#disabled historian studying disabled history

[enbycrip]

I handed in my end-of-year history Masters assignment last night a full 45ish minutes before the cutoff point, that’s me completed all the work for my first year! Half done!

It clocked in at just under 7300 words in the end, though a chunk of that was my research and reflection notes.

My next year is my dissertation year. I’m pretty sure I’m going to be building on the work I did on disability in the early modern period for this assignment, though I’d like to focus on Scotland if possible (not only because not much work seems to have been done on it; I live here, and that means undigitised records won’t mean a huge trip across the country before I find out if it’s *genuinely* accessible!)

My body doesn’t really believe it yet. I feel reasonably okay rn. When the crash hits, it’ll likely be like a lead zeppelin.

But, despite disability and chronic pain and chronic fatigue, I’ve survived my first year of postgrad!

#disabled #disability #postgrad studyblr #academia #disabled academic #disabled postgrad #disabled historian studying disabled history

[obessedwithfictionalmen]

Qué serà, serà. Prologue

Callum Turner X Reader

Sumarry: The history of Callum and Y/n's relationship.

Warning: None

Taglist: @emmaafinchh @adeena04 @alelo23

If you're not in it and want to be, let me know

A/n: I don't know each part of Callum's life, I knew he grew up without a dad. I won't write anything about it, except what I wrote. Love y'all

Y/n and Callum had always been Y/n and Callum. They’ve been best friends since they were in the wombs. Their parents were best friends, they’d met in high school, became a group of friends and are still best friends to this day. When the two girls became pregnant at the same time, they knew their children were going to be best friend. Callum was born a month before Y/n, he was born February 15th, Y/n was born on March 15th. They went to school together; they were always together. Since they were both an only child, they found in each other the sibling they didn’t have. When they were both 4 years old, they made a promise.

They were playing in the park; he was pushing her on the swing. ‘’Will you promise me a thing, Cal?’’ her little voice said. ‘’Of course, Y/n/n, what is it?’’ he said. ‘’Never leave me, you’re my best friend’’ she said. She’d came off the swing and went in front of him. She showed him her pinky fingers. ‘’Promise?’’ she asked. They hooked their pinkie together. ‘’Pinky promise’’ he said. They both hugged and went back playing in the park.

As they both grew up, the always remembered this promise, they honored it. After all, pinky promise was the most serious promise of all. Y/n wasn’t popular at school, she didn’t have many friends, Callum, on the contrary, had tons of friends, but he only had one best friend. People thought Y/n was weird, even though she was perfectly normal. She loved history, Harry Potter and sucked at math, when she was 7, she got diagnosed with dyscalculia, it’s a learning disability with math. It would often lead her to mistake her left and right, she couldn’t read a normal clock and she had trouble solving math problems. It often made her feel stupid, but Callum always cheered her up. He understood math, so he helped her with her homework. Callum’s dad left when he was young, he was too young to understand what really went down, but Y/n’s dad was disappointed in his ex- best friend. He made it a personal mission to be a father figure to Callum. Y/n’s dad had been there for Callum the second Rosemary, Callum’s mom, told them that the dad had left.

Y/n always had a thing for Callum, he was good looking, and he was so nice to her. It started to be hard when Callum started dating. Especially when he had his first kiss in front of Y/n at 13. They went to a skatepark with Callum’s friend, he was talking to a much older girl that smoked. When he kissed her, he thought it was disgusting, her breath smelled like cigarette, and it was horrendous. Her heart broke a little that day, even when he told her that the kiss was disgusting, she felt sad. It got worse when Callum started acting, he started to date some of the actresses and the picture were everywhere. Y/n dates a little bit, but she knew she’d never love anyone more than she loved Callum. On his part, Callum tired his hardest to not fall in love with her. She was his best friend, he couldn’t think about her like that, even though he tried, he ended up falling in love with her. By dating the other actress, he tried to forget about her, but deep down, he knew he couldn’t love anyone more than Y/n.

When she went to university, Callum was afraid that she would forget about him and find new friends. But she didn’t. She decided to stay at home instead of living on campus. She studied history, and she wanted to become a historian. He helped her study, and she helped him with the lines he had to learn, when her finals came, Callum stayed up all night to help her study and when she passed her exams, he was the first to jump in her arms, yelling that his best friend is going to be an historian. Now that they both moved to L.A., it was hard to stick with their promise. He started acting more professionally, so he was never at home. Because they were roommates, they lived together, but Callum was always away. He felt bad for always being away, but he was pursuing his carer, so he must make this sacrifice. Their life together was fun, but it had its difficulties, especially when they were both in love with the other…

#callum turner x reader #callum turner imagine #callum turner #master of the air #fantastic beasts

[alpaca-clouds]

Why I care about history so much

Okay, because I have been asked about this a lot: No, I am not a historian. And I am not studying religion or mythology either. In fact I did my first masters degree in economics and currently am working on my second degree in geoinformatics. So... why do I write so much about history?

So, the easy answer is: I am autistic. I hyperfocus on history.

But there is also a more complicated answer to this.

See, what I want to do with my life is actually to work in science communication and especially work towards this with climate change and ecology. That is also why I do geoinformatics, because part of that is actually using maps and software to communicate this kind of information.

