Hot answers tagged social-history
10
Very interesting. I found this explanation on geneology.about.com:
In earlier times, a marriage bond was given to the court by the
intended groom prior to his marriage. It affirmed that there was no
moral or legal reason why the couple could not be married and it also
affirmed that the groom would not change his mind. If he did, and did
not marry ...
8
From Maid-of-all-work:
Historically many maids suffered from Prepatellar bursitis, an inflammation of the Prepatellar bursa caused by long periods spent on the knees for purposes of scrubbing and fire-lighting, leading to the condition attracting the colloquial name of "Housemaid's Knee".
It was a common condition caused by the hard physical labor ...
8
The concept of praying to the Roman Gods as well as to whatever local deity did mean that the Republic then Empire could assimilate a lot of cultures. After all, they were always worshuiping the same gods, and now they can have access to all the good things that Rome provides -- see Life of Brian's "What did the Romans ever do for us?" speech. Even when the ...
8
To an extent the answer depends on what you mean by 'medieval times'. The answer in 800 is very different from 1400. However, I'll have a go for the later medieval period, post Normanisation around 1100 until 1500.
The idea that Scotland in the late medieval period operated under some sort of 'clan system' is not true. 'Clan' is really just another name for ...
7
This is not a complete answer because your question is actually a huge topic with many possible approaches.
Birth is ethnicity
My personal view on this is that, long ago, at a time when the nomadic way of life was the rule, nations did not relate to geographical origin but rather to birth.
The etymology of various IE languages is very clear on this:
...
7
"Nationalism" as a term in its modern definition
Regularly being referred to as an author of remarkable influence on the terms nationality and nationalism in their modern recipation is Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803). In his work Ideas for the Philosophy of History of Humanity (1784–91), he is at least one of the first to claim that human societies ...
7
For the most part, you would be talking about what is referred to as vernacular architecture. This was pretty much enforced until the last couple of generations, as "architect" is a licenced profession in the USA, and African Americans (and women) had trouble getting themseleves licenced. Paul Williams became the first in 1923, although census results in ...
7
This legendary self-sufficiency isn't quite as it seems. From Colonial days, almshouses (aka poor houses) and orphanages were around to look after those with no family although this tended to be uneven in application and quality of care. While many of these were affiliated with a church, some were operated by state and local governments.
People also ...
6
A recent report by USAID offers a brief but insightful view on some of current research on 'Youth Bulge' hypothesis. Some of the key take-away are:
The common thread across the latest research is that youth bulges alone do not cause conflict. Rather, when unstable politics and social deterioration are combined with large numbers of disadvantaged young men, ...
6
I'm going to do a total long shot here, and provide a comparison that seems to fit all 4 points. However, as a larger picture, it's not necessarily a very good parallel since very little practical advice can be gleaned from it as far as what needs to be done.
USSR in the late 1980s till 1991 fits:
Decentralization forces driven by existence of ...
5
Caring for the old and infirm goes far further back than the historical record. Remains have been found in multiple neanderthal sites of individuals with old injuries that would have made them unable to fend for themselves. The best known example was a neanderthal found at Shanidar Cave I who had evidence of multiple deformaties and old partially healed ...
5
The Roman armies of the early to mid-Republic were largely conscript based with the conscripts serving for a relatively short period. Only land owners were eligible for conscription. Conscripts were unpaid and expected to provide their own equipment. This worked well enough for a while but as the extent of Roman territory grew it proved increasingly ...
5
The French Revolution occurred from 1789 to 1799.
The period covered by Les Miserable which is the June Rebellion of 1832.
Articles on the June Rebellion indicate the restored king was Louis Phillipe.
5
A New York bar's website is one of a few sites which provide the following (seemingly) credible explanation for this practice:
No one is exactly sure of the reasons why larger format bottles were given biblical names. But, according to the Champagne expert Francois Bonal, winemakers in Bordeaux had been using the name Jeroboam for the four-bottle size ...
5
I'm not sure about consensus, but there are books on the topic. Example:
http://www.amazon.com/Organised-Crime-Antiquity-Keith-Hopwood/dp/0715629050
Further east, Yakuza originated in 1600s.
More controversially, you could view pretty much any feudal lord as an organized criminal (since your question wasn't terribly specific on how you define organized ...
4
After getting clues from the accepted answer above and found this other article. It maybe be useful to someone in the future
MARRIAGE BONDS AND ALLEGATIONS - POINTS TO REMEMBER
• Marriage bonds and allegations only exist for couples who applied to
marry by licence. They do not exist for couples who married by banns.
• The marriage allegation was ...
4
There's no good cut-and-dried answer to what 'the origins of organized crime' are, as it is a phenomenon that sprang up in many places independently. I'm not aware of any consensus as to the very first example of an organized criminal group either, although, as DVK points out, you would have to define what you think would qualify as organized crime.
...
3
I am not sure this question would have made much sense to the Romans themselves. The whole concept of formal guidelines/directives is something which is associated with the modern bureaucratic state (especially in its totalitarian forms). The Romans just didn't work that way and probably would have been amazed at the suggestion that the Senate or the Emperor ...
3
Definitions from Free Dictionary, Dictionary.com, and Oxford dictionary (subscriber only) should tell you the official definition.
The Roman Republic and Byzantine Empire are different because of religion, geographical location, population, language and customs. Although the Byzantine did consider themselves the heirs of the Roman Empire. In the same ...
3
If you look back through history, the root cause of major social reforms in the United States was the Great Depression of 1929. Prior to that, most Americans were self-sufficient and fiercely proud. The Great Depression changed all of that practically over night.
There were a number of other factors that were already beginning to develop, most notably the ...
2
Braudel
Longue duree
Most cultural/social history of peasantries
Basically: very different.
Class was expressed through legalised social status issues including dress, habit, language, gesture, stance. This was much more rigidly enforced because the classes mingled to a much greater extent than today (when have you met someone who owns $5bn of capital?).
...
2
Nigel Harper has given the correct chronology for Roman land grants to soldiers. There is an important point to be added, however: these land grants were always associated to the founding of a colony. That is, each such grant involved the founding of a separate settlement of veterans. I do not recall any insance where a soldier was simply given a farm or a ...
1
Short Answer: No.
Long answer: No, there probably was nothing like African American architectural style in the early twentieth century.
As you noted in your question African Americans moved from the South to the North in large numbers at the beginning of the 20th century. This was largely due to the beginning of the Jim Crow era in the South. As newcomers ...
1
From at least the Middle Ages, there had been a combination of systems to support the poor, the old, the infirm, and so on.
People lived in networks of extended family, and the more successful members of a family were expected to support the less successful; that was the first stage of the safety net. Once family resources were exhausted, or if you had no ...
1
They annexed territories for tax generating and mercantile trading, food generation purposes and integrated some citizens for service in the legions.
It's interesting that later on Rome's policy of allowing mass immigration and citizenship for many people from the annexed territories is one of the many reasons for the Empires ultimate demise.
Large scale ...
1
A (male) youth bulge sometimes occurs when the birth rate is FALLING. That's because most men prefer to marry women younger than them. So if the birth rate is falling, there are more older men of the earlier period than younger women of the later period.
This happened with American cohorts born in the 1960s (and in certain other parts of the world). One ...
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