# "Backs to the future" *The Urth list — 5 messages, 4 voices, 13 Jun 2006* > Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright > in each message remains with the person who wrote it. > Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original > archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than > retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact. --- ### James Machin *13 Jun 2006, 11:02* The following article might be of interest to the list (for obvious reasons!)... http://www.physorg.com/news69338070.html --- ### Jeff Wilson *15 Jun 2006, 04:33 · in reply to James Machin* > James Machin wrote: > The following article might be of interest to the list (for obvious > reasons!)... > > http://www.physorg.com/news69338070.html I've seen this claimed for classical Attic cultures as well; IIRC as recently as "It's Greek to Me" (Paperback) by Michael Macrone, Tom Lulevitch ``` Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com < http://www.io.com/~jwilson > ``` --- ### Transentient *15 Jun 2006, 13:11 · in reply to Jeff Wilson* > On Jun 15, 2006, at 12:33 AM, Jeff Wilson wrote: > James Machin wrote: >> The following article might be of interest to the list (for obvious >> reasons!)... >> >> http://www.physorg.com/news69338070.html > I've seen this claimed for classical Attic cultures as well; IIRC as > recently as "It's Greek to Me" (Paperback) > by Michael Macrone, Tom Lulevitch There has been a big resurgence of popularity of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis among anthropology types lately. --- ### Jeff Wilson *16 Jun 2006, 04:53 · in reply to Transentient* > Transentient wrote: > On Jun 15, 2006, at 12:33 AM, Jeff Wilson wrote: >> James Machin wrote: >>> The following article might be of interest to the list (for obvious >>> reasons!)... >>> >>> http://www.physorg.com/news69338070.html >> I've seen this claimed for classical Attic cultures as well; IIRC as >> recently as "It's Greek to Me" (Paperback) >> by Michael Macrone, Tom Lulevitch > There has been a big resurgence of popularity of the Sapir-Whorf > hypothesis among anthropology types lately. I think this is more in Skinner's area, myself. Certainly Greeks and Romans were conditioned to see the past as a place of glory and names forever remembered, with the future a mysterious, unseen place from which fate and misfortune could strike unforseen, as if stabbing from behind. ``` Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com < http://www.io.com/~jwilson > ``` --- ### brunians at brunians.org *06 Jul 2006, 15:44 · in reply to James Machin* It makes perfect sense once you think of it. We can see the past, and we cannot see the future. Might as well have our backs to it. josh ____ > The following article might be of interest to the list (for obvious > reasons!)... > > http://www.physorg.com/news69338070.html > > > _______________________________________________ ---