Rise Up, Oh Heart, For There is Another Battle to Win

30 was never a life expectancy, historically

bantarleton:

bloodedcelt:

heroineimages:

Three years ago after I turned thirty, I remember some wise-ass asking me how it felt to know that I’d outlived most people from the Middle Ages. To which I replied, “technically, I did that when I turned two years old.” The statistic that people from the Middle Ages and Ancient Era only lived to be around 30 is grossly misrepresented, and I feel like more effort needs to be put into fixing that misunderstanding, because far too many historical, cultural, and sociological theories are based around it.

While technically it’s a true statistic, what’s so rarely brought up is the fact that the reason for this was the very high infant mortality rate among past cultures globally. When two-thirds of the global human population dies before their first birthday, it tends to skew the life-expectancy averages southwards. Any cursory historical research will turn up dozens of figures who lived into their 50s, 60s, or 70s, and even many slaves, peasants, and laborers who had shorter life expectancies tended to live well into their 40s. I mean, Caesar was 56 and still kicking ass when he was assassinated, Charlemagne was in his late 60s, Alexander the Great was almost 33 and every text ever written about him says that he died young. I hate it when something gets accepted as common knowledge without proper context, and I hope if nothing else this post gets a few people to rethink their understanding of what they know about history.

Psalm 90:10

Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.

Most of the Psalms date to Solomon’s reign, which was around 3000 years ago; the more recent are from the Babylonian Captivity which was around 2500 years ago.  While many died much younger of disease or infections (not to mention war and murder) people even in the Bronze age lived a good long time if they made it past age 5 or so.

Just tacking this on as another common one, I’m not sure about medieval times but in the 17th century the average age people got married at was actually a year or so OLDER than the average western age today.

(via bronzedragon)

jenniferrpovey:

thymoss:

railroadsoftware:

no one ever says that Rome needed help from aliens to build their empire

#l laughed for days when i found out that #ancient egyptians used water to reduce friction and move blocks for distances #and that this was literally DEPICTED ON THEIR HIEROGLYPHICS #but ~western archaeologists~ #thought that the pouring of water depicted ~superstitious rituals~ #jfc

As an archeology major, I can vouch for this being absolutely true:

Any time we see something we don’t understand, we mark it down as ritual purposes. It’s actually a catch-all euphemism for “We have absolutely no clue what these people were doing here yet so until we work it out we’ll pretend it was something to do with their religion.”

And yeah, sometimes it is a white people thing. When white people went into Canada the natives introduced them to the delights of maple syrup. The white people asked “Well, how did you ever work out this sap was edible and delicious.”

The native people responded, “Oh, well, Squirrel showed us.”

White people: Hahahaha They’re off on that totem animal spirit guide thing again.

It wasn’t until this century that scientists actually observed squirrels in that area cutting holes in sugar maples, waiting for the sap to crystallize, and eating it.

The native people were actually being literal and the white people thought they were being metaphorical. Sigh.

(via cthulhu-with-a-fez)

A note to my fellow white feminists about the renewal of Agent Carter

medievalpoc:

karnythia:

gearsofpleasure:

knitmeapony:

Okay, remember when there was a lot of criticism about the lack of PoC in Agent Carter, and remember when everyone was freaking out about how that might mean it doesn't’ get renewed?

And you see now how it’s renewed?

It’s time to own the ‘it’ll get better in season 2′ and ‘give season 2 a chance if we get one’ and every time we suggested that folks who wanted better representation in that show should wait.

Start talking about it now. Start writing to the network now, and the writers, and get the word out there.

We’re SO EXCITED about Season 2, and we can’t wait to see a lot more diversity.  Where’s Jim Morita?  Where’s Gabe Jones?  Where are plots dealing with racial issues in the era?  Where are all the women of color?  It’s NEW YORK CITY, FFS.  By both actual reality and comics canon, the show is about 8000% too white.

SEASON TWO IS A LOCK, SO LET’S START ASKING FOR EVERYTHING WE SAID WE WERE WAITING FOR.

Push.  Push hard.  Because a LOT of us told the women of color who complained about the lack of intersectionaliity to wait.

