What if our ancestors didn't feel pain the way we do
5 days ago
- #interdisciplinary-research
- #human-experience
- #history-of-emotions
- Rob Boddice, a historian, explores how emotions and senses were experienced differently in the past compared to today.
- The field of the history of emotions and senses has grown, focusing on ineffable qualities like smells and grief in historical contexts.
- Boddice challenges the idea of six universal emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, disgust), arguing that emotional experiences are culturally and historically variable.
- He emphasizes 'experiential relativity,' suggesting that human nature is not constant but varies across time and cultures.
- Boddice's approach involves interdisciplinary research, combining art history, theology, archaeology, and more to reconstruct past experiences.
- Pain, a key interest for Boddice, is examined in his book 'Knowing Pain,' highlighting how cultural contexts shape its perception.
- Historical examples, like medieval carpenters or Hildegard of Bingen's visions, show how past experiences differ from modern interpretations.
- Boddice critiques empathy as a tool for understanding the past, advocating instead for a focus on historical specificity.
- The HEX institute, which Boddice helped found, promotes research into the diversity of human experiences across history.
- Other scholars, like Joanna Bourke and Javier Moscoso, offer contrasting views, with Bourke focusing on violence and Moscoso on continuities in human experiences.
- Boddice's work raises philosophical questions about what it means to be human and how we understand others' experiences.