Having been an occasional follower of the Anglo-Saxon debate since the dimly-remembered days of the saintly Barry Cunliffe on Radio 4 in the 1970s, I'm delighted to read that we knuckle-draggers have been vindicated. It's fascinating to compare the Sage pronouncements of our modern erudites with actual science (from the Grey Goose Chronicle):
Wolf Liebeschuetz, 'Arguments from language and etymology are irrelevant.' The hand waving dismissal of other disciplines is stunning, Cracking name though.
Francis Pryor (he of channel 4 fame)
"the arrival of Anglo-Saxons were usually caused by people changing their minds, rather than their places of residence."
Joscha Gretzinger (and many et alii and aliae)
"Here we study genome-wide ancient DNA from 460 medieval northwestern Europeans—including 278 individuals from England—alongside archaeological data, to infer contemporary population dynamics. . . .
We identify a substantial increase of continental northern European ancestry in early medieval England, which is closely related to the early medieval and present-day inhabitants of Germany and Denmark, implying large-scale substantial migration across the North Sea into Britain during the Early Middle Ages. As a result, the individuals who we analysed from eastern England derived up to 76% of their ancestry from the continental North Sea zone, albeit with substantial regional variation and heterogeneity within sites."
I seem to recall hearing such opinions being expressed on Barry Cunliffe's programmes, though by persons of the Celtic persuasion, not the great man himself.
Why do people act like it's surprising that "education" systems that heavily indoctrinate are churning out graduates who skew heavily in the direction of their indoctrination?
All you really need to know about the latest crypto scandal is that the founder is/was a major donor to the Democratic party and promised to spend a billion on the 2024 elections and when the crypto starting collapsing, all the major Democratic organs (NYT, WaPo, Vox) were strangely silent and even published articles about how great he was. No rush to investigative reporting!
On top of it, snippets of twitter exchanges revealed Sam Bankman-Fried mocking woke westerners and another exchange had him revealing all his do-gooderism was effectively a form of self-protection.
I must have missed your part about coming to the US?! When and where? I am in Baltimore if you are ever in the area.
Katherine Dee's article was very interesting, and not paywalled!
Having identified "capitalism" as the outside force preventing her and women like her from having whatever it is she's decided she wants now, she doesn't do much toward identifying a positive step she could take toward her goal.
What is your point, Ms. Dee? Do you want my life, which was full of people carrying on pretty normally (except the library was closed!) through Covid? There's plenty of room out here on the mammoth steppe, but there are tradeoffs, too.
For example, when I read a sentence in any media about the high cost of child care, I would like to ask the writer, "What would someone have to pay you to get you to take care of her child all day?" If it's more than you're willing to pay someone else to take care of your child, then you're a hypocrite.
I think the presenter/ editor David Musgrave is well meaning but it ends up being fairly soaked in contemporary political concerns rather than a clear assessment of the period. We are told constantly that the ancient Romano-British people were 'choosing their identity' when faced with the incoming peoples. No one ever get to grips with the possibility that could have been because you were choosing your identity at the point of a sword, or at least under the influence of a lot of Anglo Saxon muscle, or choosing to get along and speak the new lingo or face starvation. There's this strange underlying assumption that all incoming movements of peoples must be peaceful and socially harmonious, the possibility of invasion or even localised violence is just ruled out.
There is also a lot of evidence that the end of the Roman Empire in Britain brought with it a huge fall in living standards (see Peter Heather's "The Fall of the Roman Empire"), but in the BBC podcast this change in 'material culture' is dismissed and even trivialised (they compare it at one point to going from streaming movies back to VHS). I have visited traditional peoples for whom a small change in 'material culture' like a new cooking pot meant a significant improvement in day to day lives.
And of course at one point in the podcast we are told off by an American academic not to use the term 'Anglo Saxon'. (Incidentally, Tom Holland gave a good defence of the use of Anglo Saxon in The Rest is History podcast recently).
Sorry to go on about this, but the intellectual laziness, political tribalism, lack of empathy, and the immorality of dismissing the difficulties of ancient people's lives really pissed me off.
that sounds maddening. Yeah I heard Tom's recent defence, of course agree 100% with him. it's a bit of a trigger for me tbh.
I read somewhere that surviving corpses from this period suggest a five-fold increase in violent deaths (from the surviving bodies) which certainly suggests a change in living standards. The obvious comparison with now is our current age of migration, with Gildas as a pessimistic critic of migration (and Vortigen as Blair obv). But such a programme would be too transgressive for the BBC. Why we need an independent alternative to Radio 4!
Deactivated my Twitter & will allow it to extinguish after the 30 day period in which you can change your mind. Aside from the usual objections I'm not persuaded that it's useful at all, whether or not one finds fabulous niche experts one might otherwise miss. Unless you have a gargantuan capacity for ever more information, which I doubt many of us do.
My theory is that FOMO accounts for most rationalisation by non-idiots around why they remain there.
Well not so much of a meet-up as more me meeting subscribers when I go there, but haven't finalised plans. Let's see if the CCP manufacturers any viruses between now and then.
Sorry the Wessie article should have been via Jon S - will add that in. Thanks Jon!
Having been an occasional follower of the Anglo-Saxon debate since the dimly-remembered days of the saintly Barry Cunliffe on Radio 4 in the 1970s, I'm delighted to read that we knuckle-draggers have been vindicated. It's fascinating to compare the Sage pronouncements of our modern erudites with actual science (from the Grey Goose Chronicle):
Wolf Liebeschuetz, 'Arguments from language and etymology are irrelevant.' The hand waving dismissal of other disciplines is stunning, Cracking name though.
