#pots because archeology

[femoso-seben]

Immortal Shenanigans

Chapter 2: Bullets and Pots

pt.1 pt.2, pt. 3

You stare at them. And they stared at you. You grow and twist your arms until the rope becomes loose. You really had to remove the bullet from your head. You violently dislocated your shoulder and pulled your left hand free.

You throw your head forward dislodging the bullet in your head. You reach into the hole pull out the bullet and drop it onto the ground. You rotate your neck before freeing your other arm.

“You know it’s impolite to shoot someone from that distance.” You hum as the hole in your head begins to close. “Next time shoot me up close, so the bullet doesn’t get stuck.”

You reach down untie your feet, stand up, and walk toward the group. “What with those expressions? It seems like you're seeing a zombie—“

Bang!

Another bullet hits you point blank in the face. You fall backward as they lay more bullets into your body. They quietly stare at each other before leaving, your eyes open and you stand up in the empty… where were you?

It didn’t matter you picked up your bag and left. As you leave the large room you hear a low voice talking. We’re they still here? Might as well scare the shit out of them.

“Hey,” you round the corner as a bullet hits you in the heart. You stare down at the hole in your chest. “That’s not very nice.” You look up shaking your head.

“How the fuck are you still alive?”

“I’m immortal.”

“We killed you.”

“You tried.”

They stared at you with horror in their eye. You were still alive. I looked down at their map, they were planning something.

“Mmh, colonizing shit, you make your ancestors proud.” You look up at the British military men. They give you a cold look.

Ghost raises his gun, “Don’t waste your bullets on me.” You say not looking at him. “We both know it won’t work.” He slowly lowers his gun and looks down at you.

“Why are you here?”

“I’m Egyptian…. I’m from Egypt. This is my home territory.” You’d rate the obvious.

“How old are you?” Soap folds his arm curious about the answer.

“About 5,000 years old.” You casually stare looking down at your ruined clothes. “I was born a little after Egypt was unified. So about 5,000 years old.” You looked him in the face.

“How are you still alive?”

“I don’t know.”

“How don’t you know?”

“We didn’t have science back then!” I shout at Soap.

“I’m older than your Goddamn country, show me some respect!”

“You act like a bratty child.” Ghost hums looking at you with annoyance.

“I am still 20, there’s a dichotomy, between my age and my mental age. I’ve been through a lot and processed it like a 20-year-old.” You explain. The mustache man nods somewhat understanding.

“You do act your age.”

“What you guys doing?” You stand on your tippy toes trying to catch a glimpse of what they're doing. They move to block your view.

“This is private information.”

“Geez ok,” you put your hands up, “it’s not like I’m gonna retain that information. It’s not important to me.”

“Why do you wanna know then?”

“Because I’m nosy,” you shrug. In this decade you decided to be the most immature person ever, to truly act your mental age. A little dumb and completely insufferable.

“Anyways I need to head back… I’m thinking the lady I’m staying with is looking for me.” You begin to walk off, humming a tune so old it was ingrained in your very soul.

“Where do you think you're going?”

“Back to my Airbnb,” you turn around spreading your arms to the mustache man. “Don’t worry I won’t mention you, all four of you aren’t worthy to be remembered.” You give them a bow and Waltz out.

You have rented the Airbnb for a month. you open the door and set your bag down. If the police are looking for you, you're going to have to call in and clear up the misinformation. You take a shower and change to less damaged bloody clothes.

“Hey is this the police?… this is yn… I wasn’t missing just went on a spiritual journey without my phone… sorry for the inconvenience… of course, I’ll tell someone next time.” You hung up, bored and slightly numb.

You should call in that temple site, and get your pots in a museum; not the British Museum, but a local one. You found the right phone number of an old colleague.

“Hey is mister Renfield there? Yes, this is Sofia, Mary’s daughter. Me and my mother stumble across a hidden temple.” News travels fast and you soon we’re back in your temple this time willingly and unstuck.

“Sofia,” you look up.

“Look at these pots, they are your specialty,” Benjamin said. He was an archeologist from America helping with the dig.

“These are in great condition,” you hum, of course, they are. Nobody touched them but you. “These artifacts might tell us more about this temple.”

“This site gonna be a new tourist attraction.” You smile but deep inside you hate the idea of random people ruining your sacred temple.

You walk the street at night. You didn’t need sleep, you didn’t need food, you didn’t need water. But you like those things, they make you feel more mortal more human. You found it ironic you wanted to be human again when for many years you’ve seen yourself as a god amongst men.

“These pots look expensive.” You froze and looked to your right.

“We can sell this to the British Museum.”

Hell no!

You begin to walk down the alleyway, those pots— must have come from your site. Those were your pots, nobody else but yours. You found three men packing them into boxes.

“What do you think you're doing with my pots?” You coldly asked in Arabic. They turn to you like deer in headlights. One pulls out a gun and threatens to shoot. You stare at them coldly arms folded.

“Back off bitch!”

“Why?” You walk closer and they frown. They turn to each other and begin to speak another language.

You could understand them. They were talking about your looks. They could sell you. Or harvest your organs. You frown if they discover your immortality they keep you as a slave.

“Human trafficking?” They froze and turned to you horrified. You knew the second language too. You pull out your tactical whip and hit the one with the gun. You took the gun and turned it on them.

“Take me to your hideout.” You demand. You will take all the artifacts they have stolen back. They slowly took you to an abandoned warehouse at the end of the city. They tried to take the gun back but your whip took good care of their attempts.

It hurt like hell and it culled their attempts to fight you. You knocked out both men, with one hard punch and tied them up with the rope you carried in your bag. You enter the abandoned warehouse. It was mostly empty, besides the shit tone of guns, but you didn’t care for that.

“Damn, what is this? An incels’ wet dream?” You mutter staring at the boxes of guns.

You walk around taking in all the stuff. Most of it was military, not your problem. You found your artifacts all in a single box with little care put into it. You deer in frustration. You pull out your phone to call in the stolen items and the military-grade gun.

“Hello, police?”

“Price over here.” Your voice does as you slowly lookout to find those four military men. You end the call and stand up.

“Hey.”

Bang!

“Hey, these pots are old!” You yell back trying to protect the box.

“What are you doing here,” mustache man roars in anger.

“Stolen museum pots!”

“How can we trust you?” They all had their guns pointed at you. You roll your eyes.

“I’m an archeologist first, a historian second, and a bitch lastly. I don’t give a shit about your damn mission only these pots!” They turn to each other. Was she for real? They look at you. Yes, she is.

“Alright you're here for pots, how did you get here.”

“Two looters try to steal my temple pot.”

“How did you take out two men?”

“Tactical whip,” you hold up your metallic whip. Soap sighed and the mustache man simply covered his eyes.

“Does it work?”

“Very well.”

“I’m going to call the police—“

“No, we’re going to call the military.” Mustache man interrupted you. You sigh and stretch your arms.

“Alright, when they get here just tell them that box is historically important.” You pick up your stuff and begin to leave.

“Where are you going?”

“You guys got this handle, and I still need to report another problem.” You wave your hand.

“Let’s not meet up again.” You state as you leave the warehouse.

You called in the temple pot theft and your colleagues explained the frustrating situation. Looters are the first enemy of knowledge and history.

Bang!

You fall forward and your world turns black.

[unstableforensicscientist]

Okay these are the head cannons I have so far, and yes I will always add more 🙏🏻🙏🏻

Herbert West headcanonnons:

a gay or unlabeled trans man

also aroace

AuDHD

Hates loud noises or bright lights specifically

Clenches his jaw or grates his teeth when he sleeps

Rarely ever remembers to shower but also needs everything around him to be clean

Despises coffee but if he had to drink it, he would either drink it purely black and probably like the bottom of the coffee pot or so much sugar it’s insane

He secretly has a sweet tooth (PLS HEAR ME OUT ON THIS)

Literally only wears suits and will sometimes sleep in them

Doesn’t remember to take care of himself like ever

he loves compression socks (once again just hear me out)

He wears sock garters

smells like either mold/corpses or hand sanitizer, no in between.

he has two different handwriting, one that is like a mix of cursive and his normal in pen, and really shitty writing in pencil.

