The Problem with History Books

[arrowwhiskers]

I am reading a historical anthology about Peru, and encountering a consistent problem that I've personally had with LAS: any comprehensive book about a L. American country, or about L. American history in general has to cover three eras: pre-Colombian, Conquest/Colonial Rule, and Post-Independence. I hate to admit it, it makes me an awful person,

Comments

[karmakamikaze]

Man, I should read some Andean deity structure. Mythology is the shit. :D

[arrowwhiskers]

Hahah I wish I were so interested in it! :) To be fair, the pre-Incan and Incan beliefs were pretty cool...their main gods were manifested in the sun and the earth, and secondary ones were manifested in different crops. And the earth gods were aligned with women and the sun god was aligned with men. I wish I could see the actual beliefs as interesting, instead of just what they said about society.

[napoleonofnerds]

People in academia have interests. Not only is that normal, it's necessary, since nobody can memorize everything. For me it's Greek Patristics and Post-Cartesian Philosophy that make me crazy, or bored, or both. I think that if you do understand the broad strokes of Pre-Columbian societies it's okay to move on to the part you like.

[arrowwhiskers]

This is very true. I try to pretend that my interest is Latin American history in general, but it's more along the lines of Latin American development (or lack thereof), and all the ancient society stuff just starts feeling like pointless trivia

[fluffyblanket]

All history is the history of class struggle-Marx?

[arrowwhiskers]

Hmmmm...I am not sure I agree with that. I feel like in order to have class struggle, you need to have two things: a) a relatively large, organized society, (big enough that not everyone knows eachother or treats eachother like kin) and b) a social system where people specialize, ie. do not do the same thing. It is only if people do different things that are valued differently that those sorts of inequalities can emerge. Which, to be fair, for much of the history that people study, these things were true, but I don't think it defines history in itself.

In modern society, the idea is more sustainable, though I personally see class as only one potential source of conflict--alongside religion, race, linguistic group, etc. It is very arguable that all of history can be described in a general sense by the conflicts between people, but I prefer to see it as a mixture of the conflict and the harmony; a totality of experience.

[fluffyblanket]

I accept your reservations .
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/367344/Marxism/35147/Class-struggle

[namelessw0nder]

What outcome are you hoping to get from the ginger (I mean, physically, for yourself)?

It only took me at most 1 inch of ginger (into the thinnest slices I could manage), boiling it for 10 min, to get super strong ginger tea. If that is coming out weak, buy some fresh at the grocery store or farmer's market!

[arrowwhiskers]

The outcome I'm hoping for (the only outcome I CAN hope for, really), is symptomatic relief for nausea. It does seem to provide that, to an extent. :)

I went to the "farmers market" grocery store and was disappointed to find that the ginger there had the same supplier as the stuff at Target, alas. But I used only a little bit more than I had and I made tea that is way too strong to even drink without watering down (lol!), so maybe just the stock that I got before was too old or something. I also could try cutting it up into smaller bits...I had chopped it up a bit, but not super super thin. My friend who has apparently been using ginger tea for nausea for years told me to bring the pot to a boil and then simmer for 30-40 minutes, presumably that would make the tea even stronger, but idk. It seems to work decently well, at least.