Yeah, it’s kind of an unsatisfying video. I was definitely asking them questions that did not get answered. But it still brings up some interesting points.
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And… new Kaz Rowe!
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Listen to historians, folks…
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I also had that >60kya age in my head, but it looks like the experts are bracketing a ~42kya +/- range.
Key remains:
*Mungo Woman, also referred to as ‘Lake Mungo 1’ (WLH 1), was discovered in 1968. At 42,000 years old, this is the most securely dated human burial in Australia and the earliest ritually cremated remains found anywhere in the world. The cremation process shrinks bone and has made the skeleton of this originally small-bodied woman even smaller. Dr Alan Thorne reconstructed the skull from over 300 fragments.
*Mungo Man, also known as 'Lake Mungo 3’ or (WLH 3) was discovered in 1974. Unlike Mungo Woman’s cremation, Mungo Man was laid out on his back for burial and covered in red ochre before being buried in the beach sands that bordered the lake. There has been some debate over the age of this burial and while dates ranging from 26,000 to 60,000 years old have been obtained, an age closer to 42,000 years old is widely accepted.
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I’m reminded of what Stephen King said about his novel 11/22/63, which is about a time traveler trying to prevent the Kennedy assassination.
I’m paraphrasing, but basically, King said that he, like a lot of other Americans, felt there was probably something shady about the Kennedy assassination, and was a little suspicious about the official story.
Then he did the research for his book, which included reading as much of the original sources as possible, and realized that nope, the official story was in fact accurate and that there was zero evidence for all the conspiracy theories. Indeed, there usually was some solid evidence against them.
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Stephen King is correct. I have not read the original documents of the Kennedy assassination, but I trust the historians who have… that’s exactly what depending on expertise means…
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History is boring until you’re living in it.
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Um… no, not really. A point she makes in the video, in fact…
We really need to move away from this idea that history and other humanities are unimportant and boring. It’s really helping to drive this present moment, since no one sees a need to understand the past, culture, human beings, and the societies we create. They are just as important and interesting as any STEM field, and I’m kind of bored of having to defend them, honestly…
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I know I’m weird, but personally I think “how did things get this way” is one of the most interesting things you can say about almost anything. It turns facts into stories.
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I was trying to be quippy.
And my hobby is medievalism. I know that there is no such thing as “boring history”. I work in IT, but what I want to do, one day, is to get a degree in history while there’s a university still around here which teaches them, so that I can call myself a scholar, instead of just cosplaying as one.
But I also know that most people don’t believe that. How about “You’d best start believing in interesting history: you’re living in some!”, then, Barbossa accent or not?
I should also actually watch the video. I was reacting to the quote on the thumbnail. I’m sure she argues against the point, because it’s an excellent point.
But also, there’s a difference between “history is not boring”, and “some history is Not Boring”. I know I could do with living in a bit of boring history for a while.
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My profession is modern history… I get that some don’t consider that REAL history, but that’s what I do, because I love it and it matters to me to chart how we got from here to there in the past couple of hundred years.
I also teach about the modern world and US history to mostly working class kids who are POC and immigrants. I’m proud to do that, because they actually tend to understand history better than their white, wealthy peers, because they often live in the “not boring” more acutely.
What do you think history is for, if not teaching others? If not helping others understand the world that they live in based on what came before them? It has no other purpose than helping ground all of us in the present and enable us to move forward, hopefully into a better world.
Okay. Then do it. I’m sure you’ll land a job and do better than I have… It’s not a game, it’s actually trying to make something that we can’t actual grasp more real and relevant to young folks. They need history more than those of us with a few years behind us.
Maybe do that. I posted it because as a historian, I found it interesting and thoughtful. It feels hella dismissive to post a snarky comment without having watched the short thing I posted, because I actually CARE about what she said.
No history is boring, IMHO… Because it’s all about us. How we survive, how we rebel, how we create, how we change, how we build up our lives in the best and worst of times… how is ANY of that boring? It’s the stuff of human drama. It’s not some novelty that is entertaining when a bunch of dudes are slaughtering each other… That’s just the modern ideology of what “real” history is vs. how we understand the past in a more holistic way.
But YMMV… It just sucks to have to defend posting a video defending the humanities (YET AGAIN) to people who claim to care about them. the humanities have been under sustained attack for years now, and no one gave a shit, because, you know, it was just women’s studies, and queer studies, and Africana studies, and that’s not “real” scholarship, after all, because it did not come out of the enlightenment… But what is the enlightenment, but some dudes decision of what matters, during a period of world raping and pillage of those they deemed inferior?
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The term comes from a satirical tweet by Twitter user SeanRMoorhead, who wrote in April, “If unemployment exceeds 30% and distrust of the political process becomes widespread, there is a danger that the United States will enter what historians call The Cool Zone.”
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U.S. citizen released from jail after arrest under Florida’s new anti-immigration law
His mother says she plans to sue over his arrest.
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