Rarely would ever care for music but he would occasionally go with classical

LOVES the rain/thunderstorms

Wanted to study archeology when he was younger (I’m projecting)

will go through math equations when he gets bored or stressed

Definitely stims, but specifically hand taps, leg taps, facial movements, and scrunching his hands or opening and closing his hands into a fist shape, or swaying/pacing.

He also Stims by breaking the fuck out of No.2 pencils and sometimes even pens if he’s stressed out/agitated enough

He fidgets with his tie and watch a lot, especially when he’s nervous, it’s one of the only ways you can tell he’s on edge

Either can’t sit still for hours or will be so silent/still you won’t notice he’s there.

Has a collection of encyclopedias that are really fucking old.

Will read fiction on very, and I mean VERY rare occasions. They will most likely be science fiction too.

Gruber was 100% a father figure for him.

Genuinely couldn’t give less of a fuck about your opinion on him unless you say something about his work.

did his own top surgery with perfect performance and had guidance from Gruber

Doesn’t drink much besides water or just well nothing, but will have some tea on occasion.

I also like the idea of him liking 7 up from the cut scene because it’s silly

used to wear socks with fun yet sophisticated designs on them in high school.

He definitely dressed like your average high school nerd when he was younger, suspenders and all.

Used to have glasses that would make his eyes look 10x bigger

His vision is absolute shit without his glasses, basically a male Velma.

also I think it’s silly to say he did ballet when he was younger (reference to the bride commentary)

used to have his hair a bit more shoulder length in high school

literally sleeps with one single pillow and a sheet. Also his bed feels like a rock when you lay on it. (He never fucking sleeps)

actually really enjoys nature and not just in the experimental environment way, but you would have to water board that info out of him.

Genuinely wants some kind of reptile as a pet.

he has so many random facts on the most niche things you could possibly not want know/hear about.

Genuinely likes the color green, but more of a forest green and not bright ass neon.

has gone camping ONCE.

has a specific routine for everything and will breakdown if it doesn’t go accordingly

never ever shows his meltdowns to anyone but himself

Has gone to the psych ward during his time in Switzerland after Grubers death

Doesn’t trust psychiatrists

this one I think is just funny to me but he has tried to read fiction with magic and shit and HATES IT. Read love craft and he had called that man out for his writing and bigotry so many times to Gruber and probably Dan.

Has the most manic laugh/giggle you’ve ever heard

smiles with his teeth if he’s being an asshole, almost like the Cheshire Cat, smiles with his mouth closed in a tight line when he’s sarcastic or annoyed, only has smiled genuinely like twice.

Hates showing emotions, even negative ones. He prefers to seem entirely neutral unless provoked

never looks himself in the mirror

hates going to the barber shop and prefers to cut his own hair

Literally cannot legally drive

Speed walks, he cannot walk at a normal pace ever.

Enjoys puns and jokes but only if he’s the one making them.

Death glares that could kill a man if it were possible.

thinks he’s very clever but sometimes he really is just stupid 🙁

thinks logically but not rationally

His morals are so fucking grey, like he has his lines he won’t ever cross but besides that, he does not give a fuck at all

He sits with his legs crossed or he sits like a bird perched on a branch, no in between

He either really loves or really hates small spaces

loves curling his body into himself or have his chested puffed out really proudly once again, no in between

He has SERIOUS back problems, and has kinda bad posture

He paces so much that it freaks Dan out sometimes

Talks to himself a LOT

If he lets himself relax, he often does crossword puzzles or just reads medical textbooks and highlights the misinformation in them

does actually care for Dan, just has a really hard and shitty way of showing it

Finds the realism art movement very interesting, and did a lot of research on Eakins to understand how to draw anatomy for his subjects

[chocolateteapotsvis]

Barry surveys the table. It's strewn with what looks like every craft supply from his not-insubstantial model painting stash. They start orderly enough, the paint pots and brushes lined up neatly besides the mat by his chair, and then devolving into a chaotic mess of paper towels, plastic cups, and loose sprues from who-knows-what heaped precariously around the model airplane kit.

He could ask about when Hal had set this up, since they've just returned from Barry's surprise birthday party - a surprise, mostly, because he'd assumed that by April his friends and family would have moved on to something else. But he'd spent so long choosing between the pile of socks Wally had gifted him over the years that he could have missed the Rogues parading through the apartment in their rush out the door.

So instead, he taps a finger against his barely-suppressed smile. "How many birthdays ago is that plane from?"

"You mean when I gave it to you, or you gave it to me?" Hal whips Barry's apron from the back of the chair with a flourish and holds it out for him. "As for that Justice Society tabletop RPG, I assumed you excavated it from an archeological dig somewhere. So are we going to get painting, or are you going to spend another year sighing about how you wished you had time to paint it?"

Barry's fingers are already twitching towards the box. Does he start with the Flash, or does he warm up with another figure first? From Hal's smirk, Barry's thought process is plain on his face.

"It's practically a tradition at this point. It would be a shame to actually do something about it." Barry doesn't bother hiding his smile anymore at the strangled noise Hal makes from behind him as he ties his apron. He pulls back Hal's chair, offering it to him with a mock bow. If it doesn't really do much to hide the heat in his ears, well, he knows a lost cause when he sees one, and in this one, he's more than happy to lose. "But I know better than to get between you and your model airplanes."

(Also, yes, it's supposed to be the same model from The Color of Fear, as seen most recently in toytle's awesome redraw!)

[void-of-unparalled-chaos]

This just in, my Principals of Archeology Professor is hilarious! Some quotes from the first lecture...

"Some of you are going to come up with some wacky ass shit"

"The one rule of archeology is don't die"

"Fuckin hell... today's gonna suck"

"Do not die for archeology. It's just not that cool."

"I don't care about the french unless they're dead"

"The King Tut shit pic is how I got my Job"

"killing each other, basic human things"

"Antiques Road Show is devils spawn"

"La Paz Bolivia is the one exception. The rich people live at the bottom and the slums are at the top because its frezzing in high altitudes. This means when it rains the shit from the slums is now on the rich peoples lot and I just- I feel like if more places were like that the world would be a better place"

"Stop being nice in this class" *starts encouraging students to be dicks and take pot shots at dead people*

*Actively encouraging students to pirate or steal the text book*

"After 1 week extension, you will need an act of God for me to take your paper"

"Classroom behavior policy... I prefer the term Don't Be A Dick"

"Threatening behavior... Don't."

"You gotta be the person who enjoys getting dysentery with 20 of your closest friends"

[vaiztohirez]

Please explain the connection between traditional Persian art/music/expression and where we see it integrated in western society today

Uhhhhhh rugs? elephant motifs? tiles? The Persian Empire was pretty large so -- Oh did they do the massive cliff(?) face tomb carvings? I think that was a side note in my Art of Ancient Egypt course and it might have been by the Persian kings -- Anyways I'm sure there was a ton of cultural exchange. The archeological evidence was probably coins and pots because it's usually coins and pots. idk I just know this guy is supposed to be based off the Persian emperor Darius III who fought Alexander the Great a lot

[jarognieva]

Ok so i’m sorry i don’t remember if i already ask about your headcanons on Micolash background story before Byrgenwerth? But if you already answer this, you said a while ago that you hc he studied history right? Could you tell is more?