And here is the thing where history comes in. See, we often act as if the social science and the STEM fields are super far apart and super different. But I am going to tell you: They are not. Because it is all connected.

Climate change is the best example. There is a "history of climate change" as in a history of how we found out it was happening and how the fossil fuel tried to bury it. Climate change is also a topic where social science do intersect a lot of STEM stuff. How people behave in groups, how people interact with information, an how to communicate information is important for this.

A funny thing happened yesterday. I have one class this semester called "Geoinformatics in Society", which is kinda about this: How to use geoinformatics to communicate information to people. Yesterday the professor showed us some examples of this. One of them was a graphic showing a very abstract version of change over time of the life expectancy of countries between 1800 and 2015. And the prof was asking us about storytelling in it and what we could see. And me, who again has a hyperfocus on history, looked at it: "Oh, yeah, here we see the polio vaccine being given out. Oh, and there is the Spanish flu happening. These are the world wars. Oh, there was a famine hitting China." And so on. Because... well, those things intersect. The reason why life expectancy rose is largely to be attributed to science - but also to societal factors. These things intersect.

The professor in question is doing research on this kinda stuff. Which is something that people in my area do research on. So, yeah, it intersects.

But there is another reason, too. I am trans, queer and disabled. As such I experience a lot of marginalization and discrimination. And... well, understanding that is also just a need for me. And you need to understand history to understand that.

And when it comes to this... Well, you cannot just look at one thing in history and say "Oh, yeah, this is why this is happening." Because, well, so many factors play into it. Like, sure, there is Nazism playing into it. And eugenics. But you cannot look at either without looking at both the Enlightenment movement and colonialism. And well, you cannot look at those without looking at the crusades and the spice trade. And those? Well, you cannot talk about those without Byzantium. And for those you need to understand Rome and then... well, you get what I am getting at, right?

Everything is intersecting. And I think... I think understanding that is important.

#personal #history #autism #neurodivergent #hyperfixation #stem #science #science communication #sociology #geoinformatics

[freakscircus]

got my trip film back this morning - i shot an entire roll at weston hospital, formerly known as the trans-allegheny lunatic asylum in weston, west virginia. weston hospital is no longer a functioning hospital and hasn't been since the 1990s. weston was bought by a wealthy family in the area for the purposes of turning it into a location that could be open to the public. the owners tore down any condemned outbuildings or wings of the hospital that could not be repaired. everything else was fixed up to the point where the hospital looks abandoned, but there is no debris or danger and it is safe enough for visitors. they offer multiple tours - my partner and i opted for the longest tour, which was about 90 minutes of basic history about the hospital and access to all open floors.

i have mixed feelings about TALA/weston. there is a small town built around the hospital, and clearly the town was at its peak when the hospital was still in use. tourism is clearly the main driver to the town now, supported by the asylum tours. the tour we took was okay... the tour guides are quite knowledgeable but they are open that they are not historians or experts on the asylum, and honestly with what they are paid they should not be expected to be. the history tours are sparse - the main draw are paranormal tours, halloween parties, and to my horror there are karaoke parties held in a large room that used to be a communal women's bedroom, similar to photos you may have seen of dozens of women crammed into a space filled with single cot beds.

i understand that it would be highly unrealistic to expect this space to become solely a landmark dedicated to remembering ableism or psychiatric abuse inflicted for over a hundred years. undertaking research done by trained historians is not sustainable and employees with that training would not do minimum wage tour work. the hospital is expensive to maintain and constantly falling apart which requires employing a full time maintenance staff. the big draw is booking the space for events or having people flock to pay for ghost tours. i also understand that not many people are interested in an academic style tour that breaks down the history of the hospital from a disability studies perspective. i understand all of that. but it just feels so wrong to hear a harrowing story about the lobotomies performed here and then in the next breath hear about the parties that corporations throw at the asylum for the spooky novelty. maybe i'm a giant hypocrite myself being icked out then photographing these spaces to post online. i don't really know what the answer is. i suppose i'd rather have this space saved but exploited as opposed to being completely torn down.

i guess my one wish would be more academic work surrounding the hospital. i looked up weston/TALA through my university's academic journal page and there is not one in depth scholarly article about it. there are, however, many ghost story and paranormal books and chapters on the hospital written by laypeople. if i wasn't exhausted trying to write an entire book-length dissertation on a completely different topic, maybe i would try to undertake it myself. there is fascinating disability studies/disability history work being done in canada on lakeshore psychiatric, which was the largest psychiatric hospital in the country. i wish the same would be done for some of the asylums that dot the south. i don't know.

