Read the following extracts and answer the questions:

'It is absurd for us to judge past people as if they lived now and thought as we do'. Why is it

absurd to do so?

“It is absurd for us to judge past people as if they lived now and thought as we do.” Every era, be it in the past or the present, has a certain degree of uniqueness, be it the nature of the environment and living conditions, the nature of religion, the advancement of culture, the strata of the society and the laws of the land. People in the past have been subjected to the vagaries of nature too, which they tacked in their own ways. Inventions, scientific advancements and wisdom have been different for different places and times around the globe.

Therefore, it is absurd if one is to judge the past people as if they lived now and thought as we do, for the simple reason that they didn’t. their mindsets, their physical capabilities, their knowledge, lifestyle, conditions and almost every other aspect of what we term as life were not similar to ours, and therefore, we cannot expect their actions to be similar either.

It is best to asses the past, its people and happenings by assessing aspects and factors such as geographical, cultural, social, economic, political and technical, before prying out to understanding it completely. That is the only way one can truly understand the past.