An Interesting News Story from National Geographic

Okay, before I get to the meat of this post, I have to admit that I have been a National Geographic afficionado since I was a young child. There, I've said it.

So, being a National Geographic afficionado I regularly download several podcasts from NG including National Geographic News. In the news this morning was this story about some archaeologists from Italy who have uncovered evidence of people with physical disabilities being offered as human sacrifice all over Europe. The link to the full story is in the title of this post. Just click on it and you'll get to the original article.

BUT BEFORE YOU GO...I have several observations to make about this discovery. First of all, offering individuals with disabilities as human sacrifice is much different than straight out euthanasia of the sort that was regularly practiced by the Spartans and other warrior cultures. Human sacrifice seems to indicate a certain social status or role for individuals with disabilities, whether it was positive or negative we can't be sure, but the fact is that they were allowed to live and were central to the spiritual life of the different cultures these archaeologists have uncovered. Were the disabilities feared as a sign of the gods displeasure? Were the disabilities revered?

Does that seem odd that an individual with a disability might be revered? It shouldn't...many indigenous cultures have given status and high social rank to individuals with disabilities. Individuals with physical disabilities were often elevated to leadership positions within a tribal group because they could not hunt or gather, therefore as a result they had time to devote to the "administrative" and social elements of maintaining a cohesive cultural group. The tribal group provided for the leader and leader provided a stable social atmosphere.

Individuals with mental illness who would be considered "crazy" today were often revered as shamen in American Indian and Alaska Native cultures. It was believed that these individuals could communicate with spirits from other worlds and were therefore central to the spiritual life of the tribe. Today we take people who "hear voices" and lock them up in institutions and psychiatric wards. One culture respected the skill to "hear voices", another culture demonizes it as an illness.

Interesting ideas to consider. What do you think?