When I was reading the Bestiary I found it rather interesting. Although some of the things that were said were what we look at today as the truth, there were many factors on the other hand that were absolutely ridiculous.
The one statement that I looked at when doing my essay on ‘bears’ as rather humorous was that “the bear cub is born as a shapeless and eyeless lump of flesh, which the mother bear shapes into its proper form by licking it.” Looking at this fact today we might wonder why the people of the early days would of even considered that being of the truth.
** Going back to what Michael said in class the only reason why I can think up why people believed these comments were that a lot of the time it was only the people of the church or of high social status that were capable of reading. By having this god like appeal to them the rest of the towns people were probably more then likely looked up to them and had 100% belief in everything that they told. I don’t believe that people of the early days were not intelligent they were in fact just more capable of imagination, something that is quite difficult for us to do today.
posted by Jennifer @ 3:39 p.m.
2 Comments:
I wonder though... Maybe people thought some of these things ridiculous but just didn't say anythinf out of fear?
Just for your info/amusement, the stuff about baby bears goes directly back to Aristotle. It's often cited as an example of the difference between scientific and pre-scientific knowledge. It has aprticular pathos, though, because, as you likely know, a pissed-off mother bear who thinks her cubs are threatened is the most dangerous creature on four legs. Conclusion: anyone who got close enough to see that baby bears were NOT lumps of flesh did not survive to tell anyone!
MWM
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