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 ?

Stuart/Stewart - that came from a household inherited position came over with the Normans to England - then a branch headed up to Scotland - were they held office - High Steward of something - then one married Robert the Bruce, who had become Scotland's king,daughter - she died but had son - and that son inherited and started the royal house.

I read a book about the house of Steward - very unlucky house overall but the book was a slog.

I do remember being told that Plantagenets was a later monkier used to identify the house - as when your king you don't really need a surname so may not have used it themselves.

Same as Caligula - wouldn't have recognised the reference to himself - it means little boots something he was called as a child when inspecting troops with his dad and come to reference him after his death.

Some surnames like my current one are corruptions - illiterate immigrant heavily accented it's written huge number of ways till it settled down then it passed through a few strong accents and now pronounced slightly surprisingly given spelling. It was probably a very common surname in the original country but has mutated. Others like Helen Mirren are modified to fit in - it was originally Mironoff.

This is a great thread.

Mine is more about geography. Now Russia is a massive country but there is an extra, separate bit of it further west (which borders Poland and Lithuania). Do any of you know why this is and why the other eastern European countries haven't taken that bit of Russia over?

Also, Chinese foot binding. Who on earth thought of it? I can't imagine one day waking up and deciding that having a crushed foot would make me more desirable.

Placeholding this - it's a wonderfully informative thread!

Did ancient Brits use wraps/slings to carry infants? I've never seen it depicted but surely they had to before ye olde umbrella fold buggy was invented?

I work with a Christmas, and I knuw a Snowball!

It's called Kaliningrad (search for that and you should find more comprehensive histories). It's relatively recent that it belongs to Russia (since 1945) - other countries aren't exactly have going to have wanted to capture it since then given the imbalance in military power. It's obviously a desirable territorial possession for the Russians as a port, and a wedge between other countries from which to sabre rattle. It previously belonged to Germany as it was part of Prussia, and got separated from the main German territory after the First World War. In the late medieval and early modern period it used to be part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Also, Chinese foot binding. Who on earth thought of it?

I think it started at the Chinese court then spread down to the lower classes but I couldn't tell you why it started.

They only ever had one female empresses who ruled in her own right -Wu Zetian.

If we're onto Geography can I recommend Prisoners of Geography: ten maps that tell you everything you need to know about global politics. Tim Marshall. Really good. An easy read and just so brilliant. Although I'm a novice to geopolitical reading so maybe it's all that brilliant!

Placeholding - really enjoying this

Mine is an equine one - who decided sidesaddle was a good idea?? Modern sidesaddles are one thing, I've ridden in one and it's pretty secure. But my understanding is that the really early ones were terrifying, really dangerous. Why on earth did they become the done thing?

Foot binding is another of those class markers, like white skin used to be - they both denote someone who doesn't work. Tiny unstable feet are a world away from a peasants splayed, flat, large feet swollen by labour, much as white skin is a world away from a workers tan.

It's not a huge leap to go from - oh tiny delicate lady feet are so lovely, hmm maybe I'll bind my feet/put them in tight shoes to make them look small, then over time the binding got more extreme and horrific.

spudlet hymen preservation?!

Pogmella Ah yes, maybe so.... you may be hideously mangled when your horse chucks you into the middle of next week, but at least we'll be able to tell if you're a virgin

Yes I'd say that it was about the hymen. Perhaps there was also a notion that it would affect childbearing and fertility.

Wikipedia has women inventing the side saddle and suggests it was to do with clothes and dresses.

The earliest functional "sidesaddle" was credited to Anne of Bohemia (1366–1394). Ann being Richard II wife who up thread may have sought fertility treatment.

It's v comfy compared with astride saddle. Never thought of my hymen at the time!!

I thought that Chinese foot binding came in originally so that women could give their menfolk cough foot jobs as well as hand jobs cough

cozietoesie Mon 21-Nov-16 16:21:58

The world might well be a different place if people had had access to the collection of the Library of Alexandria. Who knows what was lost when that was eventually destroyed?

I've only just come to this thread, as it's a nice distraction from feeling shitty with flu-like symptoms, but this is something I've wondered myself. So much potentially lost there.

And harking back to an earlier bit, discussion of celtic language. Isn't Manx a celtic language, or does it technically not count (last native speaker died in 1974, although there was a revival)?

Pogmella, I've seen Kenyan women tie their babies to themselves with a blanket or sarong, I assume similar happened in the U.K. Years ago.

Raspberry

I often think about the things which have been 'lost'. So many thoughts, so many meanings, so many techniques.

Good thinking re surnames - I hadn't realised that over half of men were John / Thomas /Robert, but that makes sense, including why we derived surnames from other features too (unlike the Icelandic). Bit confusing when half the village is "John, son of Thomas". (And of course Harris/HArrison is Henry's Son - duh...!)

I have always assumed that women have swaddled their babies to them (Indian tea pickers, African tribeswomen probably give us a good idea how), but realise that it was just an assumption. Women's domestic life rarely features in contemporary textual descriptions or illustrations, does it.

I'm sending a link to this thread to my DD ( she knows who I am) as she's studying textiles and also history at A level, I think she'll find it interesting.

Love this thread. One of my interests is fairy tales and how they changed (ie were sanitised) when they were written down. But how did we get from tales of beefy warriors wrestling with dragons and beasts (Beowulf) to little girls being eaten by wolves for disobeying their parents?

Im loving this thread, it's fascinating. Best thread ever.

I really wish LDR was on FB too.

High praise from you Stratters I thank you

I remembered being quite shocked when I read Grimms Fairy Tales and how dark they are compared to the Disneyfied version.