(no subject)
"A new dynasty gains domination over the ruling dynasty through perseverance, and not through sudden action."
"They (revolt) only when they have a family with sufficient group feeling and strength to give them success. Indecisive battle take place between them and the ruling dynasty. (such battles) are repeated and continued (all the time), until by perseverance they achieve domination and victory. As a rule, they do not gain victory through sudden action.
The reason for this is that victory in war, as we have mentioned, as a rule is the result of imaginary psychological factors. Numbers, weapons, and proper tactics may guarantee victory. However, as mentioned above, (all these things) are less effective than the imaginary factors..."
"His closest intimates may be fully intent upon obeying him and helping him [in rebellion]. Still, others are more numerous, who are affected by weakness and laziness under the influence of the belief that they owe submission to the ruling dynasty. Their zeal slackens...Consequently, he falls back on patience and perseverance, until the senility of the ruling dynasty becomes obvious."
"Miracles cannot be used as analogies for ordinary affairs and constitute no argument against (them)."
"Even though coercion makes its appearance at that time and the revenues decrease, the destructive influences of this situation on civilization will become noticeable only after some time, because things in nature all have a gradual development.
In the later (years) of dynasties, famines and pestilences become numerous. As far as famines are concerned, the reason is that most people at that time refrain from cultivating the soil. For, in the later (years) of the dynasties, there occur attacks on property and tax revenue and, through customs duties, on trading. Or, trouble occurs as the result of the unrest of the subjects and the great number of rebels (who are provoked) by the senility of the dynasty to rebel.
...Indigent people are unable to buy any and perish. If for some years nothing is stored, hunger will be general.
The large number of pestilences has its reason in the large number of famines just mentioned...There is much unrest and bloodshed, and plagues occur. The principal reason for the latter is the corruption of the air (climate) through (too) large a civilization (population). It results from the putrefaction and the many evil moistures with which (the air) has contact (in a dense civilization). Now, air nourishes the animal spirit and is constantly with it. When it is corrupted, corruption affects the temper of (the spirit)...Therefore, it has been clarified by science/philosophy in the proper place that it is necessary to have empty spaces and waste regions interspersed between civilized areas. This makes circulation of the air possible. It removes the corruption and putrefaction affecting the air after contact with living beings, and brings healthy air. This also is the reason why pestilences occur much more frequently in densely settled cities than elsewhere..." Ibn Khaldun
"As in most non-agricultural societies, women's work was probably as strenuous as and much more unrelenting that that of the men...Much of the chore of moving camp probably also fell to the women...The construction of a new stone hearth and midpassage may also have been a task for women, whose labor was centered on this important part of the dwelling.
The most unremitting summer task faced by women, however, was the preparation of skins, sewing of new clothes, and repair of old...The fragility of the needles, as well as the perseverance of Independence women, is evidenced in the large numbers of needle fragments found in the gravel floors of their ancient tents. They attest to the importance of women's skills and fortitude as the essential element that allowed the Independence people to forge a way of life in the High Arctic." Robert McGhee, Ancient People of the Arctic
"Is this imagined way of life too stark and difficult to be credible The winter life of the Independence people, as reconstructed here, is certainly well beyond the bounds of endurance known from any human group described by anthropologists or historians. Yet it is difficult to imagine how their winter lives could have been very different from this portrayal. They lived in an area so distant from other environments that a winter retreat to more congenial conditions was not possible. Their environment provided them with plentiful food and clothing but with only the barest minimum of fuel for winter fires...
Eigil Knuth was the first to suggest that the Independence people may have passed the winter 'in a kind of torpor.' The months of winter darkness must have discouraged all but the most essential hunting, preventing women from sewing clothing and men from working at their crafts. We are forced to imagine a winter life devoted to amusing the children, singing and telling stories, thinking of the coming summer, and dreaming. Northern Canada used to teem with anecdotes of isolated White trappers who spent winters in semi-hibernation, passing days or weeks at a time in dreams rather than in the reality of cold darkness and scarce food. The early Palaeo-Eskimos may have survived the High Arctic only by adopting such a way of life as the ordinary custom for an entire society...
If the Independence people did survive this way, compressing their activities into the summer months of constant daylight and then retreating into their dreams for several months a year, we must imagine a way of life that was a rich in imagination as it was poor in material comforts. Perhaps it was the results of such a life, nurtured and developed over countless generations, that can eventually be seen in the extraordinary art of later Palaeo-Eskimo peoples."
""The way of life described in the previous section would have been not only arduous in the extreme but also desperately insecure. The tiny camp groups of winter must have been very vulnerable to any mishap or misfortune...Any of these, or of a dozen different sorts of accident, could easily result in the demise of an entire local band. The failure of such a band to arrive at a planned summer rendezvous must have been an all too common occurrence...
...perhaps two or three hundred people spread out over a million square kilometres.
The specialization of many Independence groups on muskox hunting must have contributed to their insecurity." McGhee
"This suspicion was confirmed in 1989 with the discovery and excavation of the Rivendell site in the interior of northern Ellesmere Island. The site produced not only artifacts that showed a mixture of Independence I and II characteristics but...
The Rivendell site is located at the western end of Lake Hazen, the great freshwater lake that lies across the northern interior of Ellesmere Island. The broad valley in which Lake Hazen lies, surrounded by ice-capped mountains that protect it from the winds sweeping off the Arctic Ocean, is noted for its warm summer temperatures. It has been called an 'Arctic oasis,' a huge area where the vegetation is lusher than elsewhere in the High Arctic...Hazen and the rapid-strewn river that connects it to the sea support a dense population of arctic char...
