"Years ago, anthropologist Margaret Mead was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture. The student expected Mead to talk about fishhooks or clay pots or grinding stones.
But no. Mead said that the first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken and then healed. Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal.
A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery. Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts, Mead said."
We are at our best when we serve others. Be civilized.
@pinskalIt's a great story but I've read a few times now that there's no solid evidence she said it, apparently. I wonder who did.
@jai_oh @rbos @pinskal @jai_oh
Quote Investigator casts a lot of doubt on it being something Mead said, particularly as the quote surfaced only after she was dead.
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2021/07/25/femur/?amp=1
Quote Origin: A Healed Femur Is the Earliest Sign of True Civilization – Quote Investigator®
@OutOnTheMoors @rbos @jai_oh As has been documented by over 50 federated members she did not say it, also over 50 federated members have documented the quotes unfairness and inaccuracy about animals. I origally posted it because I liked the center of the story, kindness to one another is key to civilization.
Many federated members have acknowledged that she did not say it, that it is unfair to animals and that it is a great story and the center of the story is key.
Jon
@pinskal @OutOnTheMoors @rbos @jai_oh Even if it were the recounting of a dream of a fictional Margaret Mead in a sci-fi novel, it would STILL have significance & importance. It's quite clear that it's not saying that animals don't have compassion for one another. It's just saying that licking a broken femur is unlikely to fix it. So it's saying that civilization is both the technical capacity to heal another & having the emotional bandwidth & social cohesion to care for others even at your own detriment. Something doesn't have to be accurately cited, factually accurate & immune to the decay of facts to hold power & meaning.
@sentient_water @pinskal @rbos @jai_oh I refer you to my Confucius quote
@sentient_water @pinskal @rbos @jai_oh I'm wary of misattributed quotes because they can - often accidentally - create mistaken beliefs about what people thought. Read Mead and you're not going to find anything in support of this theory. She thought "civilsation" started with the imposition of power structures.
@OutOnTheMoors @pinskal @rbos @jai_oh In general I agree. But whoever wrote that had a point. I've not read any Margaret Mead & barely know anything about her. Still someone wrote that statement & that anonymous author grokked something fundamentally important about being human. I always try to check my sources even for just a quote & yet it's NEVER straightforward. Often some variation of the same quote has been said by numerous people over the span of centuries.
If the attribution was changed from Mead to Anon I think that would fix it
@OutOnTheMoors @pinskal @rbos @jai_oh So you don't recommend Margaret Mead then?
@sentient_water @pinskal @rbos @jai_oh I don't agree with some of her opinions, but I always recommend reading widely on a subject - and that includes reading experts you're likely to end up disagreeing with. It's not like this quote is being attributed to Ayn Rand
@OutOnTheMoors @pinskal @rbos @jai_oh I've just read her Wikipedia page & irrespective of any missteps she made she sounds like a remarkable woman. A bisexual, anthropologist, feminist, global explorer & scientist (a term I recently found out was created to describe only women who studied science).
Glad I did to be honest.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Mead?wprov=sfla1
Margaret Mead - Wikipedia
@sentient_water @pinskal @rbos @jai_oh She was. I'm old and her opinions carried weight when I was growing up. Seems sad she's being "remembered" for this when there's so much that's interesting that she did say.
Jon Pinter
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