The first sign of civilization in a culture
[Picture of text that reads:]
Years ago, anthropologist Margaret Mead was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture. The student expected Mead to talk about fishhooks or clay pots or grinding stones.
But no. Mead said that the first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken and then healed. Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough to heal.
A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken the time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery. Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts, Mead said
46 replies
Wholesome, but not a meme.
It's a meme in the original sense of the word meme:
I think we should share those memes too.
I think there could be a place for that, but the sidebar for this community does say 'When you need a laugh', so maybe we could create another community for that kind of meme?
Or just change the sidebar description? But this is something for the mods of this community to decide. If they think this thread is off topic they can easily delete or lock it.
Fair enough, and it did get quite a lot of upvotes to be fair.
Your shirt is a meme.
Also, she never said that and humans aren't the only animals who care for their injured. Pretty much a fail all around.
Had always thought this was real but it seems like it wasn't.
https://www.sapiens.org/culture/margaret-mead-femur/
The takeaway, i guess, is that US healthcare only counts as civilized to those with money.
They'll fix your broken bone, they just won't provide any rehab if you don't have insurance.
Very true!
"Me first! Fuck you! Every man for himself!" is a terrible basis for a society.
But isn't that just survival of the fittest? /s
Also most are armchair weekend libertarians, nurturing their thousands and one prejudices.
"Libertarianism for me (muh guns! freydum!), not for thee (minority equality, gay equality, women's equality, etc.)."
That is not the basis.. and OP's post is fake
If we accept this hoax as true, then we also have to accept that wolves have been forming a civilization for over a million years: https://www.scimex.org/newsfeed/wolves-have-been-caring-for-the-pack-for-at-least-1.3m-years
Human exceptionalism is a dangerous joke.
I'd argue that they show a degree of civilization amongst themselves. Note that I mean this as the adjective form, not the noun.
Also, you know, people having invented bone healing, as opposed to entire species arriving naturally to bone healing through evolution over millions of years because it's a practical thing in the wild to have.
Dangerous how?
Human exceptionalism sets humans apart from nature, it's a belief that denies that we too are a part of the ecosystem and dependant on it, which leads to a lack of care for said ecosystem, which will lead to an inevitable collapse of said ecosystem (it can still collapse if we care for it, but if we don't, then it's inevitable and faster). Which will lead to huge problems for humans,because contrary to the belief of human exceptionalism, we are not exceptional, we are still very much dependant on nature and our environment.
I did a quick google search and there's loads of literature on the dangers of the human exceptionalism belief, so if you want to read more, just Google "dangers of human exceptionalism".
I consider myself a smart monkey, but it's not because I'm smart, that I'm no longer a monkey.
Sir, this is a meme page.
I'm down for the sentiment, but this certainly isn't a meme.
Me: Reads this and feels temporarily good.
Comments: This isn't a meme, it's fake, healthcare is expensive, murder exists.
Maybe the person with the broken leg got it from jumping off a cliff to kill themself, but survived, and was kept alive by another because they were their favorite sex slave.
And thus, civilization was born
You pretty much summed up my entire experience with this post. Thank you. I see you, and appreciate you.
Damn fake... universities? https://divinity.yale.edu/news/15000-year-old-bone-and-fall-2013-issue-reflections
Also doesn't make sense as there are animals that take care of the injured while they heal. Evidence has even been found of Smilodons (Sabre tooth cats) doing this.
Shame that you were blindly downvoted. This place isn't going to be any different than reddit if people bring these same issues with blind circlejerking over here.
Old habits are hard to give up, and circlejerking is one of the worst it seems.
The author is challenging the attribution to Mead, as well as the definition of civilization that is used. They concede only a few paragraphs down that there are many cases of healed fractures found by anthropologists which imply that people took care of one another, as well as there having been interpersonal violence.
I wouldn't say that the entire thing is false just because it's been turned into a falsely attributed quote.
that's a very strange definition of civilization
The fact that you spelt that with a "z" suggests you wouldn't know much about helping others in civilisation 😂
i'm swedish, why do i have to spell like a wretched englishman? it's bad enough living so close to their hive of scum and villainy
Ah sorry, didn't realise things had got so bad in Abbaland that you converted to English (Simplified) 😂
Also geese will wait with injured friends so that's not all animals.
Well, I guess it's all animals that don't develop the first sign of civilization as defined in the quote. Congratulations, geese, you got over the threshold!
Not a meme
I'm on the fence.
I'm in the 'social media microblogging' is not a meme camp as well.
However I find the message in this one worth distributing, which is technically what a meme is all about
Every meme starts somewhere
I mean I'm not saying I could, (also not saying I couldn't) but also isn't it conceivable that a person managed to crawl back to their cave where they had food stored, bound their own leg, and was lucky enough to avoid infection? Nothing about a healed leg implicitly demands intervention from other beings.
They must have had food stored for a few weeks to months, in a time before preservation techniques.
Would we consider a tribe to be a civilization? I don't think I would.
A civilization, as a noun, is a similar but separate thing to civilization, a modification of the verb civilize. The former is a state of being, where the latter is the path to it. You can see civilization before you see a civilization. Kind of a chicken and egg situation.
Ah interesting.
Luckily, nobody asked you.
What's with the hostility?
They're conflating civilisation and "civilised" (with a moral component).