Re: Re: The Missionaries

From: Guy Hoyle <ghoyle1_at_...>
Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2005 13:28:58 -0600

Jane Williams wrote:
> > The Tasmanians were descended from Australian aborigines, and
> > yet their
> > technology level went down after they were isolated by rising seas.
> > Their stone tools were far more primitive than those of their
> > Australian
> > ancestors. They ate shellfish, but didn't eat fish (they
> > forgot how to
> > do it). And yet they weren't brain damaged; they lost the
> > knowledge of
> > how to make better stone tools, and how to catch fish.
>
> But if someone had turned up and taught them (no magic, just teaching) one
> assumes they'd have been able to learn.

Sure, but they probably wouldn't have discovered it on their own, and local prejudices would have to have been overcome ("You eat WHAT??? WHY???"). Also, bear in mind that it took tens of thousands of years for real-world humans to discover how to make fire. Native Americans didn't discover how to make use of the wheel until the Old World had it for thousands of years, and who knows when they would have if Europeans hadn't shown up, bringing the wheel, horses, smallpox, etc.

I'm not sure if I accept Greg's statement that the Hangolings (too lazy to look it up to see if I got it right from memory) couldn't have figured out these techniques as literal, or if they WOULDN'T have learned them on their own, but I don't think brain damage would have been the reason at any case. The very nature of the world changed after the Dawn, and it changed at different times in different places. Perhaps the magic that was taught the Hangolings wasn't simply revealing the existence of ripe fruit and other edible foodstuffs, as much as transforming it (or them). More on that later as I figure out what the hell I mean by that.

Guy (Hoyle)