The tribes of the Pacific Northwest generally have various animals associated with particular clans, and these symbols are often represented in art today.

Were they regulated historically? Did Europan explorers note their similarities to European Heraldry? What were they for exactly?

Cam across this quote : "In fact, clowns in the Middle Ages, if they didn’t make the king laugh, they paid a pretty steep price. A lot of the jesters were mutilated to make them smile all the time. They would have the muscles cut that enabled the mouth to frown." This is from Harvard Medical School psychiatrist Steven Schlozman in an interview with Vulture. Anyone know if there's any truth to this? Thanks!

I'm reading To Hell and Back by Ian Kershaw and he mentions that of the 1966 members of the 1934 party congress Stalin had 1108 of them arrested and had a total quota for the NKVD at one point of arresting 250,000 people. It struck me that this may have had a negative effect on the success of communism later on in the post Stalin era. All of the best and brightest communists as well as engineers and intelligentsia were dead.

Was the scale large enough for this effect or was it mostly just Stalin's personal wrangling in of the party?

What's the point? It reads weird as a question and it also reads weird as a response.

As I understand it, England had very few castles prior to the Norman Conquest. It was under William the Conqueror that castle-building really took off. Initially, these were simple motte-and-bailey castles to assist with the invasion, but after England was conquered the Normans began constructing more permanent stone castles.

It's hard for me to imagine a king not living in some kind of palace or castle, but given how uncommon castles were in England prior to 1066 it seems unlikely. So what would a royal residence look like for the Anglo-Saxons? As the king, would Harold Godwinson have set up court in one of the few stone castles existing in the country? What would the accommodations of other Anglo-Saxon nobility (earls, dukes, et al.) look like?

I'm going through my great-grandfather's WW2 stuff, and there is a medal I do not recognize and cannot find anywhere on the internet.

It's not a purple heart, but its ribbon is purple, yellow, purple (all equal thickness), it looks like a cross with braiding or leaves connecting the four pieces in a circle. In the center it says GHS, above it is the word "character" and below it is the year "1931".

He was in the Army, a 1st Lt in the 2nd division, 23rd Infantry Regiment. Joined in 1942, went to officer training school, and was born, raised, and died in Michigan. He did earn a purple heart, but we have that medal and it is very different.

Any help?

During the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese sent out ambassadors to various countries around the world, but they seemed particularly obsessed by the modernized German economy. I have even read that Japan liked to refer to themselves as the Prussians of Asia. I am trying to read more about this topic but I have had difficulty in finding books describing the similarities in how the two countries developed and modernized during the same time period (found some German books, but none in English).

In my opinion, Japan resembled Germany in many ways. Fast modernization, culture centered around discipline (German Protestant worth ethic vs Japanese disciplined service to emperor), both hyper-nationalist.

In David Landes' Culture Makes all the Difference he particularly notes that Japan admired Germany.

Obviously, by the 1930s, the two countries had fascist and imperialist tendencies and I just wanted to see if their similar developments during their respective periods of modernization contributed towards their similar foreign policies by the 1930s. Any literature on this topic would be greatly appreciated.

Topics I'm talking about can be anything related to the following:

• Ancient Jewish History

• The Diaspora

• History of The State of Israel (48 war, pre-Israel politics, British Mandate, Modern Israeli politics, etc.)

• Examinations of foreign policy history. Historical conflicts and modern regional relationships.

• The history of the IDF (their development and their relationship with military forces in other countries)

• An examination of political groups and leaders within Israel. Former prime ministers, former P.A. leaders, etc.

My one request with regards to the books on modern Israeli history is nothing overly biased in either direction.

It's fine if the book contains both sides of a bias (say an examination of both Pro and anti-zionism ideas) but please nothing which is overly one-sided in either direction.

Thank you in advance!!!

As a non-American it's always confused me why Republicans are represented by the traditionally wise elephant and Democrats by the traditionally stupid donkey in political cartoons and so on even when the cartoonist is pro-Democrat. Is it that Republicans got people to associate the parties with their respective animals so well that Democrats gave up on trying to change it and tried to "reclaim" the donkey instead?

I'd like to learn more about the Zapotec civilization of Mesoamerica, but there seems to be a lack of English literature on it and I'm not sure how accurate what I can find is. Can anyone recommend some good, up-to-date books?

Usually when a city has two professional sports teams that play the same sport, there is some sort of geographical divide that determines whether a person is a fan of one team or the other. In New York City, generally if you're from Queens, you like the Mets, and if you're from the Bronx, you like the Yankees. Mostly because Yankee Stadium is in the Bronx, and Citi Field is in Queens. But Fenway Park and Braves Field were located barely a mile away, in the same neighborhood of Boston. So what kind of person supported the Braves?

If we have a male child, does he get it all? Does the child's age matter? (6 mo vs 16 yo)

Does it matter if my deceased husband's family is still alive?

the movies/shows im referencing specifically are Hellboy and Supernatural, but others do the same.