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[novapsyche]

[I]n the recent Asian tsunami, aboriginal people sought out higher ground in the moments before the disaster, as did many wild animals. Could subtle changes in weather or the environment have warned them early on?

Science Points to a 'Sixth Sense'

Comments

[blackwinterbyrd.livejournal.com]

must be my anthropology training, or my rousseauian roots, but aboriginal people=wild animals really makes the hair on my neck stand up. I'm getting this intuitive sense that something is very wrong with that.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

I think you're taking the statement beyond what it actually says. I think the author is implying that aborigines might have a more instinctual sense, at least about catastrophic weather phenomena, than the rest of us. Is that so wrong to suggest?

[blackwinterbyrd.livejournal.com]

I think you're taking the statement beyond what it actually says.
absolutely I am. In cultural context, in academic context, this writing evokes a solid tradition of scientific racism. Anthropology usually takes great pains to seperate itself from its past (woah, irony). This statement is several leaps back. Its more than questionable, it made my mouth fall open. The article was neutral-ish, if you follow the neuroscience, but the title, and the implications behind the observation are still too close to defining aborigional people as "more animal-like than the rest of us." Any way you phrase that, even if you try to put a positive nature-worshipping spin on it, is offensive to me. My comment was supposed to keep a sense of humor about it though :) Its just my opinion after all.

[guttaperk.livejournal.com]

The article seems a bit incoherent. It is congruent with the "noble, nature-attuned savage" stereotype, and is understandably offensive to some. The generalisation about the aboriginal peoples seems to have no real basis. My understanding is that abnormal tides had preceded the tsunami; there seems no reason to jump to the assumption that a "sixth sense" is involved.

Not that there are only six senses or anything.

The research cited supports the current idea that we are only conscious of a subset of our brain's processing and calculations. I see nothing that suggests that we are receiving extrasensory information.

In general, a breathless, sensational article.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

Well, I find brain research to be interesting. I agree that it really has nothing to do with a sixth sense, but I didn't title the article.

I would like to say that there is a fine difference between an assertion of more than our generally understood five senses (of which one more would be a sixth sense) and "the" sixth sense, which is generally understood as ESP. The title of the article is misleading, probably intentionally so.

[guttaperk.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my criticisms certainly weren't aimed at you, and I also find the title irritatingly misleading.

I don't see that the article had anything to do with the assertion of "more than our generally understood five senses"; and conventional thinking includes an array of senses that certainly pass five in number.

Still, though, thanks for linking it up, food for thought is always good!

[sarahsmiles.livejournal.com]

they could prolly just see the animals running and had sense to follow them? as for animals, they can migrate, so they CAN feel information we can't. cool, but makes sense.

[dionysus1999.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I think sarah has a good hypothesis.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

With respect to Sarah, it's a guess. The article doesn't make it clear if the aborigines saw the animals. That is a leap in reasoning. Besides, the tsunami occurred with little time for reaction. I'd think any person in the US, for example, would look at animals running and think, "Hmm, wonder why they're doing that?" And then go back to whatever it was they were doing.