As one who obeyed my primal instincts in former times n felt compelled to attend college n therefore found myself one day laboring under the burden of a college education, I have at times been surprised to see that my endless hours with skull encased in books have actually on occasion been useful. Or at least have rendered me a bit less obtuse about the real world than some others.
My undergrad degree in Anthropology with a major focus on Archaeology n ancient religions, together with a Master’s degree in Islamic history, not to mention the quite-a-bit more useful law degree, taught me a few harsh lessons on that most mysterious of topics some call ‘human nature’, putting aside for the nonce the questions What exactly is ‘human’? And just what does anyone mean by ‘nature’?
Young people today seem to have an idea that the way we moderns live is exactly how our ancestors lived, n therefore if something seems akilter in the modern world, that is a deviance from how things should be, or had been, before the deviance thrust its evil face into the light of modern life. How dare someone require a vaccination to enroll one’s child in school? How dare someone think that possessing a gun is tolerable? How dare that man over there eat meat? How dare that woman drive a gas-guzzling car on a public road? ‘How daare you?’ to quote a certain young lady of questionable pedigree.
But here’s the Truth In Hell regarding how people used to live before the modern world spoiled them beyond belief.
Until about 200 years ago, a flash in the pan for human history which stretches into the Holocene, or at least 30,000 years, in every human, or even humanoid, group everywhere in the world, a certain percentage was afflicted with atrocious ailments, bodily habits, n antisocial criminal tendencies.
First, until modern times, for all of human history n in every group or society, no one EVER looked in a mirror. Absolutely no one ever saw a mirror n had any idea what s/he looked like. For ancient people, excepting a tiny proportion of the very wealthy, they never heard of a mirror, never saw one, n their reaction if they ever did see one would have been much the same as a chimp seeing itself in a mirror for the first time today. No mirrors, no glass, absolutely nothing shiny enough to reflect a face.
Second, no more than a tiny proportion of people ever bathed. Not until the 19th century did bathing for hygienic purposes become common, n even that started first in the U.S., then spread to Europe, n only from Europe to the rest of the world post-WW2. No bathing because there was no indoor plumbing which did not become common anywhere until the 20th century.
Third, almost everyone through all of human history did their ‘private business’ in the open, outdoors, rarely bothering even to construct something like outhouses. People pissed n defecated mostly wherever they happened to be, if that meant squatting in a public street, then that’s what they did. Waste contaminated every public street everywhere in the entire world, no population excepted. Some groups persist in public defecation even today, not because they are someone ‘naturally’ dirty, but because that’s how in former times everyone behaved n they just have not yet adapted themselves to indoor plumbing. Even Caesar, Alexander the Great, n kings of England did not hesitate to do their business outdoors in public n no one thought it strange.
Fourth, in ancient villages at least 10% of the population was blind. This was a condition that was perpetual n universal. In certain places, more than 10% was blind due to the presence of bilharzia parasites, such as in Egypt, but losing one’s sight was common, which resulted in every town or city having a population of blind that thronged every city street as helpless beggars, forced to live off charity in the midst of the perpetual human n animal waste that covered every city street, with corresponding diseases that such waste encourages. Among the blind also lived lepers n other sufferers from skin diseases. Some ancient cities exiled lepers due to the hideousness of those in advanced stages of leprosy. But most lepers simply survived where n how they could, mingling with the blind, the lame, n the insane, all of whom thronged most public places in pre-historical times. This state of affairs was as true of Imperial Rome as it was of Persepolis n Beijing. Most who could see still could not read or see well because glasses did not exist. Spectacles are a modern invention. Magnifying glasses started around 1300. But personalized glasses made for individuals that hooked around one’s ears did not appear until the 18th. These too did not spread beyond the upper class West until the 20th century.
