Snakes in society (school assignment)

[slim6y]

I have a student who wishes to know:

1) How snakes have affected society in the past, present and future.

In any facet of society such as medicine, technology, spirituality, farming etc.

Any information will be passed onto them.

Thanks.

[Kyro]

I recently posted a link to the medicinal use of snakes in China, in Interesting links & stories Hope it helps

[slim6y]

Yes thanks Kyro - that's a good start

[Magpie]

They've sent quite a few people broke.

[slim6y]

Originally Posted by Magpie

They've sent quite a few people broke.

And probably more to hospital!

[wood_nymph]

well let's see. it could be argued that the biggest role the snake symbol has in mainstream society comes from judeo-christian religion ie the serpant from the garden of edan- the bringer of dangerous knowledge. it's a theme that crops up quite a bit in religious discourse. could also be argued that this first image of the snake was the catalyst for its commo accosiation with evil and dark things.then again you could look at them from the prespective of new age religions ie the Ourborus in alchemy a symbol for teh cycle of life and death and essentially all that is also described by arsitole as "the perfect creature"

[Magpie]

Personally I don't believe the serpent from the garden of eden has anything to do with attitudes to snakes. Most tribal people, never exposed to christianity, traditionally fear snakes.
It has to do with their ability to kill you.
Snakes are used as a symbol for medicine, I'm not sure of the name of the symbol, but two snakes twined around a staff.
Obviously the Australian Aborigines believe that snakes had a lot to do with the creation of the world during the dream time.
Venemous snakes have been used as a method of assasination.
Cleopatra was killed by an asp.
The Irish credit St Patrick with removing snakes from Ireland.

[Kyro]

I think the medical symbol is called caduceus Magpie.

[Dipcdame]

I hope the following sites help:-

The Crawling Royals: Snakes in Indian Society Crawling Royalty: The Snakes of India: Snakes in Indian Society.
www.kamat.com/kalranga/prani/snakes/ -


Introduction, History History of Snakes. Snakes are the most modern of reptiles, first appearing in the fossil record during the time of the dinosaurs. ...
www.umass.edu/nrec/snake_pit/pages/begin.html -


Snake Venom Research - LLU earth / biological sciences faculty: Hayes Loma Linda University Department of Earth and Biological Sciences faculty: Hayes - Research on Venom Expenditure and Strike Behavior of Snakes (with ...
http://www.llu.edu/llu/grad/natsci/h...ake-venom.html -

[slim6y]

The student thanks you for your help

It's not my subject, they just knew I had snakes and asked for some direction. But I am so new to snakes in general that I couldn't offer much. They had already indicated they've found several bits of information from earthquake warnings to medicine. I did mention that the earhtquake warning was unsuccessful just recently in China

It's more just finding out the societal values of snakes - they've already completed the biology topic.

Thanks again.