American Giants

[Kenemet]

4 hours ago, Crikey said:

 

Yeah I suppose somebody accidentally found a rock with a hole in it and poked a stick through it and thought "Aha, I've invented the wheel!"

Fire too could have been accidental, for example somebody could have been chipping out flint arrowheads and a spark ignited some nearby dry grass, so he put two and two together..:)

PS- What about the incredibly complicated business of weaving fibres to make clothes? I wonder where that knowledge came from?

Weaving's another Johnny-Come-Lately project of humans.  It shows up about 20,000-40,000 years ago... around 350,000 years after the invention (or control) of fire: https://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/archived-projects/origins-weaving-project

[Gaden]

17 hours ago, Hanslune said:

Pretty much, Harte tell bads poetry, Kenemet gives us a touch of ancient Egyptian soft porn, kmt-Sesh usually sings Sinatra, Pliny beats something to death and that along with the occasional human sacrifice and ritual cannibalism makes up our usual activities

 You forgot ramp bashing and geyser worship.

[Gaden]

9 hours ago, Kenemet said:

Speaking as an anthropologist, he doesn't seem to actually have read any of the many fine textbooks on the topic of anthropology.  And I wouldn't call him professional.  

I'm familiar with a number of origin stories and with a number of the tales of giants from different tribes.  No tribe reported "red haired" people ... and the giants they talk about are generally the size of mountains (so half a mile high or taller... clearly mythic and not real.)  And most of the books of "indian tales" are written by white men for white men (and women and children.)   There are some excellent works (Franz Boas is one such author) but it takes time to ferret out the real ones.  And once you get a sense of how a tribe tells a story, the ones that are fake (which are being discussed in the video) really stand out as being fake.  They're not true to the culture or to the way the people of that tribe (or culture) spoke and thought.

If you want to read about some real monsters of the Native Americans, do start with Boaz.  His works are now available for free (most of them) and you will get a sense of how different REAL Native American stories and thought are: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Boas#Writings

 

  A reading list for a youtube junkie? Surely, you jest.

[Crikey]

2 hours ago, Kenemet said:

Weaving's another Johnny-Come-Lately project of humans.  It shows up about 20,000-40,000 years ago... around 350,000 years after the invention (or control) of fire: https://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/archived-projects/origins-weaving-project

I can understand the wheel and fire being discovered "accidentally", but weaving garments is a whole new ball game. I mean, how exactly did humans hit on the complicated notion of making threads and weaving them together in the first place?

[Essan]

5 minutes ago, Crikey said:

I can understand the wheel and fire being discovered "accidentally", but weaving garments is a whole new ball game. I mean, how exactly did humans hit on the complicated notion of making threads and weaving them together in the first place?

Maybe as simple as someone casually sitting in the grass and weaving a few bits together, and then a few more, and ....  natural activity for children all over the world, without any teaching.  Same as making daisy chains - no-one teaches us to do them as kids, we just do.

[Gaden]

31 minutes ago, Crikey said:

I can understand the wheel and fire being discovered "accidentally", but weaving garments is a whole new ball game. I mean, how exactly did humans hit on the complicated notion of making threads and weaving them together in the first place?

 That's one of those questions that can never be answered. I've always marveled at the bow and arrow, a fairly complex device that seems to have been invented by different people, on separate continents.

[Crikey]

Another mystery- how did cooking originate? I mean, what on earth made a caveman decide to drop a lump of precious meat on the fire?

[Hanslune]

11 hours ago, Crikey said:

 

Perhaps the ancient invention of the wheel and fire rank as vast leaps in technology?

 

The greatest leap was our invention of language - not just signals but the ability to form abstract thoughts and to discuss stuff, 'what is over that next hill', 'how can we kill something that large and dangerous?' 'The season has come for us to move to the lake shore but what if we instead went to the higher mountain pastures instead this year'?

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

8 hours ago, Crikey said:

 

Yeah I suppose somebody accidentally found a rock with a hole in it and poked a stick through it and thought "Aha, I've invented the wheel!"

Fire too could have been accidental, for example somebody could have been chipping out flint arrowheads and a spark ignited some nearby dry grass, so he put two and two together..:)

PS- What about the incredibly complicated business of weaving fibres to make clothes? I wonder where that knowledge came from?

Boredom. 
seriously, watch some kids play in a garden that has reeds and sooner or later they’ll plait them together. 

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

41 minutes ago, Crikey said:

Another mystery- how did cooking originate? I mean, what on earth made a caveman decide to drop a lump of precious meat on the fire?

