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Ancient Greece

2022-02-27T22:58:14Z

Kyaxares:

[[Image:Greek empire.jpg|left]]
[[File:Beginnings hist greece.jpg|thumb|700 - 600 B.C.]]
'''Ancient Greece''' was the area of the world similar to modern day [[Greece]] but also had [[Greek]] colonies in the modern nations of [[Turkey]], and [[Macedonia]].

Greece was responsible for much of modern [[democracy]], [[philosophy]], [[mathematics]], and [[science]], as well as a great deal of art and the introduction of the [[Olympic Games]] (See: [[Greek influence on Western Culture]]). Ancient Greek works had a great influence on the [[Rome|Romans]]. By the time of [[Christ]], Greek was the dominant language and literary form of the day even though Greece itself had been conquered by Rome. Many of the early missionary journeys were into Greek areas and all of the epistles that [[Paul]] wrote were to churches set up in Greek lands. Paul's philosophical discussions in [[Athens]] and the belief of the people that he was [[Zeus]], all tied into the Greek culture of the day as well as the [[New Testament]] books themselves being written in [[Greek language|Greek]] and using a Greek translated [[Old Testament]] ([[Septuagint]]). Ancient Church Fathers were careful to draw a distinction between Greek culture and the unique message of [[Christianity]] that was meant for all.<ref>As [[Tertullian]] said, "What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?"</ref>
[[File:OedipusSphinx.jpg|180px|right|Oedipus and the Sphinx]]
The ancient Greek consciousness made a common reference to the [[Trojan War]] as the point of cultural origin, and self-awareness as a society in works such as the [[Iliad]] and the [[Odyssey]].

While it was independent, the ancient Greek world never unified into a central polity. Rather, individual city-states fought for dominion over many centuries, fighting with one another as to who would be prominent. This was especially true between Athens and [[Sparta]]. But while they fought amongst themselves, when a foreign entity sought to invade, such as the [[Persian Empire]], the Greeks would come together in a unity seldom rivaled in history. [[Alexander the Great]] of [[Macedonia]] would eventually subdue Greece along with almost the entire known world at the time, but that would only lead to the spreading of Greek culture as Macedon was Hellenistic in nature and Greece was once again "free" after his death. Rome eventually put an end to ancient Greek independence, but not its influence.

<blockquote>
Greek life was dominated by [[religion]] and so it is not surprising that the temples of ancient Greece were the biggest and most beautiful.They also had a political purpose as they were often built to celebrate civic power and pride, or offer thanksgiving to the patron deity of a city for success in war.<ref>[http://www.ancientgreece.com/s/Art/ Architecture in ancient Greece]</ref>
</blockquote>

[[Greek mythology]] is a collection of stories and narratives concerning their gods, heroes and mythological creatures. Hesiod's ''Theogony'' is an important source of myths as well as Homer's epic poems.

== Homosexuality and the effects on Greece ==

Homosexuality was generally accepted in Ancient Greece, although not in the way it is known in the modern world. Gay rights activists sometimes use Greece as an example of how homosexuality can be beneficial, normally unaware of methods such as pederasty which were commonly practiced.

Homosexual practices in ancient Greece were rooted in a philosophical disdain for the vulgar and the belief that homosexual practices were more rooted in a higher form of love which was not lustful but contributed to an 'everlasting disposition.' This is reflected by attitudes in Plato's Symposium:

<blockquote>
With disdain, Pausanius explains that common Love “has no discrimination...and is of the body rather than of the soul.” Common Love was lustful, casual, and careless fornication. To Pausanias, common Love would lead a man to women and (male) youths too young to pursue, and that a practitioner of common Love “[did] good and evil quite indiscriminately.” Heavenly Love, on the other hand, inspired the male to “turn to the male, and delight in him who is the more valiant and intelligent nature.” Heavenly Love caught the hearts of men who saw youths as intelligent persons in whom reason was beginning to be developed. Men engulfed by heavenly Love did not deceive these youths, but intended to remain their companions, if not lovers, for life. In such a pursuit, the pursuer “[endured] a slavery worse than any slave,” that to Eros. To be such a slave, however, did not matter to the scores of men who devoted themselves to boys on the verge of adulthood. As Pausanius explains, “a man fairly argues that in Athens to love and to be loved is held to be a very honorable thing.” Heavenly Love was a noble and commendable form of Eros, which disregarded a one-time lustful tryst instead for an everlasting disposition.<ref name="Acceptance through Restriction: Male Homosexuality in Ancient Athens>, Kelleher, Brigid, in Historical Perspectives: Santa Clara University Undergraduate Journal of History, Series II, Vol. 16 [https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1062&context=historical-perspectives]</ref>
</blockquote>

