Strange creatures: anthropology in antiquityIn ancient Greek and Roman thinking, whether the world is flat or spherical it will have imaginary boundaries and liminal areas where the norms of nature and culture are thought to break down. Analogies are constantly drawn between 'primitive' peoples at the 'edges of the world' and 'primitive' people in prehistory. Distance, both in time and space, leads to difference, and the idea that strange things happen out there or happened back then dominates Greek and Roman thinking on other cultures. This book examines ancient ideas of the creation of the world, the beginnings of life and origin of species, humans and animals, utopias and blessed islands, and 'barbarian' cultures beyond the Mediterranean world, before going on to trace the influence of ancient anthropological and ethnological thought on the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. We begin with primordial chaos and end with the invention of the Americas, taking in many strange creatures, from the savages of Britain, Gaul and Ireland, to the Man-faced Ox-creatures of Empedocles, the Dog-heads of India, the Amazons, the Centaurs, and the Tupinamba of Brazil. |
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Page 33
Indeed Lucretius goes to great lengths to argue that hybrid creatures such as
those of Empedocles were never possible at any time.42 The random
combinations that get around the problem of purposive design occur at the
atomic level.
Indeed Lucretius goes to great lengths to argue that hybrid creatures such as
those of Empedocles were never possible at any time.42 The random
combinations that get around the problem of purposive design occur at the
atomic level.
Page 35
The difference in Lucretius' theory is that instead of containing tiny copies of each
limb the generative seed will carry an atomic genetic pattern. Each creature, we
must assume, will pass its own characteristics on to its offspring by the ...
The difference in Lucretius' theory is that instead of containing tiny copies of each
limb the generative seed will carry an atomic genetic pattern. Each creature, we
must assume, will pass its own characteristics on to its offspring by the ...
Page 164
the fixity of species was seen by Lucretius as a deduction from an atomic law of
combination. Elsewhere he has argued that all compounds are made up of atoms
of different classes (that is of different sizes and shapes), but that there is a limit ...
the fixity of species was seen by Lucretius as a deduction from an atomic law of
combination. Elsewhere he has argued that all compounds are made up of atoms
of different classes (that is of different sizes and shapes), but that there is a limit ...
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Contents
The Origin of Life and the Origin of Species | 17 |
Ancient Theories of Prehistory and the Evolution of Society | 39 |
Blessed Islands and Blessed Lands | 61 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
acorns agriculture Anaximander ancient animals anti-primitivist Arcadians Aristotle atomic barbarians barbaric beasts become blessed lands Cambyses cannibalism chaos civilised clearly climate Columbus cosmogony creation creatures culture Darius Democritus described diet Diodorus Siculus divine Dog-heads earth and water east eating elements Empedocles Epicurean Ethiopians ethnocentric ethnographic extremes Fortunate Isles Gauls geographical Germans gods golden age Greece Greek Hartog Herodotus Hesiod Hieros Gamos History human Hyperboreans ideal ideas India Indies inhabitants Isles king Lery Lery's Libya lifestyle living Lucretius luxury moral myth mythological nature noble savage norms Ocean origin of species Ovid Panchaia Paradise Pelasgus perhaps Persians philosopher Plato Pliny prehistory Presocratics primitivist produce Prometheus race rationalisation realm river Roman Romm sacred islands Scythians seafaring seems seen sort status story Strabo technologies Theogony theory things Timaeus tion tradition Trans Tupinamba warfare wild Zeus
Bibliographic information
| Title | Strange creatures: anthropology in antiquity |
| Author | Gordon Lindsay Campbell |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Duckworth, 2006 |
| Original from | the University of Michigan |
| Digitized | 6 Oct 2008 |
| ISBN | 0715633910, 9780715633915 |
| Length | 185 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |