←back to thread

189 points docmechanic | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.199s | source
Show context
mattdeboard ◴[] No.43656266[source]
Reinforcing my strongly held belief that what fundamentally sets humans apart isn't spoken language, or tools, or any of that, but rather the fact we write down what we know, then make those writings available to future generations to build on. We're a species distinguished from all others by our information-archival and -dissemination practices. We're an archivist species, a librarian species. Homo archivum. In my opinion.
replies(27): >>43656394 #>>43656397 #>>43656420 #>>43656447 #>>43656530 #>>43656550 #>>43656943 #>>43657000 #>>43657005 #>>43657255 #>>43657477 #>>43657514 #>>43657552 #>>43657814 #>>43658032 #>>43658078 #>>43658352 #>>43658691 #>>43658854 #>>43659931 #>>43663068 #>>43664128 #>>43664456 #>>43666786 #>>43667727 #>>43668319 #>>43668641 #
1. antonkar ◴[] No.43657005[source]
You’re directionally right, modern comparative mythology studies suggest that people were telling stories ~100 000 years ago when they went out of Africa, they had an “oral library”. We find many similar tropes alongside their migration roads.

The top specialist is Berezkin, he collected thousands of tropes and put it on a map http://www.mythologydatabase.com/bd/