The wait is over.

There was no diversity in the 40′s, people of color couldn’t drink from the same water fountains or ride in cabs. No need to fake it, if the show is about the 40′s well they were correct in season 1 i do not think any poc were agents of any kind in the 40′s 50;s 60′s 70′s The show is about agent carter not race relations.

You’re wrong in the MCU and in reality. There were Black Congressmen from the 1870′s on so this myth of complete segregation has never been true or possible. The first Black FBI special agent was James Wormley Jones who was appointed in 1919. Basic American history, federal jobs were integrated (not that they were ever really completely segregated) by Roosevelt with Executive Order  8802 in June 1941. In fact after WWII Truman continued to support desegregation of the armed forces and all other agencies, going so far in 1948 to appoint the first Black Federal judge among other high ranking positions, and issuing Executive Order 9981 which stated that  "there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in  the armed forces without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin.“ By the end of the Korean War almost every unit in the military was integrated.

That’s before we get into how Jim Crow actually worked. Black & white people didn’t necessarily socialize in all places (though that list was mostly schools and church), but they worked in the same places, went to the same movie theaters, white people frequented clubs in Black neighborhoods like Harlem, Black people worked and performed in clubs with white audiences etc. Black and white people ate in the same restaurants, just at two different counters or sides of the same building. Their communities were side by side, they used the same transit systems, the idea was separate but equal even if the execution missed the mark. So the MCU was integrated as a reflection of the reality of the 1940′s. Some hotels didn’t allow Black people, but many did, especially at the lower end of the economic scale like the boarding house where Peggy lives. There’s literally no canonical or historical reason to erase the diversity of New York City in Agent Carter.

I think we all owe karnythia a debt of gratitude for the free history lessons, and I want to acknowledge that the painful need for them remains. “There was no diversity in the 40′s”? In New York City? The 20th century isn’t my area of expertise, but even I know that’s a ridiculous inaccuracy meant to silence justified criticism of a show being made right now.

(via cthulhu-with-a-fez)

wildflower-faerie:

thishazeleyeddemon:

autieblesam:

lesbianshepard:

my fave greek history story to tell is that of agnodice. like she noticed that women were dying a lot during childbirth so she went to egypt to study medicine in alexandria and was really fucking good but b/c it was illegal for women to be doctors in athens she had to pretend to be a man. and then the other doctors noticed that she was 10x better than them and accused her of seducing and sleeping with the women patients. like they brought her to court for this. and she just looked at them and these charges and stripped in front of everyone like “yeah. im not fucking your wives” and then they got so mad that a woman was better at their jobs then them that they tried to execute her but all her patients came to court and were like “are you fucking serious? she is the reason you have living children and a wife.” so they were shamed into changing the law and that is how women were given the right to practice medicine in athens

Yeah, this isn’t some Greek myth story about a hero or demigod or something, Agnodice was a real person who actually did this.

jynnislorg

Another amazing woman from history.

(Source: lesbianshepard, via cthulhu-with-a-fez)

amuseoffyre:

spanishskulduggery:

mynamesdrstuff:

enjoloras:

Excellent history fact to remember;

Niccolo Machiavelli and Leonardo Da Vinci, most likely at the behest of the Borgias, once conspired to steal a river.

That’s right folks. They planned to change the course of the Arno River so that they could steal it from Pisa and make Florence accessible by sea. 

Please take a moment to imagine that.

Please. 

‘So we just divert the -’

‘Don’t worry they won’t notice a thing’

100% better than National Treasure.

This should be a wacky bromance heist film. We need more wacky historical heist films.

(via yea-lets-do-this-shit)

equestrianrepublican:

maknbacn:

the-vashta-nerada:

bitterempress:

1800’s French Military Uniform

Today’s Military Uniforms

where did all the style go

where was the time when you could just

out-fab your opponents

do you really think it’s a good idea to take military advice from the French

REBLOGGING BECAUSE OF EVERYTHING OMFG

Historically the “style” died in 1914 because the French would wear bright blue and red uniforms and the British said “that’s a bad idea” and the French said “we look great” then they got sniped.

(via history-jokes)