...Considering our reconstruction of a way of life so meagre that it would not be contemplated by the Inuit or other Arctic peoples, the endurance of the Independence culture is all the more striking." McGhee
"They (revolt) only when they have a family with sufficient group feeling and strength to give them success. Indecisive battle take place between them and the ruling dynasty. (such battles) are repeated and continued (all the time), until by perseverance they achieve domination and victory. As a rule, they do not gain victory through sudden action.
The reason for this is that victory in war, as we have mentioned, as a rule is the result of imaginary psychological factors. Numbers, weapons, and proper tactics may guarantee victory. However, as mentioned above, (all these things) are less effective than the imaginary factors..."
"His closest intimates may be fully intent upon obeying him and helping him [in rebellion]. Still, others are more numerous, who are affected by weakness and laziness under the influence of the belief that they owe submission to the ruling dynasty. Their zeal slackens...Consequently, he falls back on patience and perseverance, until the senility of the ruling dynasty becomes obvious."
"Miracles cannot be used as analogies for ordinary affairs and constitute no argument against (them)."
"Even though coercion makes its appearance at that time and the revenues decrease, the destructive influences of this situation on civilization will become noticeable only after some time, because things in nature all have a gradual development.
In the later (years) of dynasties, famines and pestilences become numerous. As far as famines are concerned, the reason is that most people at that time refrain from cultivating the soil. For, in the later (years) of the dynasties, there occur attacks on property and tax revenue and, through customs duties, on trading. Or, trouble occurs as the result of the unrest of the subjects and the great number of rebels (who are provoked) by the senility of the dynasty to rebel.
...Indigent people are unable to buy any and perish. If for some years nothing is stored, hunger will be general.
The large number of pestilences has its reason in the large number of famines just mentioned...There is much unrest and bloodshed, and plagues occur. The principal reason for the latter is the corruption of the air (climate) through (too) large a civilization (population). It results from the putrefaction and the many evil moistures with which (the air) has contact (in a dense civilization). Now, air nourishes the animal spirit and is constantly with it. When it is corrupted, corruption affects the temper of (the spirit)...Therefore, it has been clarified by science/philosophy in the proper place that it is necessary to have empty spaces and waste regions interspersed between civilized areas. This makes circulation of the air possible. It removes the corruption and putrefaction affecting the air after contact with living beings, and brings healthy air. This also is the reason why pestilences occur much more frequently in densely settled cities than elsewhere..." Ibn Khaldun
"As in most non-agricultural societies, women's work was probably as strenuous as and much more unrelenting that that of the men...Much of the chore of moving camp probably also fell to the women...The construction of a new stone hearth and midpassage may also have been a task for women, whose labor was centered on this important part of the dwelling.
The most unremitting summer task faced by women, however, was the preparation of skins, sewing of new clothes, and repair of old...The fragility of the needles, as well as the perseverance of Independence women, is evidenced in the large numbers of needle fragments found in the gravel floors of their ancient tents. They attest to the importance of women's skills and fortitude as the essential element that allowed the Independence people to forge a way of life in the High Arctic." Robert McGhee, Ancient People of the Arctic
"Is this imagined way of life too stark and difficult to be credible The winter life of the Independence people, as reconstructed here, is certainly well beyond the bounds of endurance known from any human group described by anthropologists or historians. Yet it is difficult to imagine how their winter lives could have been very different from this portrayal. They lived in an area so distant from other environments that a winter retreat to more congenial conditions was not possible. Their environment provided them with plentiful food and clothing but with only the barest minimum of fuel for winter fires...
Eigil Knuth was the first to suggest that the Independence people may have passed the winter 'in a kind of torpor.' The months of winter darkness must have discouraged all but the most essential hunting, preventing women from sewing clothing and men from working at their crafts. We are forced to imagine a winter life devoted to amusing the children, singing and telling stories, thinking of the coming summer, and dreaming. Northern Canada used to teem with anecdotes of isolated White trappers who spent winters in semi-hibernation, passing days or weeks at a time in dreams rather than in the reality of cold darkness and scarce food. The early Palaeo-Eskimos may have survived the High Arctic only by adopting such a way of life as the ordinary custom for an entire society...
If the Independence people did survive this way, compressing their activities into the summer months of constant daylight and then retreating into their dreams for several months a year, we must imagine a way of life that was a rich in imagination as it was poor in material comforts. Perhaps it was the results of such a life, nurtured and developed over countless generations, that can eventually be seen in the extraordinary art of later Palaeo-Eskimo peoples."
""The way of life described in the previous section would have been not only arduous in the extreme but also desperately insecure. The tiny camp groups of winter must have been very vulnerable to any mishap or misfortune...Any of these, or of a dozen different sorts of accident, could easily result in the demise of an entire local band. The failure of such a band to arrive at a planned summer rendezvous must have been an all too common occurrence...
...perhaps two or three hundred people spread out over a million square kilometres.
The specialization of many Independence groups on muskox hunting must have contributed to their insecurity." McGhee
"This suspicion was confirmed in 1989 with the discovery and excavation of the Rivendell site in the interior of northern Ellesmere Island. The site produced not only artifacts that showed a mixture of Independence I and II characteristics but...
The Rivendell site is located at the western end of Lake Hazen, the great freshwater lake that lies across the northern interior of Ellesmere Island. The broad valley in which Lake Hazen lies, surrounded by ice-capped mountains that protect it from the winds sweeping off the Arctic Ocean, is noted for its warm summer temperatures. It has been called an 'Arctic oasis,' a huge area where the vegetation is lusher than elsewhere in the High Arctic...Hazen and the rapid-strewn river that connects it to the sea support a dense population of arctic char...
...Considering our reconstruction of a way of life so meagre that it would not be contemplated by the Inuit or other Arctic peoples, the endurance of the Independence culture is all the more striking." McGhee