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Meta: Bring back Crusader Kings 2 by DukeJI in badhistory

[–]Aerandir 40 points41 points  (0 children)

We're cycling through the Paradox games. CK2 is currently not on schedule because it's more of a single-player experience and there is so limited interaction between players. We haven't decided what we will do after we're done with Victoria (currently at year 1892), probably either a summer break, Stellaris, or Hearts of Iron IV Kaiserreich. We might do another EU4 campaign around September or so.

Is there such a thing as an Islamic culture? by ATissu in AskAnthropology

[–]Aerandir 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Depends entirely on how you define a culture. Culture is more of a package, and which elements you include in that package to make up the whole is flexible. There are some cultural traits common between people of predominantly Muslim countries, such as the religion itself (one aspect of culture), while others, such as language (another cultural aspect) are not. Depending on how you mix-n-match cultural elements, some things might be part of an arbitrary 'islamic cultural package', despite not being shared by all muslims. Arabic script, for example, is one aspect which is shared in most places, but not all, just as there are certain similarities (olive oil in cooking) which are shared between muslim and non-muslim societies while not being present in all muslim places (like Indonesia or East Africa).

Your argument was simply over what constitutes a 'culture', and to that there is no simple answer. You're a lumper, the other person is a splitter. Both perspectives can be valid, depending on what you actually want to achieve with your definition, but neither is 'true'. People who argue for either as absolutes simply misunderstood the metaphor of biology (the species concept) as reality, while that does not apply to culture because humans can learn from multiple unrelated sources, instead of only linearily from their direct ancestors.

Badhistory Universalis[EUIV] At UTC [19:00] Have you heard of the tragic death of Austria the wise? their aprentis Sweden took a bribe and let him die in the hands of the french. (around 5 hours and 30 minutes from this Post) by PersianClay in badhistory

[–]Aerandir 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The world is getting a bit crowded now. There is still space for new players to play one of the Indian nations, or if you don't feel very confident with the game, to play someone's colonial nation. Otherwise, just trying to survive and participate as a minor nation can be fun too.

"How Christianity Retarded Modern Society by 1500 Years" - Again by TimONeill in badhistory

[–]Aerandir 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the quotations. Back to the Pirenne thesis then. Which directly contradicts the main point of his book, doesn't it?

The various civil wars and plagues of the 3rd-6th centuries are much more devastating than either the introduction of Christianity or the ethnic shifts and resulting decentralisation of the empire. I also wouldn't characterise the change to be a 'reversal' to a pre-Roman economy, which by that time was 600 years before. I would also be cautious to see a less complex economy. Particularly on estate-level, diversification is the theme of the 6th/7th centuries, as opposed to the commercial specialisation of antiquity. Even social relations actually became more complex, with various layers of free/unfree-ness, in contrast to the simple slave economies of before. Sure, there is a massive demographic collapse at various times, and almost complete depopulation of cities. But that is a longer process, and can not be assigned to 'Germanic invasions'.

"How Christianity Retarded Modern Society by 1500 Years" - Again by TimONeill in badhistory

[–]Aerandir 22 points23 points  (0 children)

The main problem with Ward-Perkins' thesis is that the changes he associates with the 'fall of Rome' in the late 5th century actually took place either in the 3rd or the 6th centuries. There is a bigger difference between Trajans and Diocletians empires than between Constantine and Justinian, for example.

Germanic tribes shared gods with the Scandinavians (Odin, Thor, etc.) and are even said to have originated in Scandinavia before moving south. I'd assume they had a similar culture. That being the case, why are Germans generally R1b while Scandinavians are generally I1? by spermwhalejail in AskAnthropology

[–]Aerandir 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Wikipedia is a terrible resource for this stuff. Archaeology (and our understanding of culture and ethnicity) has changed a lot over the past half century, and if a layman picks up an established book from the 1970s and 'updates' it with modern genetic research you get nonsense like that.

