Warrior women: New evidence of ancient female big-game hunters
Turns out gender assumptions have been going on for quite some time.
09 November, 2020
Photo: hibrida / Adobe Stock
- A recent archaeological dig in the Peruvian mountains uncovered evidence of ancient female big-game hunters.
- This adds to a growing consensus that women played a much bigger role in hunting than previously assumed.
- Gender assumptions are a constant throughout history, with culture often playing a more important role than biology.
<p>You've likely heard it like this: for most of history, women foraged, secured water, and partook in minor agriculture while men went out to hunt. Even if this was the end of the story, women still provided an inordinate amount of calories for the tribe, as fruits, vegetables, and nuts accounted for the bulk of sustenance.</p><p>As with many myths, this longstanding story might not be completely accurate. Thanks to <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/45/eabd0310" target="_blank">recent archaeological findings</a> in Peru's Andes Mountains, published in the journal Science Advances, up to half the women in mobile groups in the Americas were big-game hunters. </p><p>University of California, Davis archaeologist Randall Haas started shifting his view of ancient hunting practices in 2018 while leading his crew 13,000 feet above sea level in Wilamay Patxja. Upon uncovering the remains, he automatically assumed one body was male due to the proximity of weaponry. </p><p>He was wrong. </p><p>The team unearthed a total of over 20,000 artifacts, including the remains of six bodies in five burial pits. One pit, which contained a teenage woman, included a toolkit with spearpoints and shafts. Tools for dissecting game were also discovered. In total, 24 stone tools were unearthed, including projectile points for killing large game, heavy rocks for stripping hides and cracking bones, and red ocher to preserve hides. </p><p>Previously, such tools were thought to be used for cutting or scraping when discovered near female remains. Haas says we need to rethink that approach, which is likely the result of modern bias. Buried near these pits were the remains of Andean deer and vicuña, two commonly hunted animals in Peru. </p><p>Haas's group then reviewed the remains of 429 bodies spread over 107 sites in the Americas. These individuals lived between 6,000 and 12,500 years ago. Big-game hunting tools were buried with 11 women and 16 men. The Wilamay Patxja dig is not an outlier. </p>
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDc2NDQ0OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MTA5NDUxM30.APHNOCmNft84y1FNYXVn0nBRsQywi7UwjBnRXufFHnY/img.jpg?width=980" id="5e4a1" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="fd6aa1ee19f1c34d41c47afaede5b53f" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Credit: Randall Haas, University of California, Davis
Why Female Gladiators Were Polarizing Figures in Ancient Rome
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c4f5a67f268f643208d401a9224efce9"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/565gLzKgRvM?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>Extrapolating from the most recent dataset, Haas estimates that between 30-50 percent of big-game hunters were women. This doesn't imply that it's a global phenomenon, although female warriors were <a href="https://www.sciencenews.org/article/women-warriors-hunter-gatherers-battles-mongolia" target="_blank">recently identified</a> in California, dating back roughly 5,000 years. Likewise, women warriors were <a href="https://www.sciencenews.org/article/female-game-hunters-ancient-americas" target="_blank">discovered</a> in Mongolia 1,500 years ago and <a href="https://www.sciencenews.org/article/skeleton-ignites-debate-over-whether-women-were-viking-warriors" target="_blank">in Scandinavia</a> about a millennium ago.</p><p>Researchers say these findings challenge our understanding of gender identities. Modern analysis can discover the biological sex of these individuals, though we cannot make assumptions about the role of men and women by current standards. As University of Miami archaeologist, Pamela Geller <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/11/prehistoric-female-hunter-discovery-upends-gender-role-assumptions/" target="_blank">says</a>, </p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"With few exceptions, the researchers who study hunting and gathering groups—regardless of which continent they work on—presume that a sexual division of labor was universal and rigid. And because it is commonsensical, they then have a hard time explaining why female-bodied individuals also bear the skeletal markers of hunting or have hunting tool kits as grave goods."</p><p>There's always the possibility that hunting tools were ritualistically buried alongside varied members of the tribe, including women. Yet we also have to remember that there were no supermarkets on the savanna. Tribal life was an all-hands-on-deck affair. Female hunters should surprise us no more than stay-at-home dads today. Societies are fluid dependent on circumstances, and the ancient world provided challenges we can only dream of today. </p><p>--</p><p><em>Stay in touch with Derek on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/derekberes" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DerekBeresdotcom" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Facebook</a>. His new book is</em> "<em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08KRVMP2M?pf_rd_r=MDJW43337675SZ0X00FH&pf_rd_p=edaba0ee-c2fe-4124-9f5d-b31d6b1bfbee" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Hero's Dose: The Case For Psychedelics in Ritual and Therapy</a>."</em></p>
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Finally, a podcast that addresses our crisis of meaning
How can we learn from the lessons of the past and build a better future?
29 October, 2020
Credit: Courtesy of Neurohacker
- Jamie Wheal's new podcast, Home Grown Humans, combines neuroanthropology and culture architecture to help us create a better future.
