A study by archaeologists has revealed certain people in medieval Yorkshire were so afraid of the dead they chopped, smashed and burned their skeletons to make sure they stayed in their graves.
The research published by Historic England and the University of Southampton may represent the first scientific evidence in England of attempts to prevent the dead from walking and harming the living – still common in folklore in many parts of the world.
The archaeologists who studied a collection of human bones – including the remains of adults, teenagers and children excavated more than half a century ago, and dated back to the period between the 11th and 14th century – rejected gruesome possibilities including cannibalism in times of famine, or the massacre of outsiders. The cut marks were in the wrong place for butchery, and isotope analysis of the teeth showed that the people came from the same area as the villagers of Wharram Percy in North Yorkshire – a once flourishing village which had been completely deserted by the early 16th century. Read more.
before the mannequin challenge, planking, or the Harlem Shake, the hot meme of 1959 involved teenagers cramming as many of themselves as possible into a phone booth
While phonebooth stuffing was arguably a pretty cool meme, it went out of style by the end of the year and was replaced by “hunkerin’”, which is as boring as it sounds and identical to the modern Slav Squat:
Everything old is new again – early Christian ascetics called Stylites pulled the same shit by climbing to the top of pillars and sitting up there for as long as possible. Not sure I’d call that a “meme”, as it was done for the purposes of becoming more holy through torturing yourself.
I’m sorry but is “to become more holy through torturing yourself” not the purpose of meming?
To remind everyone that queer people are not doomed to sadness and horrific endings we have a list of some of our articles where there is a happy ending.
nobody ever talks about how saying non-binary genders don’t exist is racist as fuck
How?
many many many indigenous cultures have historically included more than two genders and to say that those genders do not exist is to say that those cultural traditions are invalid, and that only the imperialist gender binary is correct. which is racism.
This photo is actually from 1993, by Eric Luse of the San Francisco Chronicle, reprinted in 2006 with this caption:
The Gay Men’s Chorus posed to illustrate the impact of AIDS. Those dressed in black, with their backs turned, represent those who had died. Today, all their backs would be turned because the obituary list is now 47 names longer than the chorus roster. For each man singing these days, more than one chorus member has died of AIDS.
There is a common saying backstage before the curtain rises on the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus:
“I sing for two.”
For each man standing, one chorus member has died of AIDS.
A quarter-century into the epidemic, the list of the dead is longer than the living: there are 210 singers and 257 obituaries.
As AIDS devastated San Francisco, the Gay Men’s Chorus suffered some of the city’s largest group casualties.
“If AIDS never happened, we’d be two or three choruses by now,” said Bob Emery, 77, who is among the four active members left from the original 1978 roster and has been living with HIV for 26 years.
[…]
At every rehearsal during the 1980s and early 1990s, there were announcements about who was in which hospital room and when the next memorial was scheduled.
“I could see all these people dropping all around me, and there was no official response from any health department at any level,” said Tony McIntosh, who joined the chorus in 1985 and lost 25 friends to AIDS. “It was maddening. The chorus gave us an outlet for all that anger and relief from the feeling that nobody in the world seemed to care.”
Singing became survival.
[…]
As AIDS took its toll, the chorus members used their concerts as a forum to bring a sense of urgency about the epidemic to the public. Their music became more somber, and they began adding AIDS requiems to their programs. The chorus also became the only place for the members to talk openly about HIV and AIDS. The men shared tips on how to get into clinical drug trials and serenaded friends through their last breaths.
For men who were fighting for their lives alone, estranged from parents who had turned their backs on their gay children, the chorus became family.
[…]
“We’re starting to go to less-gay places like Modesto and perform now,” said 21-year member Tom Burtch, keeper of the “Fifth Section,” a list of every chorus member who has died. The chorus publishes the list in every concert program.
In February, Burtch added the latest AIDS victim to the list, 48-year-old Robert Frey of San Francisco.
Not long after, Burtch overheard one of the new chorus members in his twenties whisper to another during rehearsal that he’s never known anybody with AIDS or HIV.
“It’s mind-blowing that we’re in the same room with youngsters who have no idea of what we’ve been through,” Burtch said, “I went over to the guy and introduced myself.”
Today, the chorus is planning a 2017 outreach tour in response to Trump’s election and the “increase in dangerous and divisive rhetoric against vulnerable minority populations” in the United States.