While these bonds would last throughout life, it was rooted in the practice of pederasty, which does not bear a resemblance to modern homosexuality as it was highly restricted. Scholars observe that the laws put upon homosexuality in ancient Greece implicitly recognize the potential for it to corrupt morals.

<blockquote>
Pederasty was permitted, but had to be practiced through a refined courtship marked by self-control and dignity. Laws protected youths from the sexual aggression of adult males. Laws also stripped adult males who lost their self-control and sold their bodies to the sexual and psycho-logical dominance of other adult males. Though ancient Athens permitted limited forms of pederasty, restrictions on male prostitution reveal a deep-seatedfear that if not checked, homosexuality could corrupt its citizenry and subvert the polis. <ref name="Acceptance through Restriction: Male Homosexuality in Ancient Athens>, Kelleher, Brigid, in Historical Perspectives: Santa Clara University Undergraduate Journal of History, Series II, Vol. 16 [https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1062&context=historical-perspectives]</ref>
</blockquote>

Several prominent Ancient Greek statesmen and philosophers, such as Plato<ref>http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plat.%20Laws%20636c&lang=original</ref> and Lycurgus<ref>https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0210%3Atext%3DConst.+Lac.%3Achapter%3D2%3Asection%3D13</ref> spoke out against homosexuality and pederasty, and more ancient writers such as Homer and Hesiod do not make mention of homosexuality. Because of this, and accounts from Plato and Aristotle<ref>http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0058%3Abook%3D2%3Asection%3D1272a</ref> regarding the origin of pederasty, it is believed that homosexuality and homosexual mythology was not native to mainland Greece but introduced to it by the Cretans and/or the peoples of the Near East during the late Archaic period.

Some historians also believe that homosexuality helped lead to the downfall of Ancient Greece, as the population was not growing so much and food sources were not being produced as a result and armies became small.

== Famous poets ==
*'''Bion''' was a [[Greek]] [[pastoral poet]] of 3rd century B.C. he was born at [[Smyrna]]; and was a contemporary of [[Theocritus]]; he settled in [[Sicily]]; and was poisoned, it is said, by a rival; little of his [[poetry]] survives.<ref>{{Nuttall|Bion}}</ref>

== See also ==

*[[Acropolis]]
*[[Parthenon]]
*[[Homer]]
*[[Greek Philosophy]]
*[[Architecture]]
*[[Greek painting]]

==Further reading==
* Pomeroy, Sarah B. et al. ''Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History'' (1999) [https://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Greece-Political-Cultural-History/dp/0195097432/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255295458&sr=8-3 excerpt and text search]

== References ==
<references/>

[[Category:Ancient History]]
[[Category:Ancient Greece]]
[[Category:Western Civilization]]

Race

2022-02-27T22:31:20Z

Kyaxares:

[[File:Modern Han Chinese in Ming Attire.jpg|thumb|300px|Modern Han Chinese in Ming Attire.]]
'''Race''' is a concept which classifies [[human]] beings according to broad [[physical]] characteristics such as [[skin]] color. Many assert that race is more than physical and claim that different races have different [[Psychology|psychological]], intellectual and [[religious]] characteristics.

