Without our past have no future - talk about this huge number of great thinkers, generals and government leaders around the world.The most striking example of such a partisan position can be called Theodore Roosevelt, who insisted on the need to study history as one of the most important sciences.
ancient Greeks recovered the teachings of the past as one of the most important in the life of the state, every person and of humanity as a whole.
immortalized in legends
As people learned about the past?Question, it would seem banal at first glance.However, if you think about it, the answer is rather complicated.First, of course, it comes to mind the memory of generations.Since then, as a man singled himself out of the world, I got rid of syncretic thinking, marked the beginning of the period by word of mouth, a sign of transmission of information and experience descendants.
In order to find out how people learned about the past, do not need to study specialized literature and view a huge number of documentaries.It is enough to pay attention to the angle of modern society interaction generations.
almost all countries of the world common practice to transfer information from elders to youth through oral stories, fairy tales and other folk forms.Approximately the same situation occurred in ancient times - by the rituals, customs and traditions of the stored information about the way of life, the world order, life handed descendants and came so to this day.
Different times
way people learned about the past before, largely different from the methods that are available to humanity that exists at the moment.The most important role in this respect is not the level of technological development, and knowledge base available at the moment, but the very perception of the world.
real world to some far been less distinguishable from the spirit world, to which you can contact through ritual or a simple prayer.Largely because of such practices to determine the fate of humanity that existed before the present point in time.
often as a kind of liaison middle managers use certain plant or animal totem by which shamans, mages, or, for example, priests, turned to the predecessors in the neighboring space, the world of the dead.That's how people learned about the past before the era of immediate interest to the story.In some cultures, such traditions are still, however, with the development of civilization gets smaller.
What would that be
In fact, as people learn about the past in today's world?Of course, besides the already named the memory of generations, there are a number of other sources, which are actively traded humanity in this matter.First of all, it's written records have survived to this day, and literature in general.
Despite the obvious attraction to the art, any work anyway is a mirror of his age, not to mention the so-called special lists like the chronicles, or prayers.
Talking about how people learn about the past, we can not, of course not be called a phenomenon in the history of mankind, the Bible, the Koran and other works of this kind.On the one hand, of the gravity of a scientific nature are not out of the question, and on the other - for a huge percentage of the world population information presented in the scriptures, is an indisputable truth.
Memory things
Over time, the development of ideas, the expansion of consciousness man simply could not help but ask: "How do you know the story of the past?"Gradually, starting with small, he came to the necessity of studying the currently available artifacts, household items, clothing and other things, which are still preserved to this day the spirit of the time.
Stocks that had free access (but we do not forget the family jewels, passing from generation to generation because of monarchic tenor), dried, mankind has been forced to extend the boundaries of the search.So began the first study of caves, which were later discovered Paleolithic drawings and then interest in the past has become so great that archaeologists have moved to full excavation.
What was the subject of a study
By and large, about life of ancestors can tell what you want the item relating to a particular era.So to answer the question of how people learn about the past, the scheme of action is quite simple - showing attention to detail.The subject of scientific interest can be anything, ranging from fragments of hair clips, ending fossil found by chance in the deep layers of the earth's crust during the drilling of some wells.
Depending on the specific subject, you can define a variety of things.For example, the study of Scythian burial mounds allows accurate determination of features of the organization of their society, the relationship between the higher and lower its representatives.The study also Scythian gold or fragments of dishes belonging to the era of Tripoli culture, gives an insight view of the world, beliefs and philosophical convictions, if you can call it that way.
Insider humanity
Of course, the greatest interest to historians and archaeologists in general, in particular the dynamics of the development of mankind as a whole, but there are cases of interest to a particular individual.As an example, writers, actors, leaders or rulers.
How do I know the past of man in this case?First of all, it is necessary to examine all the documentary information about him and the things he owned.This will make an initial, general characteristics of the person, it will form a so-called skeleton.Further, it should appeal to eyewitnesses, the people with whom studied the figure was close correspondence or communication.Many of these people also were personal diaries.For example, much of the aesthetic and ethical considerations Tolstoy's somehow connected it with his diary, which he hid in his lifetime, even from his own wife.
Life before and after
Finally, it should be noted a great interest in the past in the spiritual plane, observed in modern society.A huge number of religions, cultures and subcultures have at their disposal an idea of reincarnation, to which address this issue.
Almost every fortuneteller now knows how to find the last person's life.For this purpose, maps, magic balls, crystals, charms, and even dive man in a trance.Of course, for any degree of scientific nature in this case, can not speak, but the very concept of the passage ways in some lives seem interesting and attracting more than one million people.
