Re: Etruscan and Anatolian(Tanism/Velchans etc.)

--- In cybalist@..., MrCaws@... wrote:

>
> Self-mutilation used as a religious act that is widespread across

the

> globe, practiced by a variety of cultures with access to many
> materials and lack of them. Mercury and lead poisoning as the

reason

> of decline as a culture seems like a secondary factor at best, and
> certainly cannot be ascribed to all cultures who practice human
> mutilation or any other practice. The Sumerian culture appears to
> have had almost exactly the same features-warring city states,

human

> sacrifice, the whole nine yards.
>
> Your critique of self-mutilation in general is what it is, but I'd
> like to point out that Western culture has its own forms- earrings,
> not to mention other body piercings and tattoos, and circumsicion,

a

> religious act of mutilation. It may have some practical benefits,

but

> it is a ceremonious act as well.

It wasn't meant as a critique. I happened to have some specialized
knowledge that I thought the list might find useful to explain
various mysterious disappearance of otherwise thriving cultures.
However, I recall an article in, I think it was, Nature some years
back to the effect that Europeans had a much higher (6 x ?)
resistance to heavy metal poisoning. This might imply that this was
an aquired selected trait, and that people earlier were much more
susceptible to heavy metal poisoning.

Torsten