The way that Perry Anderson describes it in his book, Passages From Antiquity to Feudalism, basically everyone in an urban area is a landowner/proprietor.
“The Graeco-Roman towns were never predominantly communities of manufacturers, traders or craftsmen: they were, in origin and principle, urban congeries of landowners. Every municipal order from democratic Athens to oligarchic Sparta or senatorial Rome, was essentially dominated by agrarian proprietors. Their income derived from corn, oil and wine – the three great staples of the Ancient World – produced on estates and farms outside the perimeter of the physical city itself. Within it, manufactures remained few and rudimentary: the range of normal urban commodities never extended much beyond textiles, pottery, furniture and glassware”
But what about servicing those landowners? What, if any, sort of economy existed for that purpose?
1 Answers 2016-08-15
Although the metaphor has lost some of its edge in the times of cheap plane tickets, L.P. Hartley's almost proverbial sentence "The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there" still works as an introduction to the idea that historical actors can perceive the world and understand its staples fundamentally from us.
Related to the issue of presentism, what the concept revolves around is that when engaging historical actors, many a historian chooses the approach to try to engage historical actors on their own turf. Let's have a look at the inspiration for this post: Recently, we had a discussion among the mod team about Greek religion, specifically, in what ways Greek religion differs from our idea of religion. Several of our experts did weigh in on this and the key to understanding the Ancient Greek's beliefs is to say goodbye to how we conceptualize religion in modern Western thought, i.e. as a collection of believes based on a set of texts with certain text being orthodox and other apocryphal and these texts spawning an orthodox interpretation or dogma, the majority of adherents more or less believe in.
The point is that when we for example contemplate the question "If the Greeks believed their Gods sat atop Mt. Olympus, why didn't they just climb it – which they certainly did – and were they disappointed when they didn't find their Gods?" we need to try to engage the subject matter from an understanding of the Ancient Greek relationship between the manifest world, themselves, and the Gods, rather than with our cultural understanding of religion.
At the same time, we can also look how factors that we are sure about are constantly present, manifest themselves throughout the ages culturally to get a better understanding of the historical actors and their perception of reality. /u/sunagainstgold does so in this comment on the subject of medieval fasting.
So, where did you encounter this phenomenon? How did you attempt to approach it? What did you find? Share you stories here and feel free to discuss the matter.
4 Answers 2016-08-15
It's to my understanding that Eastern Bloc states always hold a high degree of discontent toward the USSR with various attempted coups to try to overthrow the puppet regimes. It's puzzling for me to know that the combination of European PACT members (discounting the Soviet) military would already totals over 1 million.
Wouldn't the USSR fear of the possibility of such large forces deflect to NATO once an actual conventional war broke out in Europe? Why did the Soviet have the confidence that the Eastern Bloc would stand with the USSR in case of a total war and would even be willing to fight NATO with their own soldiers?
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Since middle school, I have came across the Paraguayan War (1864-1870) several times in my history textbooks. I never liked this subject; actually, I'm used to simply memorize some keywords as Solano López, La Plata River, the Triple Alliance, and Genocide.
This year, however, I began to think about what I was reading. And a particular point of the textbooks called my attention. Please, read this paragraph:
"British commerce did not hide its concern, not only because this last bastion of national resistance in the heart of the continent seemed invulnerable, but also and especially because of the dangerous example set to its neighbors by Paraguayan obstinacy. Latin America's most progressive country was building its future without foreign investment, without British bank loans, and without the blessings of free trade."
This comes from "Open Veins of Latin America", written by the journalist Eduardo Galeano, published (in English) in 1973. The excerpt sums up the predominant view of Brazilian historiography, that the British imperialism played a central role in the Paraguayan War.
The Brazilian textbooks presented to High School students are stuck with this view. They don't offer other versions or explore divergent opinions. That's why I'm coming here. I want to know about the other side. What does modern anglophone historiography says about the Paraguayan War?
Was Latin America a relevant matter for the British during the mid-nineteenth century? Did the British have serious interests in La Plata River? Did the British appreciate the destruction of Paraguay? Was the War good for the UK? How did the UK react to the conflict in its first years? How were the relations between the UK and the South American countries back then?