- The author of Stealing Fire has invited forward-thinking experts on to launch this podcast series, which is produced by Neurohacker Collective and is hosted on the Collective Insights podcast.
- Through these discussions, Wheal hopes to catalyze inspiration, healing, and connection towards better understanding who we are, why we are here, and where we are going
<p>Language evolves to reflect our understanding of existence. Before Hippocrates, healing was a system of theurgy—divine influence on human events—and religious philosophy. The Greek physician is credited with separating medicine from those previous beliefs. As our understanding of science evolved, new fields emerged: astronomy, biology, physics, sociology, psychology, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0079612309178044?via%3Dihub" target="_blank">neuroanthropology</a>.</p><p>That last one is still so relatively new that spell checkers don't recognize it. During a 2008 conference, the University of South Florida anthropology professor Daniel Lende revived the notion that anthropologists benefit when studying neuroscience. He argued that knowledge of the evolution of the brain offers insights into intentions, helping anthropologists better understand the motivations of past cultures. </p><p>Whereas neuroanthropology looks backward, culture architecture takes that same lens and looks forward, according to bestselling author Jamie Wheal. Wheal co-wrote the Pulitzer Prize-nominated book, <em>Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, Navy SEALs and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work</em>. Founder of the Flow Genome Project, he's the new host of the new Collective Insights podcast series <a href="https://neurohacker.com/homegrownhumans" target="_blank">Home Grown Humans</a>, which focuses on the intersection of neuroanthropology and culture architecture. </p><p>Like Hippocrates building on past knowledge to create new systems, Wheal wants to learn from the lessons of the past and build a better future. Summating the objective of the podcast in a single question, he frames it this way:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"How do we stop seeking and stop searching and stop thrashing around, making a mess behind us, and come to fully embrace the human experience?" </p><p>The essence of the human condition, he says, lies in simplicity, reminiscent of the Golden Rule from the Talmud. A gentile asked <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillel_the_Elder" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Rabbi Hillel</a> to explain the entirety of the Torah while standing on one foot, to which Hillel replied, "That which is despicable to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary." </p><p>Wheal recognizes that humans love commentary as well. Storytelling is the foundation of culture. He invokes Dorothy, who went on an epic heroine's journey only to discover that there's no place like home. As with any Campbellian character, she had to leave Kansas in order to love Kansas. </p>
<blockquote>How do we stop seeking and stop searching and stop thrashing around, making a mess behind us, and come to fully embrace the human experience?</blockquote>
<p>When contemplating Home Grown Humans, Wheal wanted to foster conversations that include critical thought<em> and</em> mystical inclinations. He was inspired by a debate between Sam Harris and Jordan Peterson, in which neither thinker would concede an inch to find common ground. Instead, he wants to find such ground—less New Atheist and more New Platonist. As he puts it:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"What is it like to tap people that are well-versed in reason, logic, and evidence, but also have their eye on the mystery? They've had in their own lives, or in their career or readings, some glimpse of <em>more</em>. Hopefully, that's come around to inform their perspective on their field of expertise and what they hold as both the liabilities and possibilities of us going forward."</p><p>To better understand the implications of neuroanthropology, Wheal recommends Jared Diamond's Pulitzer-winning <em>Guns, Germs, and Steel</em> and Yuval Noah Harari's <em>Sapiens</em> and <em>Homo Deus</em>, books that reveal how we arrived here. For the culture architecture piece, he cites Daniel Kahnemann's <em>Thinking, Fast and Slow</em> and Richard Thaler's <em>Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness</em>. You have all this knowledge, now what are you going to do with it? </p><p>This synthesis of ideologies creates the central thesis of Home Grown Humans. </p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"It's taking optimal psychology, neuroscience, and historical analysis and really using it to get under the hood of culture and use all of the tools we have from the hard sciences and social sciences to get a better understanding of what makes us tick." </p><p>To help him answer such questions, Wheal has invited a range of experts to appear on <a href="https://neurohacker.com/homegrownhumans" target="_blank">Home Grown Humans</a>, including Sue Phillips, an instructor at Harvard Divinity School and co-founder of Sacred Design Lab; Erik Davis, author of TechGnosis and <em>High Weirdness</em>; Adam Gazzaley, the founder and executive director of Neuroscape; and Dennis McKenna, an ethnopharmacologist who's been leading the way in the psychedelic renaissance for decades. </p>With each conversation, Wheal hopes to address our crisis in meaning by provoking inspiration, healing, and connection. The distance between the past and future is this moment we're collectively experiencing right now. Through our ingenuity and determination, Wheal believes we can construct a better world. Home Grown Humans is his contribution to the conversation.
