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this post was submitted on 25 Dec 2024
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I remember reading how, for thousands of years, Aboriginal Australians would avoid outcrops or locations with high levels of radioactive material. Those areas were known as places of sickness and to be avoided, warnings were passed down in Aboriginal lore and intergenerational stories.
It's fascinating how people, even without knowing anything about the "why", just realised that whoever hangs around a lot in those specific areas gets sick, and then they're able to retain that information for many generations.
One of my favourites from aboriginal oral history I that, apparently, they have a history about how they used to cross to some peninsula over dry land, but that the sea slowly came in and made the area inaccessible. Geologists have found that they're accurately telling the story of sea level rise that happened around 50 000 years ago, and I seem to remember that they've found archaeological evidence that backs the story as it's been told through generations up to this day.
I am one generation removed from a traditional Lakota life and I think that one thing people forget is how important oral history was to people in the ancient world. You would hear a story when you were young and it was paramount to learn it and repeat it exactly as before. And as time went on, if you deviated or embellished the story, you were shunned because everyone knew the story. Imagine your favorite grandparent telling you something and telling you that you must repeat it exactly to your grandchildren when that time comes. You would not disrespect your favorite relative and spoil your place in passing on the story. So millennia does not matter as much when you think about that. Without outside influence, language changes only slightly and stories that are considered the "truth" about life, are super important and passed on as such.