I’ve noticed a tendency in the spirituality and sacred sexuality communities to valorise so-called ancient wisdom and disparage more contemporary teachings.
There seems to be a belief in these (predominantly white) communities that the practices of ancient civilizations – particularly non-white ones – are superior and should be emulated. Of course, there are incredible practices and teachings from ancient cultures all around the world. Something to be mindful of though is the Noble Savage fallacy.
A Noble Savage is a literary character who embodies the concept of the outsider, wild human, an "other" who has not been "corrupted" by civilization, and therefore symbolizes humanity's innate goodness. Prominent examples of the noble savage are characters such as Tarzan created by Edgar Rice Burroughs and the Na’vi from James Cameron’s Avatar. Besides appearing in many works of fiction and philosophy, the stereotype was also heavily employed in early anthropological works (Malinowsky, 2018).
In the United States, the “Noble Savage Myth” has historically been used to justify the diminishing of Fist Nations Peoples’ legal claims to sovereignty and recognition as well as to further racist scientific theories (Ellingson, 2000). The myth spawned from a feudalist-colonialist mentality and continues to hamper understanding of First Nations Peoples as well as how we perceive ancient teachings.
Ascribing merit to an ancient practice simply because it is an ancient practice is not serving anyone. Committing the Noble Savage fallacy doesn’t serve anyone. Just because it’s old, doesn’t mean it’s correct.
This is somewhat related to another fallacy known as the Appeal to Nature, where what is natural is considered good and what is unnatural, or synthetic, is considered bad. In both fallacies, a false dichotomy is established:
Ancient = Good, Modern = Bad. Or, Natural = Good, Synthetic = Bad.
I’m still disentangling all this for myself and trying to update my thinking as well as my practices and teachings. As always, I encourage you to do your own reading and see what, if anything, lands for you.