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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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I don't know quite where this Chaucer-is-a-forgery business started. I don't believe it for a moment. There's a huge difference between it and Beowulf since there is historical evidence of Chaucer for the whole of its existence. There is historcial evidence of absence (if you see what I mean) for five hundred years in the case of Beowulf.
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Maybe I just want Beowulf to be genuinely Anglo-Saxon because I can then use it to attack the great con of the Warlord that people should die with them in battle and similar one-way duties.
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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Sadly, I don't believe in History.
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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Beowulf is far more ancient surely. It's the familiar 'dragon-saint' motif, the Seven Samurai, Man with no name, etc., national epics that get penned at different times, different places.
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GrouchoMarxthespot
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I don't know quite where this Chaucer-is-a-forgery business started |
I think perhaps that there are two different things going on here. Chaucer certainly isn't forged, but did take the stories of others, and as you said earlier may have been misrepresented, and pressed into service for an orthodox agenda.
The point I was making in my thought experiment is that 'victims' of mis-representation, (and forgery and counterfeiting too), are really willing participants in the process...get your relics here...and that includes a lot of academics.
If history is only a belief, by the way, then you can do what you want Ishmael.
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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GrouchoMarxthespot wrote: | Chaucer certainly isn't forged... |
I wish I had your certainty.
I, however, cannot justify it.
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GrouchoMarxthespot
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Chaucer certainly isn't forged |
Literacy is the mid wife of forgery.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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TelMiles wrote: | Whilst walking through the woods close to where I live, I began to think about the spread of urbanisation on our countryside. That then led me on to wonder if, for example, medieval man had the same appreciation for natural beauty that we do. For instance, their world was full of the forests and streams and rolling hills that we find so attractive. It was normal for them. Their appreciation seemed to be reserved for such buildings as cathedrals and castles. Any thoughts on this? Did medieval man (for example) have the same appreciation for natural beauty that we do today? |
How we process the landscape differs. In fact I am now convinced that the ancients perception of colour and contour was different. This has some important implications for example in placenames and surnames, how your ancient folks got around.
See this mind boggling video. Be amazed that the man from the Himba cannot see a blue square.....yet can pick out a green one.
http://tinyit.cc/06f73
Well worth 8 minutes.......
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N R Scott
In: Middlesbrough
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Chad
In: Ramsbottom
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Wile E. Coyote wrote: | See this mind boggling video. Be amazed that the man from the Himba cannot see a blue square.....yet can pick out a green one.
http://tinyit.cc/06f73
Well worth 8 minutes....... |
(Strangely?) I spotted the rogue green immediately.
But what interested me most was the girl taking part in the test. She was absolutely beautiful and I assumed she had been specifically selected for her photogenic qualities. But it turns out she was just par for the course among the Himba.
How can a relatively small tribe of nomads, eking out a living in the back of beyond, consistently produce such stunning women?
You would think (due to their legendary beauty) they would have been harvested out of existence (by slave traders) many generations ago.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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Chad wrote: | You would think (due to their legendary beauty) they would have been harvested out of existence (by slave traders) many generations ago. |
It appears that a couple (of girls) escaped from the late Edwin Chadwick's raiding party and avoided transportation and a life of servitude in the Windies.
How very remiss of him.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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Chad wrote: | But what interested me most was the girl taking part in the test. She was absolutely beautiful and I assumed she had been specifically selected for her photogenic qualities. |
I had the same thoughts!
And thanks for the pic. Wow. Those breasts! Not your typical national geographic fare, that's for sure. Holy smokin!
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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The documentary tries to make the case that the language determines perception. But I've yet to see the evidence that this tribe does not suffer from a localized genetic "defect." Personally, I think this is Chomskyite bullshit.
Reminds me of another tribe in Africa much beloved of social-construct socialists. The men are very beautiful, wear makeup, and try to impress females with their dancing. Anthropologists use this single tribe to argue that gender roles for the entire human race are socially engineered.
One. Tiny. Tribe.
If gender roles are genetically determined, it should not be surprising to find a tribal genetic unit that expresses a biological anomaly.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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I believe that they were conducting a variant of Berlin and Kay test.
I am well aware of the schoolboy criticisms of ethnocentricity, universalism.etc
lets just do a whistlestop tour.
Berlin and Kay found that, a language has a maximm 11 colour categories. In languages with less than the maximum eleven color categories, the colors found in these languages followed a specific evolutionary pattern. This pattern is as follows:
1.All languages contain terms for black and white.
2.If a language contains three terms, then it contains a term for red.
3. If a language contains four terms, then it contains a term for either green or yellow (but not both).
4.If a language contains five terms, then it contains terms for both green and yellow.
5.If a language contains six terms, then it contains a term for blue.
6.If a language contains seven terms, then it contains a term for brown.
7.If a language contains eight or more terms, then it contains a term for purple, pink, orange, and/or grey.
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