Because, when you sit down and watch stuff on history channel, read books on the subject, or whatever you find plenty of people showing examples of this kind of thing having been done because it's exciting and gets attention. Something like say "Ancient Aliens" might do something like point out how pagan people all over the world practiced some kind of cranial modification where they would like bind someone's head so as they grew it would deform into odd alien-like shapes (and show the skulls). Point out the piles of human sacrifices found in mass graves, rooms covered with skulls with oddly precise astrological alignments, and similar things. Not saying that show in particular but you see this kind of stuff regularly, with people trying to tie it into something or other. For example there is no true evidence these guys were doing this for the sake of aliens masquerading as gods, but the bottom line is that there IS evidence of all these gruesome things having taken place in the name of religion, whether it was aliens or whatever behind them. I actually saw a show at one time talking about things human skin was used for and the trade in items crafted from it (I believe it came up on "Oddities" as well at least once with a book brought to them), going from things like the (fake) human skin lampshades allegedly crafting by the Nazis, to the way how a lot of books, expecially medical texts, were oftentimes covered in human skin, albeit usually from dead bodies, and then going all the way back to ancient peoples doing everything from shrinking heads for trophies, to eating hearts, to making garmets from the slain. I believe the European barbarian version was to make cloaks of "patches" of human skin from slain or captured enemies, as opposed to making a "man suit" so to speak. So basically every time you'd kill someone you'd cut a piece off of them, and then sew it onto your cloak, each patch being another dude you killed that you can show off to all your warrior buddies. Which on a lot of levels isn't all that different from guys who lopped the heads off of their enemies, and then shrunk the heads for display, sometimes wearing them through their belts or whatever. When it comes to the patches I believe the intent was to show how old the idea of patches and earning them was, saying it kind of evolved from forgotten pre-history to things like athletes simply earning letters for their jackets, or boy scouts their badges, etc...NaramSuen said:
At any rate, don't get me wrong, it's hard to say they were subjectively "worse" at the time because the Christians were themselves behaving like a group of psychopaths when you get down to it, crafting all kinds of lovely methods of mutilation and torture in the name of their god as well. The point is more than it was more of a conflict which the more advanced and civilized people won, than a matter of simple slaughter of an innocent people. New Agers like to try and portray it as something like a bunch of innocent people picking flowers and dancing around being gathered up and tortured to death for lulz, it really wasn't, it was more a matter of barbarian cultures coming into conflict with the remnants of Rome which increasingly defeated and eradicated them through real war and targeting the culture as they got their act together and the dark ages slowly came to an end.
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