<p><em>The first episode of </em><a href="https://neurohacker.com/homegrownhumans" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Home Grown Humans</em></a><em>, 'Care for Your Soul: Designing Sacred Practices That Work', with Harvard's Sue Phillips, is out today. </em><a href="https://neurohacker.com/faqs/how-can-i-listen-to-or-watch-the-collective-insights-podcast" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Subscribe here</em></a><em>.</em></p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY3ODI5Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMDgxODk0Mn0.d81are-7RxUmVqh8QwnHi67KYlJdUBorbV97Pvm1I4U/img.jpg?width=980" id="23861" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="11a7bd90c9d91ff15d6ca7124eb43599" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
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How the sports industry is approaching post-pandemic fan engagement
What does sports fandom look like in the new normal?
30 September, 2020
Credit: Shutterstock
- With the masses huddled at home and glued to our screens, the last several months of frozen competition provided an opportunity for sports franchises to experiment with creative modes of fan engagement, often involving multiple media channels.
- On another level, this is a challenge that wasn't prompted by COVID-19 and won't go away when COVID-19 does.
- Franchise marketers are accelerating their digital transformation processes, finding innovative ways to connect with fans online, with VR, community building and repackaging classic content.
<p>Due to well-founded fears that COVID-19 would run rampant in locker rooms and stadiums, basically all major league sports completely shut down on-field operations across the world for a few months in early 2020. </p><p>With the masses huddled at home and glued to our screens, the last several months of frozen competition provided an opportunity for sports franchises to experiment with creative modes of fan engagement, often involving multiple media channels. </p><p>What's more, the coronavirus crisis hasn't ended like we hoped it would by now, but the world is already talking about the "new normal" of post-pandemic life – <a href="https://bigthink.com/videos/post-coronavirus-society" target="_self">incorporating lessons learned</a> from the COVID-19 situation into the indefinite future, regardless of when the immediate need to curb the spread of this specific virus actually passes. And so leagues around the world have finally begun picking up play again, albeit with empty arenas for the most part. </p><p>In this sense, they <a href="https://bigthink.com/personal-growth/innovation-and-uncertainty" target="_self">face a new challenge</a>: figuring out how to involve fans in the game experience without being able to lean on the in-stadium experience as the pinnacle that all other modes of fan engagement try to emulate and reinforce. But on another level, this is a challenge that wasn't prompted by COVID-19 and won't go away when COVID-19 does.</p><p>Many teams have seen their global fanbases grow steadily in the last few years, creating the need to serve up rich engagement for audiences who can't attend games in person regularly – or ever. </p><p>Coronavirus is encouraging franchise marketers to speed up digital transformation and find new and better ways to connect with fans online, Rob O'Siochain, a partner at London-based event marketing agency <a href="https://tro.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">TRO</a>, recently <a href="https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/live-sport-crossroads-fan-engagement-post-covid-world/1689058" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">told Campaign magazine</a>. </p><p>"Covid-19 is, without doubt, going to act as an accelerant for the long-awaited levelling up of the fan experience and the value attributed to the role and real data of the fan," he explained. "Brands and rights holders are going to need to work far more collaboratively, strategically and creatively to build a more diverse, direct and accessible experience for the fans." </p>
Head back to the stadium – virtually
<p>After months of deprivation, fans are panting to see their favorite teams. For the moment, they are so eager to return to live sports that they are ecstatic over any live game broadcast. On July 5, some 5.7 million people tuned in to the Southampton v. Manchester City match, making it the Premier League's most-watched match ever. </p><p>But as time goes by, the shine of live sports will wear off. An empty stadium is disappointing both for viewers at home and for players. The NFL's "virtual draft" event in April drew a larger audience (15.6 million) than Monday Night Football did last weekend (14 million), even though the former was little more than a televised Zoom call while the latter was a marquee matchup between two of the hottest teams in the league, the Chiefs and the Ravens.</p><p>The time has come for the sports industry to find creative ways to harness technology for the next generation of fan engagement. What can we learn about the future based on what worked best during the pandemic?</p>Breathe new life into regurgitated content
