I see UFOs are in the news again. I haven’t been paying much attention; I’m waiting for the episodes of Why Files that explains it all. I will only note in passing that I recently heard someone (maybe Neil Degrasse Tyson?) condescendingly point out (it had to to Neil Degrasse Tyson) that UFO sightings only happen in the English-speaking world.
Poppycock. They’re described in the English-speaking world as UFOs because that is our cultural language. Patrick Harpur, Daimonic Reality:
It is widely assumed that because anomalous lights in the sky are interpreted as UFOs, whatever that implies, in all Westernized areas of the world, this is the most widespread interpretation. But the natural interpretation of such lights in most tribal societies would be witchcraft. It would be hard to find a society which does not hold, or has not at one time held, a belief in witches. The eminent anthropologist Rodney Needham has taken the trouble to put together a composite picture of witches. Two of the features which can be universally attributed to them are, first, the ability to fly (especially at night), and, second, the emission of a glow or fiery trail as they travel through the air.