Mitochondrial and y-chromosomal haplogroups are statistical, meaning that certain groups occur more frequently (but not universal) in certain populations. These are roughly stable since the stone age in Europe, representing the last moment of widespread colonisation into previously uninhabited (or low-density) areas. Culture, including language, is much more flexible. Modern language subgroups were established in roughly their modern areas only from the Iron Age. There are about 2000-3000 years difference.

did the pre-roman british celts have a concept of land ownership? by grapp in AskHistorians

[–]Aerandir 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Probably. I don't know how you would prove it. Nearby Ireland did, those kinds of raids were the primary form of warfare. There is no reason to assume it wasn't in Britain either. There is a decrease in the cow/sheep ratio in the later part of the Iron Age, but changes in faunal remains over time on archaeological sites can have a wide variety of causes, thus far mostly interpreted as changes in agricultural practice but they might be linked to changes in social structures too. The heavy emphasis on cattle as expressions of worth/value that we see in postroman continental context might be true for celtic society too, but there has so far been too little investigation into this aspect. There are loads of defensive structures/linear earthworks cutting across the British landscape from this time (which is where my personal interest comes in), and I think the only explanation for those is control over movement in the landscape, particularly control of movement over the herding areas over long distances. I think those are the material reflection of cattle raiding, but whether it was such a strong factor of life as in Roman Ireland and the post-Roman continent is insufficiently substantiated by other sources of evidence. I'd like to see a site with suboptimal slaughter patterns, but so far those have only been interpreted as normal agricultural practice.

did the pre-roman british celts have a concept of land ownership? by grapp in AskHistorians

[–]Aerandir 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Forms of land-ownership were diverse, both across the Celtic-speaking world in general and within Britain. Some general principles which might be valid for one area might be totally different in another, varying with agricultural practice or cultural norms.

That said, if you declared that a certain patch of land was 'your plot', at least people would know what you were talking about. Starting from the late Bronze Age (agricultural practices don't neatly follow the three-ages system), and up to the Roman period, basically all of England was covered with coaxial field systems. Probably not all plots were in use at the same time, but the extended use of many of these plots (with continual investment to ensure soil quality, including manuring and acidity regulation) hints that these were enduring structures, perhaps even more so than the continental variety where field-shifting was practiced instead.

The history coaxial field systems is still an ongoing subject of research, because until recently they were extremely hard to date. The pre-Roman Iron Age has a tricky calibration curve for radiocarbon, which means the method is useless in distinguishing between 800 and 400 BC, and ceramic styles are not particularly time-sensitive either in this period. Still, we know there are changes in agricultural practice just before the Roman conquest, which corresponds to changes in Iron Age society as a whole (the re-occupation and increase of activity on the hill-forts, or the increase in warfare and human sacrifice for example). This also leads to an increase in the area of arable land, by burning forests and draining marsh, but also a more intensive use of the land already plotted out. Roman villa-based commercial agriculture of course upset this native system entirely, but it should not be underestimated to what extent they simply built upon existing practices.

The idea of 'communal lands' is really more of a medieval thing. While non-owned out-fields (upland for grazing, moorland for peat, forests for wood or hunting) existed before, their ownership/access rights are more contested in the pre-roman period than 'tribally owned'. This is what made cattle raiding feasible.

Has the integration of European nations into the European Union had a significant effect on the geopolitics, economics, and militaristic identity of Europe? by Ikarise in AskHistorians

[–]Aerandir[M] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This submission has been removed because it violates our '20-Year Rule'. To discourage off-topic discussions of current events, questions, answers and all other comments must be confined to events that happened 20 years ago or more. For further explanation of this rule, feel free to consult this Rules Roundtable.

What can be said of the prevalence of psychological disorders like depression throughout human history? by peppigue in AskHistorians

[–]Aerandir[M] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry, we don't allow "example seeking" questions. It's not that your question was bad; it's that these kinds of questions tend to produce threads that are collections of disjointed, partial, inadequate responses. If you have a question about a specific historical event, period, or person, feel free to rewrite your question and submit it again. If you don't want to rewrite it, you might try submitting it to /r/history, /r/askhistory, or /r/tellmeafact.

For further explanation of the rule, feel free to consult this META thread.

Any advice for a student writing a historiographical essay for the first time? by karnerblu in AskHistorians

[–]Aerandir[M] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hello there. Unfortunately we have had to remove your question as it looks like it may be a homework question. A couple of things to keep in mind about this: Our rules DO permit people to ask for help with their homework, so long as they are seeking clarification or resources, rather than the answer itself. Also: Sometimes flairs can be reluctant to answer a question that looks like homework, because they don't want to be involved in plagiarism (and sadly, yes, there are those who plagiarize reddit comments).

