Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ut-sally.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!seismo!ut-sally!riddle
From: riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: Laura Creighton's bull...
Message-ID: <732@ut-sally.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 6-Jan-84 14:11:18 EST
Article-I.D.: ut-sally.732
Posted: Fri Jan  6 14:11:18 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 7-Jan-84 03:24:25 EST
References: <477@eosp1.UUCP> <3022@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Organization: U. Texas CS Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 20

Funny, I once heard of another odd and backward culture that didn't understand
the link between sex and reproduction.  This one didn't believe in "ghost
babies", though: instead, it had myths about "immaculate conception" and
"virgin birth".   Can you believe that!  Just how strange can primitive
peoples be?

:-)  :-)  :-)

Seriously, I think someone on the net made an important distinction recently
between a culture's supernatural beliefs and its everyday knowledge of the
world.  It may well be the case that the two are in conflict in most cultures;
they certainly are in conflict in many (including large parts of our own).
Although there may be some primitive groups that haven't got all of the
details about the birds and the bees down pat, the presence of oft-repeated
misconceptions about where babies come from does not necessarily mean that
people don't, in fact, know the score.
----
Prentiss Riddle
("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.")
{ihnp4,seismo,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle