#early human society

[ancestorsalive]

(via Mammoths and early human society)

“Bones and Ivory: Mammoth bones and ivory were valuable resources for early humans. Bones were used for crafting tools, such as needles, awls, and harpoons. The ivory tusks, which could reach several meters in length, were especially prized for their durability and suitability for carving into various objects, including weapons, jewelry, and art. Mammoth bones and tusks were also used as construction materials by early humans. Mammoth bones and tusks also served as fuel sources. They were burned as a source of heat and light, particularly in regions where wood was scarce.”

- Source: https://archaeologymag.com/2023/08/mammoths-and-early-human-society/

Photo above: "Mammoth House" as shown at the "Frozen Woolly Mammoth Yuka Exhibit" made with real mammoth fossils (bones and tusks). Image by Nandaro CC by 3.0 “Archaeologists have recently uncovered the remains of a 40-foot wide, circular hut made entirely of mammoth bones. That includes tusks, skulls, and bones of over 60 woolly mammoths in Russia. The structure appears to be about 25,000 years old. Now they’re wondering what the structure could have been used for.” - Source: https://www.thevintagenews.com/2020/03/23/mammoth-bones-structure/

[recurring-polynya]

Good morning, happy Thursday, who wants to read a fun idea I had about giants in Soul Society?

So! I was reading this @littleeyesofpallas post about wuxing symbolism and was particularly struck by this passage in a section about the gate guardians:

There is no central guard but conspicuously Kirinji's name comes from Qilin, but apparently according to official height he's actually not nearly as tall as Kubo's drawings always made him seem. Not that he was on the same scale as the gate guardians even then...

No, I said to myself, of course not. He's powerful enough to control his size, because I was thinking of the part where Grand Fisher claims Isshin is too small to defeat him and Isshin responds with a lecture on soul reaper lore:

Now, bodies are not swords, but maybe the same mechanic applies! It certainly applies to Hollows. Earlier in this same scene, Kon mistakes Grand Fisher for a Menos Grande, and Grand Fisher is insulted by the comparison, but it's the same thing. Menos are huge and scary, but when they become Arrancar, they shrink down and become scarier. [Aside: I think this is why the Yammy-is-secretly-Espada-0 reveal doesn't quite manage to hit. It goes against the lore Kubo has been laying down for ages]

On a meta level, this is just a shounen storytelling tactic where X is an indicator of strength, but then later on, it's like "Reverse Uno! Not-X is the real indicator of strength!!" That's exactly how this zanpakutou-size thing is used when it's first introduced.

Exhibit A: Renji, a court jester, being impressed by the size of Ichigo's sword:

Exhibit B: A handful of issues later, Urahara, an intellectual (lol), sets us straight:

Genre convention or not, I think it lends itself some interesting world-building. Among low-powered people, size is impressive, but as you scale the ranks of power, it's kind of pathetic. Weirdly large people are like the petty bourgeoisie of Soul Society power dynamics.

But that's actually the perfect niche for a gatekeeper! In general, your typical Joe Shinigami is going to be able to take on just about any rando from the Rukongai, but maybe not a particularly strong ryouka. Ganju was able to take on Yumichika, after all. A single shinigami wouldn't be able to take on a planned rebellion, like in the Bount arc, and they've got to, like, sleep and stuff. The Gotei could, in theory, have an entire gatehouse and a gate patrol, etc, but that they are perpetually short-staffed as-is. Instead, how about one medium-powerful gatekeeper whose size makes them well-suited for fighting groups of people (or siege weapons), and who is going to be intimidating overall?

Furthermore, it's implied that Jidanbou isn't actually a shinigami. He wears a shihakushou, but his axes don't seem to be a zanpakutou (he doesn't release them and is distressed when they are destroyed). His neighbors offer this comment on him:

It's not quite right, though: after all, many shinigami are from Rukongai, including Gin, who is the reason Jidanbou is being healed at the very moment this panel takes place. I think what this guy means is that Jidanbou is of Rukongai, which is to say not of the Seireitei.

So what is he, then? Here's my big idea: I think that the gigantism in Soul Society might actually be a reiatsu-developmental disability! It's always been my impression that growth, especially for powerful people, happens in fits and spurts, rather than linearly, and that furthermore, big changes in growth tend to coincide with developments in reiryouku. Somewhere, either in childhood or adolescence, someone's spiritual pressure grows more quickly than their control over it, which results in their body growing uncontrollably. They become very powerful "physically", but their strength is all in their mass/reishi, which takes most of their spiritual pressure to control. This may end up limiting the upper end of power they are able to achieve and some cases means they get cut off entirely from the other forms of power used by shinigami (connecting to a zanpakutou, kidou). I think this might be especially common in children from the Rukongai, who lack access to education and training. I can also imagine it leading itself to cautionary tales in the outer Rukon that if you feed your hungry children too much, you'll end up with a giant on your hands.

