I'm currently studying genetic disorders, and a friend of mine asked the above question. I know it's still a big cultural divider today, but how, and more importantly WHY, did ancient cultures hold their views on inbreeding?

In the Republic there were several accounts of how he refused the offering to sleep with young men. Was it because he was not gay?

What's the deal with ancient Greece anyway? Was every men gay? Or was every men just expected to participate in homosexual activities?

To my knowledge, Whites replaced Blacks in many areas due to this act (especially in the of education). As nice as it sounds on paper, it seems as though "integration" slowed the progress of Black people in the fields of economics, education, and labor.

What were the general pros and cons of the act?

Whenever you look at photographs from the 1920s and before, it is common to find that all of the people in the photo are wearing some kind of hat. However, nowadays, wearing hats are quite uncommon, or even decried. What happened to make this the case?

What is the book about, and why do you love it?

I am looking for more reading material, and would love to know what is out that, that other people on this sub would recommend.

I recently toured Ostia Antica, and the guide said that while the Tiber ran next to the city in ancient times, it no longer does. She added that this change happened "in one night." I took it to mean that there was a single great flood that resulted in a large change, but Google isn't pointing me toward such a flood. Was the course change more the result of multiple floods, or was there one flood larger than the others?

Recently Crusader Kings 2 released a new expansion which featured the Lombard as a culture. It really got me thinking about the relationship between the Lombard and the Italians, previously I had thought that Lombards ruled over the Italians but did not constitute a significant percentage of the population. Crusader Kings 2 made me question that. So what part of the population of Italy did the Lombards make up? Was it that Lombard elite ruled over a majority of Italians, or was it close to 50-50 split? Are modern Italians descended for the most part ancient Romans/Italians or they a mix of them and the Lombards?

Were they literally changing the results of elections somehow (and if so, how?) or they did just bribe elected senators to make different decisions?

Sorry for being so specific.. I want to know if there's a link, because it seems so obvious, yet is unmentioned on the net.

The British Dress Act of 1746 banned traditional Highland dress in response to the Jacobite Risings. Was this part of an attempt to wipe out Highland culture or just those specific symbols that had been used by the Jacobites? Did the British engage in other activities to wipe out the culture?

Judging from popular culture, at least (and I have no idea how reliable this is), there used to be "mead halls" all over northwestern Europe in the Middle Ages, and mead was a common, popular drink. But now, it is almost completely gone, aside from a few tiny specialty producers. I've never seen it available in any bar or restaurant.

But interestingly enough, it seems to be pretty popular in Russia even today. In many restaurants, including the very popular Russian fast food chain "Teremok", one can buy "medovukha", which is a kind of mead (or a close relative; I'm not sure about the strict definition). It's not as popular as regular beer, but it's still pretty common, and it tastes pretty good.

So what happened to the popularity of mead in Western Europe? How did it go from seemingly being ubiquitous to almost completely extinct?

As I basically understand it, the Black Legend formed as the rest of Europe learned about how oppressive the Spanish were to indigenous peoples. Why is it considered to be an unfair representation of Spanish colonialism when objectively speaking the Spanish were very oppressive to indigenous peoples?

My uncle works for Bath Iron Works in Maine and has been telling this factoid for years. It seems like an incredible achievement. Are there any resources to back up his claim?

Did the Americans even understand the effect nukes would have on humans pre-Hiroshima? Also, did the US think about dropping a bomb in the Japanese countryside/water/unpopulated area as a show of force?

I'm putting a presentation together for school and I'm having difficulty tracking down a good source to cite on the history of natural habitat destruction? My assumption is that it only started being an issue during the industrial revolution.

Is there any chance someone may be able to point to a good source I can read over and cite for my presentation?

Nazis wanted to wipe out Jews and Roma, but wtf is with their policy towards Slavs.