#ancient societies

[queenboudicaa]

The oldest continuous culture in the world, the australian aboriginals practiced a form of genital mutilation to make their penis resemble a vagina. Put very plainly.

Time and time again when we look to these ancient cultures we see tiny little remments of different societies and cultures that worshipped the bodily processes of women and their life giving energy. Womb envy is REAL.

Doesn't it say something that the longest continuous culture was made of many different matriachal groups within Australia?

We can look to different cultures for a blue print on where we want to go and how it was done.

Our contributions to culture and society as women have thought to either never exist or have been lost but it's still in memory of some indigenous Australian women.

There's even documentation of the ritual needed to be performed by men to become husbands.

[vampiredeathkiss]

Okay, so Vampire Death Kiss after basically 20 years of having her own original creations is finally willing to post one such example on the internet. I have many, many of my own creations, some going as far back as 2004! (Liocama, Space Warriors, Catty Cat, etc.) Some are newer (such as Leoma the Biotech Pupto, partly based off Cackletta from Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga and the Nightingbelles, a group of fashion savvy bat girls hailing from the land of TAG [the Tennessee Alabama Georgia tristate area, known for having one of the highest concentrations of caves in the country, and even the world]). Anyway, here is one of my original characters, Dirrilarrikiqua!

Dirrilarrikiqua was born in the central part of Italy (Tuscany, Florence, around those parts) to a man of Sicilian heritage and a Momo woman (Momos are an ancient hierarchical society comprised primarily of women and ruled over by angels and demons). She is the baby of the family, spoiled by her father (Her mother died when she was young.) Her oldest sister, Leslia Lukas, was abusive to her, her only protection being from the middle child, Starla, her close sister. When she was 16, Dirrilarrikiqua fled home with her fiancé Leo, who would later become the Legendary Leo, and moved to southern Idaho, where they would have a son, Enrique. When their son was 14, her sister Leslia terrorized them, kidnapping their son, who she gave amnesia to and transformed him into a dog. It is presumed that Leslia killed her sister, but it is unknown whether she was killed or not. It is currently unknown what happened to Dirrilarrikiqua.

I hope you all like this! Be on the lookout for pictures of Leslia, Ivan Luvensky, Cocalota, and other original creations of mine. Thank you for your time!-VDK

All characters mentioned (except Cackletta) belong to Vampire Death Kiss/Lady Dusk Angel.

[jhaileyscomet]

so uhhh... history side of tumblr - how do you guys feel about the eery parallels between the bronze age collapse and present day? and what do you think of the origins of the 'sea people'?

[merskrat]

Male archaeologist: *sees ancient carving of woman clearly in a position of power and respect* Ah, a lady carving! Clearly a fertility icon! I am very smart!

[ebonykain]

TFW you need to research something for a fic, and your google-fu is failing you.

I don't care about what makeup women wore in ancient China, I wanna know how much and what kind the men wore!

I know they wore some. But none of the links I am finding have more than a throw-away line something like "and because appearance and beauty were important indications of status men wore some cosmetics, too".

Were they doing their foundation as plain rice powder or were they mixing white lead in, too? Did they use cinnabar and red lead on their cheeks and lips like the women did? Did they shape and darken their eyebrows with dai?

Were the ruling classes all going crazy and dying from wearing highly toxic minerals on their faces just like everywhere else until we learned about lead & mercury poisoning?

How compulsory was it for a man of high standing to need to wear makeup in order to be taken seriously?

More specifically: how likely would it be that Nie Mingjue would wear cosmetics as a normal part of getting dressed versus putting it on to attend a Discussion Conference where he's forced to play the games of politics and presenting no weaknesses or flaws to a room of rivals and enemies that he's forced by custom to be civil to?

Like, I'm pretty sure the Jin family wear makeup. They look like they are wearing makeup beyond the typical presentation of the actors just being made to look good, you know?

But the makeup work on the other Sects is much more subtle and natural-looking. Is it meant to portray that the other clans don't use cosmetics at all? Or to portray that they use very little because it's assumed all gentry wear makeup to some extent, while the Jin clan uses more/more expensive cosmetics?

*head desk* like... I can totally see Nie Huaisang choosing to wear makeup just because he loves pretty things. So even if it's not Just What You Do As The Young Master of a Great Sect, I can see him having cosmetics with him all the time and putting it on as his normal routine.

But Nie Mingjue is kind of famous for uh... Not liking things? If Jin Guangyao's assessment of him is to be believed. So my take on that assessment is that Nie Mingjue is hyper focused on what he has to do as Sect Leader and as a cultivator dedicated to righteous action, and that things for himself that he doesn't have to do for either duty or love tend to take a back burner. So I can see him foregoing makeup any time it wouldn't be considered insulting or a display of weakness to do so.

But it all depends on what's considered a normal type and amount of makeup for a man of his status and rank. And I can't find the info I need! 😭😭

[thegrangerarchives]

Nocturnus by @indreamsink

When an underground power stirs in France and threatens the fragile post-war balance in England, Draco steps into a seat of power to which he is the heir by birthright, determined to protect his family. Intent on justice, Hermione volunteers for the role of his partner and adviser, neither of them aware of the ancient and twisted web of chaos they're about to walk into.

Rated: E; Chapters: 57; Words: 191675 

→ Links: Fanfiction.net and Archive of Our Own → Fanart: Author’s Blog, ladykenz347

[sciencenewsforstudents]

Skeletons hint that ancient societies had women warriors

Some women in North American hunter-gatherer societies and Mongolian herding groups may have been warriors.

History has suggested ancient societies left warfare to men. But remains of North American hunter-gatherers and Mongolian herders now suggest differently. Skeletons show signs that some women in these communities were warriors. Long ago, societies assigned certain jobs to men and women. But these roles were not strictly enforced, two new studies suggest. Anthropology is the study of human societies. It long held that hunters were men and gatherers were women. But that view now appears flawed and too simple, says Marin Pilloud. She is a forensic anthropologist who works at the University of Nevada, Reno. She and other scientists had planned to share their new findings at a scientific meeting in April. But the meeting was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The scientists now describe their research to Science News for Students.

[trylonandperisphere]

Strong women did a lot of the heavy lifting in ancient farming societies

New study suggests their upper bodies were even stronger than today’s elite female athletes

“Forget about emotional labor. Women living 7000 years ago had to deal with another lopsided workload: farming. Prehistoric women shouldered a major share of the hoeing, digging, and hauling in early agricultural societies, according to a new study. Now, by analyzing the bones of these women, scientists have shown that their upper body strength surpassed even today’s elite female athletes. The findings refute popularly held notions that early agrarian women shunned manual labor in favor of domestic work, and they suggest that then—as now—a woman’s work was never done.”