I hope you can answer some of these questions. And I want to make clear that I'm currently taking the second year of High School. So, when I say "Brazilian historiography" I'm referring to what I have read so far, what the teachers have told me. Perhaps in Brazilian universities the situation is different. I don't know.
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Did the Minoan and the Mycenaean civilizations coexist? Or was the latter born just after the former collapsed?
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As the title states, why was it necessary to capture the castle before getting further into enemy territory so as to for example capture more vital cities like the capital?
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It's a sensitive topic, I know. But I can't think of any enslaved group in which the exploited were lighter in complexion than the group enslaving them. American Indians, Africans, Chinese... These all seem to follow a troubling pattern.
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How do historians view Gar Alperovitz's "The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb" and/or Tsuyoshi Hasegawa's "Racing the Enemy"? I couldn't find anything on the FAQ about them or these topics in particular. I saw an old post in /r/badhistory, but that was it.
Any links or summaries would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance.
1 Answers 2016-08-15
My husband and I were watching Marco Polo on Netflix (so this is taking place in Mongolia at the time of Kublai Khan), and there is a scene that basically involves a suicide bombing (a guy walks into an establishment, puts a bomb down, starts it going, and then I guess had no time to leave before it would go off). It got us wondering if the idea of a suicide bombing was really being used that early in history.
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Did people even swim in the 15th 16th 17th and 18th century?
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Does anyone know the conflicts behind granting the independence and does anyone know any good sources on this topic?
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So "Amateurism" used to be a key part of Olympic culture "back in the day". While supporters of the time might have waxed about the purity of sport for its own sake, I've read that this was in large part a class issue, as it essentially meant that only people of means could really afford to train and compete at the levels required.
So my first questions is basically, how true is that?
Secondly though, what brought about the decline? As I understand, the IOC has long since entirely done away with the requirement, and although it allows individual sporting bodies to regulate it if they wish, only one or two sports (Wrestling/Boxing? Not really tangential though) maintain such a limitation. So what brought about this decline?
Was it sudden or gradual on the IOC level?
What were the debates on the issue like, what (and who) were the arguments against relaxing limitations?
And when then the IOC started to allow non-amateurs, how quickly did various sporting bodies start to follow suit?
1 Answers 2016-08-15
Hey there everyone! My grandfather was born in a small village in Potenza, Italy and fought in the WW2 for the Italian Resistance (Partisan movement). He died when my father was a little kid, so my father doesn't remember much as well, except that he fought "for the King's Army" (which i suppose it was Victor Emanuel III).
So i would like to know more about the Italian resistance movements in Southern Italy and try to identify the insignia on my grandfather's cap (i don't know if this is a military attire).
Thanks!
Edit: sorry for the incomplete title. I forgot that i cannot edit it =|
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I'm specifically asking about Islamic slave trade, because wouldn't it be easier to enslave Europeans who didn't have to be transported across the desert? An explanation for later European preference for West Africans would be welcome as well.
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This was recently posted on /r/books and seems absurd and the linked site in no way seems scholarly. I'm almost sure it's click-bait nonsense. Is there any truth to this? Rather than listen to pointless arguing with little/no fact on the topic I'd like to hear what the "Historians" have to say on the matter.
Th original post is located here: https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/4xruff/reading_silently_didnt_happen_until_the_dark_ages/
And the original article is here: http://linguafranca.mirror.theinfo.org/9804/ip.html
4 Answers 2016-08-15
In another thread on the history of head covering by Muslim women, I asked this question about the history of head covering in Europe.
It seems that among the elderly in Orthodox and Catholic countries there are still some women who do this. I also have noticed women with their hair covered in medieval depictions of women from all over Europe.
Was this always common, or restricted to some sections of society and only certain countries? Was this as the result of biblical invocations to cover the head when praying or was it just a cultural expectation of modesty? When did it begin to fall out of favour?
1 Answers 2016-08-15
When Julius Caesar invaded Gaul, Rome already had a Mediterranean empire that included many rich well developed regions. How valuable were these lands compared to the new Gallic territories?
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