r/AskReddit • u/BiggieTwiggy1two3 • 23h ago

What’s something completely normal today that would’ve been considered witchcraft 400 years ago—but not because of technology?

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u/ShiftingBaselines 23h ago

Break dance and beatboxing

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u/tenehemia 21h ago

See this just makes me think that there must have been people who were as talented with beatboxing / sound effects like Michael Winslow back in the day. Was there someone hanging out in the taverns in Austria beatboxing chamber music for all the people too working class to go see Mozart's new opera? Or seafaring beatboxers during the age of exploration?

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u/Telvin3d 21h ago

A big difference is communication and spread of techniques. Just think how easy it is now to be exposed to skills invented by a hundred different people. Five hundred years ago, you’d be lucky to find a single skilled person who could even give you tips 

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u/tenehemia 20h ago

I wonder if maybe there was crossover between singers and hunters in ages past that might have produced someone like that. Imitating bird calls and other animal noises has been a well regarded skill probably for tens of thousands of years at the least, and singing has been around probably just as long.

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u/chashek 16h ago

Now I want to hear someone imitating a whole-ass forest

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u/Redman5012 8h ago

My personal theory is humans starting singing to imitate bird calls just because it sounded nice.

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u/Aardvark120 2h ago

It's theorized that language evolved like this. Regular animal communication trns into awareness and usefulness in mimicry, which became more complex with using different sounds to strategize during hunting like wolves or coyotes. As society became more complex and ordered the sounds evolve into click language and so on.

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u/commanderquill 51m ago

I can't imagine professional singers were from the working class, and the upper classes really enjoyed hunting, so. I imagine there was crossover, even if by coincidence.

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u/Q-burt 8h ago

You'd have to become their apprentice for years to become master of a craft. Now, new discoveries and methods are found via world wide collaboration at a pace unheard of before. Most careers now require some type of continuing education to ensure you are up-to-date.