<p>Filling up gaps in the programming schedule with reruns of classic games worked well at first, but returns are diminishing. Success requires networks to put more work into their content choices.</p><p>Tommy Stimson, managing director at Qualitative Insights, <a href="https://marumatchbox.com/4-actions-fan-engagement-sports-covid-19/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">points out</a> that fans aren't very interested in games from the last 10-12 years. Footage from these games is already widely available online, plus "The known outcome and familiarity with the content makes the reruns less-than-satisfying." Instead, Stimson recommends showing iconic, historical sports moments that most of today's fans haven't seen or experienced. </p><p>Fans appreciate reruns far more when the footage is interspersed with new analysis and commentary, either from current players or from the athletes who were playing at the time. One of the darlings of Netflix's pandemic-era programming lineup, Michael Jordan's <em>The Last Dance </em>documentary, which followed the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls on their title run, drew an average of 5.6 million viewers for each of its ten episodes.</p><p>Many teams hosted social media-integrated "watch parties," where former players shared their personal memories and fielded questions from fans while streaming classic games, and fans were delighted with the multi-screen experience, which dovetailed perfectly with game rerun telecasts. <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/survey-sports-with-empty-stadiums-means-millions-of-americans-will-be-engaging-from-home-301094037.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">One poll</a> found that 76 percent of U.S. fans want more watch party-style viewing options moving forward.</p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDQ1MDQzNS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyODQ4MzUyNH0.wNjBzhgfzLnT8um9AmzcL6AEU50RQ4zBhGP3hRh1uLQ/img.png?width=980" id="ff5be" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="21ea7910020f5f1b526be2d576f33872" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="screenshot of New England Patriots re-watch party ad" />
Screenshot of New England Patriots re-watch party ad
Credit: Facebook
<p>Networks would also do well to tap into the <a href="https://bigthink.com/culture-religion/money-sports-success" target="_self">deeper reasons</a> why people follow sports, by sharing narratives about how teams come together as a unit, or times when players overcame adversity. Viewers are eager for behind-the-scenes content that reveals how players stay in shape, how managers set strategies, or the motivating factors behind decisions to trade, draft, and otherwise acquire talent.</p><p>As brands collect more viewer data, they can also deliver more personalized content experiences that engage fans more deeply. </p>Invite fans to vote for in-game elements
<p>Giving fans ways to have a real effect on in-game elements is another winner for the sports industry. Juventus has long been a trail-blazer for digital transformation, so it's no big surprise to see the storied soccer franchise leading the way again.</p><p><span></span>Juventus <a href="https://www.socios.com/new-goal-celebration-song-for-juventus-is-revealed/" target="_blank">invited fans to vote</a> for its new in-stadium goal celebration song using Socios, a token-based voting and rewards platform, to ensure that the results wouldn't be sabotaged by rival fans or manipulated by hackers.</p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDQ1MDQ0Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMDQ3ODIyOX0.2yP69g0x_hLaIDMy0D8NayM2ux_SN6SYCdoAvJeir8c/img.jpg?width=980" id="f5e1d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a601a720192202803a2e9424c302db6c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Credit: Twitter
<p>Fans overwhelmingly chose Blur's "Song 2," and were rewarded by <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-7868543/Juventus-fans-chose-iconic-Blur-track-goal-anthem-pioneering-blockchain-vote.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hearing the song four times</a> in the first back-to-business game between Juventus and Cagliari. </p> <p>Socios has been doing some interesting work in the digital fan engagement realm beyond the Juventus example. Its parent company, Chiliz, partners with teams to issue blockchain-based, franchise-branded coins. Apollon Limassol FC decided to put on a head-to-head skills challenge between players, with <a href="https://medium.com/chiliz/apollon-fc-apl-fan-token-sells-out-in-6-minutes-generating-100k-f3bc6a98e75d" target="_blank">fans using tokens to vote</a> on the matchups. In esports, itself a social distancing-friendly concept, fans of Spanish team Heretics were able to vote on which players would go head to head in Fortnite death-matches.</p>Encourage fans to connect together at home
<p>Part of the beauty of sports is that it forges relationships. Season ticket holders connect with neighboring seatmates in the stadium; families bond over a shared love for their teams; friends come together to watch the big match and analyze it ceaselessly during and after the game.</p> <p>It's difficult to translate this to a situation where even private socializing is frowned upon, but it's not impossible. </p> <p>To build hype as the NFL season neared, Pepsi <a href="https://www.marketingdive.com/news/pepsi-delivers-tailgate-in-a-box-to-football-fans-hankering-for-game-day/584016/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">tapped into this demand</a> with a "Tailgate-in-a-box" kit that includes an outdoor projector and a range of Pepsi products. The kit is valued at $5,000 and was delivered to sweepstake winners, so it's unclear how this will translate into the general market, but the opportunity is clear. Pepsi is also experimenting with a "tailgate tour" that brings live music and outdoor games to fans viewing from home. </p> <p>The <a href="https://www.sportbusiness.com/2020/09/nba-leverages-microsoft-partnership-to-revolutionize-virtual-fan-experience/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NBA led the way recently</a> by offering 320 fans the opportunity to "attend" games in the Orlando bubble. At-home viewers logged in through Microsoft Teams, and their streamed likenesses were beamed onto 17-foot video boards set up around the courts. The tech made it look like viewers were sitting next to each other, plus participants could interact with each other and see and hear their reactions in real time. The NBA has other plans to allow fans to chat during games, display a real-time statistical overlay, and introduce gaming elements as well. </p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDQ1MDQ0OC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MTM5OTY2Nn0.vXQnhVuNt2U4rgjMS8-rAN1HInynJNhYgk3s-O-lTqo/img.png?width=980" id="5e507" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="bbc10212942b5545d604be123af9e75d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="NBA Instagram screenshot" />
