anachronism

[protohistorian]

or demon possession, or alcoholism, or any old jackass idea that societies masters had it in for. Dave.....masturbation makes you insane! A right crazy maniac!

[DVV]

Must be what they call a "seizure".

Amitiés,
David

[protohistorian]

another good one

That by some unseen hand, the prevalence rates of major psychological/physiological problems changed. Expressions yes as a function of culture, but even now we suspect schizophrenia was is a third more prevalent in environments where second trimester viral exposure of the mother occurs. As many crazies, almost a dead certainty in some areas of abnormal psychology. In other areas, behaviors have been reclassed to fit our conception of the facts, and as such, could easily be applied to historical figures with a sufficiently known background of behaviors. Dave

[DVV]

About prostitutes kissing or not...
Nowadays, in France, they seldom accept it...
I was something of a minder for one of my friend who is a prostitute in summer 2007 (every afternoon, for she had been robbed twice), and this one, for example, would never kiss a client.

Amitiés,
David

[protohistorian]

and perhaps my favorite

The victorian press was above "creating" a bogeyman to explain phenomena outside their conception of reality. Yes kids, "Jack" may be just a name applied to some whack-a-doodle with a knife and some disturbing urges. Dave

[protohistorian]

and another....

Mankind seems to enjoy having at one another en masse. To believe someone in 1888 could not remove a kidney for example, is to ignore the fact that for more than 300 years at that time standing Armies had been training men in just such things as a result of the species wide penchant for warfare. Dave

[protohistorian]

Indeed sir. Good call. Dave

[Tom_Wescott]

Another good example would be the idea that prostitutes never kiss their clients. That's entirely a modern idea brought forth by Hollywood, and I would argue not altogether true even now.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[protohistorian]

One of the most feared words of historians. This is the secondary definition from the oxford English dictionary.
2. Anything done or existing out of date; hence, anything which was proper to a former age, but is, or, if it existed, would be, out of harmony with the present; also called a practical anachronism. Also transf. of persons.

for example, the implication that the victims were largely found with no money, to the modern mind, implies robbery, possibly as motive.
However, when one considers the poverty of the victims in general, moneylessness is not an unknown state. Similarly, only someone greatly detached from his poverty would leave a victim with anything of value if given a choice. We simply cannot say what lead to the observed phenomena with any degree of accuracy. Dave