Nope. Most of those are just people projecting modern knowledge and beliefs onto people from thousands of years ago.
The origin of the pork taboo for example. We connect it to our current knowledge of trichinosis, but we know the actual reason from antiquity.
It has to do with ancient Judaism and a political dispute they had both internally and with the Babylonians. Essentially, the surviving faction of the conflict hated Babylon, and Babylon ate a lot of pork because pigs are easier to maintain in a more urbanized setting. So they had developed the belief that “fuck that, people who eat like those fuckers are also fuckers”. They also decided to use the Babylonians gods as bad guy gods, and give them names like, roughly, the stinky poop god. Aka, baelzebub.
It’s always risky to project modern beliefs and knowledge onto people from so long ago.
Nope. Most of those are just people projecting modern knowledge and beliefs onto people from thousands of years ago.
The origin of the pork taboo for example. We connect it to our current knowledge of trichinosis, but we know the actual reason from antiquity.
It has to do with ancient Judaism and a political dispute they had both internally and with the Babylonians. Essentially, the surviving faction of the conflict hated Babylon, and Babylon ate a lot of pork because pigs are easier to maintain in a more urbanized setting. So they had developed the belief that “fuck that, people who eat like those fuckers are also fuckers”. They also decided to use the Babylonians gods as bad guy gods, and give them names like, roughly, the stinky poop god. Aka, baelzebub.
It’s always risky to project modern beliefs and knowledge onto people from so long ago.