#patrick geary

[ultimateonlinemortgage]

30 Year Fixed Rate Mortgage | Ultimateonlinemortgage.com 30 Year Fixed Rate Mortgage at 4.17% Which is the same as December 15, 2016

[ivorytowerofpisa]

Sacred commodities: the circulation of medieval relics by Patrick Geary.

An examination of sacred relics as commodities in the Middle Ages may seem to be pushing the definition of commodities as "goods destined for circulation and exchange" to an extreme. Could one reasonably describe a human body or portions thereof as destined for circulation? Can we really compare the production and circulation of saints' remains to that of gold in prehistoric Europe, cloth in preRevolutionary France, or qat in northeastern Africa? The differences are of course great. Nevertheless, although relics were almost universally understood to be important sources of personal supernatural power and formed the primary focus of religious devotion throughout Europe from the eighth through the twelfth centuries, they were bought and sold, stolen or divided, much as any other commodity was. As a result the world of relics may prove an ideal if somewhat unusual microcosm in which to examine the creation, evaluation, and circulation of commodities in traditional Europe.

[fae-and-infallible]

No one should be so naive as to expect that a clearer understanding of the formation of Europe's peoples will east nationalist tensions or limit the hatred and bloodshed that they continue to cause. At best, one hopes that those being called upon to assist in the actualization of demands based on these appropriations of history, whether in Europe, the Middle East, or elsewhere, will be more skeptical of them. Failing even this, historians have a duty to speak out, even if they are certain to be ignored.

Patrick J. Geary

Failing even this, historians have a duty to speak out, even if they are certain to be ignored. 

[sagenundlegenden]

The Slavic migrations did not adopt or build on Roman systems of taxation, agriculture, social organization or politics. Their organization was not based on Roman models, and their leaders were not normally dependent on Roman gold for their success. Thus, their effect was far more thorough than anything that the Goths, the Franks or the Saxons ever achieved. Almost everything about the early Slavs- their origins, their social and political structures, and their tremendous success- has been an enduring puzzle... Byzantine historian Procopius described how they were 'not ruled by one man, but they have lived from old under a democracy, and consequently everything which involves their welfare, for good or ill, is referred to the people.' This decentralization was perhaps the key to their success.

Patrick Geary, The Myth of Nations:  The Medieval Origins of Europe, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002, p 144-146