“The secrets of Haiti’s Living Dead,” and “Body ritual Among the Nacirema.”
... fishing. Even the Ice man, a mummified human from the bronze-age found in the alps in northern Italy carried with him mushrooms that it is believed that he used as anti-biotic, and was marked with tattoos believed to be some kind of acupuncture. The Egyptians even had brain surgery! The article “The Secrets of Haiti’s Living Dead” points out that some of the socio-religous remedies work without the need for “modern medicine.” The second thing that strikes me is the brutality of punishment structures implemented by societies (it seems societies in general…) There seems to be a correlation between the amount of perceived social harm, and the brutality of the punishment. Donald Crossan, in his book “The Historical Jesus” suggests that early middle-eastern civilization developed an “honor/shame” value structure, specifically surrounding women and sexuality. In Jewish society, at the turn of the age, the most brutal punishments were meted out for women who “shamed themselves,” Stoning adulteresses for example. In Japanese society, disloyalty, and many other things, was punishable by immediate death, because loyalty was a core social value. The Haitians believe (According to “The secrets of Haiti’s Living Dead”) that zombification i...