[metmom]

It’s interesting how surprised some people are about how advanced *primitive* peoples were. There’s this mindset that just because they weren’t as technologically advanced as we are, or perhaps attributed supernatural causes to things that they had no way of knowing otherwise, that they were stupid.

*Primitive* does not equal *stupid*.

If they were that stupid, they wouldn’t have made the gains in knowledge and technology that they did. When one considers the level of knowledge that they were starting from, that they had to figure out what we take for granted, it’s rather amazing the things they were able to accomplish.

While they may have been primitive technology wise, I don’t think that we see that kind of brilliance much more these days.

[GodGunsGuts]

Once can only imagine how incredibly intelligent the first couple must have been!

[Smokin' Joe]

I agree fully. I think the bias is one brought about by the concept that development is (roughly) linear and advancing, therefore we are at the pinnacle.

Between that bias and the "obvious deep religious significance" bias, I think we have centuries of misinterpretation behind us in cultural anthropology.

[Publius6961]

There’s this mindset that just because they weren’t as technologically advanced as we are, or perhaps attributed supernatural causes to things that they had no way of knowing otherwise, that they were stupid.

While that is true, there is the other side of that argument:

That just because they dabbled in triangles, and high places and gnomons, does not by any remote means make then "experts" in trigonometry.

Any more than charting the behavior of heavenly bodies over a long period of time make a bunch of savages experts in astrophysics.