Noo you didn’t ask:) So

Let me begin from this: I'm not sure how to interpret the game world - whether it is placed in a world similar to ours in which there are the same nations and countries as ours (and Yharnam is in one of them or is a city-state) or maybe it is a completely different world? Anyway, my point is that Micolash is a Czech name (as you probably already know), but anglicized - in Czech (and Slovak) it is Mikoláš or Mikuláš. I think that the game's creators used many Slavic names (and motifs) for a reason (but I will write about that in another post...) So I think he is either Czech, or it is a way to show that he is a foreigner? Or Yharnam is actually based on Prague and Slavs are actually native here? Either way - my headcanon is that in both situations he is either a foreigner or the child of foreigners. Eventually Yharnam became such a cultural melting pot that people gave different names to their children regardless of origin, because different names from different cultures became popular here. Therefore, since childhood, he has an idea of such things as cultural differences, language differences, etc. It was something that made it easier (or even motivated him?) to study history.

Early on when I joined the fandom, I adopted the headcanon that he and Rom were siblings. Well... They had a rough childhood (BUT this is absolutely not an attempt to excuse Micolash - I hate the type of Disney villain who is made into a poor victim, so all the bad things he did were not his fault uwu). They supposedly had both parents, but... both parents severely neglected them. There was often physical and psychological violence between them. All this happened for years in front of Mico and Rom. Emotional neglect always has a strong impact on the child's psyche... And in this case, the younger Rom suffered the most. Mico was the one who had to keep calm and take care of and protect them both. And it was Mico who convinced her to join the university. For them, studying was a chance to escape from this terrible everyday life. Of course, that wasn't the only reason, they were both very intelligent and curious about the world. Yes... VERY curious, especially Mico. But more on that in a moment. And at that moment I had a dilemma - because I couldn't decide whether they were studying history or medicine. Or maybe something else?

Yes, I told you once that Mico studied history (because Byrgenwerth was mainly a place to study history and archeology). The "Byrgenwerth squad" must have had some idea about the Pthumerians, what their history was like, and what their contacts with the Great Ones were like. But he might as well have studied medicine! Whereas there is a theory that the Mensis Scholars were actually kidnapping people to study the corpses. It wouldn't make so much sense if Mico didn't know anything about it, right? And honestly, I REALLY like Katy's theory about Mico's strange "fascination" with women's organs and their ability to give birth in general (I can't find it now, but you probably know what I mean xD). Already in his childhood, he did not have a good example when it comes to treating women as equal (as I already said... a difficult childhood and severe domestic violence). He saw only Rom as his equal. What I'm getting at is that this is where history and medicine come together! A woman's ability to give birth and the possibility of being an "incubator" for the Great Ones was connected to the history of the Pthumerians (Queen Yharnam and Mergo) and Cainhurst (Annalise and the child of blood). Fascination with these two topics led to experiments in Yahar-Gul, the creation of The One Reborn and an attempt to make contact with the Great Ones! Apparently history likes to repeat itself... Did it stop Micolash to do all these things? Absolutely not.

[queer-starwars-bracket]

Queer Star Wars Characters (Round 1): Aphra's Exes Match 3

(Having Aphra's main love interests face off in round 1 was the result of random generation)

Sana Starros | Identity: wlw | Media: Star Wars comics

Sana Starros has appeared in a variety of Star Wars comics, primarily the main series, Doctor Aphra, and now her own eponymous series. She was first introduced as Han Solo’s fake wife (they got married as part of a scheme), but quickly became a proper character in her own right. A former archeology student of the University of Bar’leth, she is now a smuggler and scoundrel with her own ship. She is Aphra’s main ex, and the Aphra comic series is currently leaning towards a poly ending with her, Aphra, and Magna Tolvan. Despite frequently being pulled into Aphra’s schemes, she gathered a team of everyone important to Aphra to save her from the Spark Eternal. 

Magna Tolvan | Identity: wlw | Media: Doctor Aphra comics

Magna Tolvan began as an Imperial officer and the homoerotic rival to Doctor Aphra. This culminated with them kissing when they thought they were going to die. They worked together on a mission to steal information from a Rebel flight academy, before parting. Tolvan later received a message from Aphra informing her about Vader’s plan to overthrow the Emperor. Aphra was being interrogated in Accresker Jail, and knowing this put Tolvan in danger if Aphra’s interrogation was successful. Their plan to escape eventually spiraled out of control into Vader being called to the prison and Tolvan having her memories altered through use of a Bor Gullet relative to forget Vader’s plan and thinking that she killed Aphra. 

After this, she joined the Rebel Alliance. Her ethical guide was still order, but seeing all the corruption of the Empire caused her to view the Alliance as the best way to bring order to the galaxy. She became a captain of a Rebel Intelligence strike force, which planned to use a lightsaber gun to assassinate Palpatine. This plan involved forcibly recruiting Aphra, causing her to realize her memories had been altered. The assassination plan turned out to be a honey pot, which Aphra, like usual, turned into a complex scheme. Because of Tolvan, Aphra was motivated to oppose Project Swarm and delete the first discovery of Echo Base. This gave the Rebellion enough time to built up their defenses and have a successful evacuation.

Sana Starros recruited her as part of the team to save Aphra from the Spark Eternal. They haven’t entirely made up for all the drama in the previous run of the comic, but the narrative seems to be leaning towards a poly ending with her, Sana, and Aphra.

[peri-helia]

Okay I love the thought of the Guard and museums or galleries and heists to get back stuff they’ve lost or spotting each other in artwork but I was thinking about Andy’s conversation with Nile.

Nile : Time steals it all away, I guess.

Andy : It's not what time steals... it's what it leaves behind. Things you can't forget.

And museums are as much proof of the time they’ve walked the Earth as…tombs of all the things they’ve loved and lost and times they can never go back to. There are fossils and skeletons of animals. Ghostly impressions of plants and animals that Andy can remember walking past, hunting and eating, can remember how they taste, though there’s no meat on the bone now

There’s Booker’s son’s doll on exhibit, for all the world to see.

The baby’s pig shaped rattle filled with dried beans, that Joe can hear like it was yesterday.

Nicky looking at rows of coral amulets, lost or retrieved from archeological sites as fine examples of the workmanship.

Sculptures and cooking pots and combs and gravestones that people loved and lost, scrimped and saved for, had buried with them so they could have them in their afterlife splintered by time and split across the globe. And these things are remembered and their kept safe and treasured and their stories are told or at least as much as can be but it’s bittersweet, because it’s over, and separated from it’s time and it’s the nostalgia, the opening of old wounds, just the same.

And the Guard are walking museums in their own right, secret libraries of intangible culture. Of skills and songs and stories that they can share, to keep alive, as part of the good they put into the world, as maybe part of the reason why they are still alive. Because it’s not time yet, for them, for the memories they carry to end.

Because it’s not what time steals, it’s what it leaves behind. The things you can’t forget.

[classicschronicles]

Hi lovelies,

A few days ago this new Bollywood movie called Pathaan, starring Shah Rukh Khan and John Abrahams, came out and so obviously I HAD to go and watch it. But fun fact about me is that I am literally a melting pot of different cultures. My dads family are Indian-Kenyan. My mums family were initially (back in the 5th-7th century) a family of Jewish royalty in what is now Afghanistan (which is actually pretty cool). They converted to Islam some time later and became part of a very particular Afghani tribe called the Pathaan (also another reason I had to watch this movie). Over the course of the next few centuries they migrated from Afghanistan to India, before being forced into Pakistan because of colonialism. Throughout all of this, my mums branch of the Pathaan tribe stuck together and so even still, my mum’s family in pure Pathaan, but I’m only half Pathaan because my mum married out. However, me being me did some deep diving into this because it’s actually pretty cool that my family tree can be traced back that far. Okay so at this point you’re probably wondering how on earth this related to Classics, but I found out that the Pathaan langue (Pashto) is actually about 2500 years old, which makes it about the same age as Latin and therefore a classical language! And so today I thought I would tell you a little bit about Pashto.

The Pashto language belongs to the Indi-Iranian language family and is mainly spoken by the ethnic communities of Afghanistan and western provinces of Pakistan, which is partially inhabited by Pashtuns (aka Pathaan’s). It is also still the native language of the indigenous Pathaan people. The language is said to have originated in the Kandahar district of Afghanistan and is said to be one of the two national languages (the other being Dari, a Persian language).

