Politesse
Lux Aeterna
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2018
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- Chochenyo Territory, US
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- Jedi Wayseeker
I realize that this isn't your main point, but this last bit is a common colonialist myth, an urban legend passed around in many different contexts; there were more than 250 languages spoken in pre-colonial Australia, and many of those languages have words for yesterday and tomorrow.Anything on the Australian Aborigines? They've been there for 60,000 years. Further complicating the matters, they had to reach that island by ocean-worthy boats, something that no other groups of people would accomplish for tens of thousands of years. Then, upon arriving there, they had to lose their nautical knowledge and live lives of utter simplicity. When the Aborigines were discovered by English sailors, they had no words for the concepts of "yesterday" or "tomorrow.".
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004281.html
And I would challenge "utter simplicity" as well. All cultures must be, and are, as complicated as human life and cognition allow for.