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Humans Being Humans - Blog Posts
If you have ever been tempted by a Paleozoic Pal, like a a stuffed trilobite or a full size eurypterid body pillow, now's the time to buy one, before they and a really lovely little museum are gone for good 😭😭😭
“As early as the 1920s, researchers giving IQ tests to non-Westerners realized that any test of intelligence is strongly, if subtly, imbued with cultural biases… Samoans, when given a test requiring them to trace a route form point A to point B, often chose not the most direct route (the “correct” answer), but rather the most aesthetically pleasing one. Australian aborigines find it difficult to understand why a friend would ask them to solve a difficult puzzle and not help them with it. Indeed, the assumption that one must provide answers alone, without assistance from those who are older and wiser, is a statement about the culture-bound view of intelligence. Certainly the smartest thing to do, when face with a difficult problem, is to seek the advice of more experienced relatives and friends!”
— Jonathan Marks - Anthropology and the Bell Curve (via leofarto)
He’s extremely worried about her 💕
Allow me to set the scene...
So you're an alien (just go with it) and you have to write a report on human studies.
You with me? Good.
Okay so you go to your local human library (stay with me here) to find some research material but...
Oh no! You only used research from the ritualistic cult section!
We following? Awesome.
So now your entire knowledge of the human race is just ritualistic cults.
Makes sense? Great.
Then you get invited to a humans birthday party (there's a point here I promise) and it's time for cake.
Everybody on the same page? Super.
Alien (that's you) watches as this lovely dessert is brought out and wax sticks are placed into it. The wax is set on fire and everyone gathers in a circle to chant. Once the chanting is complete a chosen one makes a wish on the flaming wax sticks (thus embuing the cake with the magical wish powers obviously) and blows the fire out. Everyone eats the treat and the annual ritual is complete.
All of this is to say...
Birthdays do be a little culty.