The vocabulary of Pashto has actually not been borrowed or derived from other languages, which is extremely rare for any language still spoken in a modern setting. Many of its lexis do, however, relate to other Eastern Iranian languages such as Pamir and Ossetia.

The exact origin of the Pashto language and the Pathaan tribes are unknown, but the word ‘Pashto’ derives from the regular phonological process. Nevertheless, the Pathaan are sometimes compared with the Pakhta tribes mentioned in Rigvenda, around 1700-1100 B.C., apparently they are the same people that the Greek historian Herodotus referred to Paktika (a northern province in Afghanistan). However, this comparison appears to be due in large part to the apparent similarity between their names, despite the fact that etymologically it can’t really be justified. But there are some archeological compilations and historical data and so the majority of researchers now believe that the Pashto language is around 25000 years old.

Herodotus also mentions the Paktika ‘Apridai’ tribe but it is unknown what language they spoke. However, Strabo (who lived between 64 B.C. and 24 C.E.) suggests that the tribes inhabiting the lands west of the Indus River were part of Ariana and to their east was India. Since about the 3rd century B.C. and onwards from that, these tribes were mostly referred to by the name ‘Afghan’ (or ‘Abgan’) and their language as ‘Afghani’.

Many historians and scholars believe that the earliest piece of written Pashto work dates back to the 8th century. However, a lot of history outside of the western empires lacks the same clarity and information and so even this is highly disputed. However, during the 17th century, Pashto poetry became very popular amongst the Pathaan.

To be honest, there isn’t a whole lot of information on the Pashtun language or the origin of the Pathaan, other than that they have been around since the B.C. But it’s pretty cool to me that my families culture has such a long history. This entry was pretty special to me so hopefully you all enjoyed it and I hope you all have a lovely rest of your weekend!

~Z

[chocolateytruth]

Chocolatey Beginnnings

Do you think an object such as food could shape a whole group of people around it or do the people shape the food into what it needs to be? Figuratively, yes, people shape food into what they want it to become, but in a way for chocolate it was different in Mesoamerica. Chocolate is made from the seeds of the Theobroma cacao tree, named by a botanist in the 1750s, Carl Linnaeus, who created the modern system of naming living organisms- binomial nomenclature. Theobroma in Latin means “the foods of the gods” while the word cacao was taken from the native peoples in Mesoamerica, but linguists have issues tracing which group and where the word originated from in Mesoamerica. Amongst historical linguists they are in between two groups of native people: the Olmec language, mixe-zoquean, calling cacao, “kakaw(a)” and the Aztec or Mexica language related to contemporary Nahuatl calling cacao, “kakawa-ti.” These variations in the words from quite different Native civilizations from different time periods show that cacao had definitely originated from Mesoamerica, but that cacao had a long history that could have been passed throughout Mesoamerica through trade and the meeting and mixing of many people. Through the Olmecs and the Mayans, we could observe the symbolism of cacao held in the two distinct cultures and how the symbolism of cacao had transformed when it came into contact with the Mayans.

The major similarity between the Olmecs and the Mayans is how cacao was held to be a particularly important part in spiritual thought. The Olmecs included cacao in their burial rituals and Archeologists found pottery that has traces of cacao on the plate that were found in a supposed Olmec burial site. The Mayans as well as believe that their people should be buried with cacao so, their spirits may have some cacao to offer to gods. With the meaning came a deep belief that cacao is the food of the gods and that if you had cacao with you when you died, you would have an offering to give to the gods and move on to your eternal resting place. With these beliefs, many people wanted to have cacao with them. Another belief that showed to be fairly similar between these civilizations would be telling stories onto pottery. Most of the accounts we are able to retrieve are through the pottery that have been uncovered in archeological searches of the areas where Natives people have resided. Some of the other accounts are through Codexis, but the best way to know that the pottery found is for chocolate is the glyph that could be seen on numerous amounts of pottery. It said that the earliest evidence of cacao for the Mayan dates back from pottery that belongs to the preclassic period, 2000 BCE-250 CE, located in Belize. Archaeologists believe the pot found in an elite’s burial site could possibly be from 600 BCE, which depicted the cacao glyph, ka-ka-w. The cacao glyph consists of three signs: a fish preceded by a comb-like sign that represents the fin of a fish followed by a last sign that refers to the sign of corn. You can see this glyph of cacao shown on all the pottery placed in the image grouping above. Other pottery like the Popul Vuh, depicts the gods they believe to have significance in their lives such as maize god. The pottery reveals that cacao is used to create humankind which reveals the connection between cacao as an important sustenance in this society as well as the connection to the gods. This is especially important because the Natives placed cacao as an important food commodity that is used in a lot dealing in their daily lives.

The materialistic side where the origins of cacao are seen from the Mayans in the societal classes and where cacao was held in the class system. In the Mayan civilization cacao is held by those who were fortunate enough to have a lot of it in stock in their homes. With this very obvious interest in cacao that is being shown off by the Mayans through pottery to tell their story, we can even see scenes of gatherings that are possibly by the elites who could afford such events as well depicts the elites sharing their wealth with the people that are serving them or lower in their societies standards. This depiction of cacao to be able to share with their people shows how the people can be seen as almost equals and that they are human in comparison to what we will see soon by the Europeans to show that they treat others differently.

The transformation of chocolate can be seen mostly through the depictions of cacao onto pottery, telling the stories of their daily lives, but also why cacao was important in their daily lives. In a way, spiritual ideologies played a key reason cacao was held at such a high importance to the civilizations. The transformation of the bringing together of cultures marks how chocolate transformed Mesoamerica. Spiritual ideologies brought chocolate to a higher standard than that of other goods such as gold. To the Europeans, they sought gold to be the most important commodity, but cacao was the most important ingredient that would have brought the most riches more than gold would have ever.

Bibliography

Lecture

Edgar, Blake. The Power of Chocolate. Archaeology, Vol. 63, No. 6. pp. 20-25.

[tiredfoxtf]

🔥 minecraft as a game

I understand why Mojang do updates the way they do, however. I think that all recent updates are too raw and only half finished.

Like yeah, the archeology is cool, but all we have is pots' shards to collect and one ancient beast to revive. Cherry blossom as biom looks raw, even though the trees are pretty. And that we can't use copper in any good way but lighting rods is very upsetting. Or armor don't have any use, but to be honest this one is good, but maybe if they added also a way to have trims on tools and weapons. I wish more use was added to stuff. Because I'm pragmatic like that.

[katya-1917]

I know how seriously everyone's taking this, but I just have this ridiculous idea... Winnie the Pooh somehow ends up on an archeological expedition. Where they find a truly *ancient* pot of hunny.

Pooh is the one who first identifies it as hunny.

Pooh is also the one who accidentally eats it. All of it. The others catch him with his head in the ancient earthenware jar, trying to get the last bits of hunny out.

The rest of the group are left having to figure out how to report/catalog "jar found filled with ancient honey, honey eaten by stuffed bear brought on expedition by accident, jar now empty".

Pooh swears he didn't realise. He thought it was a hunny pot he'd brought to eat. Because the hunny tasted perfectly fine. And the pot didn't look all that different from his hunny pots.

Would this be the worst thing Pooh's ever destroyed? But also, how can you be mad at *Pooh Bear* for *eating hunny* without thinking?

I dunno, I just tend to think of Pooh when I see anything involving honey, and I think this is hilarious.

honey is the only food product that never spoils. there are pots of honey that are over five thousand years old and still completely edible

[jambenvs3000f24]

Unit 06 Blog Post

“There is no peculiar merit in ancient things, but there is merit in integrity, and integrity entails the keeping together of the parts of any whole, and if these parts are scattered throughout time, then the maintenance of integrity entails a knowledge, a memory, of ancient things. …. To think, feel or act as though the past is done with, is equivalent to believing that a railway station through which our train has just passed, only existed for as long as our train was in it."

