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Comment by satori99 | Hacker News Reader

The Australian native tribes who have lived among their Fairy Circles for at least 50,000 years, seem to be on the termite side of the argument.

https://theconversation.com/first-peoples-knowledge-of-myste...

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They probably are right.

It is mind boggling the time period over which tribal knowledge develops.

Antiquity can't be substitute of truth. Granted many of these claims may have strong correlations but I also hear a lot of nonsense that is as old as the civilization itself. Witchcraft is only one of them.

You mean the sun isn't really a god riding in a chariot pulled by horses of fire? But it's been told for all of history, it surely must be truth

Not if you read the actual link above.

The 50,000 year deep indigenous knowledge being discussed there isn't magical sky friends, it's deep ecological knowledge about plants, animals, and where to find food and water where no outsiders would think to look.

Exactly. Such as how the aboriginal Australians know how to do controlled burns to keep megafires from happening. The government is starting to listen to them on how to do that.

At least the sun does really exist

the story of the sun being a chariot driven by a god (i.e. a humanoid) must have been a story which encoded useful information, perhaps things like "every morning, get up and do your job" and "here's what happens when you show fiery temperment", etc.

you can't convincingly tell the scientific story of the advantages of adaptive evolution without realizing that stories told over and over again must have been adaptions, they're too much of a waste otherwise. We like listening to stories. Why? you said it best.

>it surely must be truth

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