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Origins of Mythical Creatures and Beings

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  • #16
    Originally posted by TopHatter View Post
    I read somewhere that native women, encountering white men for the first time and finding their appearance completely ridiculous, offered them their sexual favors out of sheer gratitude for the comic relief.
    Heh, funny looking Farangs. Pinched, narrow big noses, deep set eyes that shows our skull too much, funny colors of hair, weird eyes that look like dirty water, skin color either makes you look like you're dead/a ghost, or is too clear and the blood/liquor is really showing right through it, son/daughter has different hair/eye color than you, and the locals think your wife must have had an affair.

    I've heard that if you're in the military, and you have red hair, and you do a bad thing in some Asian port city - you're screwed. The locals will always be able to identify you. Brown or blonde hair... they can't tell the difference between you and all the other guys.

    And I suppose a sunburnt, liquored up, wild Farang must come across as some form of "twisted demon monkey" to the more civilized peoples of the East.
    Last edited by Ironduke; 29 Apr 18,, 18:29.
    "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

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    • #17
      There is a line of thought that the large nasal cavity in elephant skulls could be the genisis of tbe cyclops myth.
      https://news.nationalgeographic.com/...5_cyclops.html.

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      • #18
        Originally posted by Ironduke View Post
        That's interesting, I never knew that they were missing dragons in their myths/religions.
        They do but like OOE said crocs or snakes

        http://dragonsinn.net/middle_east6e.htm

        All egyptian 'dragons' here are in snake form

        Until you mentioned it i didn't realise that the chinese dragon is certainly more snake like than a western dinosaur like dragon.
        Last edited by Double Edge; 29 Apr 18,, 18:48.

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        • #19
          Originally posted by TopHatter View Post
          This has been debated before. Observe:

          Not familiar with this cartoon but thanks : )

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          • #20
            Originally posted by TopHatter View Post
            I read somewhere that native women, encountering white men for the first time and finding their appearance completely ridiculous, offered them their sexual favors out of sheer gratitude for the comic relief.
            I think this applies every where if the visitor is different.

            She said, "Hello, hey Jo, you wanna give it a go?" Oh! uh huh
            Giuchie, Giuchie, ya ya dada (Hey hey hey)
            Giuchie, Giuchie, ya ya here (Here)
            Mocha Chocalata ya ya (Oh yea)


            The ridiculous part had me laughing though, i don't believe it
            Last edited by Double Edge; 29 Apr 18,, 19:03.

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            • #21
              The ancients might have been using a lot of hallucinatory or psychoactive drugs:

              http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/...included-opium

              You could imagine in China that some Taoist priest it shaman is asked to explain the appearance if waterspouts on some lake. He goes and does his secret ritual, which basically involves him getting sky high. Then he looks up at a storm and LO, he sees the "true nature" of the storm.

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              • #22
                Originally posted by citanon View Post
                The ancients might have been using a lot of hallucinatory or psychoactive drugs:

                http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/...included-opium

                You could imagine in China that some Taoist priest it shaman is asked to explain the appearance if waterspouts on some lake. He goes and does his secret ritual, which basically involves him getting sky high. Then he looks up at a storm and LO, he sees the "true nature" of the storm.
                You think : )

                https://detechter.com/here-is-the-re...rms-and-heads/

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                • #23
                  Amazons
                  1. simply tribes/peoples who were on the losing side of raids or wars
                  2. the men of the tribe were all killed off
                  3. the women were able to successfully evade being captured by the winners of the raid/war
                  4. the women then took on traditional male roles, to ensure their continued survival and self-defense

                  Elves
                  1. featured in Germanic mythology/folklore, they were simply the semi-"Asiatic" Sami/Finnic inhabitants of Scandinavia
                  2. the Sami/Finnic peoples had different traditions and religious practices than the Germanic peoples, which may have seemed like "magic"
                  3. the Sami/Finnic people lived to the north, and in the forests (e.g. the Forest Finns), in the same places the elves were reputed to have lived
                  4. the Sami/Finnic peoples were shorter, with slighter builds, epicanthal folds, but also with a tendency to have light skin/eyes, which is consistent with many of the physical descriptions of elves in Germanic folklore
                  5. the Sami/Finnic peoples domesticated reindeer, which may explain accounts of elves riding deer, moose, or elk in the manner that other peoples rode horses
                  Last edited by Ironduke; 03 May 18,, 02:15.
                  "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

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                  • #24
                    Originally posted by TopHatter View Post
                    Speaking of werewolves, I'm sure that especially hirsute people, or even worse, people suffering from hypertrichosis, were believed to be werewolves and paid for it with their lives :(
                    I agree, this could be an alternate plausible explanation. While I do believe men wearing wolf and bear pelts were mistaken for werewolves and werebears, it is equally plausible that hirsute men and individuals with hypertrichosis could have been mistaken for werewolves and werebears as well.