#the one thing they are very respectful and stringent about is that nobody is allowed in the hospital cemetery

[transmutationisms]

what did you think of George Canguilhem?

well look you're asking someone who was very much a proponent of history-of-ideas style philsci at like age 21 and has since become pretty disillusioned with the idea that there's much progress to be made there without a rigorous materialist / contextualist analysis of intellectual & other superstructural developments, so. yea i'm incredibly grateful for the vast amount of histsci scholarship that has come since canguilhem and his ilk; even, like, jacques roger's 'sciences de la vie' is more grounded and useful than canguilhem at his best. 'le normal et le pathologique' is the kind of work you'll still find in footnotes in history of biology, medical anthropology, and disability studies, and there's a reason for that; canguilhem is like foucault in that both contributed a lot to conceptual frameworks that historians have gotten a lot of mileage out of, though with the massive caveat that the actual empirical evidence and analysis simply is not present or high-quality in canguilhem's and foucault's own work lol. i also think canguilhem benefits in retrospect from foucault's (shaky, unfinished) formulation of biopolitics; you can see this especially in how people now talk about 'connaissance de la vie'. which is kind of an ahistorical use of an ahistorical analysis but sometimes it works. i find canguilhem generally more useful than a lot of the old-school philsci 'canon' (certainly more so than, like, thomas kuhn) but i would hate for anyone to read him and think that's representative of the depth of analysis that historians of biology should be delivering, lmao. even confined to the 19thc french case study there are entire stories of governmentality, health, and politics that canguilhem's methodological approach simply isn't capable of teasing out. and it's not just a matter of quibbling over french history; it's a bigger issue where, if you want to tell the history of a scientific discipline or anything else, you have to be attentive to how, when, and why certain forms and material factors changed or came into existence; this is something foucault understood abstractly but rarely practiced well, and something canguilhem was just kind of uninterested in.

#georges canguilhem

[ambientbroth]

Long post!

I do not understand how so many people are willing to dismiss the ideas of Graham Hancock’s because he call’s out modern archeology academias & Joe Rogan was sprinkled in the Netflix series Ancient Apocalypse

When we think about the oldest religion being Hinduism and they’re advanced ancient knowledge on the age of the universe and very specific cycles they uncovered were exceptionally precise - how is it we only now discovered they’re calculations true and still call ancient people simple/ uncivilized humans.

When we know the importance of astronomy to ancient human’s. How people navigated the seas using the stars as maps, how civilizations took astronomy seriously, how often they studied them, it’s not a coincidence so many cultures studied the stars and have standing evidence preserved of the same studies - why is archeology so quick to dismiss astronomy when viewing ancient sites?

When we know mythology, lore, and the power of story telling. We know the influence these stories carry for thousands of years passed on to this day. Modern day academia will not listen to the people of the land. Story telling becomes extremely skewed or forgotten due to unimportance.(I know Graham Hancock got some of these stories grossly inaccurate, he’s not a savior)

Graham Hancock only offers suggestion and a different view on the massive evidence of a missing time period we choose not to acknowledge. He’s not saying he’s 100% right, even the stories he reiterates are grossly simplified to match some of his ideologies (he’s not the only one to do that). He’s offering an open minded story of something that could have been very real. There’s too much evidence in our modern world to try to dismiss any discovery we do not yet understand.

If we do not fully understand something we cannot just keep dismissing ideas. That doesn’t do anything good. It doesn’t preserve anything. It doesn’t progress us to keep it in a box.

Paleontology proves to us, with every new discovery, that our original idea on dinosaurs were wrong! Because that’s what science is - it’s expanding the view of the world.

We know the historical discoveries/inventions/ideas, made by minorities, have been taken from them and skewed/killed/buried/paid off - over time to shine light on terrible people. This story is not uncommon to humanity.

The day people of the world realize that we know nothing of the world will be the day that humanity expands. If humanity only decides to go with “what we know” that’s a limited box. Archeologist, scientist, historians, medical, astronomers - they have ALL been wrong before. It’s is so crazy to believe we are at “the pinnacle” of all modern knowledge. WE KNOW NOTHING.

New article discoveries about ancient humans come out everyday. A more recent one I read was about a very prehistoric skeleton that showed evidence of a very modern surgical amputation practice that was thought to not have existed in that time period and if it was the likelihood of survival was remarkable. On top of this discovery they noted that this amputation was eariler in this human’s life (childhood) and the human survived his full life time with this amputation, meaning there was disabled assistance - which was thought to have not been a common behavior with ancient humans.

The reason I bring up this article is because we truly do not know anything about our prehistory and it’s a progressive attitude to consider humanity has been far more advance than we give credit to. There is a reason to put time and effort into the idea that there was a advanced anxiety civilization. It’s only now “crazy” to observe and talk against things that do not add up and call them conspiracies. In history some conspiracies are/were proven right, it just needed more investigation.

#prehistory #prehistoric #ancient apocalypse #graham hancock #ancient civilizations #Atlantis #advanced civilizations #conspiracy theories #conspiracies #human prehistory #special interest #autism special interest #existentialism #open minded #humanity

[endusviolence]

Magnus Hirschfeld was a eugenicist. I suggest you read Racism and the Making of Gay Rights by Laurie Marhoefer, a historian of queer and trans people in Nazi Germany, before you go writing posts praising him. He literally advocated for the sterilizing of the "feeble-minded", but oh, he has such a "fabulous mustache"!

Yes, he was. I really should have addressed this in my previous post. In my defense, this is a side topic that requires a lot of elaboration and to do so in that post would've derailed the point. Let's have that elaboration now, shall we?