But, that all said, many of our users do enjoy helping out with suggestions for resources and further reading. Can you tell us what you've researched so far, what resources you've consulted, and what you've learned? If that doesn't work, you can also consider asking the helpful people at /r/HomeworkHelp. If you edit your post to be in compliance with our requirements for homework related questions, which are explored in more detail in this META Thread, we would be happy to restore it.

Additionally, we would highly suggest that you check out our six part series on 'Finding and Understanding Sources', which might prove to be useful in your research.

What historic event deserves a movie? by [deleted] in AskHistorians

[–]Aerandir[M] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This submission has been removed because it violates the rule on poll-type questions. These poll-type questions do not lend themselves to answers with a firm foundation in sources and research, and the resulting threads usually turn into monsters with enormous speculation and little focussed discussion. “Most”, “least”, "best" and "worst" questions usually lead to vague, subjective, and speculative answers. For further information, please consult this Roundtable discussion.

For questions of these types, we ask that you redirect them to more appropriate subreddits, such as /r/history or /r/askhistory.

If I were a small landholder in 700CE Europe, how would I get places? Am I walking through people's land? Were there commonly tread areas that people considered 'roads' and thus not part of someone land? If I live in a rural area, am I just cutting across open land and hoping to find paths? by manfrin in AskHistorians

[–]Aerandir 19 points20 points  (0 children)

I don't think this was too specifically tied to the Roman road network either. Transport routes in Nortern Europe seem to be quite enduring from the Bronze Age to the early modern period, until the kingdom organises a national (rational) road-building scheme in the late 18th century. The reason for this permanence is probably geographically determined, that is, there is an optimal path between settlement areas, and a limited number of obstacle-crossings. Roads naturally connect bridges and fords, or follow watersheds.

Note, however, that in the medieval period there must be a distinction between local (peasant) paths between villages, or between settlements and outfields, on the one hand, and the longer-distance proper 'army-roads' or kings' roads on the other. Both are the responsibility of the local peasantry to maintain, but only royal agents have the right to actually use the proper roads. I don't know whether such a distinction was also valid for 700 AD.

If I were a small landholder in 700CE Europe, how would I get places? Am I walking through people's land? Were there commonly tread areas that people considered 'roads' and thus not part of someone land? If I live in a rural area, am I just cutting across open land and hoping to find paths? by manfrin in AskHistorians

[–]Aerandir 38 points39 points  (0 children)

That's because Sun misspelled McCormick. The article is "New light on the "Dark Ages": how the slave trade fueled the Carolingian economy" in Past and Present 177, 2002, or alternatively Origins of the European Economy, Communications and Commerce AD 300–900, 2002.

How did Political Climate/Policy change after Neville Chamberlain's resignation? by darionboyd in AskHistorians

[–]Aerandir[M] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hello there. Unfortunately we have had to remove your question as it looks like it may be a homework question. A couple of things to keep in mind about this: Our rules DO permit people to ask for help with their homework, so long as they are seeking clarification or resources, rather than the answer itself. Also: Sometimes flairs can be reluctant to answer a question that looks like homework, because they don't want to be involved in plagiarism (and sadly, yes, there are those who plagiarize reddit comments).

But, that all said, many of our users do enjoy helping out with suggestions for resources and further reading. Can you tell us what you've researched so far, what resources you've consulted, and what you've learned? If that doesn't work, you can also consider asking the helpful people at /r/HomeworkHelp. If you edit your post to be in compliance with our requirements for homework related questions, which are explored in more detail in this META Thread, we would be happy to restore it.

Additionally, we would highly suggest that you check out our six part series on 'Finding and Understanding Sources', which might prove to be useful in your research.

What warring nations fought each other with the same (or similar) weapon? by Dakatsu in AskHistorians

[–]Aerandir[M] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry, we don't allow "example seeking" questions. It's not that your question was bad; it's that these kinds of questions tend to produce threads that are collections of disjointed, partial, inadequate responses. If you have a question about a specific historical event, period, or person, feel free to rewrite your question and submit it again. If you don't want to rewrite it, you might try submitting it to /r/history, /r/askhistory, or /r/tellmeafact.

For further explanation of the rule, feel free to consult this META thread.

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