This offers one explanation to why Jidanbou is a giant and his brother Jiroubou is large, but not remotely on the same scale (the Souls Data Book lists his height at 7'7" vs Jidanbou's 32'5"). There are a handful of other shinigami of larger-than-human height, which could be a milder form of this, or it could mean that some sort of special training or medical intervention helped keep their growth manageable. I think you can squeeze in a lot of interesting character insights into this headcanon, from Hachi (8'5"), who perhaps worked exceptionally hard in an effort to control his power and ended becoming incredibly skilled at kidou as a result (interesting that he, too, is not actually a shinigami). Or Oomaeda (6'11"), who gets by a lot on his family's wealth and clout, but is definitely on the weaker end of the lieutenant power scale. In his case, his large size kind of speaks to his entire "thinks he's classy, but is really just gaudy"/can't-even-tell-how-outclassed-he-is-by-his-peers deal.

Then, as a counterpoint, you've got Hitsugaya: immensely powerful from a young age, and one of the hallmarks of his character is how in-control of himself he is, down to having developed an actual visible power bar for his bankai. Whether this is some effect of his personality, or whether it's an intervention on Hyourinmaru's part, his growth has been choked off as a side effect. He's the direct opposite of Jidanbou, who additionally seems somewhat childlike in personality (crying over his axes, for example, or his attachment to his extremely dubious "rules of the city"). To me, it's very sweet that their friendship might have roots in opposite expressions of the same reiatsu-growth-fuckup.

Much in the way that the Shiba use some sort of magic that's distinctly different from shinigami-kidou, I guess I really like thinking about other ways power might manifest itself in Soul Society outside of the shinigami-industrial-complex. And also the way the Seireitei may or may not try to control those powers."Guard this gate!" they say. "We won't actually let you live in the city or give you city wages, but you can have a cool outfit and, uh...do it for the exposure?"

[banyanas]

man if i had an actual plot structure to use as scaffolding (because i can’t really do slice of life or things like it) i could write so many N and Uzi words that are just the actual practicalities and obstacles (varying in size and some seen, some unforeseen) of an interspecies relationship

[sunflowersandcherryblossoms]

Karakura Team? No, fuck that!

Seireitei Team!

[worstloki]

Jujutsu Kaisen asks many important questions such as: mentally healthy daughters that are happy but racist OR son that isn’t racist but is so mentally unwell he rarely smiles and has no will to live

[sophieswundergarten]

Thinking about how Mr. Gaines suggested using the Whisperer to force information out of the captured Executives and then was annoyed when Mr. Benedict shut him down

[millenial-net-utopia-2010]

my tag is #2010 Millenial Net Utopia, if you see it (re-/)posted from @nutzo0001, dont be scared, it is my main, and unrelated to this my second project

what is it/this about?

well... it tries to map

"zeitgeist changes thru-out the years and last decade(s)"

or so,

i.e. "modern history" from 90s-on, 90s-2020s span

mainly

here are my "places" i go on from about:

OC (aesth.wiki) post: https://aesthetics.fandom.com/wiki/User_blog:Doom-gloom-city-pop/Utopistic_Nostalgias

webpage: https://sites.google.com/view/utopistic-nostalgias/homeintro

personal aesthetics article: https://personal-aesthetics.fandom.com/wiki/Zillenial_Broken/Lost_Dreams_%26_2010_Millenial_Net_Utopia

and *this* very place you see, @millenial-net-utopia-2010

[frecklenog]

nobody:

me, disabled, and with special interests in both worldbuilding and disability accommodations, history, and advocacy: i wonder what kind of disabilities existed on gallifrey. would regeneration reset an autoimmune disorder, or would it follow through to their next form? can they regenerate into a body with an autoimmune disorder? is it there to stay once it hits?

what about limb differences? if gallifreyans can regenerate limbs (at the very least within the first 15 hours of regeneration, as seen in the christmas invasion), would that mean the majority of limb differences on gallifrey would be congenital? would a gallifreyan be encouraged to regenerate regardless of threat to their life after an amputation, or has gallifrey moved past that sort of ableism? (probably not, since fifteen's tardis being wheelchair accessible (or, the entrance, since the ramps within seem pretty steep) is considered remarkable by wheelchair user and unit agent shirley anne bingham. plus, from a doylist perspective, dw is very much a product of its various times, being a universe that started development in the early 60s.) would regeneration ""fix"" (heavy airquotes on that) such limb differences? is it possible to regenerate into a body with a limb difference? what sort of adaptive devices are/were there on gallifrey for those who either can't regenerate because they're very close to or at their regeneration limit, or simply choose not to do so?

a lot of these questions also apply to neurological disorders and injuries, too, if you change the wording a bit. tremors, chronic pain, weakness, paralysis, mobility issues, those sorts of things.

and are their blind gallifreyans? (if so, the doctor clearly didn't spend enough time around them.) deaf/hoh gallifreyans? similar questions there, too! (written gallifreyan language already makes my head spin, personally, but i'm intrigued by the idea of how they might go about designing an equivalent of braille! and i'd bet money that gallifreyan sign would include words and phrases that humans wouldn't think to consider, just like any other language. but then, why doesn't the tardis's translation matrix recognize and automatically translate british sign language, as we see with cass's signing confusing clara in before the flood?)