Credit: Instagram
<p>Technological advances, including <a href="https://bigthink.com/what-would-it-take-to-create-a-fully-immersive-virtual-reality" target="_self">virtual reality</a> (VR) and augmented reality (AR), offer teams new ways to offer virtual fan experiences.</p> <p>Another option that could become very popular is <a href="https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2020/05/27/virtual-reality-sports-fans-broadcasts/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">audio AR</a>. Powerful recording equipment picks up the minutiae of sounds that make up the audio backdrop of in-stadium viewing, and then broadcasts it to at-home viewers. AR allows the noise to grow louder or fainter as viewers "move" closer to or further away from the action. Brands can even add crowd sounds, like gasps at a near miss or the shouts of vendors, to enhance the experience. </p> <p>In Japan, an app called Remote Cheerer allowed fans to capture their real-time reactions to on-field action and actually play triggered sounds in the stadium, instead of the canned crowd noise we've hearing in our MLB, NFL and NHL telecasts. This type of solution keeps fans at home more engaged and makes even the passive TV watching experience more authentic.</p>A new era for sports fan engagement
<p>COVID-19 has sharpened the need for the sports industry to undergo digital transformation. Fans stuck at home need new ways to engage with their favorite teams, including in-game interactions, VR and AR tech that creates the feel of the stadium in their living-rooms, and better ways to connect remotely with other fans, as well as improved content choices to fill in the gaps when games can't be held. </p> <p>A combination of creativity and new technology can break new ground for fan engagement in the sports industry, and the best innovations are already being cherry picked for further development over the years ahead.</p>
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How four British migrations defined America
They came from different places and with different ideas, which still resonate today.
26 September, 2020
Credit: JayMan
- Early British settlement of the American colonies came in four distinct waves, from different places.
- Puritans, Cavaliers, Quakers, and Borderers had their own ideas of what America should be.
- Some of the cultural fault lines in today's America can be traced back to those differences.
Four 'folkways'
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDQ0MDY2NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzOTAzNzk0OX0.YfBxVdS46dX1eUZhGA_4remlW4YYMIxlZ65wjQ2pyMs/img.jpg?width=980" id="d2108" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3f635f82a66c99bf08059b73b2e57f75" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="" />Quaker pioneer William Penn (center) treating with the Delaware Indians for the purchase of what was to become Pennsylvania.
Image: Frieze by Constantino Brumidi (1865) in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol; via Architect of the Capitol - Public Domain.
<p>How many Americans are of British descent? It's a surprisingly difficult question to answer. Is that because, in an age of hyphenated identities, the founding one is still the default? Or has that identity become so amalgamated that it is now irrelevant? Perhaps the correct answer is: a bit of both. </p><p><span></span>In the 1980 Census, 61.3 million Americans (32 percent) self-reported British ancestry; most claimed English descent (26 percent), followed by Scottish (4 percent), and tiny amounts of Welsh (<1 percent) and Northern Irish. In the 2010 Census, that figure had dropped to 37.6 million (14 percent), with just 8 percent reporting English heritage, 3 percent Scottish and 2 percent Scotch-Irish. </p><p>The precipitous drop in self-reported British antecedents corresponds in part with the rise of those who identify as (unhyphenated) 'American', up from 12.4 million (5 percent) in the 1990 Census to 20.2 million in 2000 (7 percent) – the largest growth of any ethnic group in the 1990s.</p><p>However, back around the year 1700, about 80 percent of the population of what was to become the United States were of English (or Welsh) descent, with about 11 percent of African origin, and the rest being Dutch (4 percent), Scottish (3 percent) and other European. The imprint of the British on early American society was overwhelming, diverse and long-lasting: the regional and cultural differences between the settler groups created distinct regional and cultural identities in America.</p><p>That's the argument made by David Fischer, a history professor who in 1989 published a 900-page treatise on early migration to North America called "<a href="https://global.oup.com/ushe/product/albions-seed-9780195069051" target="_blank" style="">Albion's Seed</a>." He identified four British 'folkways' that came over to the other side of the Atlantic in the 17th and 18th centuries (<em>see map</em>), each with their own ideas about the liberty they wanted to find there.<br></p>From exodus to flight
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDQ0MDY2NS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NDg1MzczOX0.-LwTLCpuIub9QhTVWL9vhnd8Jlz9j8aRyt9bePqQPuo/img.png?width=980" id="65f97" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4457df0ca7f66fe87026322bad771da6" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="\u200bMap showing the origin and destination of four British 'folkways' that influenced American society." />Map showing the origin and destination of four British 'folkways' that influenced American society.
