Today:
You know the drill: this is the thread for all your history-related outpourings that are not necessarily questions. Minor questions that you feel don't need or merit their own threads are welcome too. Discovered a great new book, documentary, article or blog? Has your Ph.D. application been successful? Have you made an archaeological discovery in your back yard? Did you find an anecdote about the Doge of Venice telling a joke to Michel Foucault? Tell us all about it.
As usual, moderation in this thread will be relatively non-existent -- jokes, anecdotes and light-hearted banter are welcome.
I was interviewed for the New Books Network about my history of the crossbow last week and the episode just went live yesterday. You can listen on their website at: https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-medieval-crossbow or on most places where podcasts are available (Spotify, Apple, etc.)
It was a fun experience and we cover a lot of the main themes of the book in our discussion, so if you want a taste of what's in the actual book it's well worth a listen. I also manage to fit in some thoughts I've had since writing the book and a bit about future projects I'm working on.
The only whaling conducted under the approval of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) is termed Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling (ASW), the hunts organized by various native people for cultural and sustenance needs rather than primarily commercial exploitation. One nation that whales under this provision is St Vincent and the Grenadines, a Caribbean nation, with the island of Bequia engaging in a humpback whale hunt. There is a discussion about the appropriateness of the hunt being placed under ASW. The chief oppositional points are that whaling as a practice in Bequia was introduced by American whalers in the 19th century, with no concrete evidence of a pre-colonial tradition, and by the strictest definition, is not conducted by an "Aboriginal" people of the island.
This controversy has led me down a personal rabbit hole over the last week in digging into the use of the terms "Indigenous/Aboriginal". Merriam-Webster defines the former "of or relating to the earliest known inhabitants of a place and especially of a place that was colonized by a now-dominant group", and the latter "a member of the original people to inhabit an area especially as contrasted with an invading or colonizing people". I'm not sure I'm comfortable settling here with this, as I'm not entirely sure of forcing the identity term "Indigenous" to be useful only in relation to colonial forces external to it. If so, can a people acquire (for lack of a better word) "Indigenous-ness" over time?
Does "Indigenous/Aboriginal" find use outside of where we might traditionally expect it within peoples of the Americas and Oceania? Would a Briton be indigenous to an Anglo-Saxon to a Norman? Are Basques indigenous in context to a Spanish nation? Are Berbers indigenous to North African Arabs? Is the term appropriate in use in Africa studies, both in the exploitation of groups by European imperialism and the interaction of ethnic groups native to the continent?
In a very broad sense, is there a discussion/debate over the appropriate use of the term "Indigenous/Aboriginal" in our historical experiences? As someone who is not Indigenous, or a scholar of indigenous studies, I'm fascinated to hear the perspectives of those who deal with these subjects directly.
Your Weekly /r/askhistorians Recap
Friday, July 22 - Thursday, July 28
###Top 10 Posts
| score | comments | title & link |
|---|---|---|
| 3,112 | 63 comments | In the 1800s young children worked as cabin boys, maids, mill workers, coal miners, etc. In the end, they were still "just" children. Are there any documents referring to temper tantrums? Needing potty breaks? Typical "children" type behavior? |
| 2,430 | 82 comments | Why is whistling in the house seen as dangerous in so many different cultures around the world? Do we know where this superstition originated from ? |
| 2,308 | 54 comments | I'm a farmer in Gettysburg, PA in July 1863. The battle is over and the armies have left. My farm has been heavily damaged in the fighting. What sort of assistance, if any, can I expect from the government? |
| 2,034 | 30 comments | After WW2 ended, were high schools full of returning GI's who left before they graduated? Was the class of '46 largely composed of Veterans in their 20's finishing their diplomas? |
| 1,834 | 62 comments | The Bible contains many references to Mammon, a god or representation of gold. Was Mammon actually worshiped by anyone, or was this simply an illustrative device? |
| 1,658 | 40 comments | Did people in Ancient Greece ever try to climb Mount Olympus? |
| 1,608 | 100 comments | [Great Question!] In Engliſh writing, was it mainly þe early printing preſs not having a Þ ſort þat cauſed þe trend of only uſing Th inſtead of Þ or were þere oþer factors involved? Why abandon ſuch a uſeful & common letter? |
| 1,586 | 44 comments | A commonly reposted internet claim is that during Prohibition, dissolvable bricks of grape juice came with a warning "Do not store in darkness for 20 days, because then it would turn into wine". Is this accurate? I can't find a simple photo of one. |
| 1,518 | 15 comments | The Roman Senate existed for more than a century after the fall of Rome. What specifically did they do in these ~150 years? |
| 1,353 | 23 comments | How is it that so many prominent Mexican drug traffickers got their start in Sinaloa, a state with no land border with the USA, and what looks like a circuitous sea route? |
###Top 10 Comments
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Has any great nation or empire not have its start as a bunch of well organized nomadic tribes?
Apologies if this is not a quick question and I’ll delete the comment and ask properly but I’m wondering why and how the United States of America ended up with that name? Were any other names ever seriously considered?
I’ve really enjoyed reading David Crystal’s ‘The Stories of English’ and I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations for other books about the history of the English language?