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> But why did end up being spread around the news so much. She explains it towards the end of her story: Why does brouhaha over Arabic on Viking textile matte
by sampo 9y ago
> But why did end up being spread around the news so much.
She explains it towards the end of her story:
Why does brouhaha over Arabic on Viking textile matter? Three reasons
One, context: story likely went viral because of recent events. Charlottesville revealed to all what has long been known among medievalists: that white supremacy uses medieval imagery & symbolism. At Charlottesville we saw medieval banners & chants with Crusader phrases like Deus Vult.
So the Viking Allah textile exhibits what Stephen Colbert once called ‘truthiness’ but is not supported by scholarship. But ‘truthiness’ cannot be enough for news media, especially in this age of accusations of Fake News.
And when medieval & particularly Viking age is used as ideological weapon by white supremacists & scholars are risking careers to fight white supremacist appropriation & not just white supremacists use medieval to further contemporary agendas: same tactic used by ISIS, alQaeda who kill thousands. Then it matters that we get this right. Media can report on diversity of Global Middle Ages w/out trumped-up scholarship. But we need news media to be our allies, consult experts, and get facts right.
- thriftwy 9y agoIt is kind of fun to see white supremacism discussed in the context of Sweden. Sweden is historically inhabited by europeans who happened to settle there over the course of centuries, and then to their amazement later discovered they are "white". They probably just thought they were people back then. I haven't heard about Swedes participating in slave trade (vikings aside) and there was nobody else for them to oppress (vikings aside), so it's kind of strange idea that Swedes now has to make up for centuries of white supremacism ("people supremacism"?) A lot of things which make sense in context of history of USA (when european colonists overran the land and then imported black people agains their will to exploit them) doesn't extend on Northern Europe.
- lostboys67 9y agoUm no one of the busiest slave markets in that time was Dublin only Constantinople was bigger.
- vixen99 9y agoSlavery has been a characteristic of almost every human grouping at some time or another. It seems you are not aware of the large number of Europeans and Africans (and in East Asia) who were enslaved by Muslims in the 18th century. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_the_Muslim_world https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_the_Musl...
- vim_wannabe 9y agoWe don't talk about that.
- Brakenshire 9y agoSpeak for yourself! I've had quite a few conversations about this in the last year, about the Barbary slave trade in the late middle ages, or the treatment of black slaves in the Arabic slave trade. I saw a European TV programme about the latter. I also saw some artifacts related to it in a museum. If you're hoping to get a reasonable coverage of history from reading newspapers or watching tv news, you're setting yourself up for disappointment.
- empath75 9y agoYeah, I don't think people in the US worry about white supremacy in Sweden so much. But racists in the US like to play up their so-called "pure" heritage by co-opting Scandinavian culture.
- digi_owl 9y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sami_people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sami_people
- nyolfen 9y ago>And when medieval & particularly Viking age is used as ideological weapon by white supremacists & scholars are risking careers to fight white supremacist appropriation & not just white supremacists use medieval to further contemporary agendas: same tactic used by ISIS, alQaeda who kill thousands. Then it matters that we get this right. http://i.imgur.com/HwlKPoE.gif http://i.imgur.com/HwlKPoE.gif
- coffee9 9y agoThis politicization is disgusting and now it's ammo for the alt-right.
- rdtsc 9y agoAh ok. That explains it. What if medieval times more often than not were full of racists, irrational crazy beliefs, brutality, killing, hate, all kinds of xenophobia, sexism, and other stuff we find despicable today. Trying to paint that time as a happy period, where everyone was integrated, and they lived together peacefully will backfire unless there is solid evidence to prove it. > Then it matters that we get this right. Media can report on diversity of Global Middle Ages w/out trumped-up scholarship. Exactly. I think there were areas at the intersection of trade routes where cities had multiple nationalities and faiths living together. One distinct feature was that it was tied to economic prosperity. As long as everyone was not starving and had a place to live, and trade was flourishing, living together worked well. I think picking one of those example might have worked better in this context. But in general if the audience was white supremacists, it's better to just ignore them and not engage, it's waste of time debating with crazy people.
- thriftwy 9y agoOne distinct feature was that it was tied to economic prosperity. Dubai is pretty diverse today. The question, what happens when wealth runs out?
- rdtsc 9y agoA very good question indeed! I guess here the idea wast to politicize this "discovery". It backfired, now the crazies will say "See, these scientists have to make up facts,what else are they lying about!" So I thought, if politicizing and PR was the main purpose, there are better example out there to pick from than Vikings as an example of a peace loving integrated society.