« Stuff You Missed in History Class

SYMHC Classics: Croesus

2020-09-11 | 🔗

Holly and Tracy discuss the story of Croesus and how disabilities are represented in the writing of Herodotus. The topic then turns to the Igbo women's practice called sitting on a man, and how the Western world often misunderstands other cultures.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
This episode is brought, you buy Mazda for most of us, it's been a little bit since you ve been out on the road, but the Good NEWS is the road is still out there and you can say hello again with a monster. Malta has the best and best performing see you ve line up in the market, and I can say this from experience because they invited the podcast out California to do an absolutely beautiful, derive from palm springs to San Diego, and I was, completely blown away by how intuitively that car responded to me as a driver for more information on the mass deceive you line up, including the first ever see Ex thirty data, Mazda, USA, Dotcom, Slash, Iheart and don't forget to explore their strongest finance options. This episode is brought by Mazda for most of us, it's been a little bit since we ve been out on the road, but the Good NEWS is the road is still out there and you can say hello again with a monster. Malta has the best dry.
And best performing see you ve line up in the market, and I can say this from experience because they invited the podcast out California to do an absolutely beautiful derive from palm springs to San Diego, and I was completely blown away by how intuitively that car responded to me as a driver for More information on the mass deceive you line up, including the first ever see Ex thirty data, Mazda, USA, Dotcom, Slash, Iheart and don't forget to explore their strongest finance options Welcome to stuff you missed in history, glass, a production of Iheart radio hello, I'm happy casual, fried, am how we frying I'm crazy, be well then. So. This week we talked about crisis, yep, creases, blush The one thing that I mentioned in the episode that I was kind of saving for this was the discussion of crisis. A son
very mild disability, which also has kind of a happy ending we talk about how, in the writings of Herodotus creases basically says like this, kid doesn't even exists to me. He was just mute. There was nothing wrong with him, he just didn't speak and it came up in one of his many consultations with the Oracle Delphi that day your mute son speaks, will be a day of rest. I don't know, the exact quote- will be like a day, misery for you essentially, and basically, the story goes that as a persian soldier, rushing increases as that invasion of Sardus was going on, that site whose name I never found kind of runs towards this persian soldier and says No, no, you must not kill creases and, as the first thing he ever says, but then he speaks completely Normally for the rest of his life, which is just an injured,
and weird thing. It's never. Lake contextual eyes does like what happened to that kid after creases death or his leaving to go to the land of giants or his becoming part of the court of Cyrus. The second is just an interesting thing that this this character, I'm I'm kind of using your quotes, and so much of this is fictional. Ized and not verifiable, become sort of this strange prop where their disability gets used. As like hard of the Oracle story, gas, which is just interesting- and I just wanted to point it out- should anybody go looking for this lake? Obviously I I don't think we need a sailor
four times. It was clearly different times and things like disabilities were looked very differently, but also lake. It becomes a weird thing when you use it and sailing nano, but they will also be a harbinger and then their life will seem fine, but there's a lot of mess there. I feel, like it, psalmist a precursor of ways of troops about disability that still exist today. Our hundred, perhaps like that troops about add disabilities like people, disabled people, having like some other superpower, is like to stay right, fictional, a triplets used in fiction a lot and the like. Also that attitudes about disability in general is like that an overlap of things that still
fist in culture and in the world today, but also in like a slightly different tone at the time me yeah yeah, I mean it does make entirely clear right. We talk about things all the time, not just you and I both culturally. It is often discussed all of these troops and like the damaging nature of some of these ideas, and it's a lot to undo into fight against, and just no for. Anyone who feel frustrated trying to lake moved the discussion forward in a positive way there that we are fighting things that have been going on since the BBC Times like working as it is a long process and I'm glad for the progress that has been made. There is still a lot more to go, but lake know that that this is a deeply ingrained, and that is why that is so hard to make progress. Sometimes map
that was my little didactic moment. I I definitely love the idea of the kingdom of Lydia getting rich off of King MIDAS. She gets taken here about. I I like all the beads of all of the Oracle stories yeah because they they also are so similar to things that you will read in Lake greek tragedies and and whatnot him and, like that's the thing robes be like, then it did. It doesn't seem like a thing in the story. That's there to learn a lesson morceau, which is a day
really funny to me, because so much of the way we talk about history in a less obvious way of the law. A lot of times is also about reinforcing a lesson yeah like like, though the way, especially like nations, look back on their own history and teach their own history like a lot of. It is about reinforcing ideas in a didactic way, even if it's not quite as obvious as who have like, and then creases had done the thing that the Oracle said, but he didn't realize yet. Yeah, it is there definitely rightly bearer narrative conventions at play that have clearly been driving. The bus in terms of houses
he's histories and you gotta use the airports at that point, our written, because you just picture you know her out. It is raining inveigling yeah, but you know and make this really cool headed up and then there's a rain clouds sent by Zeus. This is amazing. You guys anyway, that increases its interesting. I, like I like looking at some of these really really ancient history pieces because you see how they start to fit together. Like I said, we'd covered the acumen and empire in this dovetails on that, but also its Tracy said. It makes it wildly apparent that even the histories no have routes in reality. We we still don't know so much about them. There I mean there is still a lot of archaeological interest in Libya and finding me more evidence of crisis in his palace and his lifetime.