For those who are unaware, eugenics is a set of beliefs and practices created with the goal of improving the genetic quality of a population. Versions of its practices have kind of always existed, but the term itself was coined by a British polymath named Francis Galton. The problem with it is it's scientific racism. From its start, it was meant as a method of "racial improvement" in society. Galton genuinely believed that all people with African roots were "two grades below Anglo-Saxtons in intelligence and ability." I've not even mentioned yet that Galton created eugenics under the belief that we didn't need to know how the mechanism of hereditary work to see its results. The entire practice was and is an uninformed pseudoscience that always focused more on racial traits than trying to find any truth based in reality.

Eugenics is often considered a Nazi thing because they really loved using it (see the mass sterilization and the Lebensborn program), but reality is that most nations (especially Western nations) have utilized eugenics in one way or another since its inception. In the US, for example, hundreds of thousands underwent compulsory sterilization during the 20th century to prevent socially undesirable traits, disproportionately affecting non-white populations. Eugenics was also used to help ban most Asian immigrants (except for those from the US's ally Japan or the then-colonized Philippines) from entering the country in the Immigration Act of 1924. Counter movements protesting eugenics made serious waves to dismantle some systems in the 70s and 80s, but prisons and other public institutions will still sterilize especially unruly people.

Magnus Hirschfeld, like many scientists of his time, was influenced by the ideas of eugenics. It's not entirely clear cut as it may seem. For one thing, Hirschfeld mostly rejected the racial hierarchy aspect (part of what made him controversial in his time, actually). He did, however, believe that those with disabilities or other undesirable traits should not reproduce. Sterilization was performed at the Institute (often with transgender patients). I also don't deny that he had his own racist beliefs, and I'll be delighted to read the recommended literature for better insight on this topic. I do not praise him for any of this behavior. In fact, I personally find it absolutely horrifying.

Then, why don't I hold it against him? Simply put, I don't find it productive to completely throw away and forget about important historical figures over controversial beliefs. I think Kaz Rowe put it perfectly in their video on Chevalier d'Eon (another controversial figure in trans history). You don't need to like a historical figure to find them interesting and worthy of study, and a historical figure don't need to be a good person to be queer. Without Hirschfeld and the Institute of Sexology, the early practice of sex reassignment surgery wouldn't have nearly as big, and the transgender people who did receive care from the Institute likely wouldn't have been able to transition. You're allowed to feel complicated things about figures of our past and even hate them for some of their beliefs. But you cannot deny that they do deserve at least a golf clap for the foundations they laid.

#Magnus Hirschfeld #Trans History #Transgender History #Eugenics #Scientific Racism #LGBT History #LGBT+ History #LGBTA History #LGBTA+ History #queer history #btw hot tip: i sense bitterness in the mustache comment and I get it. But personal feelings don't have much of a place in debate #when it comes to Hirschfeld and eugenics it's complicated. Who could've guessed! #I mean it when I say you're allowed to hate historical queer figures #i can't fucking stand Jan Morris but I also applaud her autobiography for being one of the first transition narratives in history #it's both an important historical document and an incredibly horrifying example of 20th century racism #i hope i'm making sense. I edited this post heavily for clarity's sake

[pinkacademic]

Pink Academia YouTube

My top five YouTubers that fuel the Pink vibes! - Amanda Rach Lee If you're as obsessed with organisation and you're also lost in the stationary sauce, Amanda sets up her bullet journal every month and it's always aesthetic and practical! -StudyQuill Study, lifestyle, and a casually pastel twist, her content is largely (can you believe it) studying and the school/work-life balance, and she's also cute and quirky and fun. -Linh Truong Linh's vlogs are fun and relaxing, and she often features fun, slightly eccentric fashion inspiration, college life, and some "study with me"s - Mina Le The fabulous cross between fashion historian and Girly film buff, with a healthy dose of social commentary into especially celebrity culture.   -Safiya Nygaard Ok, so when you think of Safiya, you definitely think of black before you think of pink, but her content is largely about fashion trends, makeup and beauty, and performing zany experiments in the realm of "Girly" things.

I also reccomend any historical fashion account such as Bernadette Banner, fashion and sewing content such as Micarah Tewers, and some of my other faves are Jessica Kellgren Fozard (LGBT history, fashion, and disability information), Lyn Allure (finance and luxury lifestyle), and there’s probably way more than I can’t think of right now! Also let me know if you have any recs

#pink academia #pink academic #pink #academia #youtube

[sorrowschengmei]

something super random that i love to fantasize about:

modern archaelogists and historians trying to understand who were the CQL characters in an alternate reality the events of the show happened for real in Chinese history

-Meng Yao would be a historian's favourite bc there would be SO MUCH about his life. not only we'd have faithful, contemporary portraits of his likeness, all his social ascension and battles and everything would be documented. he'd definitely become the star of a... period drama!

-Wei Wuxian would be as polarising as he was in life. there are records about him being handsome, but why the only portraits of him we have are of ugly, demonic bald men? was the Yiling Laozu a class conscious hero ahead of his time or a sadistic tyrant?

-the Lans would be also quite well documented... from around CQL's time forward. historians would lament the tragic loss of documents in the Cloud Recesses incident. still, the clan's preceits would be a goldmine to understand customs of the period.