Credit: JayMan
<p><strong></strong><strong>1. The Exodus (1629-41)</strong></p><ul> <li>About 21,000 Puritans, migrating from East Anglia to New England.</li><li>These religious fundamentalists believed in 'ordered liberty': everybody had the right to live by their own rules, and the duty to live according to God's law.</li><li>The Puritans were a major influence on the culture of the Northeastern U.S., especially in terms of business and education.</li></ul><p>These religious fundamentalists are the ones who came over on the Mayflower and gave America Thanksgiving and the self-image of being a 'City on a Hill'. Puritan society was gloomy and repressive: 'exceeding the bounds of moderation' was a punishable offense, and even just 'wasting time' got you into trouble.</p>The other side of the coin: life was very well-ordered. There was little income inequality and crime rates were low. Not only was charity towards poor the rule, being uncharitable was, yes, a punishable offense. Domestic abuse was punished severely. Women had a relatively high degree of equality. And government operated via town assemblies in which all could have a say.<p><br><br><strong>2. Cavaliers and their Servants (1642-75)</strong></p><ul><li>Some 45,000 Cavaliers drawn from English nobility and their indentured servants, migrating from the South of England to Virginia and the Lowland South.</li><li>These aristocrats believed in 'hegemonic liberty': dominion over self, and others. In other words: keeping slaves was okay, but domination by others was not.</li><li>The Cavaliers were the foundation of plantation culture in the South. </li></ul><p>The Cavaliers came from the losing side of the Civil War in England, which was now led by the Puritan-inspired Oliver Cromwell. Royalist, Anglican, and aristocratic, they brought along with them their indentured servants – more than 75 percent of the total migration – hoping to recreate in Virginia and environs the socially stratified agrarian society they had left behind.</p><p><span></span>When their servants began dying en masse, they started importing African slaves, laying the groundwork for the race-based slavery system that underpinned the economy of the South until the end of the Civil War.<br><br></p><strong>3. The Friends' Migration (1675-1725)</strong><ul><li><strong></strong>Around 23,000 Quakers, migrating from Northern England to the Delaware Valley in Pennsylvania, and later to the Midwest.</li><li>These religious liberals believed in 'reciprocal liberty': granting others the freedoms they wanted for themselves, including the right to vote, to own, to be free, to worship, and to a fair trial.</li><li>Quakers had an important impact on the industrial culture of the Mid-Atlantic and Midwestern regions of the U.S.</li></ul><span></span>Halfway between the fun-hating Puritans and the pleb-hating Cavaliers, the Quakers seem modern and likeable. Believing everybody intrinsically good, they practiced tolerance, pacifism, gender equality, and racial harmony. They opposed slavery, the death penalty, and cruelty to animals and children.<br><br><p>Quakers replaced a wide range of social acknowledgements according to rank (bows, nods, grovels) by a single, neutral equivalent: the handshake. Quakerism was perhaps one of the first Christian denominations to become indistinguishable from liberal, secular modernity. On the other hand, they were even more prudish than the Puritans. Doctors had a hard time treating Quakers because they described everything from their necks to their waists as their 'stomachs', and everything below as their 'ankles'.<br><br> </p><p><strong>4. The Flight from Northern Britain (1717-75)</strong></p><ul><li>Some 250,000 'Borderers', migrating from the Anglo-Scottish borderlands and Ulster to the Backcountry of Appalachia.</li><li>These individualists believed in 'natural liberty': freedom to do as one pleases, without interference from society or government.</li><li>Borderers contributed to the rural culture of America's South and the ranch culture of its West. </li></ul><p><span></span>Inhabiting the border regions between Scotland and England, and between protestant settlers and catholic natives in Ireland, the Borderers were used to violence and lawlessness, and to lives that were nasty, brutish and short. </p>It is no coincidence that they ended up in Appalachia, at that time itself a violent border region. It was the kind of world they knew. Borderers were wary of government, prone to violent family feuds, and not bothered by traditional morality. By one estimate, in the year 1767, 94 percent of all 'backcountry' brides were pregnant on their wedding day. These Borderers were not much beloved by other settler groups in America. One Pennsylvanian writer called them "the scum of two nations". But the Borderers also contributed vigorously to the success of both the American Revolution and America's westward expansion.'Blue' vs. 'Red'?
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDQ0MDczNy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MzE5MTc4NH0.EtbfEc9BlGG8R4VlyHr2W7kQ0LzvRdAHRRRlsEI01Pg/img.jpg?width=980" id="ce2a3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ba2cd744238f9a08ce63e85be2860528" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Representative Preston Brooks (SC) caning Senator Charles Sumner (MA) on the Senate floor. The attack, on 22 May 1856, symbolised the breakdown of civil discourse between North and South, prefiguring the Civil War." />Representative Preston Brooks (SC) caning Senator Charles Sumner (MA) on the Senate floor. The attack, on 22 May 1856, symbolised the breakdown of civil discourse between North and South, prefiguring the Civil War.
Credit: Lithograph by John L. Magee (1856); Public Domain.