Just that - he dropped some meat on a fire and thought “b***** this, I worked hard for that rat, I’ll still eat it” and realised his rat tastes better cooked. 

[Oniomancer]

2 hours ago, Crikey said:

I can understand the wheel and fire being discovered "accidentally", but weaving garments is a whole new ball game. I mean, how exactly did humans hit on the complicated notion of making threads and weaving them together in the first place?

https://www.livescience.com/19708-primates-build-sleeping-nests.html

[onlookerofmayhem]

2 hours ago, Crikey said:

I can understand the wheel and fire being discovered "accidentally", but weaving garments is a whole new ball game. I mean, how exactly did humans hit on the complicated notion of making threads and weaving them together in the first place?

 

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

2 hours ago, Crikey said:

I can understand the wheel and fire being discovered "accidentally", but weaving garments is a whole new ball game. I mean, how exactly did humans hit on the complicated notion of making threads and weaving them together in the first place?

Because humans are fundamentally competitive the moment someone wove a mat, there was going to be someone who wove a hat just to go “pfft, I is better than you”.

[Essan]

How did birds  not just any bird, but all birds, come up with the idea of weaving together a nest?!!! 

And for that matter, what made a man come up with the idea that if he inserted part of his anatomy into a part of someone else's they would enjoy it?    

[Hanslune]

1 hour ago, Sir Wearer of Hats said:

Just that - he dropped some meat on a fire and thought “b***** this, I worked hard for that rat, I’ll still eat it” and realised his rat tastes better cooked. 

I always thought they would have come across an animal killed in a brush/wild fire and said to themselves - hmmm this does taste better.

[Essan]

7 minutes ago, Hanslune said:

I always thought they would have come across an animal killed in a brush/wild fire and said to themselves - hmmm this does taste better.

Does it really taste better?      I know what I prefer .....

(caveat: I prefer poultry cooked)

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

Just now, Essan said:

Does it really taste better?      I know what I prefer .....

(caveat: I prefer poultry cooked)

Cooked red meat is certsinly better for the brain.

[Kenemet]

2 hours ago, Gaden said:

 That's one of those questions that can never be answered. I've always marveled at the bow and arrow, a fairly complex device that seems to have been invented by different people, on separate continents.

And at different times.  In spite of its association with Native Americans, they didn't get the bow until fairly recently.

[Hanslune]

1 hour ago, Essan said:

Does it really taste better?      I know what I prefer .....

(caveat: I prefer poultry cooked)

Rare beef is pretty good but poultry is rather foul raw.

[Piney]

4 hours ago, Gaden said:

 That's one of those questions that can never be answered. I've always marveled at the bow and arrow, a fairly complex device that seems to have been invented by different people, on separate continents.

It was invented on the Pontic Caspian Steppe, maybe by the Uralic folk and carried to the Americas via the ancestors of the Apache and Navajo (Dine) cir. 500 BC. 

[Piney]

1 hour ago, Kenemet said:

And at different times.  In spite of its association with Native Americans, they didn't get the bow until fairly recently.

 

Just now, Piney said:

It was invented on the Pontic Caspian Steppe, maybe by the Uralic folk and carried to the Americas via the ancestors of the Apache and Navajo (Dine) cir. 500 BC. 

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

16 minutes ago, Hanslune said:

Rare beef is pretty good but poultry is rather foul raw.

Poultry is fowl

[jaylemurph]

1 hour ago, Kenemet said:

And at different times.  In spite of its association with Native Americans, they didn't get the bow until fairly recently.

Seems like, more recently, they got the shaft rather than the bow. 

—Jaylemurph 

[Swede]

18 hours ago, VastLand said:

There is more to it, I did not get into detail about all the theories of the time, nor in depth in a single theory, I am expecting people to have an awareness to the time period, before they come in here and discuss. That way I do not have to give them the run down, you see?

While it may be suspected that you have now left the stage, it should be noted that the above bolded may be the reason for your "frustration".

To wit: There are more than a few contributors to these pages who are quite well qualified to address your erroneous information. On very technical levels. And the standards of those contributors are somewhat above toy-level videos. As previously suggested, simply present your position/questions in a text form. They can then be addressed in a competent manner.

And no, there is not any credible data that supports some sort of "race of giants" speculation. Fringe rubbish.

.

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

5 hours ago, Gaden said:

 That's one of those questions that can never be answered. I've always marveled at the bow and arrow, a fairly complex device that seems to have been invented by different people, on separate continents.

That was because of Encarta 365 IIRC