Fifth, on average at least half of all children produced by society died before the age of 18, most before age 6. The mortality of human infants was so great that many societies would refrain from naming an infant until they were certain it would live, which might mean months. Every ancient city had an area where mothers who did not want their infant, or felt unable to care for it, would expose the infant to the elements n to animal predators so it would die. This had no legal consequences to the mother unless the father had acknowledged the child n forbade such exposure. But given the fact that the average woman in ancient times was almost constantly pregnant, n often unmarried with no husband to help her, abandonment of unwanted infants was perpetual. Any adult who wanted to adopt an infant often had the option of simply finding an area where mothers were dumping their unwanted infants n selecting one.
People today no longer recall this fundamental fact of all of human history. Newborn infants had no legal rights n no social value. Abortion also was virtually unknown. Mechanical methods were so uncertain as to be laughable. In Rome, a certain plant common to North Africa was discovered to have efficacy as an abortient. At the height of Imperial Rome, upper class women were so eager for some method to prevent or at least delay constant pregnancy, that they launched a run on this plant so that after a century or so the plant went extinct. Only in the last few years have a couple of examples of this plant been discovered still living in central Turkey, now carefully protected.
Sixth, something like 10% of all women who ever lived died in childbirth. So many died this way that IMO more women died in childbirth than men died in war. Giving birth was a special kind of war waged only by women whose desire for children was stronger than their fear of birth, or whose attempts to prevent pregnancy had all failed. Historians n archaeologists have found the remains of women whom midwives or doctors had attempted Caesarian sections on in desperate efforts to deliver the child. No one knows how many, if any at all, ever survived such attempts.
Seventh, epidemic disease was always present. At any time, in every town or village, a certain percentage of the population was suffering or dying from some form of epidemic disease, which the rest of the population did not fully understand was contagious, typically blaming ‘the wind’ or ‘witches’ or ‘God’s punishment’ for such ailments. At times epidemics would flare up n become more contagious, typically during winters or when the climate became cold for extended periods as during the Little Ice Age which allowed the Black Plague to spread in Europe. At other times, epidemic diseases lay dormant, infecting only a few while warm weather kept the disease from spreading. The policy of vaccinations occurred only in modern times. In the 19th century it was learned that Turkish milkmaids who milked cattle were immune to smallpox because they had been exposed to cowpox. In the 20th century, polio was so widespread in the West, that schools in New York City had high percentages of their children crippled with polio. Only when the polio vaccine became available after 1950 did polio cease to be a threat to the average child.
Before I leave the topic of forgotten sacrifices n forgotten anguish, I also should mention the legal penalties in ancient societies — n I say ancient, tho some persisted right into the 19th century. Britain maintained their monthly assizes, at which circuit judges n local juries imposed hangings, floggings, or permanent exile on criminals right into the early 1800s. Theft of one shilling, about $20 in today’s money, could trigger execution. The Greek Xenophon, in his work Anabasis, or There and Back, described how every village n town they passed through in Persia had a significant number of people missing a hand or a foot or both. This was the standard punishment in Persia for theft or other comparatively minor offenses. The Arab world shared this same legal code n some Arab countries still inflict amputation for theft even today, now performed by medical doctors in modern hospitals.
In the Little Ice Age, when criminals roamed freely through the depopulated countryside of Europe, authorities imposed very harsh punishments on any highwayman unlucky enough to be caught n found guilty: burning, branding, ears cropped, whipping, pilloring, hanging, or put in a gibbet where the culprit was left suspended in a cage in public, n sometimes even before execution. Every village had a number of inhabitants who had been subjected to some sort of legal punishment. Not to mention centuries of Europeans burning suspected witches, mostly female, n millennia of Indian widows burning themselves to prove their loyalty to their deceased husband, only females. It remains questionable just how ‘voluntary’ these self-immolations were, the widows being perhaps more ‘voluntold’ than ‘volunteered’.
How much today’s youth have forgotten; how lucky they are not to be faced with this panoply of threats that killed so many of our ancestors in such harsh ways. These are the prices that our ancestors paid so they n their progeny would survive. As their fortunate progeny, we may give a thought to their sacrifices.
I could go on. But that’s enough truthfulness for one day. Humans are never happy if confronted by too much truth.
