The most f#)¤&ed up sound

[cousinmuscles]

If you have read about Aztec and also Mayan history you know what they did to curtail their mass population problems...

When their bloodlust mentality creativity expresses itself it creates tools like this:


Sounds childish but when you consider what they actually did during their time, this is some twisted tool lol. Trying to put you off mentally by inducing that mental state you are in when you hear someone have their limbs sawn off or something.

[hammerheart]

That's macabre and sick.


Here, listen to Neanderthal made whistle instead:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHy9FOblt7Y

[cousinmuscles]

Can't embed at the time it starts but it's at 2min5s.

Bizzarro that's actually a nice sound and creative considering what little if any exposure they had. Not saying the Mayans/Aztecs were bad people as pretty much every civilization did horrendous things but their taste for things seems a bit different, it's like their creativity exposed itself at uncommon brainwave frequencies... Lol!!!

[Charlie67]

I have 3 thoughts... which honestly is two more than I'm normally able to keep in my head at one time, so thanks for that:

1) At first I just thought, "boy that's just a crappy whistle played in a creepy way"... but then it got weird.

2) Then I listened to Bizzarro's link and thought... "Is carving up bones any less creepy"

3) And then I thought of my workout play list and thought.... "aren't I doing the same thing with music at the gym?" using sound to invoke a physical reaction? ....Battle drums, sonic weapons, war cries, racking a shot gun, church choirs, morning roosters, dogs barking, Pavlov's bell.... On some level, aren't they all the same thing?

Best,
C-

[cousinmuscles]

I have 3 thoughts... which honestly is two more than I'm normally able to keep in my head at one time, so thanks for that:

1) At first I just thought, "boy that's just a crappy whistle played in a creepy way"... but then it got weird.

2) Then I listened to Bizzarro's link and thought... "Is carving up bones any less creepy"

3) And then I thought of my workout play list and thought.... "aren't I doing the same thing with music at the gym?" using sound to invoke a physical reaction? ....Battle drums, sonic weapons, war cries, racking a shot gun, church choirs, morning roosters, dogs barking, Pavlov's bell.... On some level, aren't they all the same thing?

Best,
C-

Well, it sounds like someone is being tortured to death. The only similarity it has with the neanderthal whistle is that they both make a sound lol. I use music to get in a state of mind I want but the Aztec whistle is unworldly to me I'd never think of anything like that.

What if they left behind this stuff on purpose to make us think they were the baddest warriors you could ever meet. Then laughed and laughed that some day people will find it and believe they enjoyed listening to that sound. Everyone else is by default a pansy can't win this game.

[Beetlegeuse]

That is a pretty chilling sound.

It's not that unusual to make a musical instrument from bones. I don't recall where it was but there was one culture that would saw off the top of a dead guy's head (or at least he was dead by the time they got done with the sawing) and turn it into a bongo drum.

I know a couple of guys who drive around with the baculum (dick bone) of a raccoon hanging from the rear view mirror of their truck. Lots of cultures have rules that to us would seem primitive about handling of the remains of dead people. In their culture, it's 'normal' to drive around with a coon's dick bone on your mirror. There still are cultures today that eat parts of their dead relatives to honor them.

OT but they've known for years that humans and Neanderthals bumped uglies. Together. They figure 20% of the Neanderthal genome is preserved in us homo sapiens. On average, the whiter you are (blue-eyed blonds), the more Neanderthal genetic material you have.

Well, just last week a new study was published claiming that none of the Neanderthal remains they've been able to get DNA from have any homo sapien DNA in them. Zero.

So homo sapien DNA shows that at some point in the past, modern humans bred with Neanderthals. And unless you're a Subsaharan African, it's virtually certain you have some neanderthal DNA. So how is it that not a single Neanderthal yet tested has any homo sapien DNA?

And at this point, the "why" is a mystery.

Can't embed at the time it starts but it's at 2min5s.... Lol!!!

To imbed with a specific start time, go to YouTubeTime.com. A way to link to a specific part of a youtube video[/url] to generate the URL incorporating the start time. The forum's HTML strips off the time code so it defaults to starting at the beginning but you can enter youtubetime.com's URL at bitly.com or tinyurl.com to generate a "shortened" URL that preserves it.

...Here, listen to Neanderthal made whistle instead:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHy9FOblt7Y

I had no idea Beethoven's 9th was plagiarized from the Neanderthals.

[Beetlegeuse]

Speaking of the Mayans, their cruelty wasn't limited to others, they were cruel to themselves, too. They believed blood was holy/magical and it was even more holy/magical if it came from the penis or vagina. And if you wanted a big favor from the gods, you needed a sacrifice from a high-ranking person, so sometimes nobility or religious leaders were obligated to let blood by cutting their own penis.

So myths to the contrary notwithstanding, some days it's not so good to be king.