- Edward Hyams

This quote reflects on the value of history and historical education and reflection.Before I begin let me define my definition of “history” for the remaining blog post. I am using the word “history” to encompass all past events, recorded or not, anthropogenic or not, tangible or not. 

I’m going to begin with the second half of the quote first. Edward Hyams uses a metaphor to illustrate the relevance of history in daily life; the train representing an individual and the station a moment in time. Even if the individual never saw that moment in time, continuing the metaphor, maybe they got on the train after it had left a particular station, that station still exists, its passengers are still on the train, maybe someone threw a tomato at the side of the train, the mark would still be there. While the metaphor is maybe getting out of hand, the idea that the past is relevant even if we aren't actively “seeing” it. 

An example more grounded in reality and in nature interpretation: we know Canada was at one point mostly covered in glaciers, no human alive today was there to see it, but we know it happened due to geography, biotic distribution, etc. Even though we can’t directly perceive it, its effects have greatly shaped where human settlements are, where and how organisms live, and the cultural connotations of those two factors. The past shapes the present and to think it doesnt is like closing your eyes and saying the world disappeared.

Now before moving on to the first section of the quote, one more detour; why I chose to address the second half first. The second half of the quote in my opinion is a reflection on the relevancy of history while the first half is a more philosophical approach to why history matters to humans. One is a reflection on how history is perceived and influences daily life and actions, the other an explanation as to why history has such an important role. So in very short, I wanted to address the how before the why. History undoubtable shapes the present and the future, but why it so deeply impacts humans specifically is in my opinion the aim of the first half.

Now for the first half. Humans ascribe meaning and value to ancient things because they are a piece of our whole. Hyams describes history as pieces of a whole scattered throughout time, each individual peice is worth very little, but when combined int a whole with integrity it becomes part of something so much larger. A good example of this is archeological context. Seeing a pot shard on a table doesn’t tell you much about it. You can maybe discern it’s age, use comparative analysis to discern similarities with other pots. But, finding the same pot shard in a grave along with tools, a skeleton, and other pieces of art, more can be discerned about the cultural significance of the pot shard, the people who used it, and its context. Taking a single historical event, object etc. and isolating it renders it useless.

In terms of nature interpretation this is so important to keep in mind and reflect on, the interpretation, presentation, and reflection of the past shapes how we move forward.

[psychreviews2]

Object Relations: Fear Of Success Pt. 7-1

Power, Control, and Fear

To look at success for human beings, it follows that a review of our ancestors and what success meant for them should be included. Whether we are talking about animals, or the human animal, you have a consciousness that needs to feed, feels craving, and searches the landscape for sustenance. Through trial and error, different strategies were developed over many eons. There would have been a mixture of cooperation and conflict. From the evolutionary point of view, humans were connected to early primates. DNA analyses includes a wide variety of dates when human ancestors diverged from the other primates. Because of long time spans in the millions of years, it stands to reason that genetic mutations would have made small changes over time and human ancestors would have mated with other primates for some time before the divergence was permanent. In Genetic evidence for complex speciation of humans and chimpanzees, researchers found that "...Chromosome X [showed] an extremely young genetic divergence time, close to the genome minimum along nearly its entire length. These unexpected features would be explained if the human and chimpanzee lineages initially diverged, then later exchanged genes before separating permanently."

Part of the divergence could be explained by developments to endlessly improve to master the environment. In the case of humans, it was always to advance technology one level further. Learning to master fire and using primitive stone tools were some of the earliest impactful developments our ancestors achieved. You can find a good example from some of the oldest archeological evidence of pre-historical ancestors that was found in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. The gorge was tested and found to be wetter and cooler than it is today. The location provides a look at the transition from bite marks to cut marks made from stone tools. The advent of stone tools, through evidence of stone cutting on animal bones, allowed for some of the earliest forms of technological power. Because evidence is still sparse on how stone tools related to human development, it is reasonable to assume that stone tools could have been made to process carcasses for meat, used as weapons, or to make other tools. There are also theories on how difficult and dangerous it would be to make these stone tools without cutting oneself and that there may have been an earlier period when appropriate shapes were sought out before being made more generally.

Because life was short during the Stone Age, with life expectancies in the 30s, it's conceivable that there would have been fights over scarcity amongst other humans and primates, just like we see with wild animals today. Success would often be more than just finding resources but also successfully protecting oneself from violence and theft or succeeding to steal or kill without consequence.  René Girard theorized about early human conflicts and how myths and religions may have came out of early forms of gaslighting to maintain power and control to support the victors in any conflict. Certainly, animals show fights over scarcity with every battle over a carcass, but the earliest evidences of human to human violence can only be found much later in Nataruk. Robin Seemangal summarized those important findings. "About 10,000 years ago in eastern Africa, a resource-rich, fertile lagoon known as Nataruk was the setting for humanity’s earliest known violent conflict which resulted in the brutal killing of over two dozen prehistoric men, women and children...'The Nataruk massacre may have resulted from an attempt to seize resources–territory, women, children, food stored in pots–whose value was similar to those of later food-producing agricultural societies, among whom violent attacks on settlements became part of life,' said Cambridge’s Dr Marta Mirazon Lahr, who led the Nataruk study, published in the journal Nature...They concluded that the conflict that left at least 27 dead, occurred sometime between 9,500 to 10,500 years ago in the early years following the last Ice Age—known as the Holocene epoch. Sometimes referred to as the 'Age of Man,' this era accounts for last 11,700 years of humanity’s recorded history...Nataruk is thought to have been a habitat rich with marsh and surrounded by a forest—indicating that it was an ideal home for a large population of hunter-gatherers. The inhabitants and subsequent victims of the conflict that ensued, are thought to be members of an extended family that lived there together..."

Seven Samurai - Akira Kurosawa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V4dEWPJKNk

"Researchers have not come to a consensus on the matter of how violence became a part of human civilization but theorize that we either carried it with us from 'deep in our evolutionary history' or it appeared along with the construct of land settlement and ownership...Antagonistic rivalry among later hunter-gatherer groups usually resulted in violence that left the males of the opposing sides dead while females and children were often assimilated into the triumphant group. The varying remains at Nataruk indicate that this probably was not the case. It’s also important to note that certain earmarks of rivalry-driven conflict like dismemberment or trophy-taking were not found at Nataruk. 21 adults that included eight males, eight females and five unknown were found along with the remains of six children. These young victims were all under the age of six except for one whose dental analysis placed them between 12-15 years old. 12 of the skeletons were found intact and 10 of those paint a vivid picture of the massacre. The victims suffered from blunt-force trauma to the head, broken bones throughout their bodies, and fatal injuries caused by projectile weapons. One of the males had a sharpened blade fabricated with obsidian lodged in his head but not fully puncturing the bone. Another injury on the same skeleton indicates that a secondary weapon was used to crush the victim’s head and face. 'The man appears to have been hit in the head by at least two projectiles and in the knees by a blunt instrument, falling face down into the lagoon’s shallow water,' said Dr. Mirazon Lahr. A few of the skeletons were found face down and some in positions that illustrate bounding or imprisonment by their attackers. One of these victims was a female in the final months of pregnancy as evident by the fetal bones discovered within her abdominal cavity."

