Laura Helmuth

@laurahelmuth.bsky.social

There are a LOT of problems with what meatfluencers are selling, but a big one is the very idea that if our ancestors did it, we should do it. (They didn't eat only meat, but that's a different problem.) What are your favorite examples of ancestral experiences we're better off without?

Jun 25, 2024 at 23:21 UTC

24 replies 4 reposts 38 likes

gamera obscura @ohrobin.bsky.social
[ View ] Jun 25, 2024 at 23:35 UTC

Assuming weather events are the gods expressing displeasure. Barbers performing surgery.

0 replies 0 reposts 4 likes

Lethal Jorts @lethaljorts.bsky.social
[ View ] Jun 25, 2024 at 23:31 UTC

drinking water being a death sentence

0 replies 0 reposts 5 likes

cognitively accessible math @geonz.bsky.social
[ View ] Jun 25, 2024 at 23:31 UTC

not washing our hands. We *learned* about things and changed our habits.

0 replies 0 reposts 3 likes

man it's a hot zone, @mobute.bsky.social
[ View ] Jun 25, 2024 at 23:22 UTC

either drinking a flavorless mush called root marm, or marrying or cousins

1 replies 0 reposts 17 likes

Angry Allosaurus @angryallosaurus.bsky.social
[ View ] Jun 26, 2024 at 01:23 UTC

Manually fetching water for household use Fires (and the resulting smoke and airborne soot) required for all cooking, heating, and artificial light Smallpox

0 replies 0 reposts 3 likes

Don Quixote Kong Country @pork.bsky.social
[ View ] Jun 26, 2024 at 01:35 UTC

Getting frostbite going to the grocery, or dying of old age at age 35.

0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes

The Library Faery @libraryfaery.bsky.social
[ View ] Jun 26, 2024 at 01:47 UTC

Starvation because the crops fail and/or rot. Forced marriage. Breeding until your uterus falls out and/or all children dying in infancy. Becoming disabled because of easily preventable diseases. Hoop skirts.

0 replies 0 reposts 3 likes

🏳️‍⚧️ Minority Report from my Right Boob 🏳️‍⚧️ @rowenagold.bsky.social
[ View ] Jun 26, 2024 at 13:26 UTC

e are better off without having to make everything we need from scratch. FTR I discovered that in hunter-gatherer societies grannies were often the most successful hunters.

0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Very Ambivalent Very Ricky @ambivalentricky.bsky.social
[ View ] Jun 26, 2024 at 02:47 UTC

1) Dying of the plague 2) Dying in childbirth 3) Serfdom 4) Syphilis-induced dementia 5) Having to wear a truss because hernia surgery hadn't been invented yet

0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

Hare 🍉 @haredurer.bsky.social
[ View ] Jun 26, 2024 at 00:07 UTC

high infant mortality

0 replies 0 reposts 5 likes

Jylle benson-gauss @jbgnobody.bsky.social
[ View ] Jun 26, 2024 at 00:52 UTC

Polygamy? I'm actually expecting it to make a comeback as our political time machine continues its backward roll.

0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

The Republic Is Ours To Save @ejwillingham.bsky.social
[ View ] Jun 25, 2024 at 23:23 UTC

My students sometimes ask about things like this and what we are "supposed" to do, and I just tell them that we are obviously dietary generalists. We eat something. If it doesn't kill us and we want to eat it again, it is officially food.

1 replies 2 reposts 23 likes