what did people do before spectacles were invented?

Question

i mean, did they just walk into things all the time? how would short-sighted people have lived? as a hunter gatherer way back in they day, how did they locate their prey? there must be a million and one things they coudn't do??? Spectaclar!

Answer 1

I can answer this question with some authority, having lived for the first 11 years of my life with undiagnosed short sightedness (myopia). I had about 50% of regular vision, and most of everything was either blurred or invisible to me. I was quite competent operating with things within 6 inches or so, but the entire point of ball games was lost on me - when playing cricket or baseball I would be sent to the furthest part of the field where I could no longer see the rest of the players.

The interesting thing though was that I was unaware that anyone else could see better than me, and nobody around me picked that I couldn't see. You tend to become very 'intuitive' - basically guessing what's around you (and on the school blackboard which you can only half see). You also become very canny at getting close to things and waiting patiently for something to move so that you can see it (movement making objects easier to detect).

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This suggests to me that the 'tribe' would tend to regard you as jinxed or clumsy rather than disabled and not be likely (as some have speculated here) to 'help out' or make allowances for someone who couldn't see properly. It is a very hard disability to communicate to someone else, or even to realize that you have it.
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There is an argument that short-sightedness has increased since 'natural selection' stopped weeding it out (with the advent of spectacles), but essentially my experience is that a person can survive with it, but the evidence of two near fatal accidents due to not seeing hazards (one drowning and one massive blood loss) suggests that the 'weeding out' process was pretty efficient.

Answer 2

The first recorded use of a corrective lens was by the emperor Nero, who was known to watch the gladiatorial games using an emerald.

(Karl-Heinz Ludwig, Volker Schmidtchen: "Propyläen Technikgeschichte. Metalle und Macht 1000-1600", unveränderte Neuausgabe, Berlin 1997, S.23 ISBN 3-549-05633-8)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectacles#Precursors

Answer 3

near sighted hunting for survival is easier. You eat any thing that moves. In INdiana hunters can't seem to tell a difference between deer an COWs.

Answer 4

I assume they squinted A LOT, bumped into stuff, couldn't read well & had friends walk with them &/or take them where they needed to go via horse & buggy. I'm sure the sharp sighted members of the tribe provided for the 'blind.'

Answer 5

They squinted a lot. ha ha ha
Well actually they relied on their other senses, hearing, smell, etc.
I heard somewhere that the reason some Native Americans wore headbands was to help with vision...when tight it changes the way you see. Try it.

Answer 6

I don't know if anyone can accurately answer this question, but my thoughts on this are that they did the best they could and others of the clan/tribe would help them out. Either that or they would be left to die, much like the stories of Inuit Elders going off to die on isolated ice floes.
I would hope that the clan would do what they could to help.

Answer 7

They would go up to sabre-toothed cats, thinking it was their cousin Bob, and try to give it a hug, then get their head bitten off.

Then they tried to make the first contacts out of chiselled stone, but it didn't work very well...

Answer 8

squinted alot, and most were blind,legally now, but if i took off my contacts i would be in severe trouble knowing i had to survive like this

Answer 9

I beleive your right, they would run into things. They used help from others or large peices of glass to help them enlarge things.

Answer 10

Bumped into things! Then apologised to the door for being clumsy!