The Earliest Evidence of Violent Human Conflict Has Been Discovered - Robin Seemangal: https://observer.com/2016/01/the-earliest-evidence-of-violent-human-conflict-has-been-discovered/

Discoveries at Nataruk: http://in-africa.org/discoveries-at-nataruk/

Male lions at top speed: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xsMUp58apXk

Nataruk: Evidence of a prehistoric massacre: https://youtu.be/05jK_-YThxY?si=NhZ3MZdgpTBfuhJt

Even with gaps in evidence, there are plenty of historical documents and anthropological studies that show curious rituals that Girard found were all the precursors to modern religions and the social response to uncontrollable violence that could at any moment erupt and destroy a civilization, and any forms of social success along with them. Girard was critical of both psychoanalysis and anthropology for either ridiculing ancestors for superstition without seeing deeper meanings in those early taboos and ancient attempts at social control. René was still thankful for the efforts of psychoanalysis and anthropology for recording case studies and allowing more avenues of interpretation. For Girard, evidence of scapegoating is all over the material, and "...for the Freudian notion of transference, inadequate as it is in some respects, should at least have alerted us that something vital is missing from the picture." Sir James Frazer provided his own description of projection, transference, and scapegoating despite looking at it as an archaic way of thinking, which in the end a modern readership would find contemporary nonetheless.

"The notion that we can transfer our guilt and sufferings to some other being who will bear them for us is familiar to the savage mind. It arises from a very obvious confusion between the physical and the mental, between the material and the immaterial. Because it is possible to shift a load of wood, stones, or what not, from our own back to the back of another, the savage fancies that it is equally possible to shift the burden of his pains and sorrows to another, who will suffer them in his stead. Upon this idea he acts, and the result is an endless number of very unamiable devices for palming off upon some one else the trouble which a man shrinks from bearing himself. In short, the principle of vicarious suffering is commonly understood and practised by races who stand on a low level of social and intellectual culture."

Despite the pompous superiority complex modern humans have, there's no doubt that there is always a pecking order in any modern society and political activity belongs as much to us modern "savages." Humans have battled with each other to include ever more people into suffrage and political franchise so policy wasn't only left for property owning males that controlled everything, yet the modern world is still ensnared by money, power, control, and the role of ownership continues to confer political power. Modern politics is rife with criticisms of lobbyists who have outsized political influence correlating to their wealth. The franchise has less and less power as one owns less and less property. Those who have outsized power also can avoid consequences of their mistakes whereas the powerless have little to no resources to defend themselves. For example, people with less resources are not likely to be able to afford the best legal defense. The world of work and production is ideally about reciprocity, but evidence of blame shifting is quite easy to see, as well as examples of scapegoating, and double-standards. Pure accountability is an abstract ideal.

With simple implements and early attempts at farming, there already was evidence of unfairness including marauding, cannibalism, raping, and pillaging. For our ancestors, power and control started over animals and territory. Craving led our ancestors to become both greedy and envious. With each injustice, there were attempts to get a grip on understanding what had happened. Was there a God involved? Was there a Karma or spiritual punishment for what happened? Was there going to be punishment through reprisal from other villages or was it all combined with a sorcery aiming at revenge? The need for ritual to appease an angry deity required some kind of cost, but for the one who has power, and can fight back, there was no incentive or pressure that could get people to police themselves. The cost had to come from the usefulness of what was under control, including slaves, servants, and what could be sacrificed in animal husbandry. That cost is allowed for the powerful perpetrator to survive, provide atonement, and appease the aggrieved, without the accountability to fall on their shoulders alone. "The sacrificial animals were always those most prized for their usefulness: the gentlest, most innocent creatures, whose habits and instincts brought them most closely into harmony with man...From the animal realm were chosen as victims those who were, if we might use the phrase, the most human in nature...Society is seeking to deflect upon a relatively indifferent victim, a 'sacrificeable' victim, the violence that would otherwise be vented on its own members, the people it most desires to protect...In a general study of sacrifice there is little reason to differentiate between human and animal victims. When the principle of the substitution is physical resemblance between the vicarious victim and its prototypes, the mere fact that both victims are human beings seems to suffice. Thus, it is hardly surprising that in some societies whole categories of human beings are systematically reserved for sacrificial purposes in order to protect other categories...This dividing of sacrifice into two categories, human and animal, has itself a sacrificial character, in a strictly ritualistic sense. The division is based in effect on a value judgement: on the preconception that one category of victim—the human being—is quite unsuitable for sacrificial purposes, while another category—the animal—is eminently sacrificeable." When animal sacrifices are not considered enough, humans will do, and it was especially the least powerfully connected humans in ancient society, and Girard included outsiders, and outliers who were given power for a time to guide the village, until a revolution was necessary to dislodge them in a crisis. "It includes prisoners of war, slaves, small children, unmarried adolescents, and the handicapped; it ranges from the very dregs of society, such as the Greek pharmakos, to the king himself."

The Wicker Man (1973) sacrifice scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRKaAiBy-Go

The Pharmakos was a Greek form of purification for a community or a city where targets were exiled or killed when a disaster occurred, such as a famine, invasion, or plague. "In Athens, for example, a man and a woman who were considered ugly were selected as scapegoats each year. At the festival of the Thargelia in May or June, they were feasted, led round the town, beaten with green twigs, and driven out or killed with stones. The practice in Colophon, on the coast of Asia Minor (the part of modern Turkey that lies in Asia) was described by the 6th-century-BC poet Hipponax (fragments 5–11). An especially ugly man was honoured by the community with a feast of figs, barley soup, and cheese. Then he was whipped with fig branches, with care that he was hit seven times on his phallus, before being driven out of town. (Medieval sources said that the Colophonian pharmākos was burned and his ashes scattered in the sea.) The custom was meant to rid the place annually of ill luck." Even more famous for the Greeks was Socrates who led a poor life, to the anger of his wife, and was accused of being a bad influence on the youth of Athens. His sentence was to drink hemlock, which he did to keep philosophical consistency.

Pharmakos - Encyclopedia Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/topic/pharmakos

When there is blame for a poor harvest or some other incompetence, as long as people are powerful enough to retaliate, they become less of a target. Those who are not considered "essential" to the economy are prime targets, to borrow from Schindler's List. Girard used Euripides' Medea, as an example of social power coalescing on a scapegoat through mutual interest. The desperate need to vent speeds up the process of scapegoating because of the immediate pain and desire to feel relief as soon as possible. "'I am sure her anger will not subside until it has found a victim. Let us pray that the victim is at least one of our enemies!'...The classic literature of China explicitly acknowledges the propitiatory function of sacrificial rites. Such practices 'pacify the country and make the people settled...It is through the sacrifices that the unity of the people is strengthened.' The Book of Rites affirms that sacrificial ceremonies, music, punishments, and laws have one and the same end: to unite society and establish order...The role of sacrifice is to stem this rising tide of indiscriminate substitutions and redirect violence into 'proper' channels'...What we are dealing with, therefore, are exterior or marginal individuals, incapable of establishing or sharing the social bonds that link the rest of the inhabitants. Their status as foreigners or enemies, their servile condition, or simply their age prevents these future victims from fully integrating themselves into the community."

Essential Workers - Schindler's List: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDo6eHyeI8E

NY Gov. Cuomo: 'You want to go to work? Go take a job as an essential worker.' | ABC News: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biorRAQJhH8

Through myth-making and gaslighting, narratives are used to placate the populace or to distract them. "Sacrificial substitution implies a degree of misunderstanding. Its vitality as an institution depends on its ability to conceal the displacement upon which the rite is based. It must never lose sight entirely, however, of the original object, or cease to be aware of the act of transference from that object to the surrogate victim; without that awareness no substitution can take place and the sacrifice loses all efficacy...The theological basis of the sacrifice has a crucial role in fostering this misunderstanding. It is the god who supposedly demands the victims; he alone, in principle, who savors the smoke from the altars and requisitions the slaughtered flesh. It is to appease his anger that the killing goes on, that the victims multiply...Godfrey Lienhardt (in Divinity and Experience) and Victor Turner (in a number of works, especially The Drums of Affliction), drawing from fieldwork, portray sacrifice as practiced among the Dinka and the Ndembu as a deliberate act of collective substitution performed at the expense of the victim and absorbing all the internal tensions, feuds, and rivalries pent up within the community...The sacrifice serves to protect the entire community from its own violence; it prompts the entire community to choose victims outside itself. The elements of dissension scattered throughout the community are drawn to the person of the sacrificial victim and eliminated, at least temporarily, by its sacrifice...This common denominator is internal violence—all the dissensions, rivalries, jealousies, and quarrels within the community that the sacrifices are designed to suppress. The purpose of the sacrifice is to restore harmony to the community, to reinforce the social fabric...But what about the king? Is he not at the very heart of the community? Undoubtedly—but it is precisely his position at the center that serves to isolate him from his fellow men, to render him casteless. He escapes from society, so to speak, via the roof, just as the pharmakos escapes through the cellar. The king has a sort of foil, however, in the person of his fool. The fool shares his master's status as an outsider—an isolation whose literal truth is often of greater significance than the easily reversible svmbolic values often attributed to it. From every point of view the fool is eminently 'sacrificeable,' and the king can use him to vent his own anger. But it sometimes happens that the king himself is sacrificed..." A good example of rulers being scapegoated is the ancient Chinese Mandate of Heaven when poverty or natural disasters lead to an overthrow.

