Thoughts on Ancient Culture type stuff?

[BrightStar]

I found some interesting types of stuff that they would do, though Im not sure of My opinion on them yet. Btw, Im not sure what the names of the specific cultures were.


Here is an example: When a child is born, they would leave the child outside the tent on the first day of it's birth. If it survived the night, then they knew the child would be strong enough, and then they raised it.

Now a practice that I know I Hate, is some practice where they would take a young Girl out into the field, and do certain surgeries on a certain Place on Her, using Broken Glass, Rocks, and various types of material for stitching. Btw, That practice still goes on today. **

[DharmaLion]

Many cultures have practices that would not be deemed acceptable to us, but far be it from me to judge.

There are many across the world and espacially in this country who would find scarification or body modification of any type to be equally disgusting.

[hewhoisagod]

What's scary is all of these neo nazis going into odinism. Worship to Norse gods was pretty bloody.

If I was born in Sparta, I would have been tossed off a cliff because I was born with asthmatic bronchitis.

[nyar]

Body modifications are choices though-
Cultural practices are usually an "accept it or die" kind of thing, if you were lucky you were just exiled. I think what BS is talking about, are practices forced upon all in a certain society.
Yes- the attrocities of man are endless, and many of them have to do with these types of practices and beliefs. Obviously some people will have various views of some things and others I think we'd all agree vary from ludacrous to insane.

[One Eyed Cat]

I think a lot of times cultural practices were geared towards the survival of the community at a given place and time. You have to take into account that a community had to work together to even eat. Also, a lot of ancient cultures were simply trying to understand forces beyond themselves. They had no rational explanation for even the change of day to night. Other practices obviously were, in fact, cruel and often misogynist. I'd really have to see the totality of the culture, how and where they were living, and their reasons for the practices to even interpret their actions.

OEC

[ravenofdeath]

A few cultures in ancient times sacreficed people to a demon/the devil/ other evils. In ancient Maya they sacreficed humans to the most evil of all Mayan gods Quezicotal-i think i spelled that right.

[KilLAtomiK]

A few cultures in ancient times sacreficed people to a demon/the devil/ other evils. In ancient Maya they sacreficed humans to the most evil of all Mayan gods Quezicotal-i think i spelled that right.

those were the aztecs and it Quetzalcoatl wasnt an evil god. people someties even voluntered to be sacrificed to him. In fact Quetzalcoatl was suposed to be like their savior so when the spaniards came from spain they looked like what the legends saaid Quetzalcoatl would look like and the treated them like gods till the spaniards just flat out killed them

[TheDeathKnight]

For me, it depends on the reasons behind the rituals.

The one where they would leave the child outside, or ones where they would abandon children with birth defects, actually makes sense to me. It's not nice, but in those societies, they wanted to eliminate people who would not be productive members of society. But in modern times, someone with a missing arm, or no legs, could still be a kick-ass scientist or computer guru. So those practices would not work as well today. But I totally understand why they did it that way back then. If you were not able to farm, fight, and take care of yourself, they did not want to waste the time, money, and food, to raise you, if you were going to be useless as an adult.

The practice of clitorectomy, which is still done in some parts of Africa, is mainly done in male-dominated cultures. The idea is to eliminate most of a woman's sexual pleasure. That way the men can get off all they want, but they think that by limiting a woman's sexuality, that she will not cheat on him. That way the women are only there to have babies, and for a man's pleasure, but the men do not have to worry about making the woman feel good. It's lame for the women, but the men are happy with the idea.

And human sacrifice was often done because they felt that if they did not kill people for their gods, that the gods would not give them crops, or would not let the sun rise, or that they would bring a drought, or make the people suffer. So they would often sacrifice people, but not to be mean, or to be cruel, but because they thought that their gods needed it. My guess is that the preists came up with the idea, to have power, and also for population control.

[aXa]

ive also heard that clitorectomies are also still done in some areas of the middle-east. we discussed it in my cultural anthropolgy class its very hard for us to understand such practices not being a part of them.

[Morning Glory]

well it's really wierd that we talk about such things as being horrific, while in our society it's still a common place to practice ritualistic circumcision on males. which is just as barbaric , and I use the term ritualistic because it's done out of force of cultural habit instead of any viable physiological or medical reason.

[Howrangi]

i agree. Me born in South Korea and raised in the states is ( I guess an advantage) I can see both sides of the topic in question. I still think its wrong for the clitorectomy in that part of the world but I'm here not thier.

[TheDeathKnight]

Circumcision does not eliminate a man's sensation of pleasure.

Clitorectomy does greatly reduce a female's sexual pleasure.

If the practice in the US was to cut off the head of the penis,
to make it so men did not enjoy sex so much, then I would
say you have a point. But they are not even in the same league...

[Wickedanima]

What's scary is all of these neo nazis going into odinism. Worship to Norse gods was pretty bloody. .

I'm not certain where you got the idea that Worship to Norse Gods was bloody. I will take this in two parts. Odin was a god that was a seeker of wisdom as well as a Warrior. The Scandinavian religions were a lot more about being close to nature.

Also, Norse religion isn't any more bloody than any other religion that exists. Many are more violent in mythisism and origin.

[Morning Glory]

Circumcision does not eliminate a man's sensation of pleasure.

Clitorectomy does greatly reduce a female's sexual pleasure.

If the practice in the US was to cut off the head of the penis,
to make it so men did not enjoy sex so much, then I would
say you have a point. But they are not even in the same league...

actually it does greatly reduce a mans sexual pleasure, the amount of skin removed contains many nerves, so it decreases the area of sensation about four times as much.

[BrightStar]

actually it does greatly reduce a mans sexual pleasure, the amount of skin removed contains many nerves, so it decreases the area of sensation about four times as much.

Found Yet another reason to despise religion more than I already do. **

[TheDeathKnight]

I don't think I could handle 4 times as much pleasure.
I'd be making a mess of myself all the time.