<p>It's tempting, and perhaps not entirely unjustified, to see in these four strains of British 'folkways' the antecedents of some of America's current cultural divides. One might for example see Puritans and Quakers as constituting elements of the 'blue' tribe, while Borderers and Cavaliers could be considered the ancestors of the 'red' tribe.</p><p><span></span>But thinking of America as a "death match between Puritan-Quaker culture and Cavalier-Borderer culture", as one commentator put it, is perhaps a bit too easy. There may be plenty of overlap within either pair, there is also much to distinguish each from the other. And then there are other and subsequent migrations contributing to and complicating the picture.</p><p>Nevertheless, a bit of cultural archaeology can be illuminating, if only to see where the bodies are buried.<br></p><p><strong><br></strong></p><p><strong>Strange Maps #1049</strong></p><p><em>Got a strange map? Let me know at </em><a href="mailto:strangemaps@gmail.com">strangemaps@gmail.com</a><em>.</em></p><p><em>Update 30 September: image reference for the map was changed to reflect <a href="https://jaymans.wordpress.com/2013/08/14/maps-of-the-american-nations/" target="_blank">the original source and producer of the map in question</a>.</em></p>
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The 'Motte & Bailey' meme reveals what's wrong with political arguments in 2020
This medieval-themed meme highlights a shady yet all too common rhetorical move people make in arguments.
04 September, 2020
Credit: MotteAndBaileyMemes/Big Think
- The "Motte and Bailey Doctrine" was developed by philosopher Nicholas Shackel.
- It describes a rhetorical move in which an arguer advances an indefensible opinion, but when challenged falls back upon a similar yet easier-to-defend opinion.
- Motte-and-baileys have become a weapon of choice in political and culture-war arguments.
<p>If there's one meme that ought to infect the internet hive mind, it's the "Motte and Bailey" meme.</p><p>It shows a 10th-century castle system called a motte-and-bailey, which consists of a courtyard next to a fortified tower on a hill. Above each is text outlining two arguments.</p>
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzYzNjAxNi9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2ODQzMDAzM30.ViD-yut6iflwmJ7otdLCIfAFHZXYovqgWGWJPqxU-QM/img.png?width=980" id="2b1db" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2d52dace1aff06b1cdb394a5ac4325e1" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Motte-and-bailey meme" />
Motte-and-bailey meme
Credit: MotteAndBaileyMemes
<p>The format is sort of confusing at first glance. But once understood, it offers a solid way to visualize bad arguments because it highlights a shady rhetorical move common in political discourse. </p><p>Here's an example in a hypothetical argument about homeopathic medicine:</p><p><strong>A: Homeopathic medicine can cure cancer.<br>B: There's no evidence showing homeopathy is effective.<br>A: Actually there are many ways for people to be healthy besides taking doctor-prescribed drugs.</strong></p><p><em></em>Spot it? Person A started with a bold and controversial opinion that's hard to defend (homeopathic medicine cures cancer). But when challenged, they retreated to an uncontroversial argument that's much easier to defend (prescription drugs aren't the only route to good health).</p><p>Person B would probably agree: Sure, there are many ways to be healthy besides drugs. But then, having deflected the first attack, Person A could go right back to arguing for homeopathic medicine as a cancer treatment.</p><div id="778a4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="94dbb3a4485071e57cf5e0bb97eca312"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1100474128539119616" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Motte-and-Bailey blank meme template, plus an explainer of how to use it, and an example. https://t.co/d7yT8HbjAf</div> — Noah Smith 🐇 (@Noah Smith 🐇)<a href="https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/statuses/1100474128539119616">1551208452.0</a></blockquote></div><p>In 2005, philosopher Nicholas Shackel coined this move as the <a href="https://philpapers.org/archive/SHATVO-2.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">"Motte and Bailey Doctrine."</a> (People often call it a fallacy, but Shackel wrote a <a href="http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2014/09/motte-and-bailey-doctrines/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">blog post</a> in 2014 explaining why he calls it a doctrine, and how "a myriad of persuasive fallacies" can be snuck into a motte-and-bailey.)</p><p>The name comes from a castle-defense system developed in the 10th century in northern Europe. One part was a courtyard area, called a bailey, where people would trade, eat, and work. On a nearby hill was a fortified tower called a motte. The motte was an unproductive place to hang out, but it was safe. So, during attacks, residents would flee the bailey for the motte, where they could ward off enemies.</p><p>In rhetorical terms, the bailey is the desired but hard-to-defend controversial opinion. The motte is the less desired yet defensible opinion that nearly everyone agrees with, and which the arguer retreats to if unable to defend the bailey.</p>
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzYzNTk3My9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MDc3ODAyMX0.YbSzLxliXDE7i7A7DqRfVhw_ekDU8UGKVd_0iSxluhk/img.png?width=980" id="1ba41" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="82a71d8b18f7a48e6a0a44a6ab9eea29" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="\u200bMotte-and-bailey meme" />
Motte-and-bailey meme
Credit: MotteAndBaileyMemes
