#i'm taking northern/southern/eastern/western europe

[tanadrin]

turns out when you use the center of gravity of the geometrical figure of europe, lithuania is by definition in central europe; southern europe includes the czech republic, bavaria, and the crimea; and western europe extends as far east as bosnia. also i think on this map moscow is in central europe?

[marzipanandminutiae]

would you have any reading suggestions to learn more about the earrings are evil era??? I've never heard of that aspect of fashion history and I am curious

Oh man, it was wild

you saw the first stirrings of it in the 1890s, when you started to get (mostly white and middle-to-upper-class) proto-feminists arguing that ear piercing was barbaric- keep an eye on the racist undertones there; they will come up again-and forcing women to suffer for fashion. I cannot emphasize enough that, until that point, ear piercing had been pretty much normal for this race/class/gender group. For centuries. You see criticism of the practice here and there, but nothing that really stuck.

The objections slowly increased until roughly the mid-1920s, when everything reached a tipping point and pierced ears became largely taboo for most white Americans and Brits of northern/western European descent. If that sounds HIGHLY specific, it is- communities from southern and sometimes eastern Europe retained cultural practices of ear piercing, to the point where it was often used as a point against them by mainstream society. It was also associated with Latino people, Black people, and the Romani, which. Yeah. I don't need to tell you how that went down.

It also developed associations with sexual immorality and/or backwards thinking. One newspaper letter I read came from a teen girl in the 1940s, wondering why she shouldn't pierce her ears if her very respectable grandmother had piercings. The response was something like "well, they did all sorts of things in the Bad Old Days that we shouldn't do now." True in many ways, or course, but...piercing your ears? That's the hill culture decided to die on as far as antiquated behavior that we should leave behind? Apparently yes.

Earrings themselves never went out of style, which led to the birth of clip-ons and screwbacks. Ironic that the "don't surfer for fashion" crowd was so eager to embrace screwing tiny vices onto your ears, but there we are. My own mother (born 1953) remembers her mother (born 1926) always taking off her screwback earrings immediately after getting home from a party, literally in the foyer of their house the second the door shut. There had been adaptations for unpierced ears before- Little Women, published in 1868, describes Meg March hanging earrings from a flesh-colored silk ribbon tied around the base of her ear -but they'd never caught on like this before.

However, the pendulum was soon to swing back. After just 40 years of Piercing Panic, in the 1960s, girls began piercing their ears again in droves. As piercing moved from the slumber party or summer camp back to the professional jewelers whose families had been early professional piercers in the 19th century- and to befuddled doctors who had no idea what they were doing yet still received piercing requests -cultural commentators had no idea what to make of it. Some decried the new trend while most took an air of bemused neutrality. My personal favorite article expressed surprise that "Space Age misses" were adopting these "Victorian traditions."

(In 1965, my grandmother took Mom to the anesthesiologist down the street who was offering to pierce his young daughter's friends gratis, and got it done. My grandfather had strongly disapproved of the idea, but in the end it took him a week to notice the new earrings.)

As to sources...honestly, I've just gone to Google Books, specified a time frame, and typed in "ear piercing," "pierced ears," "pierce ears," etc. Tons of primary sources at your fingertips, though I'm not always great about documenting or saving what I find. There's not much written about it formally, I've found- no books or scholarly studies. It may just be too close in history to attract much academic attention, though I find it fascinating.

This little blip where something that's been normal for most of western history suddenly became taboo for a hot second.

Also my ear piercings just turned 20 five days ago, commemorating the date that I was taken with much ceremony to Piercing Pagoda (and that horrible gun; it's a wonder I didn't get keloids) to get me out from underfoot while the Thanksgiving feast was being made. Grandma got hers pierced on the same day, at age 78. Happy Birthday, Marzi's ear piercings!

[morgulscribe]

The Topography of Second Age Arda (Before the World Was Made Round)

Map of Second Age Arda from the Atlas of Middle-earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad.

