What questions do you have about stuff from History, or am I the only one?

[EverySongbirdSays]

Hi all, HQ here. We're moving this thread over to History Club now where Songbird will be starting a Part 2 thread for more History quizzical shenanigans

The main history thing I've been pondering for the last couple of days since the weather shifted is the history of clothes.

So... how did Early Man manage in the winter, how did they make clothes out of animal skin?

After that, I understand that clothes production as we know it today began with the industrial revolution.

But how did people manage for clothes you know before we had cotton or machinery

How/when did we realise you could knit wool to make a jumper?

I'm sorry if it's a bit of a stupid question

Has anyone got any stupid questions I might know the answer to ?

Hunter idly twanging the string on his bows
Exactly.
like this
I visited and African friend and he had one hanging on his wall.

lume - some regiments are still elitist but in very subtle ways, eg requiring officers to purchase (and maintain) their own dress uniform costing 20K...

Thanks Olenna - I want to think of another question so we can continue our largely-unrelated conversation-within-a-thread :o

I guess I could use the flour I'm using to make the loaf, rather than specially getting rice flour.

"She was the Spanish on both sides (Isabelle of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon)"

Isabella's paternal great grandfather and maternal great great grandfather was John of gaunt, so she's a Plantagenet and also her mother and father were first cousins once removed.

Basically one explanation for all the red hair being so common because all the royals are related, lol

Have you got cornflour?

Going back to people being cold, they wore layers and layers of heavy clothing. The big grand houses were/are cold and draughty places I remember Keira Knightley commenting that she fully understood why they wore so many clothes when filming The Duchess.

On the subject of Cromwell, he became what he had sworn to put an end to - inherited rule, and also I think the general public and a number of parliamentarians were not fully in synch with his strict, puritanical version of Protestantism.

Cromwell is hated in Ireland because of the brutalities he/his forces committed during the re-conquest of Ireland.

this is a new book called Unmentionable about life and hygiene etc, for Victorian women, I want to read it!

oleanna's right. DP is ginger, with no ginger parents or grandparents. The genes can stay hidden for ages.

Re. John of Gaunt - I believe that Henry VIII and all of his wives were descended from him. Actually now I say that I cannot remember how Anne of Cleves fits in, but the others certainly all do.

Slightly random, but this tickled me this week (and this thread seems a reasonably good place to put it!):

I was watching E! celebrity news, with the usual in depth discussion of the Kardashians (I know, I know). They mentioned something about one of them eating lots of millet, and only one of the four people knew what it was, calling it an "ancient grain", like quinoa. I would reckon that the equivalent panel in the UK (Loose Women??) would have heard of millet, even if they thought of it as bird seed and hadn't actually eaten it themselves.

Anyway, it got me thinking about really basic agriculture, and how it's a mixture of demographic spread (people taking their knowledge and seeds with them), trade (accessing things like spices from far afield), geography (what grows well and what doesn't) and probably luck what becomes part of a staple diet. It would be really interesting to see at what point the UK and US foods became divergent - was it soon after the Pilgrim Fathers landed in Massachusetts? Or did it take some time?

Sorry, as you were!

Yes, that would be fascinating.

Do you think it will have had to do with how tough it was to be a settler? I know it is much later, but what always strikes me about the Laura Ingalls Wilder books is how very repetitive and restricted their diet has to be - much less so when they're in relatively settled areas.

I often find American students are shocked to find that British recipes from before the Mayflower include spices, and exotic ingredients like citruses and dates, because their sense of 'old' food is that it would be much simpler and blander. And now I am wondering, too, if that's realistic or just a perception.

I'm ginger and both my parents have dark hair.

My mum had some millet in the cupboard but I don't remember it ever being used.

Fascinating thread. I remember reading somewhere that Katherine of Aragon had a better claim to the throne than Henry. Does anyone know or have I misremembered?

1. If it's warm you don't need clothes at all.
2. I have 3 - 5% Neanderthal genes adn we lived in colder parts after my ancestors left Africa. We wore animal skins.
3. Our diet for hundreds of thousands of years was much more varied then today eg 200 different types of insects for a start before you even get on to your green and roots and frogs and fish and sea food.

Our diets got very restricted when we started to grow crops. People got smaller and their teeth got worse.

"Actually now I say that I cannot remember how Anne of Cleves fits in, but the others certainly all do."

It's more generations back, but yep she does.

Though in fairness, most royals go back to him, in loads of countries, and if they didn't already, Victoria's children sealed the deal, lol.

I suppose the thing with Royalty being "all related" is that they keep much better records than everyone else.

Most people don't know who their fourth cousins are.

I think the majority of 'American' food is still pretty bland and spice free even now, the Cajun area of Louisiana being the exception, more cuisines are being introduced but the basic/general food is somewhat plain.

I remember seeing a programme about how 'Mom's Apple Pie' came to be the American food (I can't type that without seeing Kenny Everett as the America General) and that was introduced to America by the Pilgrim Fathers.

Very old recipes for food in England do include a lot of spices a sign of our long history of trading, plus the Crusades and the movement of immigrants from the East into Europe and England I would guess. Also, some spices helped to preserve food and herbs and spices were used by Apothecaries to help cure illnesses.

LRD - my personal theory is that because the people who came over to America were not the fun loving ones, they didn't bring recipes for mince pies and Christmas cake with them - needless frippery to the average 17th century Puritan. I suspect it's also one of the reasons why Christmas is not such a big deal here (Thanksgiving being the major family event).

I often find American students are shocked to find that British recipes from before the Mayflower include spices, and exotic ingredients like citruses and dates, because their sense of 'old' food is that it would be much simpler and blander. And now I am wondering, too, if that's realistic or just a perception.

I have been reading a lot of farmer's inventories from the 16th and 17th centuries. Almost every one of them has a pestle and mortar in the kitchen so I've assumed that they are being used for spices.

emotionsechos - apart from cinnamon, which is in bloody everything from September to November

ConferencePear - you have to tell us why on earth you have been reading lots of old farmers' inventories!!

Yes only the Royalty and Aristocracy kept proper records of births and deaths.

Olenna

Think Anne of Cleves was descended from Edward I, rather than John of Gaunt, though I don't know through which child - Edward I had 16 children by his first wife and 3 by his second, though a lot of them died in childhood.

I have a question about kids going out to work. How? How were they any use to anyone? I've just spent an hour trying to get 3DCs into the bath. The thought of how long it would take me to get them up a chimney/down a mine on a daily basis...