<p>In 2014, the psychiatrist Scott Alexander <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slate_Star_Codex" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">(not his real name)</a> helped popularize the motte-and-bailey doctrine after writing about it on his blog <a href="https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/11/03/all-in-all-another-brick-in-the-motte/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Slate Star Codex</a>, a popular rationalist hub. Alexander wrote:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"[The doctrine] draws its strength from people's usual failure to debate specific propositions rather than vague clouds of ideas. If I'm debating "does quackery cure cancer?", it might be easy to view that as a general case of the problem of "is quackery okay?" or "should quackery be illegal?", and from there it's easy to bring up the motte objection."</p><p>Overlapping with the Slate Star Codex community is a subreddit named after the doctrine called <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/TheMotte/" target="_blank">r/TheMotte</a>, which describes itself as a place for people to "test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases." The subreddit calls on users to "always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed."<br></p><p>And then there are the memes. It's unclear who created the first one, or when, but since at least 2018 people have been posting motte-and-bailey memes to critique the often-shoddy ways in which people argue about issues ranging from immigration, to the problems of capitalism, to ideas about truth.</p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzYzNjExMy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwOTc5MDQxNH0.xhQ52VMkCNkaNwaiwTwK-tLizCmqMgqb0xBSXxwhyPQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="dd45b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="dff7f7eb91acd29ec1de9a0afb6419c2" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Motte-and-bailey meme" />
Motte-and-bailey meme
Credit: MotteAndBaileyMemes
<p>Motte-and-baileys aren't a new phenomenon. But it does seem like they're becoming a rhetorical weapon of choice in political and culture-war arguments.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"I think [the motte-and-bailey doctrine] is a very useful concept to have in my arsenal of concepts to analyze what's going on," Kenny Easwaran, philosophy professor at Texas A&M University and co-editor of the Journal of Philosophical Logic, told <a href="https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2020/06/19/the_motte__bailey_political_joustings_deceptive_new_weapon_from_the_middle_ages_124084.html" target="_blank">Real Clear Investigations</a><em>. </em>"It's behavior we've seen, but we see so much more of it now."</p><p>It's hard to say why. You could blame the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-08-13/nuance-memes-protests-ideas" target="_blank">fall of nuance</a>, <a href="https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/268982/impact-increased-political-polarization.aspx" target="_blank">increasing political polarization</a> and the <a href="https://www.valleycenter.com/articles/the-year-of-motte-bailey-arguments/" target="_blank">absence of a middle ground</a>, and the <a href="https://www.openpolitics.com/tag/social-media-incentives/" target="_blank">tendency of social media to incentivize tribalism</a>, to name a few. </p><p>It's also worth considering how motte-and-baileys change when they include moral claims. For example, it's one thing to pull a motte-and-bailey to advance an argument about, say, 18th-century economic theory. But hot-button issues change the game. Take debates <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/30/sports/track-gender-rules.html" target="_blank">about transgender and intersex athletes</a> as an example. </p><p>An argument might unfold like:</p><p><strong>A: Every transgender athlete should be able to compete in whichever gender category they identify with.<br>B: Wouldn't that give some athletes an unfair or even dangerous physical advantage?<br>A: Transgender people have been discriminated against for too long, it has to stop.</strong></p><p>Everyone agrees with the motte: transgender discrimination should stop. But notice how it becomes much easier to advance the bailey when the motte is a sensitive moral claim that's (rightfully) taboo to disagree with? </p><p>You might have good arguments against the bailey. But if it's tied to a sensitive motte, you might decide it's not even worth challenging. After all, it can be costly to your reputation to even look like you're challenging a sensitive motte, even if you're actually questioning the bailey in good faith.</p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzYzNTk3NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MTM2NTg0M30.2O2U4EGgqgo1tcELh_9y6wJ0FEkUZ5bKIziQwWVz1-M/img.jpg?width=980" id="e7924" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6f3251b3acd907c211e8049995b8e21f" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="\u200bMotte-and-bailey meme" />
Motte-and-bailey meme
Credit: MotteAndBaileyMemes
<p><br>You can see this play out in political arguments. For example, a Trump supporter might argue for unprecedentedly harsh immigration policies at the U.S./Mexico border. (That's the bailey). If someone challenges that position, the Trump supporter could shame them for being unpatriotic, considering immigration reform is part of the Make America Great Again platform, and who doesn't want to make America great (motte)?</p><p>Similarly, someone might question Black Lives Matter's goal of disrupting "the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement" (bailey). They might get a reply like: "What, are you trying to argue that Black lives don't matter (motte)?"</p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzYzNTk3NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NTg3MzQ2OH0.rYqK2XXsKQaJUFB95LfI8ONsTdMkmJvQ9w5QDCFQew8/img.jpg?width=980" id="de706" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3ac7fb1ab576aadad4d516a670d2f485" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="\u200bMotte-and-bailey meme" />
Motte-and-bailey meme
Credit: MotteAndBaileyMemes
<p>It might sound like motte-and-baileys are always easy to spot. But as Alexander wrote on <a href="https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/11/03/all-in-all-another-brick-in-the-motte/" target="_blank">Slate Star Codex</a>, "all fallacies sound that way when you're thinking about them."<br></p>
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