Perceptions in Absence of ‘Truth’

When visiting the Cambridge Folk Museum on Thursday, I learned that, in absence of our modern knowledge of disease, Victorian commoners held beliefs that might now be classified as quite superstitious.  They buried bones or bottles of salt in the foundations of their houses, placed shoes or bones in their walls, put bones above their doorways, and hung baubles in their windows to keep away evil spirits (these baubles may have been the precursor to Christmas tree ornaments!). 

A bone to be buried.

Baubles to keep witches away -- the Christmas ornament's ancestor?

These superstitions reminded me of what I knew about East Asian architecture.  For example, Japanese temples have curved roofs because their society held a belief that evil spirits could only move in straight lines.  A curved roof would thereby impede the evil spirits’ movement into a temple or dwelling because the evil spirits could not move upward along the roof.  Chinese and Japanese peoples also believed that sounds would disturb the movement of evil spirits and keep them away:  dwellings had been built with floorboards that were purposely squeaky, and children (to this day, I believe) wear shoes that make noises when they walk.  Similar to the beliefs about the reflective baubles, feng shui also includes a belief that hanging a crystal within the center of a space will improve the movement of qi  ('good' energy) within the space and ward away bad spirits.  And ancient Chinese households would place peach tree branches above doorways to bring good luck and health to those who dwell within, as peach branches were a mythical symbol of immortality and had long standing connections to ethereal peach gardens.

The archetypal East Asian temple roof (Image: web)

Modern feng shui crystals (Image: web)

The cross-cultural pervasiveness of this class of superstitions appears to reflect the way in which people understood disease before the medical advances of the 19^thcentury.  Because common folk were unable to see what lies beneath a microscope, illness was associated with ‘bad spirits’ rather than germs, and people appealed to deities and myth rather than scientists for their answers.   I wonder if this model could apply to our society today – where are the gaps in our knowledge which we fill with superstition and myth?  Are we able to discern these or are we unconscious of how we take them for granted?  I would assume that these gaps are likely to include places where we, like ancient peoples, could not completely see.  In our day, this might include the subatomic and quantum realms.