--- In cybalist@..., markodegard@... wrote:
> ---
>
> For myself, the *sudden* sight of a snake or lizard sets off an
> extreme startle reflex (fight-flight reflex). I've read that this
is
> 'hardwired' into the human psyche, something inherited from way way
> back, as a means of avoiding venomous snakes (back when we were all
in
> Africa). Snakes are not interested in us humans (we're too big to
be
> food), and being wary is usually sufficient to avoid their venom.
I had a dicussion (after a good dinner) with a doctor once who
wondered aloud why people are so much more frightened of cancer than
heart disease: they would be equally dead in either case. So I
explained to him (as one human being to a doctor) that what people
fear is the dissolution of order, the transition from order to chaos.
Which reminds me: I think Piotr argued some time ago for some
underlying meaning to a root starting with *scr-
for which compare:
http://www.angelfire.com/rant/tgpedersen/krn.html
most of which is from
R. Blench Crabs, Turtles and Frogs:
linguistic keys to
early African subsistence systems
who wonders why these words seem to cross lingustic boundaries and
speculates that it has to do with a spread of a systen of
subsistence. Being true to form I think it has to do with a
mythological system, but one that is also hardwired. *k-r/l/n- seems
to be the right way to express for most people.
Swedish, for some weird reason has replaced the good old Germanic
*(h)raban-(?) with "korp"
Notice also all the dirty words posted some months ago seem to fit
the pattern.
Torsten