Page 40 - A Historical Lie: The Stone Age
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A HISTORICAL LIE: THE STONE AGE
America are rather backward technologically, with no links to the
outside world. Diseases in many parts of the world are identified
using the most advanced imaging techniques and analysis, and are
treated in very modern hospitals. Yet in other parts of the world, dis-
eases are thought to develop under the influence of so-called evil
spirits, and attempts to heal the sick involve ceremonies to banish
such spirits. Such societies as the people of the Indus, the Ancient
Egyptians and the Sumerians, who all lived around 3,000 BCE, pos-
sessed cultures incomparably richer in all respects than that of these
present-day tribes, and even than that of societies more advanced.
A native Papuan, Australia
Even in the 21st century, many societies
have superstitious beliefs. They worship
false deities that can do them neither
harm nor good. Here we see the chief of
the Arhuaco Indians performing a ritual
after an attack was made on them. The
chief states that they call on the help of
the ancient spirits of nature to appease
the mountain. (Stephen Ferry, "Keepers
of the World," National Geographic,
October 2004)
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