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Comment by bschne | Hacker News Reader

In „The Secret of Our Success“ (aside: everytime I write that title I cringe a little at how self-help-y it sounds), Joseph Henrich conjectures that human divination rituals might have evolved as a way to randomize hunting behavior so as not to become predictable to the animals being hunted for. Not sure how plausible to find it, but I found the thought pretty intriguing.

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Not sure if this is from the same book but I've heard something similar about "lunacy" being linked to the full moon.

The reason there is more crime and wild behavior during a full moon is not because of any gravitational effects of the moon etc. Rather, we are descended from tribal peoples who celebrated the full moon with wild parties. Said parties led to intercourse which led to children etc.

Not sure how valid that is but I've always liked the idea.

You can do more shit at night without a fire source when the full moon is out. It can be uncomfortably bright if unaccustomed to perpetual artificial light

Isn't a simpler explanation that it's brighter at night during a full moon, making it easier for opportunistic nighttime shenanigans?

Thank you for explaining this more simply!

I heard we hunted mammoths by moonlight, so mania (which also has a lunar etymology) ie. high energy, adventurousness, aggression are associated with moonlight.

I can't remember the details but apparently they found some engraved mammoth bones which indicated this.

Here is Slatestarcodex’s book review:

https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/06/04/book-review-the-secret...

I found this hypotheses in "The Blue Sense" (which gives other interesting related ideas) but it might have an even older origin. Nevertheless, it is an intriguing idea.

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