Francis Pryor (he of channel 4 fame)
"the arrival of Anglo-Saxons were usually caused by people changing their minds, rather than their places of residence."
Joscha Gretzinger (and many et alii and aliae)
"Here we study genome-wide ancient DNA from 460 medieval northwestern Europeans—including 278 individuals from England—alongside archaeological data, to infer contemporary population dynamics. . . .
We identify a substantial increase of continental northern European ancestry in early medieval England, which is closely related to the early medieval and present-day inhabitants of Germany and Denmark, implying large-scale substantial migration across the North Sea into Britain during the Early Middle Ages. As a result, the individuals who we analysed from eastern England derived up to 76% of their ancestry from the continental North Sea zone, albeit with substantial regional variation and heterogeneity within sites."
A modest wes hál is in order I reckon.
What is odd is that the idea of people committing genocide and slaughter to conquer their neighbours became unfashionable after 1914-1945.
I seem to recall hearing such opinions being expressed on Barry Cunliffe's programmes, though by persons of the Celtic persuasion, not the great man himself.
Indeed. Though personally, I'm more inclined to the 'unexplained artefacts aren't religion' thesis.
Why do people act like it's surprising that "education" systems that heavily indoctrinate are churning out graduates who skew heavily in the direction of their indoctrination?
All you really need to know about the latest crypto scandal is that the founder is/was a major donor to the Democratic party and promised to spend a billion on the 2024 elections and when the crypto starting collapsing, all the major Democratic organs (NYT, WaPo, Vox) were strangely silent and even published articles about how great he was. No rush to investigative reporting!
On top of it, snippets of twitter exchanges revealed Sam Bankman-Fried mocking woke westerners and another exchange had him revealing all his do-gooderism was effectively a form of self-protection.
I must have missed your part about coming to the US?! When and where? I am in Baltimore if you are ever in the area.
I mentioned it a couple of weeks back.
I'm a big fan of this little known obscure TV show about Baltimore, it's called 'The Wire' and....
Would be glad to meet up and give you a tour. It's a city of contrasts - nothing in the UK comes close. Will send you an email.
definitely
Katherine Dee's article was very interesting, and not paywalled!
Having identified "capitalism" as the outside force preventing her and women like her from having whatever it is she's decided she wants now, she doesn't do much toward identifying a positive step she could take toward her goal.
What is your point, Ms. Dee? Do you want my life, which was full of people carrying on pretty normally (except the library was closed!) through Covid? There's plenty of room out here on the mammoth steppe, but there are tradeoffs, too.
For example, when I read a sentence in any media about the high cost of child care, I would like to ask the writer, "What would someone have to pay you to get you to take care of her child all day?" If it's more than you're willing to pay someone else to take care of your child, then you're a hypocrite.
Back again to say thank you for that Stone Age Herbalist rec. Such a fascinating tale of how scholarship can be contaminated by ideology.
thank you. And apologies I have not been active in the comments. Sundays are never great although yesterday was my eldest's birthday so extra busy.
But also dying of a cold, I'm manfully struggling through like a hero.
Re the Anglo Saxon debate, not sure if you are aware of the recent series of podcasts from the BBC on the End of Roman Britain:
https://www.historyextra.com/period/roman/end-roman-britain-introduction-episode-1/
I think the presenter/ editor David Musgrave is well meaning but it ends up being fairly soaked in contemporary political concerns rather than a clear assessment of the period. We are told constantly that the ancient Romano-British people were 'choosing their identity' when faced with the incoming peoples. No one ever get to grips with the possibility that could have been because you were choosing your identity at the point of a sword, or at least under the influence of a lot of Anglo Saxon muscle, or choosing to get along and speak the new lingo or face starvation. There's this strange underlying assumption that all incoming movements of peoples must be peaceful and socially harmonious, the possibility of invasion or even localised violence is just ruled out.
There is also a lot of evidence that the end of the Roman Empire in Britain brought with it a huge fall in living standards (see Peter Heather's "The Fall of the Roman Empire"), but in the BBC podcast this change in 'material culture' is dismissed and even trivialised (they compare it at one point to going from streaming movies back to VHS). I have visited traditional peoples for whom a small change in 'material culture' like a new cooking pot meant a significant improvement in day to day lives.
And of course at one point in the podcast we are told off by an American academic not to use the term 'Anglo Saxon'. (Incidentally, Tom Holland gave a good defence of the use of Anglo Saxon in The Rest is History podcast recently).
Sorry to go on about this, but the intellectual laziness, political tribalism, lack of empathy, and the immorality of dismissing the difficulties of ancient people's lives really pissed me off.
that sounds maddening. Yeah I heard Tom's recent defence, of course agree 100% with him. it's a bit of a trigger for me tbh.
I read somewhere that surviving corpses from this period suggest a five-fold increase in violent deaths (from the surviving bodies) which certainly suggests a change in living standards. The obvious comparison with now is our current age of migration, with Gildas as a pessimistic critic of migration (and Vortigen as Blair obv). But such a programme would be too transgressive for the BBC. Why we need an independent alternative to Radio 4!
Deactivated my Twitter & will allow it to extinguish after the 30 day period in which you can change your mind. Aside from the usual objections I'm not persuaded that it's useful at all, whether or not one finds fabulous niche experts one might otherwise miss. Unless you have a gargantuan capacity for ever more information, which I doubt many of us do.
My theory is that FOMO accounts for most rationalisation by non-idiots around why they remain there.
Wait you're having a meetup in America next year?
Well not so much of a meet-up as more me meeting subscribers when I go there, but haven't finalised plans. Let's see if the CCP manufacturers any viruses between now and then.
still in embryo stage but email me at edjameswest@gmail.com