I believe that Karen Wynn Fonstad was using older illustrations by Tolkien when creating some of the maps of unexplored lands, so I'm not sure if this map is completely accurate to Tolkien's concepts of Arda as a whole at the time of Lord of the Rings. Unfortunately, I doubt that we will never know for certain, so this map is probably as "canon" as it gets.

Since Arda is an alternative universe version of our own world, the face of Arda must change multiple times in order to appear as it does today, in the Seventh Age. I consider the landforms of Middle-earth to be somewhat compressed versions of the real world, with analogous landforms that have not yet evolved to their current appearance.

Eriador is analogous to Western Europe; Rhovanion is analogous to Eastern Europe and part of Asia. Middle-earth does not have a Mediterranean Sea, although the Bay of Belfalas does have a similar shape. Near Harad seems to encompass part of the region that the Mediterranean Sea would take up if it was dry land instead of water, as well as part of northern Africa and the Saudi Arabian peninsula. The continent of Far Harad appears to be a narrower prototype of Africa. (The First Age version of Far Harad looked more like modern day Africa, but part of the western region went beneath the waves after the War of Wrath.)

It is interesting to note that Middle-earth does not appear to have a corresponding river to the Nile. Far Harad does have a major river which starts in the Grey Mountains and runs southeast to the eastern coast. The only real world counterpart I could find that looks vaguely similar would be the Niger River.

The Girdle of Arda is the Equator, naturally.

I think that the bay between the words "Hinter" and "Lands" appears to be a proto-version of the Red Sea. The little peninsula which sticks up on the southern mouth of the bay resembles a tiny Horn of Africa.

The two eastern rivers which drain into the Inner Seas bear a slight resemblance to the Tigris and Euphrates.

The Orocarni, the Mountains of the East, might be ancient versions of the Ural Mountains.

I always thought that there should be more land to the east of the Orocarni Mountains, to accommodate the continent of Asia. Perhaps when the world was made round, Eru added more land to Middle-earth, making Rhun much larger than it was in the Second Age.

Possibly the separate continent called Dark Land (South Land) is later broken up, becoming the Indian Subcontient and Australia. A poster on this Reddit post claims that the Dark Land/South Land continent and the Walls of the Sun ceased to exist when the world was made round. Maybe Eru turned Dark Land/South Land into proto-versions of India and Australia, and the Walls of the Sun was added to Rhun, becoming the central and eastern parts of the continent of Asia.

It is my own personal theory that at some point during the Fourth Age, the face of Arda is changed once again, becoming what it looks like in modern days. As for why this great apocalypse occurs?

It's all SAURON'S fault, of course.

[rwby-revelations]

The World of Remnant in RWBY: Revelations, Part One

In order to make the world building of my rewrite make sense, I realized I had to really dig into the lore of the series and use what was available, and tweak as needed. I created a document to keep track of it, and this post is basically a lore dump and can also be used as a handy guide if people need to refer back to it while reading the fics themselves. So without further ado, let's dive in!

Remnant

The world of Remnant is divided up into six "kingdoms," which hearkens back to when they were ruled by monarchies. Four of them have a much longer history than the other two, which are relatively new in the timeline. The kingdoms are:

Vale

Atlas

Vacuo

Minada

Mandir

Baluarte

Immediately you may be wondering "Hey, what happened to Mistral and Menagerie?" I have renamed them to Minada and Mandir respectfully. Baluarte is a brand new kingdom I added, and I'll go over that influence as well as the influences of all five other kingdoms.

Mistral's change to Minada came about because I was originally going to try and make my own language, but then I kind of got too tired trying to figure out how the language worked (how did Tolkien do it?). So while I decided to instead use already-existing languages for place names, Minada ended up just sticking, and I had given it the meaning of "wind", similar to how the original word "mistral" is "a cold, northerly wind in France." I am however keeping the theme of Minada being based off various Far Eastern regions, so one region will have Japanese influence, another region will have clear Chinese influence, still another will have Mongolian influence, and so on.