[cousinmuscles]

Speaking of the Mayans, their cruelty wasn't limited to others, they were cruel to themselves, too. They believed blood was holy/magical and it was even more holy/magical if it came from the penis or vagina. And if you wanted a big favor from the gods, you needed a sacrifice from a high-ranking person, so sometimes nobility or religious leaders were obligated to let blood by cutting their own penis.

So myths to the contrary notwithstanding, some days it's not so good to be king.

A friend of mine studied history and lent me some books for a while, I have read some of that, but not the penis cutting part LOL! Also that they often had issues keeping their society working due to bad farming methods, overpopulation et.c. Something tells me there was a lack of balance. Obviously they had intelligence and organization, just look at the temples... But their traditions give hints of being unbalanced. Too much gore. In a similar but on the other side of the spectrum is todays pussyfication of men. IMO not sustainable. There is a very interesting speech by Jordan Peterson, a professor of psychology, about precisely this... one of the pillars which supposedly keeps long standing societies together is falling apart.

[Beetlegeuse]

There was far more gore in ancient Rome.

Nero particularly enjoyed feeding Christians to the dogs, or setting them on fire to light one of his gatherings. Caligula was similarly fond of acts of unspeakable cruelty. But they weren't motivated by religious fervor, this wasn't done to please the gods, they did it strictly because they enjoyed doing it.

Julius Caesar defeated the Gauls, then brought their leader back to Rome and kept him in a dungeon for five years until he finally held his 'Triumph' (ceremony commemorating the victory), during which he publicly executed the Gallic leader as part of the celebration. As an example of what awaits all who stand against Rome.

The Romans would gather to watch public executions, or slaves fighting to the death entirely for entertainment value. Bring your kids, and get there early to be sure of a good seat.

And there was no law regulating it. Before Vespasian built the Colosseum, there was no facility in Rome specifically for gladiator fights so they would hold their contests anywhere that was convenient. Some big shot who wanted to advertise his business or launch a campaign for public office would hire a "lanista" to bring his fighters and put on a show. They'd find a suitable vacant lot (as if it was a game of pick-up basketball) to the sponsor's liking, the lanista would gather a crowd and make the announcement, "These games are brought to you courtesy of Marcus Lanius, purveyor of the freshest fish on the Aventine," and then two guys with swords would start wailing on each other.

Whether they fought to the death or not was a matter of the financial arrangements between the sponsor and the lanista, but anyone who had the coin could pay to sit and watch men killed for his pleasure, all day, every day.

When they completed the Colosseum, the Emperor Titus paid for 100 straight days of gladiatorial games. Animal fights in the morning, public executions at lunch, and then gladiators for the afternoon entertainment. It's not known how many gladiators died but they did record there were 9000 animals killed (~90 a day), mostly elephants, rhinoceros, lions, bulls and bears. The Romans brought in so many African bush elephants to fight in the games, the same elephants Hannibal used to cross the Alps, that they went extinct.

When they broke the slave's rebellion, the Romans hung Spartacus and 6000 others on crosses lining the road leading from Rome all the way to the gladiators' former home in Capua, almost 120 miles, which comes to a cross about every 100 feet. And the bodies were left there to rot. 6000 signs reading, "Don't fuck with Rome."

The Roman short sword killed more people than any other weapon prior to gunpowder reaching Europe. But counting from the founding of the republic until the collapse of the Byzantine wing of the Holy Roman Empire, Rome lasted nearly 2000 years. So the gore factor doesn't seem to have held them back too much.

One of the most celebrated civilizations in history, but they were some genuinely rough customers.

[Charlie67]

Good read! Thanks for posting all that.

Best,
C-

[Beetlegeuse]

What a coinkidenk. This week I've seen two different TV shows, both speculating the Mayan civilizations collapsed because of prolonged drought. (Probably MMGW & Bush's fault)

The first one was a Travel Channel docu-entertainment show called Legendary Locations, an episode looking into what happened to the Maya on the Yucatan peninsula. I didn't realize there are no lakes or rivers in the Yucatan. But what they do have is limestone bedrock and lots and lots of Karst topography (= limestone caves). Where the caves break through to the surface, they're called a sinkhole. When a sinkhole filled with water, the Maya called it a 'cenote.' All their water, including what they used for crop irrigation, was drawn from the cenotes, which were giant natural cisterns.

One of the things their religion was most focused on was ceremonies and rituals to keep the rains falling. Apparently they had a long enough drought that the cenotes ran dry, after which the people lost faith in the magic powers of their rulers and simply faded into the jungle.

The second was an art history show on BBC (titled "Civilizations") looking into the Mayan art at Copan (in what is now Honduras). The host interviewed a man and wife anthropology team who've been studying Copan for more than 30 years and they said drought also was what killed Copan.

A lot of folks think Mayans died along with the civilization, but that's not the case. They didn't go nowhere. I've lived in Central America and lived and worked with "Indios" who looked exactly like the artist's depictions of the Mayans you see in National Geographic. Brick-red complexion, sloping forehead and nose, and really, really short.