And hopefully one day will get like a mother lode, but one never knows right, but it does sort of evidence how hard you still have to work to kind of get to the bottom of the matter, especially when we're talking about the century century. I one of our episodes this week was on the women's war and a colonial Nigeria at nineteen, twenty nine which, as I said in that up, said with something I just found a passing reference to, while researching and other show, and immediately put it on the list. It reminds me of a tiny bit of that the war of the golden Stole, though he talked about in a really old episode, because it was similarly an uprising against british colonization and colonialism. But the other thing that I didn't get into in this
episode at all is that, back in the nineteen seventies, a woman named Judith Aunt Ellen wrote an article called sitting on a man colonialism and the lost political institutions of Ebay women, and it was originally published in the canadian Journal of african studies, and this has become a really foundational paper about specifically Eba women in this aspect of african history, to the point that the Journal of west african history and twenty seventeen had this whole issue. That was like a retrospective on that one paper and I read so many of the vapours from that issue. One of them was by the original author, who was talking about her her process of writing.
This this paper and how, when she originally wrote it, she was angry about so many social issues that were happening at that moment and then another was of really fascinating one by professor in an african history programme. Talking about how a lad of her students who were by taking their first african history Ass. A lot of them were like very well meaning white students who were pursuing this education with the intent of like then going to Africa where they were like help and the original sitting on a man paper being something that, like completely shifted their view,
white firm being like it is the responsibility of White Americans and Europeans to help the people of Africa. I too, like recognising that in a lot of ways, colonialism was not helping the people of Africa or the women of Africa and, like the whole paper, was about this like this one paper becoming. Light switch moment for generations of students that by her and I was like wild us, how much em back to have in this one paper- yeah, it's interesting, rightly, you're still breaking down the idea,
that colonialism entrenched in the white western world railing. There are still so many stories of fiction, even but also again, well, meaning, but not well informed, instances of like White Savior syndrome, and it's like this all goes back to that. You guys like we have again been told Ford literally centuries at this point. That we know better than other people, which is just mind your business yeah well, and it is the very is the very blunt and not necessarily informed way, to put it either by a lake it so presumptive.
Cardiac get over it like we have all fallen into that trap, absolutely and it's hard to get over. So I'm not even saying that, as a judge, anything it's like a reminder to myself as well wake. I know you have one lens and that's great but late. That doesn't mean your perceiving everything as it is in reality. Yeah, like number one, I would say that that both of us on the spot cast have definitely had times that we have like inadvertently, fallen into that trap and that its like a life, long learning, press,
to undo you a lot of theirs thought patterns and that we will always be working on it. Another thing is that it was really important to me in this episode to get sources that did not feel like they were just parroting, the colonial view and so like. If, if the book that I was reading, you know, that's authors were american or are not big not from anywhere in Africa like it was so important. To me too then go read, reviews of that book by African and preferably nigerian people to smiling ok. How does this book called up is this? Is this what I should be spending my time on? It was like an extra layer of diligence with this, so hopefully I got to the right space with it. I also just kind of love the practice
sitting on a man of some of the songs by british standards, were very racy, which, of course, like made the whole british response to it even more like raw, like baffled horror happening such pearl clutching tat. A lot of it
So thank you once again for joining us here. God study visit history glass for a casual Friday. If you would like to write to us, you can do that at history. Parkhurst at I hurt radioed our com. You can violence on social media as missed in history, and you can subscribe to the show me. I heard radio app apple bond guests or wherever you listened to by gas stuff. You missed in history class the production of I heart, radio for more planned cats. For my heart radio visit by her radio app added my cans or wherever you listen to your favorite shares this episode of stuff. He missed the district,
brought to you like a time. We're all staying home also may be spending a little too much time. Looking at our screens, Qatar is a board game for three to four players. Ages, tenant up and it takes a little- is fifteen minutes to learn the basics, but it provides enough dabs to keep you uncovering new strategies for years to come. You can get Qatar at Qatar Shop, dot, com, slash history, listeners of this pod, casket ten percent off the original Base game Qatar by using the promo code. History at check out offer not good on other baton, titles or merchandise. I people to get here. Maybe you know me, you may repeat: we know This is the first year of the twenty twenties has been one of chaos in anguish, but I believe now is the beginning of America's deciding deck a time that will pay leaders and ollinger with decisions that will shape life in this country, for the resting. Central in mind,
I guess, I'll- be talking to people from every few whose ideas actions will shapely era. That is about to begin. I look at everything race, or is this that it perpetuates systemic racism or isn't gonna help this now, while the rest of the country and lecture business have to start doing that, they have to know what systemic racism is. We people protest country. That means they still moving about, would still be trying to spot. I hope that we are actually going to figure out how to allow people to be three hundred Free thinkers- listen to the deciding decade on the eye Radioactive Ethel contest, wherever you get your pot guests.
Transcript generated on 2020-09-12.