further, what about potential disabilities with no human analogue that relate to the regeneration process itself-?

my parents: hang on. slow down. what the fuck are you talking about

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

Death - Scavenger Of Human Sorrow

[hanzajesthanza]

dandelion: bisexual roll call, let’s go

dandelion (answering his own prompt, muttering and checking a piece of paper with charcoal): *present and accounted for…*

cahir: you can count me, as well

geralt: what is this

dandelion: i’m taking inventory of how many of us are bisexual

geralt: why

dandelion: just curious

geralt: alright. present.

dandelion: thank youuu. regis?

regis (uncharacteristically grave): i do not define myself by these terms. and, to be honest, it’s really a very interesting and complicated topic requiring discussion—

dandelion: —ohhhkay. milva?

milva: no.

dandelion: uhh… do you mean… no to…?

milva: [gets up and leaves]

[theophagie]

I don't have the authority or the seniority or any other -ority to vocally reproach people, and even if I did I'm not about that life, but I'm in the uncomfortable position of "I can't do some of My Shit if people don't do theirs first", and doing the others things slooowly only works so far. And oftentimes I'm sitting at my desk feeling like there's a guillotine hanging over me because I don't wanna get caught "slacking" and get in trouble. But I don't want to get other people in trouble either. Whack :|

[andromeda3116]

listening to someone be confidently wrong while you cannot correct them because of a) their position, and b) social rules is a special level of hell

[cascadianights]

The feeling of interacting w an ex and being rooted to the spot w the sudden realization of how much you intimately know of this person you haven't even seen in half a decade

[feralestfem]

i worked in a school till last week and i can confidently tell you that we're already there.

half the fifth grade class was sent on to middle school not being able to read at all. the other half wasnt even 1/2 the required level. They dont even know how to write their own name. what their birthday is.

[crosseyedorpainless]

I've never understood why human society is the only facet through which one can experience their own "existence-in-reality."

If I socially isolate, I am told I must "go back to society" every now and then to gain my own bearing in reality, to "re-attach" myself to it.

Why would anyone believe that everyone else's reality must orbit around human society? Would my reality and personhood somehow slowly diminish if I existed outside of human society?

Really, what I think they might be afraid of, is one individual leaving society and "becoming mad" or experiencing psychosis. So then the cure is establishing some position in relation to human society.

Going back to the question, "Would my reality and personhood somehow slowly diminish if I existed outside of human society?" I think the answer is, yes, to others it would. To other people, I am not a "person-in-reality" unless I am sane or unless I am actively seeking out a cure that will make me sane

[hugintheraven]

How Bethesda fixed Vampires without realizing it

So there's a LOT of takes on vampires across media, and most of them are radically different from each other. The Elder Scrolls series has an interesting version that I haven't seen anywhere else, that incidentally fixes a bunch of lore issues with vampires, and yet Bethesda hasn't ever really leaned into any of that.

So, the issue with vampires in large RPGs like Elder Scrolls games, D&D, etc, is that a world where various elements of character building are supposed to be balanced, vampires are heavy on the upside and light on meaningful drawbacks. So in Oblivion, Bethesda completely reworked their vampires, coming at it with a blank slate:

Vampirism is a 4-stage affliction, with each stage increasing the numerous benefits of being a vampire as well as the middling drawbacks. Stage 4 brings with it all humanoid NPCs recognizing you as a ravenous monster and attacking you, basically wrecking the game. And, this is the unique part, you reduce stages by drinking blood. Being a vampire is LESSENED by doing the most vampiric thing out there, it actively makes you weaker.

And this is great. From a gameplay perspective, you vanish below ground to kill zombies/robots/whatever, and you grow stronger as the dungeon goes on. But if you don't rush through it, or if it's large, you surface having ignored your hunger for several days and have to do a whole second quest to sneak into town at night and drink blood, where the only reward is to engage with the game again. It's a drawback in the gameplay sense rather than the stats sense. And it lets game designers throw the player against weak vampires in town early on, and face dungeons full of max-bloodlust monsters later once the player knows how things work.

Meanwhile, from a lore perspective this is also great. Suddenly, it's not that vampires have to be evil, it's that they have a choice. A good person who flees their family to hide in a cave is going to starve, turning into a ravenous, uncontrolled, extremely strong monster. Someone who's comfortable sneaking around town drinking blood, meanwhile? They never lose control. They walk in the sun. They're perfectly human. Or as human as anyone can be while the blood of their neighbors flows in their veins.

And Bethesda doesn't DO ANYTHING with this. People you talk to in-game just treat it as "all vampires are evil, why would you expect anything else", when they've created a world where vampire morality is so much more interesting. The few vampires who exist in civilization that you're not supposed to kill don't really discuss their condition at all. And there's plenty of evil vampires choosing to live in caves running societies of vampires, when that makes no sense compared to basically any other way of life they could set up.

Bethesda games are a masterful disaster, in this as in everything else.