-the handsome portrait of Lan Wangji made by Wei Wuxian would grant him some fancy nickname among historians [and tumblr millennials with thirst for historical figures] and likely a cultlike following

-the Wen would become a big ass void in the studies of this era. most information about them would come from HELLA biased sources, damaged artifacts and fragments of bone. that would inspire some Western who works for History Channel to make a show 'The Lost Legacy of the Wen'

-the Jiang could go two ways: famed and well documented by their descendants who kept all the remaining documents and artifacts, or just a void like the Wen. the Lotus Pier Massacre would go down as a major event, and possibly inspire a lot of modern artists and showrunners

-the Nie would reach our times involved in mysteries. the Unclean Realm would become a visitation place, but much of the history of its former inhabitants would be hard to understand. why they always die early? what happened to Red Blade Master? was Nie Huaisang a cultivator?

-nobody would know what happened at Yi City. the area has bad feng shui, so it would remain almost untouched until the 20th century, and become subject of all sort of ghost stories. there would be found the bones of a malnourished teen girl, a young man with injured  orbital bones, and another young man with a malformation on his left hand indicating he suffered an injury in childhood that left him disabled.

-some historians would attribute these bones to the infamous Xue Yang, said to have murdered 50 people in one night at age 15 and other  legendary and ahistorical rumours. many people would believe he never existed at all, as there's no mention to his name in any official document-- the only Xue Yang recorded was accused and then released, probably some unfortunate innocent who shared a name with the myth. there would be, however, records of a Xue Chengmei working at Jinlintai in a particularly gruesome era of the clan... 

-talking of other Jins, they'd be also well documented. Jinlintai itself would probably become a touristic attraction, and be used to film period drama

#the untamed #yunmeng jiang #lanling jin #yi city #jin guangyao #wei wuxian #xue yang #Sorrowful Thoughts

[alsosprachvelociraptor]

some doodle of my sp oc, Matilde Tecla Strutter

(her infos under the cut)

Jimmy’s cousin (2 years older than him), from northern Italy. Tecla is an aloof and unsociable girl, very sicklish and easily angered. Her father sheltered her since childhood, having immunodeficiency problems and a very frail health. She loves ancient history and is frequenting the university to become an historian.

She lives with her father Nico, an italian resturant owner, they transferred in South Park. During his late hs years/first university years Jimmy had some serious problems with his family (all part of an AU im making) and he lived with them for a while, growing a lot closer (even if Tecla will never admit she has some positive emotion for that brat of her younger cousin).

At university she meets this very quiet and lonely british guy everyone (bullies mostly) call “DogPoo”. She doesnt care about fashion, looks or even smells, and enjoys the fact he never talks and interrupts her studying, while being a smart and polite. DogPoo is one of the only people she cares spending time with, and him, not being very popular at all, is very flattered by her attentions...!

Tecla helps Jimmy at the Camp Tardicaca, being partly disabled for her immune system problems, but she doesn’t particularly care or enjoy it- she mostly does it for university credits.

She’s very uncaring and stoic, unfriendly and uninterested in people. She seems to only care about her grades and her dream job of Roman historian, but seems to have a more aggressive and passionate side when having to defend her father, cousin or boyfriend.

#South Park #South Park OC #Tecla Strutter #sp oc #Jimmy Valmer #DogPoo Petuski #i do things

[chaotic-archaeologist]

I posted 2,004 times in 2022

1,024 posts created (51%)

980 posts reblogged (49%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@chaotic-archaeologist

@archaeologistproblems

@micewithknives

@saintartemis

@invisible-goats

I tagged 1,758 of my posts in 2022

Only 12% of my posts had no tags

#he speaks - 938 posts

#he answers - 622 posts

#archaeology - 265 posts

#archaeology humor - 145 posts

#20 questions - 103 posts

#academic advice - 91 posts

#academic humor - 76 posts

#life advice - 62 posts

#he learns - 57 posts

#history humor - 54 posts

Longest Tag: 104 characters

#i have several asks in my inbox right now that are a barrage of questions and it feels very overwhelming

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Can you be kinda chubby and be an archaeologist? I’m working on my health and fitness, but I’m still kinda chubby and not really cut out for field school yet. I read this article saying fat people can’t be archeologist and it kinda crushed my dreams. Because I know it will take a bit to get rid of the weight, but I feel so out of place after reading that..

Hi there, dirtling, this makes me so insanely angry. I am incandescent with rage. I would like to find the author of that article and rip them from limb to limb.

You can absolutely be fat and be an archaeologist.

I am so sorry that I have to be the one to tell you this. I am sorry that you have not received support from other members of my community. I am sorry that someone's ignorant fatphobia has crushed your dreams. Please let me try to convince you otherwise.

I have had the privilege to dig with dig with several fat people, and in each case they were an asset to our team. They were just as capable of excavating as those of us who were carrying less weight, and each of them brought special skill sets and unique capabilities to the table that we would have been worse off without had they not been working with us.

You do not have to lose weight before going on a field school. You know your body better than the writer of that article ever can. If you feel like you are capable of performing the manual labor required during an excavation, then I believe your self assessment. There is no maximum weight limit for participating in an archaeological dig.

Even if you don't feel like you're physically able to go on a dig, there are other archaeological opportunities for you! As someone with a disability who can't do a ton of manual labor, I do a lot of lab work because it allows me to be sitting down. There is so much more to archaeology than just digging stuff out of the ground, and there is absolutely room for you in this field of study.