"Mandir" is the Hindu word for "temple, dwelling place". First off, I changed Menagerie's name because, well...let's face it, creating a fictional race of people with animal features and then giving them a place to stay and naming it "a collection of wild animals kept in captivity for exhibition" was not the wisest move on CRWBY's part. I also wanted to base Mandir off of India, considering Blake's parents are supposed to be based off of Bagheera and the Hindu goddess Kali. There are also islands off the coast of Mandir that are heavily influenced by Polynesian cultures as well.

The third one I'm going to talk about is Vale. For Vale, I looked at Europe for influence, and while the area that the story takes place is focused in a region influenced by western Europe, there are regions influenced by eastern Europe as well, and the islands are more southern European as well. Not too much of a change from canon, I suppose.

Atlas is going to be a bit different. While the floating city is going to be influenced by the US and Canada, the rest of the kingdom is going to be influenced by northern Europe, specifically Scandinavia, but also some Inuit influence as well. I want to show a divide between the floating city of Atlas and the rest of the kingdom, how capitalistic Atlas City is in comparison to other towns and cities like Mantle which function on a more socialist level.

Vacuo is going to be influenced by the Middle East and Africa. This part I completely acknowledge is going to be tricky, so when I do get to writing Vacuo I'm going to be doing quite a bit of research. Again, certain areas will be based off of certain places like one region will have clear Egyptian influence, etc.

Now the final kingdom, Baluarte, is a brand new kingdom I created. I was looking at the map and realized that there was an entire continent that had nothing there--the continent that looks like a European dragon. It was however a mountainous region, so I figured, let's take that area and create a kingdom with Latin American influence! The word "baluarte" means "stronghold" in Spanish, and it felt like a good theme for a kingdom built in the mountains. It's relatively new in-canon as well, so we are going to get to explore some of the politics regarding a fledgling kingdom.

If you're wondering where Salem is, that's a secret ;) I'll expand on her in another post, don't you worry!

Each kingdom is ruled by a council of elected officials, except for two seats: the seat of the military's general, and the seat of the Academy headmaster.

That's another thing, each kingdom has an active military that works to monitor Grimm activity and defend the kingdoms. While the Vytal Agreement after the Great War has established a truce, there are still tensions between some of the kingdoms, and the military works as a buffer just in case.

Anyway, there is a council of ten people for each kingdom which works as the main governing body. These Councils handle diplomacy, trade, and so on for each kingdom. Mandir's council on the other hand is a little smaller, but it is being better established. They do not have a full blown military, but they have a smaller militia that operates along the same lines. The General of each kingdom's army has a seat for matters relating to the military. The Headmaster of each school is given a seat due to how integral the Huntsari are to the survival of remnanity.

Yes, that's right, I said Huntsari.

Rather than using Huntsmen and Huntresses, I created a gender neutral term: Huntsare singular, Huntsari plural, pronounced hunts-ah-reh and hunts-ah-ree respectfully. I pulled a bit from Italian when creating this term. I specifically wanted to differentiate those who hunt Grimm from those who hunt for food, which are known as Hunters.

Working alongside the Council of each kingdom is a Board of Huntsari, a small group of Huntsari (usually retired) who assign various missions to the other Huntsari that work in each kingdom and also are the ones that issue licenses. The Headmasters of the university-level academies usually work with them to help give older students work experience with missions and also decide which professors are able to take part in a mission.

I think that's enough for this post, but if you have any questions about the world of Remnant so far, please ask! Keep an eye out for part two!

[wildlarrydreams]

These past days I've seen a lot of posts regarding the Ukrainian win in Eurovision. As a Ukrainian, I want to share my feelings about it.

I'm so thankful to every European who sent their vote for Ukraine. For the Ukrainian people, this win is not that simple. Honestly, we don't care about hosting next year, the significant effect of this was to let Ukraine situation to be heard.

We have never expected to be involved in a war in 21 century and with neighbouring countries. The loss of the people from Northern, Eastern and Southern parts of Ukraine can't be described.

As well this let us show our culture. Starting from the early period till now, Ukrainian culture has been suppressed by Russian. Our ancestors witnessed a lot of prohibition, labour and even slavery. The song that entirely is Ukrainian and wins ESC — what a moment to be proud of our culture and language.