These internal struggles involve the usual blame for incompetence and powerful jockeying to exact punishment with deflected results. "When men no longer live in harmony with one another, the sun still shines and the rain falls, to be sure, but the fields are less well tended, the harvests less abundant." We get idioms like "don't kill the messenger" that communicate that fear of becoming a scapegoat, because "all our sacrificial victims, whether chosen from one of the human categories enumerated above or, a fortiori, from the animal realm, are invariably distinguishable from the non-sacrificeable beings by one essential characteristic: between these victims and the community a crucial social link is missing, so they can be exposed to violence without fear of reprisal. Their death does not automatically entail an act of vengeance...The desire to commit an act of violence on those near us cannot be suppressed without a conflict; we must divert that impulse, therefore, toward the sacrificial victim, the creature we can strike down without fear of reprisal, since he lacks a champion." This sends a telepathic message to all people to seek power precisely to avoid this calamity. All these ideas of stability in modern political structures are all about evaluating if there are enough checks and balances in a society to maintain an equal application of the rule of law. Maxims like "peace through strength" also illuminate the reality that if you want peace you have to be able to defend it. By appearing strong to others, attempts at criminality tend to evaporate before they start. Weakness invites scapegoating.

With inaccurate forms of revenge, through adventurism, perpetrating, and scapegoating, it can turn into the criticism against the "eye for an eye" maxim, even though that maxim hints that truly guilty people should pay for their actions in one form or another. The problem is when justice is inaccurate. "Why does the spirit of revenge, wherever it breaks out, constitute such an intolerable menace? Perhaps because the only satisfactory revenge for spilt blood is spilling the blood of the killer; and in the blood feud there is no clear distinction between the act for which the killer is being punished and the punishment itself. Vengeance professes to be an act of reprisal, and every reprisal calls for another reprisal. The crime to which the act of vengeance addresses itself is almost never an unprecedented offense; in almost every case it has been committed in revenge for some prior crime." As long as one side claims an entitlement for its adventurism, for example birthrights, rights conferred from God, cultural values of importance, etc., the ball gets rolling and those who are victims will make a claim based on victimhood and then a series of reprisals continue ad infinitum. A society with a weak justice system simply reverts to these messy scenarios of trials by combat, religious sacrifices, blame-shifting, and endless rounds of innocent people baring the brunt for the powerful and their scandals. "To make a victim out of the guilty party is to play vengeance's role, to submit to the demands of violence. By killing, not the murderer himself, but someone close to him, an act of perfect reciprocity is avoided and the necessity for revenge by-passed. If the counterviolence were inflicted on the aggressor himself, it would by this very act participate in, and become indistinguishable from, the original act of violence. In short, it would become an act of pure vengeance, requiring yet another act of vengeance and transforming itself into the very thing it was designed to prevent...Only violence can put an end to violence, and that is why violence is self-propagating. Everyone wants to strike the last blow, and reprisal can thus follow reprisal without any true conclusion ever being reached." Scapegoating provides a way to accept a cost by killing an innocent person, which is the same as the original killing of an innocent person in historical record. It also acknowledges that the true killer is still dangerous and their strength is a deterrent for accurate justice. When the violence ceases for a period of time, after an efficacious scapegoating, that peace is revered and made into myth-making as well as a posthumous appreciation for the scapegoat that provided that peace.

Topsy-Turvy - The Mikado - Timothy Spall: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbE0wZaXiLI

"We owe our good fortune to one of our social institutions above all: our judicial system, which serves to deflect the menace of vengeance. The system does not suppress vengeance; rather, it effectively limits it to a single act of reprisal, enacted by a sovereign authority specializing in this particular function. The decisions of the judiciary are invariably presented as the final word on vengeance." If you add confusion onto who is responsible, like seen in crowds and mobs, it becomes easier and easier to see how one can hide culpability in a group and deflect accurate justice, because there are no processes for investigation and discovery. "Collective responsibility never specifically excludes the true culprit, and that is precisely what is being done here. Even if this exclusion is not clearly spelled out, there is sufficient evidence for us to assume that in many instances the true culprit is systematically spared. As a cultural attitude, this certainly demands attention...There is no universal rule for quelling violence, no principle of guaranteed effectiveness. At times all the remedies, harsh as well as gentle, seem efficacious; at other times, every measure seems to heighten the fever it is striving to abate." This strikes home the very importance of an impartial judicial system. When it is corrupted, the old system begins it's return. There are "...those that possess a 'central authority,' and those that do not...This group [in authority] confronts the other group in the same way that a sovereign state confronts the outside world. There can be no true 'administering of justice,' no judicial system without a superior tribunal capable of arbitrating between even the most powerful groups. Only that superior tribunal can remove the possibility of blood feud or perpetual vendetta...As long as there exists no sovereign and independent body capable of taking the place of the injured party and taking upon itself the responsibility for revenge, the danger of interminable escalation remains." This is key in that those who are in the powerless category must have access to a powerful defense to prevent rampant scapegoating.

Many examples of how scapegoating can arise are described in the law profession and law publications:

Anonymous accusations with no ability to corroborate the claims. Eg. Anonymous media leaks. Gossip.

Conflation of individuals who are in a group or category to predict behavior, and to also label a social movement as wholly evil based on a few bad apples.

Accusing innocent people to avoid punishment, which is made easier if the scapegoat has been guilty of other things in the past. Eg. Attributing murders to an already convicted murderer. This can also be done in the reverse depending on the actual evidence. A murderer could take their undetected crimes and blame them on someone else.

Using incidents that resemble a current social issue of victimhood, but when a closer look is taken, it's found to not be the case. These incidents can be used to advance a social political agenda.

Revenge scapegoating in response to prior scapegoating.

Associating different lifestyles as deviant as a way to claim more resources and opportunities for oneself. Eg. The entitlement of a "pillar of the community" or political leader.

Using dubious measures of self-sacrifice as a way to claim more resources and opportunities for oneself.

Passing off personal expenses onto corporations, shareholders, or taxpayers.

The Temptations of Scapegoating - Daniel B. Yeager: https://www.law.georgetown.edu/american-criminal-law-review/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2019/06/56-4-The-temptations-of-scapegoating.pdf

How these substitutions are successfully achieved are often through skilled gaslighting, as described above, and or undetected projection.

Patterson, N., Richter, D., Gnerre, S. et al. Genetic evidence for complex speciation of humans and chimpanzees. Nature 441, 1103–1108 (2006).

Moorjani P, Amorim CE, Arndt PF, Przeworski M. Variation in the molecular clock of primates. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 Sep 20;113(38):10607-12.

Domínguez-Rodrigo, M., Baquedano, E., Organista, E. et al. Early Pleistocene faunivorous hominins were not kleptoparasitic, and this impacted the evolution of human anatomy and socio-ecology. Sci Rep 11, 16135 (2021).

