One more reason not to live in another time period

[Lemon Cheesecake]

I sometimes come across articles, or watch a show, which reminds me of reasons to be grateful that I was born in this time period and not another one in the past...not to say the future might not be better...but what are things from the past that you are glad we do not still do today...or do we...do other cultures still practice certain rituals?!?

What's your thoughts?

[Lemon Cheesecake]

Here's one which reminds me of lobotomies performed in our century...but hopefully not still...

"Thousands of years ago, people were performing a form of surgery called "trepanation" that involves boring holes through a person's skull"
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160826 ... ers-skulls

[+] SPOILER

For a large part of human prehistory, people around the world practised trepanation: a crude surgical procedure that involves forming a hole in the skull of a living person by either drilling, cutting or scraping away layers of bone with a sharp implement.
To date, thousands of skulls bearing signs of trepanation have been unearthed at archaeological sites across the world.
But despite its apparent importance, scientists are still not completely agreed on why our ancestors performed trepanation.
Anthropological accounts of 20th-Century trepanations in Africa and Polynesia suggest that, in these cases at least, trepanation was performed to treat pain – for instance, the pain caused by skull trauma or neurological disease.

Trepanation may also have had a similar purpose in prehistory. Many trepanned skulls show signs of cranial injuries or neurological diseases, often in the same region of the skull where the trepanation hole was made.
But as well as being used to treat medical conditions, researchers have long suspected that ancient humans performed trepanation for a quite different reason: ritual.

[MissAutumn]

I'm so glad I wasn't born in the Stone Age. The trepanation just sounds horrible.

The past would be something I would love to visit but I would hate to live in anytime before the 60s. I'm glad women aren't considered to be property of their fathers (and then their husbands). Did you know that in Britain men could sell their wives at a market?

[+] SPOILER

Skip to 2:22 to avoid the ad.
https://youtu.be/yZ8wzG0J6NY

Also Eavesdropping in Jane Austen's England by Roy and Leslie Adkins also covers this.

[Lemon Cheesecake]

Was just watching the Terry Jones documentary "The Damsel", where he went into the different value and rights of women during the medieval ages...when there was a shortage of men due to battle or the plague, women were "allowed' to take on businesses of men, own property etc but when men increased women's rights decreased. He stated that Joan of Arc was not burned for being a witch rather burned because she dressed in men's clothing!!

It can still be seen in some cultures today...women being bargaining tokens or pieces of property and required to dress a certain way. so sad.

[MissAutumn]

I'll have to see if I can find that documentary. That sounds about right. A good example is of the Brewery industry. It was once considered women's work so women were in charge of it. Then overtime it's became dominated by men. I heard that about that in regards to Joan of Arc. I think also she was executed for blasphemy as she claimed she could talk to God?

Sadly, some cultures are still treating women as second class citizens. We're really lucky in the 1st world.

[Lemon Cheesecake]

One of the documentaries mentioned that Muslim women used to have the same rights as the men...what happened to today's women in Arab countries then?!

And sex trafficking really hasn't changed much over the centuries either. But if no one was using that service there would be no demand for it and no market means it would happen less often. Kidnapping and slavery seems to be prevalent through every generation of human history. I wonder if it will ever stop?

[Uchuuko]

I disliked when people would ask what time I would like to be born in if I could go back in time. I don't agree with what I see as the romanticisation of the past to ask the question. I never wanted to answer that question because I really wouldn't want to live in a past time period (and I agree that the future may not really be better, especially with all of the issues in this current time). In fact, there was a writing prompt that I had to respond to with the same question of when would I like to travel back in time to. The professor was jerk and made a deal about my not answering the question when I submitted that I would rather have went into the future. Between the future and the past though, I'd rather be sent into the future. The past is just too technologically undeveloped compared to the present, and race issues were different but not better at that time. I don't want to relive parts of my current life as it is.

By skipping time, it may not make sense what goes on in the time period one arrives to because one will most likely lack context for how things are/were. It may also be dangerous to go to another time period due to discrimination and the existence of dangerous individuals and things (like things that are not in use/banned now).

[galled]

Maybe it's just me, but whenever I think about questions like this (other past time periods I'd like to live in), my mind always goes to sanitation issues. You know basic stuff like how to stay clean and not get a disease that'll make me suffer horribly or die. Don't get me started on how I can relieve myself when nature calls!

(I don't want to know!!)

What I find amusing is this stuff shoots into my mind first when in reality I probably should be more worried about other people or animals who might try to kill me and/or eat me.

[Lemon Cheesecake]

I'd like to go back in a time machine and visit but not live in past centuries. Too much like camping with no camper!

[MonkeyGirl18]

Definitely glad I didn't live during the Black Plague.

[galled]

Just think, one day in the future they'll look back at us. We lived during COVID.

[Kalei]

Honestly, I'd hate to be without Computers and the internet, it's where half my hobbies are. It's pretty incredible how much information (and misinformation) is on here. I am a bit nostalgic for the earlier days when the internet was weirder and wilder. When big companies didn't own half the net, lol.

[Lemon Cheesecake]

Unfortunately online life will just become more invasive. In gaining advantages we also sacrifice privacy.

[Kalei]

I have to agree with you there, unfortunately.

[Lemon Cheesecake]

The matrix movie idea of being incubated & living in a hologram type of space is not totally unrealistic... and for people that may be bedridden that is not a bad thing but again sacrifices on others part.

But I am thankful for flushing toilets and running water, power ...in natural disasters or power outages we get a reminder of how good we do have it where we live.