The last thing is the comments of Spanish people on Twitter. The threats you sent, just because UKRAINE HAS WON BECAUSE OF THE WAR IF SPAIN WERE IN THE WAR, WE WOULD ALSO WIN. Please, Ukraine is willing to let you take not just the trophy but also the Russian army and the war zone.

Today is 82 days of the war. Some people from Europe need to understand that they have their parties, chance to wake up every morning and enjoy the day because of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and volunteers, who are shading their blood, sweat and tears. Russia is the country from which you don't know what to expect next. They started from Ukraine, but next time it may be someone else. Reading their news and threats towards Western countries shouldn't simply leave you. I hope that some of you understand that and never have a chance to witness what it feels like to live in hell, where air alarms almost every single day and you can be shoot by missile any moment of your life.

[lunavenefica]

Isn't it a bit of appropriation to take Celtic pagan culture and use it for your witchy nonsense? I mean, the only people who could possibly get away with this stuff are the Irish/Scottish etc.

I usually don't reply to these questions but since I can see that whatever you're trying to say comes from a place of ignorance I'll give you a quick history lesson:

1)Who were the Celts?

"Early sources place Celts in western Europe and also occupying land near the headwaters of the Danube River. Their home territories have often been traced to central and eastern France, extending across southern Germany and into the Czech Republic.

In 279BC the Celts were known to have looted Delphi, the sacred Greek site. Strabo (Geographer) recorded a meeting between the Celts and Alexander the Great in 335BC in the Balkans. Classical writers had recorded a large-scale migration of Celts soon after 400BC, this migration took the Celts from central Europe into Northern Italy and Eastern Europe."

As you can see, the Celts weren't only Irish or Scottish, that's something you could've googled and discovered in about 2 seconds.

2) Is it cultural appropriation?

Once again, it would've been enough to scroll through my blog to get your answer, if we're really going into cancel culture and cultural appropriation the answer is still NO!

First of all we have 2 admins, 2 different people with different backgrounds, I (the person answering this ask and managing most of the blog), 'Isidora' am literally of Slavic descent, I was born in Eastern Europe, in the Balkans, near the Danube river quoted in point n.1, and live in Italy, while the other person 'Blaiz' is from France and has Breton roots. So technically speaking, it's not cultural appropriation.

If we're talking about morality? It's still a no!

As absurd as it can seem, different cultures have a LOT, and I tell you, a LOT of common traditions, there may be some smaller differences or a change of names but you'll find a lot of similar holidays, practices and traditions in most cultures.

3) Are we using Celtic Pagan Culture for our witchy non-sense?

Never have I stated that I'm a Celtic Pagan, I am an atheist and see Witchcraft as a craft that combines a bit of psychology, science, self-help and fun to keep myself motivated to work on whatever I need to improve in my life.

What I'm sharing here are my notes and an insight of the history of certain Holidays, or ways to modernize what people did for centuries, because with the progression of technology what was easy to do in the past (like having bonfires) can be difficult in the present.

The other admin, Bleiz is a pagan who works with Breton deities.

They are pagan, there are MANY branches of paganism and there's absolutely nothing wrong in exploring them since the Celts were one of the most widely spread populations in the Ancient Age and there's been a LOT of contamination.

That being said, I hope you find something better to do in your life instead of sending passive aggressive anon messages trying to invalidate someone's beliefs/ruin their day just to get a response on topics that you clearly have very little knowledge of.

Educate yourself before speaking and respect other people's beliefs.

That's all, happy Halloween and touch some grass.

Yours truly,

Isidora

NB : Here is Bleiz writing!

My friend answered really well to your ask. Like she said, descendants of Celtic people are not only in Ireland or Scotland. There is a part in France, called Bretagne, where they stayed and kept a lot of their celtic traditions (mixed with christian religion, but that's another thing). A part of my family comes from there actually. In some villages, we still celebrate the old festivities going back to the celtic people (which were rebranded as 'christian honors' because they were so engraved into the cultures and traditions of Bretagne that the Church couldn't completely suppress them).