Here are some resources that I was able to find about obesity and archaeology.

The Fat Archaeologist

Who decided it was bad to be fat— Sapiens

The Archaeology of Obesity: Discourse Analysis and Implications for North American Obesity Research

I did actually try to find the article that you mentioned so that I could take apart its argument piece by piece, but I wasn't able to locate it easily. If someone could direct me to it, I would be more than happy to rip it to shreds because it is categorically false and actively harmful. In my personal opinion, that author can suck it. Sorry, not sorry. I'm mad.

-Reid

1,007 notes - Posted June 12, 2022

#4

How to write a diary for future historians

I began keeping a diary at the beginning of the pandemic to document what was going on and how I felt about it in case someone from the future ever reads it. For anyone looking to get started, here's the "diary recipe" I use.

You will need:

Pen with black or blue ink. Ink stains the paper whereas pencil just puts pigment on top of the paper. This means that most of the lead can be brushed off or fall off over time. Black and blue ink are important because they're the most stable over time. Other ink colors might fade or otherwise degrade over time.

Acid free notebook. This is once again a conservation thing. Acid free paper is exactly what it sounds like, and is thus less likely to chemically degrade/disintegrate over time. I personally use a moleskine notebook, but any other acid free paper will do just fine.

Why should I write? Because your perspective matters. You don't have to be famous or important to deserve to have your voice recorded. The fact that you are alive right now and experiencing events as they happen is enough. Your thoughts and feelings and the details of your daily life will be of great interest to future historians.

Isn't it sort of late to start? Absolutely not! The best time to start journaling is always now. Don't worry about having missed anything important. Whatever happens next is going to be important too, and having your unique perspective is vital.

What do I write about? Whatever you want! It can be world events or what's happening in your life or anything else that's on your mind. There is no one right way to keep a diary, and whatever you choose will be an important addition to the historical record.

How do I write? The great news is that there's no rules for this either! You don't have to write long entries if you don't have the time, energy, and interest for that. You can do a couple of short sentences. You can do bullet points. You can copy down headlines that you feel are notable.

How often do I have to write? It's totally fine if you don't write an entry every day. Write whenever you have the inclination to, even if it's only every couple of weeks or months. Don't feel bad about the frequency of your updates— sporadic entries are still better than no entries at all!

History doesn't just have to be written by the victors, it can be written by all of us. Add your voice to the record to make sure that it includes the things you think are important. Your perspective matters.

1,634 notes - Posted April 12, 2022

#3

If i found a ancient coin hoard buried in my backyard could i keep a coin or two when i donate it to a museum?

Absolutely not. I think that this is probably a joke, but depending on where you are, it's also illegal.

I am against private collections and the desire to own the material past. Keeping any item from a discovery is incredibly unethical and would earn you the permanent animosity from archaeologists, museum workers, archivists, curators, restoration specialists, and pretty much anyone else who belongs to a scientific study of the past.

I know that you probably meant this as a joke, and that this was not the answer you were expecting. My firmness is not in any way personal. I cannot stand for the humor about topics that are essentially looting, because humor serves to legitimize the act.

-Reid

3,114 notes - Posted January 17, 2022

#2

This is why fieldwork safety is of utmost importance. I've been in situations where it felt like my safety was not the primary concern, and I constantly worried about things like this happening.

OSHA guidelines are written in blood. They're there for a reason. Don't ever let someone convince you to compromise on your safety. (link to tweet) (link to news coverage)

3,129 notes - Posted July 12, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

BOOK OF KELLS BOOK OF KELLS BOOK OF KELLS BOOK OF KELLS

49,776 notes - Posted April 12, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

[greydaysandstarrynights]

// Ok all the hot takes re ocean gate are getting to me, so, buckle up, this is a Rant. I’m a historian, and let me just say, these post make an excellent case for why studying actual real history, with nuance, and not whatever the current hot take designed to generate the most interest/attention/controversy, is. Clickbait “history” isn’t history, ya’ll. So, here’s some Titanic facts

