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I think it depends on the region. I can see what you’re saying to be a thing in Western Europe, especially the UK, where because of the earlier industrializatio

I think it depends on the region. I can see what you’re saying to be a thing in Western Europe, especially the UK, where because of the earlier industrialization there would be more occasions to socialize outside of the family and you would have been expected to socialize outside the family a little more compared to the only-agricultural past. Also, the tavern can only be a thing in a society that has cash/money, which also makes me think that a place like Western Europe would have the upper hand on this. Even going in the second part of the 20th century my grandparents’ village was trying to avoid money/cash as much as possible, work-days were often-times paid in other work-days, so to speak, i.e. “I help you out with that hay thing for three days you help me out in return with two days carring wood out of the forrest” or something like that. Big parties did indeed also happen at weddings and after burials, the latter ones are called “parastas” and I think it has been directly taken from the antique Greco-Roman tradition.

watwut 5y ago
No, it was not West. It is in post communist block. Industrialized only later then west. Every village big enough to have church has also tavern. Usually close to each other. People drunk a lot, actually. They were poor a lot, but alcoholism was a thing and big social issue. Paying in work or work for work was a think exactly as you described. If anything, current western norms are significantly less social. People visit each other less often. You don't have drinking and talking till late while kids run around never at all. Especially as you get older. The way we live forces us isolate in middle age and lonely in old age.
OkayPhysicist 5y ago
Parties, basically by definition, require excess. It's no shock that people without an abundance of resources didn't throw big parties. In contrast, pretty much every cultural moment where people had large surpluses threw parties: China with drinking and gambling games, India has a whole slew of holidays involving general excess and merriment such as Holi, Diwali, Nowruz has been celebrated by a variety of middle eastern cultures for millennia. Not to mention weddings, coming-of-age celebrations, and funerals/wakes, which date back well into prehistory.

watwut 5y ago

No, it was not West. It is in post communist block. Industrialized only later then west. Every village big enough to have church has also tavern. Usually close to each other. People drunk a lot, actually. They were poor a lot, but alcoholism was a thing and big social issue. Paying in work or work for work was a think exactly as you described. If anything, current western norms are significantly less social. People visit each other less often. You don't have drinking and talking till late while kids run around never at all. Especially as you get older. The way we live forces us isolate in middle age and lonely in old age.

OkayPhysicist 5y ago

Parties, basically by definition, require excess. It's no shock that people without an abundance of resources didn't throw big parties. In contrast, pretty much every cultural moment where people had large surpluses threw parties: China with drinking and gambling games, India has a whole slew of holidays involving general excess and merriment such as Holi, Diwali, Nowruz has been celebrated by a variety of middle eastern cultures for millennia. Not to mention weddings, coming-of-age celebrations, and funerals/wakes, which date back well into prehistory.