Lahr, M. M., Rivera, F., Power, R. K., Mounier, A., Copsey, B., Crivellaro, F., … Foley, R. A. (2016). Inter-group violence among early Holocene hunter-gatherers of West Turkana, Kenya. Nature, 529(7586), 394–398.

Violence and the Sacred by René Girard: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9780801822186/

Evolution of the Human Diet: The Known, the Unknown, and the Unknowable by Peter S. Ungar: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9780195183474/

General History of Africa - Vol. 1 by Joseph Ki-Zerbo, Unesco Staff, Mokhtar: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9780520039124/

Projection and Personality Development via the Eight-function Model by Carol Shumate: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9780367341381/

Transference And Projection by Jan Grant, Jim Crawley: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9780335203147/

Projection and re-collection in Jungian psychology by Marie Louise von Franz: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9780875484174/

Newman, Leonard & Duff, Kimberly & Baumeister, Roy. (1997). A new look at defensive projection: Thought suppression, accessibility, and biased person perception. Journal of personality and social psychology. 72. 980-1001.

Identity and Identification by Ken Arnold, James Peto, Mick Gordon, Chris Wilkinson, Hugh Aldersey-Williams, The Wellcome Trust: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9781906155865/

Brodey WM. On the dynamics of narcissism. I. Externalization and early ego development. Psychoanal Study Child. 1965;20:165-93.

Marcus, Kenneth L., Accusation in a Mirror (2012). Loyola University Chicago Law Journal, Vol. 43, No. 2, pp. 357 - 393, 2012

Atrocity Speech Law by Gregory S. Gordon, Benjamin Ferencz: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9780190612689/

A World Transformed by George Bush, Brent Scowcroft: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9780679752592/

No Trade Is Free - Robert Lighthizer: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9780063282131/

The People's Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited by Louisa Lim: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9780199347704/

Prisoner of the State - Zhao Ziyang: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9781439149393/

Dark Aeon : Transhumanism and the War Against Humanity by Joe Allen: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9781648210105/

HOU Lulu, LIU Yungang, Life Circle Construction in China under the Idea of Collaborative Governance: A Comparative Study of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, Geographical review of Japan series B, 2017, Volume 90, Issue 1, Pages 2-16

Psychology: http://psychreviews.org/category/psychology01/

Fear of Success Pt. 1: https://psychreviews.org/fear-of-success/

Fear of Success Pt. 2: https://psychreviews.org/object-relations-fear-of-success-pt-2/

Fear of Success Pt. 3: https://psychreviews.org/object-relations-fear-of-success-pt-3/

Fear of Success Pt. 4: https://psychreviews.org/object-relations-fear-of-success-pt-4/

Fear of Success Pt. 5: https://psychreviews.org/object-relations-fear-of-success-pt-5/

Fear of Success Pt. 6: https://psychreviews.org/object-relations-fear-of-success-pt-6/

[foxglove03]

I love Edie Sedwick. I don't know when I first discovered her image, who she was, and every ounce of her history. If I was going to give a ballpark guess I'd say Pinterest or previous fixations on other factory members. She is so impossibly beautiful, like this bright light of intelligence and genuine spirit. I was recently in a gallery that had a series of Andy Warhol's screen tests and they placed hers a few screens away from Dylan's. Everyone's screen tests were postured with this very curated look to the camera. Most of the women who were in the screen tests were models or actors, as was Edie. But she was independent from all of them. She was the only person who looked as if they were truly being looked at or even looked through. Her expression is like when you've noticed someone has been staring at you a good long while sitting in a restaurant or cafe, that type of uncertainty if a person is looking at you for the right reasons. Is it disdain or admiration?

I had drawn a cartoon cat on a postcard in exchange for some good ol' pot a few weekends ago. It was my second time in a real Irish apartment, not a dorm or hostel or other nightmare. The guy I did the drawing for was a bit odd but he lived with 4 Italian girls who were able to coexist with him pretty soundly. He didn't seem to quite live in a room in the apartment, rather the janky closet beside the kitchen. His books were piled up to the top of the windows in the living room, titles on European archeology and Irish medieval history. A pizza box was sort of tucked away by his knee. He asked me if I wanted to play the new maps on Mario Kart after I had finished the drawing for him. He handed me a pipe that looked like a hinge off a door or some metal screw left around as a spare. His broken lighter burnt my hand. We played two rounds and he told me stories about a former roommate he believed to have some social issues for about an hour. I've got this problem with not knowing how to end a conversation. I hate lulls in every type of interaction because it makes me feel like I'm being punished. Whenever I could've ended it I was barely at the start of drooling out another sentence. Eventually, I just started to close my backpack as he kept talking and stood sort of haplessly in front of my chair. Nothing was interesting out the window, there was a poster on the wall that seemed out of character for the guy. Before I left, he showed me a spear he had made out of parts he had found, made me try on a jacket (I was a bit confused by that one because I had on a jacket), and stood in his kitchen for a few moments. Three hours after I had arrived, I left and walked to the mall off the town square.

I hadn't eaten too much and went to a coffee shop in the food court. Where I grew up, most local malls were outdoor functions and not quite the pinochle of Christmas commercialism. We had music and decorations it’s just not authentic when it’s absolutely boiling on December 15th. Plus, the magic of Christmas music echoing through the sterile halls of a local mall is special. It’s that once a year sort of goodness, the time where it feels good to be a bit of an idiot and buy into something.

I ordered a gingerbread man and tea. For a moment I sat there in this cafe trying to draw different types of boxes for a comic strip I had planned in my head. Three separate pages and I couldn't do it the way I pictured. I’d to the boxes, uneven. I’d do the title, smudge it. I looked up from my work and this woman was staring at me. Sometimes I imagine things so my knee jerk reaction was to assume she wasn’t staring at me, I wanted attention or I was high and confused. Then I looked up again and she was still staring at me. She was an old Irish lady crouched in the table across from me. She finished her drink a while before and it was right in front of her with a crumpled napkin sitting against it, and she looked disgusted. Or horrified, or absolutely placid. I was sure she was staring at me and she knew I had noticed because I looked up at her three times in quick succession. Like Edie’s uncertainty in Screen Test I felt some inkling of white hot embarrassment. I was being picked apart. It’s what you want, to be noticed. It’s what I’ve always wanted at least. When you’re given everything you want, it becomes a bit disgusting. That scene in Daises with the food all laid out before them comes to mind. Ideas are really the best things to desire.

The woman came up to me and said, “I’m so sorry for staring at you. I was just looking at your makeup.” In fairness, a large quantity of black and grey crap was around my eyes. Recently I started wearing makeup everyday which I haven’t done since high school. I said back to her before she got the last bit of her sentence in the open, “It’s all good! Thank you!” I wonder if that was the real reason she was looking at me that long. Maybe I caught her?

Edie Sedgwick said when reflecting on her time in New York, “You have to put up with people projecting their own attitudes, ideas, misunderstanding you.” I think a do a little misunderstanding rather than being misunderstood. If my life were perfect, it would be the other way around.

(writer’s note: god I’m so cringeworthy, forgive me internet and the no one who likes my posts)

[science-fiction-is-real]

There was a biblical scholar living in the state that likes to call itself Israel, and he was taking a group of students up to a popular archeological site. The professor picked up a random piece of pottery off the ground and began scratching onto it to demonstrate how folks back in the day would write on pottery. Then afterwards, without thinking twice, the professor throws his little pot shard on the ground and he and the students continue on their merry way.

Archeologists found the pot shard a while later. From what I remember of the story, this little pot shard was big news because it would have rewritten a lot of what was known about the people who had lived at that historical sight. Experts examined the shard carefully and found it to be essentially identical to authentic shards due to the technique that was used to write on it. The professor recognized his handiwork on social media and had to say "no, that was carved in like, 2017, not 500 bc."

I believe this was from the podcast "data over dogma," a podcast focusing on biblical scholarship