptions about the rate of mutation across time in order to estimate the date of various divergences or of the ur-form, but these rates are difficult to calibrate. For a cautionary tale, see also glottochronology.
Re:Scientists have traced folk stories back to the Bronze Age
by madaxe_again on Wednesday January 20, 2016 @08:28PM
(#10942766)
I'm surprised that this is surprising. Aesop's fables are pretty well known childhood reading, and they were ancient oral tales when he wrote them down 2500 years ago, in early iron age Greece.
Re:Scientists have traced folk stories back to the Bronze Age
by anigbrowl on Wednesday January 20, 2016 @06:45PM
(#10942332)
“Most people would assume that folktales are rapidly changing and easily exchanged between social groups,” says Simon Greenhill from the Australian National University.
I imagine straw man arguments have been around since the Bronze age as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tQOlQRp3gQ&list=PL22J3VaeAB...
That's the playlist for last year's course. The 2016 course has just started, with a better camera this time. The first lecture is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjnvtRgpg6g
[1] http://research.usc.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/u...
The continental shelf is quite flat. The reef follows exactly along the rim of the shelf. I believe the coast used to extend all the way to where the reef now ends. The reef started growing as this part was slowly submerged in shallow water. Coral reefs only build in the photic zome (<50m) since they (specifically, the algae which produce the nutrients that coral polyps live on) require photosynthesis.
[0] http://knowledgenuts.com/2014/05/09/the-surprisingly-accurat...
[1] http://www.craterlakeinstitute.com/online-library/historic-r...
I wonder how far back oral traditions go. Could anything survive for 100K years?
I'm wondering what it would take to program a story-teller?
I'm thinking NLP + Narremes + ML . . .
I imagine straw man arguments have been around since the Bronze age as well.