1. The ship had lower class passengers too, because, contrary to popular belief, it wasn’t just a cruise ship for the top .01% of white society. (And even if it was, great to know that so many people think dying in a preventable tragedy is fine if you’re a rich white person.) 2. The ship was intended as a passenger liner that would bring folks from Europe to the U.S. Consequently, it had designated decks for different social groups. There weee super wealthy folks on the top deck, more middle class folks on the second, and the poor on the third, or steerage, deck. Most of the poor were immigrants coming to the U.S. to work. Btw, this is from ABC News. “About three times as many rich people sailing first class survived compared with poor people traveling in third class. Americans had a 15 percent higher survival rate than the British, Irish and the Swedes” 3. there actually were three people of color onboard the ship, too. From USA Today: “There was only one Black male passenger aboard the Titanic. Joseph Laroche was a Haitian-born, French-educated engineer. He was traveling to Haiti second class on the Titanic with his pregnant, French wife Juliette Lafargue and their two daughters. A biography of Laroche’s life describes him as an “anomaly” among the ship’s passengers. When the ship began to sink, Laroche placed his family on a lifeboat and stayed behind to help other women and children escape. Laroache did not survive, and his body was never found. Today his descendants live in Chicago.” So, presumably, the titanic was headed to Haiti, one assumes with the intent of acquiring more passengers, at least some of whom, presumably, would have been POC. 4. The type of discrimination laws like most Americans think of, the so called Jim Crow laws of the post reconstruction South, did not, shockingly, apply to the rest of the world, with some obvious exceptions, and the term Jim Crow originated in the north, in Massachusetts in regard to segregated rail travel. In fact, “Outside South Africa under the apartheid regime in the second half of the twentieth century, systematic racial segregation has been most closely associated with the Southern United States, from its introduction in the 1890s until it was gradually dismantled in the wake of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s. ‘Jim Crow’, as it was known, actually emerged in the North in the 1840s, when the term was first used in Massachusetts to refer to the railroad cars reserved for black passengers. For a century or more, African Americans traveling to Europe often expressed their pleasure at being able—for a time at least—to mingle freely with others in public places.” 5. The primary barrier to people of color accessing the titanic was wealth and societal pressures/discrimination, not actual laws. 6. To bring it back to the Titan, one of the folks onboard is an actual teenager, and I happen to think kids, even filthy rich white kids, don’t deserve to die horribly. 7. Every single one of you making jokes about how “stupid” these people are is being ableist toward people with intellectual disabilities, so congrats on the rampant ableism.

Open a freaking history book, ya’ll and stop writing edgy hot takes about real people dying because you think it makes you sound cool.

#ooc #mun speaks #That’s enough internet for today

[csenxal]

Layotl Tsemneh

"Environments that promote and reward apathy, animosity and fear often blame and hold the individual responsible for their struggles and traumas. We distract ourselves from the societal issues with self-doubt and propagating guilt, but we're all meant for so much more than we know. We need to learn, or re-learn, how to build comradeship and solidarity instead of doing the oppressors' work by condemning and abusing each other." - "Escaping the Pit of Snakes", Layotl Tsemneh (2029)

Layotl Tsemneh is widely regarded as a major influential figure of modern Csenxal, having contributed to awareness on various societal issues that were resurfacing with the second and third generations of Csenxali citizens. Earlier in life, Layotl contributed to Csenxal as a: sociologist, historian, teacher, pedagogue, disability studies theorist, transcriber, babysitter, farmer and stand-up comedian. Nowadays, Layotl mostly writes fiction and short articles about life, cooking, psychology and many of their past interests while helping raise their and their community's children in a scenic Csekitzan cottage on the countryside. Layotl labels themself as a bi, gay fraysexual on the aromantic and asexual spectrum, and often speaks and writes about their experiences while preferring to keep their past relationships and partners anonymous. They participate in many committees, assemblies, discussions and elections they find themselves nearby, being very politically active and knowledgeable about the inner workings of Csekitza and beyond.

Layotl also enjoys long walks, Kantouban and Etolan cuisine, engaging in literary and visual art, classical music and progressive rock. Their favourite colour is orange.

Among their dislikes are notions of honorary and authoritative titles, pomegranates, confined and enclosed spaces, many aspects of modern linguistics and history studies, as well as centralized social media.

#ulina #csenxal #worldbuilding #art #character #layotl

[oleworm]

Tagged by @yvehattan, @discworldwitches and @fairybumpkin, thank you!

Tag 9 people you want to get to know better!

Favourite colour: Every time I’m asked this question the answer changes. I don’t think I can have a single favourite colour, rather a set of them, such as the Marian blue used in the Middle Ages as well as the strong yellows and reds that feature so strongly in works reminiscent of that era, if not necessarily created in it.

Currently reading: I’m reading “The Third Reich. A New History” by the historian Michael Burleigh. This was a book I impulsively asked to be bought more than a decade ago but never felt the need to read until now. I have a tendency to buy or ask to be given books that are very long and comprehensive and not deigning to touch them for a very long time, like with “The History of the Peloponnesian War,” which I actually finished recently, and “Anatomy of Melancholy,” the famous 17th century monograph on, well, melancholy.

I’m reading this book now right after “Peloponnesian War” because nazi Germany is a subject of which many of us know the generalities, bits and pieces here and there, but have not taken the time to actually study, and with these turbulent times we are living, I suppose that it is the way in which I cope! Some people read escapist romances to cope, others deep-dive into worst case scenarios. But it is also true that I want to understand. The political landscape is not identical to how it was after the First World War, and how could it be? But it is not insignificant that in certain regions you see some similarities. Economic crisis, middle classes falling into the lower class or fearing that they will be absorbed by it and share their standard of living; scapegoating of foreigners, Jews, the disabled, and other minorities for these economic problems, to a greater or lesser degree.

More disturbing is that extremist groups in certain countries are explicitly emulating the nazis not only in their spirit but in the strategies that they used to come to power. I remember reading an article a couple of years ago that it had been leaked some of them had admitted to it themselves. But it’s different to read an article than to read a whole book about it. The more I learn about this the more I understand how much the far-right is taking from the nazi proselytism playbook, from infiltrating neutral interest groups (remember cottagecore?) to turning everything into a rage-and-panic inducing matter of life or death. That is something that they were doing back then with very clear intention. A difference is that in the early 20th century they had to print these things out and distribute them or talk to people face to face, and with the internet it can be so easy for them as posting or programming bots to share their views.

