Learn more about books with this collection
How to set clear objectives
How to follow up after a meeting
How to manage time effectively
Medieval cats as pets
The medieval discovery of the cat shows of a shift in mentality rather than just a intensified presence of the predator.
In Antiquity the feline is held for rodents, not for caresses. The first to use tenderness and companionship associated with cats are medieval monks.
Archeological proof of this shift in mentality - the discovery of the cat as a source for tenderness, not just for its antimouse superpowers - are now lacking, but there are some medieval texts that bring hope in this direction.
2
8 reads
MORE IDEAS ON THIS
Zooarcheology, a pocket-sized-zoo
A fist step in zooarcheology is identifying correctly the bones. The next one is making assumptions about how people used the animals, whether in rituals, for survival or other purposes.
Even more useful is to remove the human from the middle of this ...
2
8 reads
'Animals that makes us human'
One of the oldest burials of a man with an animal dates back 15.000 years in Jordan where a man was buried with a fox.
In Egipt 3.500 BC, whole skeletons of elephants, hippos and baboons were found as a sign of the world's first Zoo.
More than 4.000 years ago in Sudan...
2
27 reads
The Independent cat
The taming of the cat happened about 10.000 years after that of the dog and 1.500 years after the horse's.
One principle of domestication is the desire of the individual to integrate a social ierarchy, which didn't quite fit the cat's individuality profile. For millenia, t...
2
7 reads
Where are the cats in the Roman-Greek Antiquity?
In Antiquity the cat is less well known, an animal humans don't interact with closely or enough. It has not immersed itself in the social mechanism as a tender companion, it's just a wonderful pest extermination machine.
From another angle, it is argued that the cat did not meet the classic...
2
6 reads
Dark ages, Dark cats
After a long Antiquity in which the cat preserves its independence, it is actually discovered in the early Middle Ages and compromised for centuries to come by mistrust originated in a papal bull.
Cats, especially the black ones, are demonized by the official christian doctrine star...
2
5 reads
'... held the cat in his lap deliciously'
In the 7th century there is a christian-islamic sincronicity in cat loving.
There are more legends including christian hermits that pet cats and are cautioned by God to redirect their attention entirely to devotion. The hermit story is included in the 13th century in the medieval bestseller...
2
5 reads
CURATED FROM
IDEAS CURATED BY
Related collections
Other curated ideas on this topic:
Cats over millennia
- The ancient Egyptian reverence for cats is well-known - scientists found a cat cemetery in Beni-Hassan with 300,000 cat mummies. The Egyptian goddess of love, Bastet, has the head of a cat.
- Ancient Romans held a similar reverence for the cat, which were seen as a symbol of liberty....
The function of cats
Most of what we know about the function of cats comes from scenes depicted in paintings on the wall of tombs.
- In the scenes, cats are shown laying or sitting below chairs, playing or chasing after birds.
- In some mortuary texts, they are also shown with a dagger, cutting throug...
Read & Learn
20x Faster
without
deepstash
with
deepstash
with
deepstash
Personalized microlearning
—
100+ Learning Journeys
—
Access to 200,000+ ideas
—
Access to the mobile app
—
Unlimited idea saving
—
—
Unlimited history
—
—
Unlimited listening to ideas
—
—
Downloading & offline access
—
—
Supercharge your mind with one idea per day
Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.
I agree to receive email updates