Various different classifications have been proposed for human races in the past. [[Evolution]]ary textbooks used to have a chapter on [[eugenics]] that discussed various "races", such as Negroid (mostly [[African]]s), Mongoloid (mostly [[Asia]]n) and Caucasian (mostly [[Europe]]ans) and which of the races were the furthest along in evolution.<ref>For example, Hunter, George William, ''[[A Civic Biology]]'' (1914), [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/hunt196.htm p.196]: "At the present time, there exists upon the Earth five races or varieties of man, each very different from the other in instincts, social customs, and, to an extent, in structure. These are the Ethiopian or negro type, originating in Africa; the Malay or brown race, from the [[island]]s of the [[Pacific]]; the [[American Indian]]; the Mongolian or yellow race, including the natives of [[China]], [[Japan]], and the [[Eskimos]], and finally the highest type of all, the Caucasians, represented by the civilized white inhabitants of Europe and America."</ref>

The concept of race is no longer considered scientifically valid, as there is little genetic difference between the so-called races, and those differences are mostly superficial. However, there are various animal species or subspecies with genetic distances between each other that are lower than that between human populations. For example, Coyotes and Wolves have an Fst Distance of 0.057, compared to 0.11 between Europeans and East Asians, 0.19 between East Asians and Subsaharan Africans, and 0.15 between Europeans and Sub-Saharan Africans <ref>https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/592206</ref>. However, race in humans does not cluster so much as it forms gradients, or clines, for example a gradient in East Asian ancestry that stretches from Eastern Europe to Mongolia, or an increase in sub-saharan African ancestry that increases from North Africa to Central Africa. Where the line is placed for defining race, or ethnicity, can therefore be arbitrary.

Despite its questionable validity, race is still detailed in government census and other forms, mostly for convenience in classifying individuals into groups.

In a study done in 1999, 75% of [[anthropologist]]s disagreed with the statement, "There are biological races in the species Homo sapiens" amongst cultural anthropologists 80% disagreed, and 69% of physical anthropologists disagreed<ref>http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/bindon/ant275/presentations/POST_WWII.PDF#search=%22stanley%20marion%20garn%22</ref>

The belief that one race is inherently better or worse than others is known as [[racism]]. For historical accuracy it's worth noting that until the events of the 1960s holders of racist beliefs were termed 'racialists' rather than the modern term, 'racists'.

Human [[Geography|geographers]] today prefer to discuss people in terms of ethnicities rather than races; the principal difference between one's [[ethnicity]] and one's race is that race is superficial while ethnicity carries with it a whole host of cultural traditions. For example, the [[Anglo-Saxons]] of the [[Britain|British]] isles have cultural traditions that are distinct from the ethnic inhabitants of [[Germany]]'s [[Rhineland]], though both ethnic groups would be considered racially caucasian.

A '''race''' also refers to a competition of speed (see: [[racing]]).

==See also==
*[[Racism]]
*[[Eugenics]]
*[[Ethnic Groups Gallery]]
*[[Race and intelligence]]
*[[Western atheism and race]]
*[[Atheism, race and gender]]
== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Sociology]]
[[Category:Ethnicities]]
[[Category:Pseudoscience]]

Race and intelligence

2022-02-27T22:07:54Z

Kyaxares: This article implies that there is a scientific consensus on race and intelligence. There may be a very strong current of anti-hereditarianism in the west, but it is not so simple.

'''Race and intelligence''' were believed to be related in the pre-scientific era of [[psychology]] that was marred by [[racism]] in general and [[Eugenics]] in particular. It was only in the 1960s and 1980s that scientists began to separate out cultural artifacts, positing that intelligence was, if not wholly environmental, nonetheless not tied to race. Factors causing differences in academic achievement and [[IQ]] scores were found to be mostly cultural, although there are still various people in the fields of psychometrics and biology who defend some level of hereditary difference in intelligence between racial-ethnic categories.

[[Category:Racism]]
[[Category:Psychology]]

Aryans

2022-01-29T00:19:53Z

Kyaxares: Just added some details which may not have been well understood last time this was edited

The '''Aryans''', Sanskrit ''Ārya'', were a group who invaded India from the north around 1500 BC as recorded in the ''Rigveda'', the earliest Indian literary work.