The next thing I should read ought to be something that may more directly affect me. Something about US imperialism in Latin America, ha!

Last song: “Little Dark Age” by MGMT

Last series: A couple of weeks ago I watched The Sandman up to the third episode, it’s very pretty so far! I was sleep deprived when I watched the second and third, though, so I don’t think that I remember very much!

I’ll have to admit that I don’t watch much television. Before The Sandman the only shows that I remember watching in the past four years or so are The Terror (2018) that I rewatched ten times and never again and Оттепель (The Thaw), a Russian series about Soviet filmmakers in the time of Khrushchev, when attitudes to censorship became more relaxed. The main character was such a piece of shit! How shit he was impacted me until now. I’m still mad that such a man exists even in the mind of the writers, though it is worse that many like him exist in real life. I was intrigued by the drama of the other characters, but by God. The show was good and I enjoyed it, but it was instrumental in the choice I've actively made since then not to give my time to media that gives too much prominence to abusive straight men. My friend sometimes reads to me from Reddit relationship advice threads and it’s sad and cringe that men like this are still alive and that women can’t seem to let them go. Perhaps it’s inappropriate to see it this way when I know it’s because of patriarchy and abuse, but I don’t want to see something that in real life is so horrifying in what is supposed to be fun.

I realise it is the opposite of the reason I gave to the previous question about why I engage with certain material. Do I contradict myself? I suppose it is that I feel relatively safe from one thing, and with the other, I feel that I have to prepare myself in some way, though there are others that know a lot more than me and feel just as powerless.

Last movie: I don’t watch many movies. I don’t remember, sorry!

Sweet/savoury/spicy: All three! Together.

Currently working on: I’m writing a novel with my friend, which I won’t elaborate on because if I do my mind will take it as a sign that it is finished; I’m also working on a couple of other stories, though not they’re not as important to me as the first one. I’ve also been teaching myself Javascript and doing coding exercises daily; bracing myself to do this type of work in exchange for currency, ha. The social aspect is always more frightening to me than the actual work. There are a couple of important things that I need to research, also. This question reminds me that I need to fold my laundry, study and clean my room... I’m working on becoming stronger, so I guess I must do some weights as well!

Tagging @bacchanalium, @winking-owl ​, @plantpretender, @elbiotipo, @osmanthusoolong, @trying-something-old, @surumarssi, @panikpanikpanik, @lliona if you want to!

#cw nazism

[lucianowrites]

A Real Introduction

Hi gang! My name is Luciano, and I am a Puerto Rican writer living in North Carolina. Professionally I am a ghostwriter, and a public speaker on issues related to humanism, history, and Latine cultures. In a less professional capacity I am a content creator in the TTRPG sphere, as well as a fiction writer who enjoys writing litrpgs, and jumpchain stories.

I am a secular humanist, a historian, and a scholar of peace and conflict studies. On occasion I am in actual play series on places like Twitch and YouTube. I came to Tumblr to begin to build a more diverse social media presence, to connect with new friends, and to allow myself a chance to spread my wings more solidly into TTRPG things. I plan to create content revolving around Latine issues, social justice, TTRPGs, writing, history, humanism, disability activism, and more. I'm excited! Feel free to stop by my DMs and say hello!

If you wanna see some of my writing, check out my profile on the website for the American Humanist Association for non-fiction, and check out my Scribble Hub for fiction. If you wanna hear me talk, check me out as Ernesto in Rosas Y Pistolas, an actual play produced by Tea TRPG!

#introduction #ttrpg community

[theivorybilledwoodpecker]

The NHL recently had what seemed like a sensible idea. It was a job fair that was scheduled to be held on Feb. 2 called "Pathway to Hockey Summit." "Participants must be 18 years of age or older, based in the U.S., and identify as female, Black, Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latino, Indigenous, LGBTQIA+, and/or a person with a disability. Veterans are also welcome and encouraged to attend," the event description said. The NHL, a majority white league, was trying to take small steps to diversify itself. It's a noble cause and good business. However the press secretary for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Bryan Griffin, didn't think so, saying in a statement: "Discrimination of any sort is not welcome in the state of Florida, and we do not abide by the woke notion that discrimination should be overlooked if applied in a politically popular manner or against a politically unpopular demographic. We are fighting all discrimination in our schools and our workplaces, and we will fight it in publicly accessible places of meeting or activity." To DeSantis, diversification is discrimination. The threat from DeSantis worked and the NHL backed down, later stating the event was open to anyone over the age of 18. This will go down as one of the great acts of cowardice in the recent history of sports. An entire sports league was chumped by DeSantis and became another loser in the Woke Wars. DeSantis wasn't done. Last week his administration blocked the introduction of a new Advanced Placement course for high school students that focuses on African American studies. Because if there's one thing we don't want students to do it's learn about Black history, which is American history. “AP African American Studies is not CRT. It’s not the 1619 Project," historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. told TIME in August. "It is a mainstream, rigorously vetted, academic approach to a vibrant field of study, one half a century old in the American academy, and much older, of course, in historically Black colleges and universities."

#Ron De Santis #Hockey #Racism #discrimination #LGBTQIA+