Another month is in the books, and the votes have been tallied.

For the month of February, the 'Flairs Choice' falls upon /u/coeurdelionne who wowed with their response to "Geoffrey of Monmouth first writes about King Arthur as an historical personage. To what extent did people during the middle ages think Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table were real historical figures? When did that perception begin to change?"

The 'Users Choice' in turn goes /u/textandtrowel, who sallied forth on "Is black vikings a thing?".

For this month's 'Dark Horse' award, which is given to the combined vote for best answer by a non-flaired user, goes to newcomer /u/huianxin, who towered over the competition responding to "Of the top 20 tallest statues in the world, 15 depict a Buddha or are Buddhist in nature. How did a religion typically associated with aeseticism and impermanence come to produce such ostentatious art?".

The 'Greatest Question' award, bestowed by the mods for a question we find to be unique, insightful, or highlighting a less trafficked topic this month saw the team drawn to "Can anyone tell me about African-American sailors on whaling ships in the early nineteenth century?", which was asked by /u/cnzmur, and wonderfully answered by /u/Stalking_Goat.

Finally, our double-teamed 'Excellence in Flairdom' award for February goes to /u/aquatermain and /u/Libertat! They have been a positive, prominent, and persistent presence in the panel population for a long time now. Whether or not you've read one of their answers directly, you've benefited from the overall atmosphere they help create. Thanks for being so terrific, Libertat and aquatermain!

As always, congrats to our very worthy winners, and thank you to everyone else who has contributed here, whether with thought-provoking questions or fascinating answers. And if this month you want to flag some stand-out posts that you read here for potential nomination, don't forget to post them in our Sunday Digest!

For a list of past winners, check them out here!

With early Punk I could think at least of some very influential women: from designer Vivienne Westwood to musicians like Patti Smith or X-Ray Spex. But my impression is that into the 80s and with the beginning of Hardcore, there seems to be less influence from LGBTQ+ people and women. Ie this very representative photo of a Black Flag gig with... only dudes in the audience.

Was there such a movement towards more male oriented scenes? If so, how and why?

The other day, I was thinking about this because I know of salt production around the Mediterranean and other Old World places, but I don't know of any ancient salt sources in North America. Of course, natives could have supplied salt from the ocean and the Great Salt Lake, as this article describes. But I'm particularly curious about how inland peoples, such as the Woodland tribes, found enough salt to be a part of their diet. I hypothesize that salt was a significant trade item that was transported through the extensive Hopewell, Mississippi, and Mesoamerican trade networks, but I don't know since salt is not a good that I recall being discussed when talking about Native American economies.

So, if you were a Woodland, Hopewell, or Great Plains person, how did you get your salt?

As a broader question, how would a hunter-gatherer in any part of the world get enough salt?

Yes, I googled it first. More specifically, I used Google Scholar.

One paper, cited below, describes apparent salt production at Cahokia, which would explain how at least some Hopewell got salt. The second link below shows a map of where principle saline areas could be, and shows a map that early indigenous cultures started around these salt sources, but later expansion would require transporting huge amounts of salt to roughly half the continent. The second link also describes the need for salt increasing after agriculture became the primary subsistence strategy. Why would this be the case? Did the tribes prior to that drink the blood of their kills to get salt? How would a hunter-gatherer get sufficient salt?

Background research I did:

Salt production by boiling briny water at Cahokia (paywalled)

Eastern Woodlands salt production is known, but where, how, and how it was traded are difficult to trace. (paywalled)

Ancient mesoamerican salt production by boiling seawater (paywalled)

Open-air salt mines in San Francisco (paywalled)

A book I couldn't access, but that seems relevant: Brown, Ian W. The Role of Salt in Eastern North American Prehistory. No. 3. Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, 1981.

Previous weeks!

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https://youtu.be/ShfsBPrNcTI