Not everyone on this site is american, and we all come from different backgrounds. Your question could have been really interesting, however with the tone you used, it looks more like an aggression to my origins and a disrespect to my ancestors who were murdered by the church because of their beliefs of the ancient gods.

If you don't know something, we would be glad to explain them to you, but please, next time, try not to be so aggressive. There is no shame in not knowing something.

Take care of you, and I hope this will help you to get into Celtic History, traditions and cultures through the different territories because it is fascinating!

Trugarez, kenavo!

⛤Bleiz⛤

[winsmoke]

hey bubs! have you heard about skz jisung? (i'm not sure if you only answer stuff nct-related, but i'm interested to hear your thoughts about in your "stay woke" tag)

Disclaimer: I know very little about Stray Kids or Jisung. I am Chinese American and therefore have little authority over this topic, however, I would still like to address the issue and provide my jumbled thoughts.  

Please listen to the people it affects, in this case, it would be Southeastern Asians and African Americans. 

The situation: A rap Jisung wrote when he was 13 attached the n-word to “Southeastern Asian foreign workers” which was used as an insult.  

The problem: To address Southeastern Asians first... Why is it used as an insult? There’s an outdated and yet prevailing northern/southern dichotomy (split) present in Europe, Africa, the Americas, and definitely Asia (if you subscribe to the Western conception of geography). Within any continent, northern countries are often described as first-world/developed countries with lighter-skinned populations, prosperous lifestyles, technology, culture, civilization, democracy, and education. On the other hand, southern countries are perceived as developing/third world countries with darker-skinned populations, impoverished and subsistence (farming) lifestyles, rural or arable areas, barbarity, and corrupt and militant governments. But obviously, there are enormous discrepancies between general trends and reality. Examples include (these are huge generalizations): how the US looks down on Mexico and basically every Latin American country but reveres Canada; how the Arabs in northern Africa don’t associate themselves with those living in Western, Eastern, Central, and Southern Africa but they look up to the nations on the Arabian peninsula. The sentiment is similar in Asia, with South Korea, China, and Japan likely defining the “northern countries.”

“Foreign workers,” could entail anything - but from my understanding, there are three main categories: domestic care, manufacturing, and agricultural. Since migrant workers commonly come from southern countries, they are associated with the negative traits stated previously. I want to clarify that the color of your skin is almost universally equated to your worth, a disgusting outcome of imperialism and isolated cultures and religions (amongst other reasons). I have definitely profited off of my white skin even though I have been discriminated against for being Chinese.

Interestingly, Jisung was living in Malaysia while he wrote this rap. According to Western standards, Malaysia maintains a developing country status. Whatever mixture of prejudice and racism Jisung manifested in South Korea, probably continued to fester while living in a southeastern country. 

Current rap builds on battle rap where you set out to destroy your opponent with your words. Insulting is a common feature and as you grow better as a rapper you get better at throwing shade. Typically, amateur rappers start out with derogative slurs because 1) they’re young and ignorant and 2) it’s easy to write. Although I’ve only heard a few Stray Kids songs, I’m sure Jisung has developed as a rapper and also as a man with an international perspective. 

As I have stated before, Kpop takes a lot from African American culture... so it should pay its dues. Rap roughly originates from Harlem, New York, created and listened to by African Americans. The n-word, also created in the United States, was used to refer to Africans who were kidnapped, sold, shipped, and forced to work in the states. It was used to strip millions of their humanity (still is), and now, if an individual who is not of African or African American descent says the word, it is an ultimate display of disrespect to the people it tormented.

In the United States, all minorities are prosecuted in some shape or form but it is safe to say that if you’re an African American you will be treated like the dirt of society. This is reflected by incarceration rates, police brutality, representation in the media and all areas of life, etc. 

Okay FINALLY, connecting the pieces together... the insult was that you’re an n-word and Southeastern foreign worker. And yeah, Jisung shouldn’t have written or rapped these lyrics. Southeastern Asian and African American fans have a right to be conflicted, furious, depressed, or disappointed by his words. Please don’t invalidate their emotions or words. At the same time, fighting to fight doesn’t help anyone.