Okay non-European tumblr, I’m gonna explain to you why ‘white’ isn’t as simple here as it is in the rest of the world
– Shades of white in Europe range from ‘freshly fallen snow’ to ‘I am frequently mistaken as being from the Middle East’
– White European is a thing. When you fill out a form, under ethnicity, there are several options for white; white British, white European, white other. Because people make that distinction
– There are Europeans who don’t class their ethnicity as their skin colour, but as their nationality. I have family who don’t think of themselves as white, they just think of themselves as Italian and don’t really give much thought to their skin colour
– People here in Britain always question if darker skinned white Europeans are ‘actually white’. I get it a lot myself. My response is always ‘well I’m not anything else, so obviously I must be’
– Despite being white, a lot of Europeans from Italy, Greece, Spain etc, don’t feel white in the traditional sense. We’re not white like white British people. We’re not white like white Americans. We’re our own white. White British is one thing. White Italian is another thing. White Greek is another, etc
– Which is why we have this notion here in Europe of ‘nationality over race’. Being white isn’t as important as where you’re from
– So this really only becomes an issue if you’re an immigrant
– So being white in Europe doesn’t save you from racial discrimination, because sure, you’re technically white, but you’re not white white. Not the right white
– Here in England, Europeans with really blatantly foreign names, such as myself, find it more difficult to get job interviews, because they take one look at our name and don’t bother reading the rest of the CV. A guy I know was actually told by his boss to reduce the pile of CVs he had by ‘chucking away any with a name you can’t fucking pronounce’
– And then even when you do get an interview, half the time you walk into the joint several shades darker than everyone else and feel like you’ve walked into the ‘Swedish supermodel’ clubhouse and you just know you’re not getting hired
This is all basic stuff and it’s very much taken for granted here. Race and ethnicity are not as clear cut, so it can be very confusing for non-Europeans to wrap their heads around. Which is fine. But I implore you to stay in your lane, because when you say things like ‘no white person anywhere in the world ever knows what it’s like to face racial discrimination’, it’s really fucking offensive to all of the European immigrants who are denied jobs, harassed by the police and beaten by racists, because foreign is foreign to these people, and they don’t give a shit if you’re technically white. So when you mean white American, say white American.
This doesn’t just apply to “darker skin” Europeans either (which I’m sure some Americans would argue are POC for some reason or other). Try being slavic in Western Europe. Hell, try being Sinti or Roma in any part of Europe.
Especially in the UK you can be as white as you like but if you aren’t from Britain (or in some cases just England) then you face discrimination. It really isn’t that clear cut in Europe and it drives me mad when people say white people can’t experience racism because that’s such a US-centric idea.
And if you’re from anywhere in South-East Europe then you should prepare for your country to be slandered in every UK paper. Seriously, you can’t turn on the news, go on the internet, read a newspaper, without being told how Romanian, Ukrainian, Polish people are a drain on the UK’s resources and they should be banned from the country. And guess what?
(That’s Mila Kunis. She was born in the Ukraine.)
(Sebastian Stan. From Constanta, Romania.)
(Mia Wasikowska, from Poland)
(Nina Dobrev, who was born in Bulgaria.)
They are white! Just because they are white, it doesn’t mean people from their countries cannot face horrible discrimination, and it doesn’t mean that they can’t be constantly told that they don’t work as hard as people from Western Europe, and that they don’t deserve basic human rights.
So just before you force your ignorance onto people who don’t hold the same views as you due to where they live operating in a different way, just remember that not everybody lives in America.
Here it is guys, the post that finally puts what I’ve been trying to say for far too long into words!
…I didn’t know Sebastian Stan was Romanian.
But as somebody who has lived in England and the US, I can vouch for all of this. The race issues in Europe and the race issues in the US are not the same.
For the last few years, there has been an awful backlash against immigrants from Poland, with some of the same language used that Americans use about “Mexicans” (By which, half the time, they mean anyone from south of the US/Mexico border).
It’s worth understanding that
1. Racism and discrimination are everywhere.
2. They don’t take the same form everywhere.
I have lived in England for over 10 years now, and can confirm all of the above. As soon as I open my mouth people can tell, of course, that I was not born and raised British.
I was yelled at in the street because a lady thought I was Polish. People have pushed their chairs into my parents and insulted them in a restaurant because they were recognised as Germans.
Being white is not that cut and dry over here.
And being “socially” white as opposed to just pale skinned evolves over time. I mean, there have been times in America when Irish and Italian people have not been considered “white”.
failed2be-chill 