If everyone in the world had their memories wiped totally clean...?

Question

If everyone in the world had a total brain reboot, so that they remembered only the most basic techniques for survival, how long do you think it would take before we rediscovered/reinvented the following:
Religion?
Marriage?
War?
Music?
Prejudice?
National boundaries?
Prostitution?
(Assume that all historical evidence for these things had been wiped clean as well.)

Answer 1

Well, religion has been present in the form of fire/earth/sky - worshipping even before all the prophets and books and sacred myths came into picture. The element inducing faith/religion in humans is curiosity or fear of the unknown, and even with memory gone, this would still remain with humans, so it will be only a matter of time before it comes up again.

Marriage was only institutionalized in its current form at a very late stage of human development; and still has a lot of exceptions. So we cannot say marriage has even now stabilized in our memories in a fixed format.

Wars have existed in mythological books of Hinduism or Buddhism written upto 4000 years ago and even before that from the pictures and arms unearthed from Stone age caves. The reason for wars could be as simple as food for which even someone without memory will crave some time during the day. Hence war is not really dependent on memory.

The definition of music will decide what happens to music. For you, iPod could be the only thing producing music, and that would be surely gone. But for an inhabitant of Africa of Northern Asia, or even in a remote Indian village, chirping of birds is music; flowing water of the river is music, and to an extent a cow calling on its calf lovingly get its daily dose of milk is also music. They are definitely not dependent on human memory.

Prejudice does not come from memory; it comes from knowledge; knowledge of someone or something doing differently from your personal expectation. Again, human reasoning being present, this will also creep back in very shortly.

National boundaries will be replaced by herd boundaries. Herds bound by common causes; maybe food habits or strength levels or whatever.

Prostitution is again something based on perception and will have a totally different perspective once the institution of marriage is revisited.

With all good and bad existing, we are at least humans. With all due respect to PETA, the scientific truth is that humans are superior brains. The brightest two aspects being memory and reasoning.

With one gone, we would only be half humans. We would have to start fresh from stone age probably. Even then we would probably live in herds. So there is no chance of all evil being wiped out. But there is definitely a chance of at least half the progress to be wiped out.

Answer 2

Immediately, of course. Some hormones in the bodyforce people to mate; hence marriage. Also, people will always find a higher power; hence, religion. There will always be conflict; hence, war. After wars people will divide themselves for peace into countries; hence, national boundaries. Music comes naturally, so it will never go away. Because of national boundaries, one side will not fully understand ans bond with the other side; hence, prejudice. About the prostitution thing, maybe not immediately.

Answer 3

Well, assuming we were all the same age as before this great memory erasure, I would say music - within seconds or minutes, and this is why. You could hear birds singing, the wind playing a composition of its own as it rushes through the trees, and babies or little children vocalizing for the first time with definite pitch changes and rhythmic sounds. Plus some teenagers would probably start banging with a stick on something because they were bored of waiting for something to happen. So you don't need the rest of your list to hear music! Hurray!
P.S. I don't know how long for any of the other things.

Answer 4

Religion: No need if you have basic philosophies right like socrates, ancient hindus.
Marrige/prostitution: No need if there is no STD and jealousy (or if everyone is happy and gay). If people work for fun not for material gains.
War/prejudice/national boundaries: No need if population is in control, Politics/religion/racial descrimination is absent, natural resources are plenty.Everyone is hard working and compassionate
Music: It is in nature you can noy avoid it

Answer 5

Religion? When the first person dies.
Marriage? When the first woman demands commitment.
War? When the first organized army pounds the enemy.
Music? When the first person tries to hum
Prejudice? When the first person start to generalize
National boundaries? When the first nation is formed.
Prostitution? When the first person pays for sex.

Answer 6

It seem to me that most humans have a wiped slate of memory when they are born, and display no recollections of where they were before entering the human body. Most humans learn as they are taught, by example of other human beings. Not much evolving there. So humanity is doomed to repeat the same mistakes, over and over again. Fearful of the UNKNOWN!

Answer 7

Well for most things maybe a day or two. But things like prostitution and music and that like 10 years or so.

Answer 8

you know if we had our memories wiped totally clean........and already knew everysingle color of humans there would probably not be any wars prejudice and national boundaries (wait i change that human nature is so f'ed up that we are territorial)

Answer 9

Well I would say is a few minutes. Because if such thing is to occur, I am sure God will sent his Saviour and lead us all in the same religion as it should have been.......

Answer 10

They might not even be called the same thing. Might be a whole new language and interpretation of everything you have mentioned.