                    Going one step further - imagine a hirsute man or an individual with hypertrichosis wearing a wolf or bear pelt, as seen by someone who had never seen that before. Werewolves and werebears would then be doubly confirmed to be "real" and "exist".

                    An alternate theory on:

                    Werewolves (theory #3)
                    1. there were inter-tribal wars between tribes that had domesticated wolves, and tribes that had not yet domesticated them
                    2. the tribe without dogs had never seen a wolf/dog co-operating with a human, and simply had no concept of this phenomenon
                    3. they honestly, but mistakenly perceived wolves/dogs working with other humans and following human orders, to be a human in wolf form

                    I think the explanations and answers concerning the origins of these myths are not a binary. Multiple theories could be plausibly be the case, either alone or in combination with one another. It could very well be the case, that the answer is "all of the above".

                    So for werewolves, so far we have:
                    1. men wearing wolf pelts
                    2. hirsute men
                    3. perceptions of people who simply could not conceive of the idea of wolves co-operating with humans (they must be humans in wolf form!)
                    4. any combination of all of the above
                    Last edited by Ironduke; 03 May 18,, 12:47.
                    "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

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                    • #25
                      Old documentary but interesting nonetheless

                      “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

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                      • #26
                        And another one, this time exploring the various versions of vampires in folklore throughout history.

                        “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

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                        • #27
                          Going to change it up a bit. Mythological/fabricated "illnesses".

                          Seasonal Affective Disorder (a fabricated "mental illness")
                          1. especially in regions of the world where there is only one growing season (e.g. northern latitudes), food must be harvested and stockpiled to last the winter
                          2. if there was a poor harvest, and/or a long winter, food stores would be low
                          3. inactivity and lethargy in the winter were historically positive adaptations in the face of low food stores, as less caloric energy would be expended
                          4. such inactivity and lethargy could extend the duration of low food stores by several weeks or even a few months, and as a result, save lives
                          5. people with regular or hyperactive levels of activity during such winters were more likely to suffer or die from starvation
                          6. nowadays there are grocery stores everywhere that never run out of food, and 100+ hours/week of productivity is considered more important than quality of life
                          7. thus, what was a positive adaptation for 99.99% of human history, is now classified as a "mental illness"


                          Up next, "ADHD", which is another "mental illness" of recent fabrication that was, in fact, an extremely positive adaptation, and is currently an unacknowledged mental asset, immensely useful in a large number of occupations.
                          Last edited by Ironduke; 17 May 18,, 06:22.
                          "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

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                          • #28
                            Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (a fabricated "mental illness")
                            1. humans used to be hunter-gatherers, exposed to a wide variety of life-threatening risks from wildlife and nature
                            2. especially then, it was advantageous to have individuals in one's party who were not too focused, did not have their blinders on, but were instead paying just the right amount of attention to everything
                            3. in prehistoric hunting parties, for example, these types of individuals would be paying attention to animal tracks, animal dung, spotting pitfalls and obstacles, twigs to step over to avoid making a noise, and generally, being aware just enough of everything going on in their environment
                            4. in the modern era, many occupations and tasks require an individuals undivided attention and a high level of focus
                            5. people of the "ADHD" subset, who are a perfectly normal and necessary minority, find themselves unable to adjust to modern demands for undivided attention and a high level of focus
                            6. thus, they are classified as mentally ill and forced to take medications
                            7. luckily, there are still occupations in which having so-called "ADHD" is advantageous
                            8. such occupations include being a car salesman, a nature/wildlife guide, scouting of any type, being a beer hawker at sports venues and concerts, etc.
                            9. therefore, there is nothing wrong with a so-called "ADHD" individual, instead, it is a reflection of something wrong with the society that they live in
                            "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

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