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Month: July 2016
After marriage, why do women have to change their surname?
Hm. Surprised at the low level of anthropology here. Lots of value judgements on both sides, but not a whole lot of history. OK. The answer is tied up with patrilocality. See for example Why did society shift to patrilocality after the Neolithic agricultural revolution? And Patrilocal residence on Wikipedia. Patrilocality is the arrangement where, […]
Zeibura undertakes some archaeology
This is not a drawing I drew. This is a drawing the most excellent Zeibura S. Kathau drew, demonstrating that just as he is no amateur linguist, he is also no amateur surrealist. As often happens with these cartoons, the artist gatecrashed banter between Quorans. The banter started here: https://www.quora.com/Why-do-Lat… Robert Todd: Jeebus. Remind me […]
What are some good memes about the coup attempt in Turkey, July 2016?
OP, asked because I saw these in my Facebook feed: Before: Under PASOK. After: Under SYRIZA. Come back! Or at least give me a call! Add me! I’ve been blocked! [Erdoğan citing a Greek pop song about Lara Novakov’s favourite holiday destination] I’m seeking asylum in Chalkidiki.Because “there’s no place like Chalkidiki.” Answered 2016-07-16 [Originally […]
Is the Holy Spirit (ruach hakodesh) the wife of God, and is the Holy Spirit the only feminine being in Heaven?
Depends on your theology, but mostly, no. The female personification of Wisdom in the Sapiential Books in and out of the Hebrew Scriptural canon (including Proverbs) is as close as Judaism got to a female aspect of divinity. It’s not very close. Spirit in Hebrew is the feminine noun ruach, and if Hebrew had any […]
How do Australians feel when they are mistaken for being English?
Quite a variety of answers here. I’ve gotten that from Americans, usually followed by some bizarre mélange of Bostonian English and Dick Van Dyke from Mary Poppins as they tried to impersonate me. As we say here: “Yeah… no.” Slightly miffed, but more at the other’s unfamiliarity with Australians than at the comparison. Normally. In […]
Sophia’s acidic wit
In my Antipodean bonhomie, I have asked the no-nonsense Sophia de Tricht if I can call her Soph. Starting at https://www.quora.com/How-do-bel… The exchange went swimmingly: —The last person who called me Soph won’t be playing the violin anytime… well, ever —So when I sold my violin and took up the mandolin a couple of years […]
Why is Symphony of Psalms considered neoclassical?
Lazily: because Stravinsky wrote it at the time he was writing his Neoclassical stuff. The Symphony of Psalms does not have the obvious shoutouts to the Baroque or Classical period that Pulcinella or Oedipus Rex does, and in parts it sounds closer to his earlier Russian period. It certainly ostinatoes like early Stravinsky. Good catch, […]
Have people of Mediterranean descent living in the Anglosphere reappropriated the word “dago” as self-identification?
Wogs is the Australian equivalent; and yes, emphatically so, although it’s starting to be dated now, as Greeks and Italians go into third generation. There was overt reclamation in the 90s, though the residue left is more a matter of the more-assimilated using it against the less-assimilated. See Wikipedia on Wog. JM Cortese speaks for […]
Is the photo American Girl in Italy meant to depict a woman intimidated by men?
The photo is a cultural touchpoint as a depiction of harassment of women. It is often cited as such, including on Quora. And people are astonished (including on Quora) to find that the photo was likely not intended as such at all. I’m throwing the question up to see what others think; what I’m finding, […]
To my wife, on our five-year anniversary
My love, whose smile is wide enough to clasp the heavens in; whose sorrow can expend the deep-dug wells of earth; whose anger’s grasp no whisper can unravel; whose amend no benison of rainbows can surpass; whose passion strides where armies never went, and lays what claims it pleases; and whose glass flashes with all […]