What now: Jisung apologized which is a HUGE step ahead of Jaehyun and Hendery. I’d like to believe the immediate response to the issue speaks to his genuineness, however, whether you want to forgive him falls on your shoulders. Either way, I hope you understand the seriousness of the situation and that you reasses your own mentality and environment.

Like last time, my ask box is open for anyone who wants to voice their own judgments or experiences.

[blackraged]

@gunsforarms text didnt fit into a comment so I'm replying with a reblog,, hope you don't mind

Now, from a geographical point of view speaking; The further you go to the east, the more Russians with darker hair and Asian traits you will find. If you go north, you will find more blondes and people of taller statue. This is because of the genetics pool. The norther parts obviously mix with the Scandinavian and Baltic genes, while the east and south, mix with their Eurasian and Byzantine brothers. I would need to draw out a whole map to explain this genetics game, but I hope the point I’m trying to explain is clear.

Vikings were generally widespread, travelled almost everywhere where their boats and interests took them. It’s known for them to have reached out as far as Asia and Africa, and even sailing all the way to the middle east. There is quite a lot of evidence found in the northern parts of Russia of Viking culture and traces, that reach all along the arctic ocean (from the Norwegian sea, to the Barents and Kara sea).

Also, the Russia we know today, pretty much started out from the Kievan Rus region. Give or take brother nations/tribes forming an alliance, and therefore growing and becoming mother Russia that we have today. The Rus were Norse people who were originally from Sweden if I’m not mistaken, and have migrated all the way down to eastern Europe, where they settled and spread. They even kept their language for some time, before the majority forgot and Russian took over.

He might as well have Sami relations if you think about it… even Sami had ties to Vikings so it checks out. (They reached from Norway, Sweden, Finland, to all the way of Russia) Also, Sova is from Severomorsk in Murmansk Oblast, which, by the way, is also one of the regions the Sami have inhabited. Can’t say too much about the Sami as of right now though, due to them being nomadic tribal people, rather than warriors and such. They herd reindeer. Ain’t too much fighting on their sides happening. Their culture did reach into viking culture however.

Vikings, like most other people, were proficient in several different types of weapons. But if you’re walking along the tundra of the northern part of the land, where harsh winter barely lets you plant crops and such, you resolve to hunting. Bow and arrow were generally pretty popular for hunting and fighting, as expected, but if we take the whole “hunter” concept in consideration with how Sova is dressed and wears his hair, we see he shares striking similarities to high north Vikings. You could literally put Breach into Sova’s clothes and give him his weapon, and you’d still go “Ah yes, a Viking.”

Plus, Sova was in the military. Soldiers don’t keep their hair long since it’s very, vERY inconvenient for fighting (unless you braid it, so it stays out of your face,, Breach got the memo), especially when you’re a marksman… Yet Sova still has his long hair, and it’s a vital part of his design. Long hair has always been a symbol of connection to your gods, no matter the religion. (Except Christians, those fuckers shaved their heads.)

Sova’s design isn’t coincidental. Riot designed him, knowing exactly what history the norther part of Russia holds and what cultural relations it has with its neighboring nations and tribes. They could have made his design and character closer to a basic elite Russian soldier, and place him somewhere in the middle, western or even southern part of Russia. BUT, they went with Severomorsk, Murmansk Oblast. Knowing Riot does proper research on history and cultural traits for their lore, there is no way Sova’s design was accidental. Riot themselves did say, they are very careful with character designs and take extra steps. They knew what they were doing, and delivered.

[And those who favor the headcanon of Sova not being a natural blonde; Vikings liked bleaching their hair lighter. Blonde was attractive, and lighter hair represented wisdom.]

God, I hope I got everything I wanted to say and didn't cut the information too short sdfghujihugyft i could literally go on and on and on and on and never shut up

Me, trying to explain to my friends why Sova is designed after/based on the Rus Vikings in Valorant