In Sanskrit, the language of the Indian classics, ''Ārya'' means noble. Sanskrit is the ancestral language of most modern Indian languages and a member of the Indo-Iranian language family. The word ''Ārya'' is cognate with ''Ariya'', a native name for Iran.<ref>"[https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/1.5127018 How 'Iran' and 'Aryan' Are Related]," ''Haartz''</ref>

In modern usage, the word Aryan commonly refers to Nordic people, especially those with blonde hair and blue-eyes. This usage is somewhat removed from the historical and linguistic meaning of the term. It reflects the influence of Nazi "master race" ideology.

==Yamnaya and Corded Ware cultures==
Genetic studies show that the Brahmin caste, the highest Indian caste, has a higher portion of DNA related to the Yamnaya Culture found north of the Black Sea.<ref>Daniyal, Shoaib, "[https://scroll.in/article/936872/two-new-genetic-studies-upheld-aryan-migration-theory-so-why-did-indian-media-report-the-opposite Two new genetic studies upheld Indo-Aryan migration. So why did Indian media report the opposite?]"</ref> The Yamnaya flourished from 3300–2600 BC. They are thought to have spoken Proto-Indo-European, the ancestral language of the Indo-European language family.

The Yamnaya and related peoples on the Eastern European Steppe were pastoralists who conquered various farming peoples of eastern Europe. They likely slaughtered the men of the farming communities and married, raped, or enslaved the women, as their Y-DNA is dominant in Europe. This resulted in the creation of the Corded Ware culture, which lasted from 2900 – 2350 BC. The Yamnaya do not have the same Y-DNA makeup as the Corded Ware and Bell Beaker Cultures, suggesting that the Yamnaya were related to these groups but did not directly create them.

The two cultures are easily distinguished archeologically because the Yamnaya entombed their dead in mounds while the Corded Ware people dug pits. Reconstructions based on skeletal remains suggest that the Yamnaya had black hair and olive skin, like modern southern Europeans. The Corded Ware people were lighter pigmented, and the Indo-Iranic Sintashta and Andronovo even moreso.

Corded Ware culture spread widely, both eastward into the Asian steppe and westward into central Europe. This caused Proto-Indo-European to fracture into proto-Germanic, proto-Baltic, and other pre-historic ancestor languages. The easternmost branch of the Corded Ware became the Andronovo (2000–900 BC), an archaeological culture of the central Asian steppe. This group is thought to have spoken Proto-Indo-Iranian and entered India by way of the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor.

==A master race?==
In 1786, Sir William Jones showed that Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit were members of a single language family, now called Indo-European. This finding suggested that the Aryans who invaded India in vedic times had a European origin.

A "master race" theory was developed by French author [[Joseph Arthur de Gobineau]] in ''Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races'' (1853–1855). Gobineau argued that the Aryan race was the basis of European aristocracy. In French politics, Gobineau was a Legitimist and supported the rights of the aristocracy.

While Gobineau argued that Aryans were in decline due to race mixing, Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855–1927) saw a bright future for "Germanic Aryans." For Chamberlain, the term Aryan referred to the Indo-European language family. Chamberlain, an Englishman, was an admirer of Germany and wrote in German. His book ''The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century'' (1899) remained popular with German readers for decades. "Even if it were proved that there had never been an Aryan race in the past, we are determined that there shall be one in the future; this is the decisive point of view for men of action," Chamberlain wrote.<ref>"[https://biography.yourdictionary.com/houston-stewart-chamberlain Houston Stewart Chamberlain]"</ref> Chamberlain has been described as "Hitler's John the Baptist."<ref>Forman, James D. (1978) ''Nazism,'' New York. p.14,</ref>

In ''The Myth of the Twentieth Century'' (1930), Nazi theorist Alfred Rosenberg developed a racial "ladder" with blacks and Jews at the bottom and "Nordics" at the top. Rosenberg's Nordics correspond to Germanic peoples in modern terminology. Rosenberg led the Nazi Party when Hitler was jailed after the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch.

In popular usage, those with blonde hair and blue-eyes are sometimes described as Aryan. Due to the association with Nazi ideology, the word has slipped into disfavor. It is common to refer to India's Aryans as "Indo-Aryan" to distinguish this meaning from the various other meanings of Aryan -- even though the Indian meaning is the root one.

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Ancient History]]