We do, in our arrogance of a presumably advanced point of developement, get a certain satisfaction about our own accomplishments and smartness by referring to the ancient peoples that came before us as primitive. By all that is at our disposal now, we consider our ancestors stupid, disregarding the lack of opportunities, knowledge and comfort we in the hyper interconnectedness take for granted.

Were the peoples who found a way to live in accordance with all around them primitive, or are those who bulldogger the forest to spill concrete all over it? The damage we do for the sake of “progress” aside, your ancestors weren’t stupid, not a bit. If they were stupid the civilization you know now wouldn’t exist. They just lived in a different set of circumstances where survival was the only imperative. In the most of the developed parts of the world the fact of pure bodily survival and availability of food, water and hospitable environment is not an issue any more, but it was the everyday reality of your ancestors. They were not stupid and you wouldn’t last a day in their world. To paraphrase Heraclitus, knowing many things does not make you intelligent. There is no evidence we’ve developed any new cognitive abilities in the past couple of hundred thousand years. They were afraid just as you are about the future so they decided to put everything out of their control onto the shoulders of Gods and rationalized by deciding to please them by sacrificing.

You do the same things today. While they sacrificed concrete things like animals, crops or even other people, you sacrifice in the more abstract ways of time and money. You invest them BELIEVING they will pay off in the future. Willingness to sacrifice is a belief in a promise, a bond of a social or metaphysical contract. They sacrificed their most precious resources like livestock and food supplies, you sacrifice your most precious resources now when the primary resources are taken care of – money and time. We’re not that different, they were not stupid but did the best they could with what they had. You’re not to grin at their inadequacies but celebrate the lineage that got you here in a struggle through time and space and against all odds.