Dear Readers,
Good morning!
I would like to discuss with you the Art of Connection through blogging about History.
History is such a broad subject, and not meant for everyone. The most known Classic Science Genius found it boring and not relevant to the Humanity progression as whoever is behind is far behind and we should aim at modernising our civilisation and culture.
Indeed, if we look at the Bible, we can find barbarian costumes and beliefs that even the most prejudiced and conservative element of our society would find it difficult to put it in practice, for example the practice of stoning women considered sinful.
Yet, so many of us, me inclusively look at the Bible for comfort in times of need.
Pertinent episodes of Humanity are recounted in the Bible, and though each Apostle of Jesus Christ has its own way of doing it, we find basic common facts in the New Testament books that we can say are the most accurate historical facts regarding such episodes of the history of Jesus Christ.
The facts we rely in this case have a different strength than those facts laid in Oral history, primarily because of the objectivity and accuracy we assume when there are more than one narrator. I give you an example. My grandmother use to tell me in front of my mother how I was descendant of a man who walked all the way down from the North of America to get on a boat to become a slave trader with strains of a military persona. She also use to say that on the other side I was descendent of Spaniard Nobility, while naming all the ancestors who on one side went to Goa to trade and on the other side were deported to Cape Verde from Spain for being Jewish.
I thought the woman was strange. But she could recount their name to perfection. She also wanted me to travel to Goa to collect some considerable inheritance. I was in my late teens and thought that her arteriosclerosis had got the best of her.
Decades later I decide to take a DNA test and look and behold, I am related to so many people in Spain and Basque countries, that I am just in dismay. Not only that, I have Jewish families using the same names she mentioned we had to adopt. I find family in Russia, Alaska, Australia, and the United States. Upon contacting them I find out that on my fathers side one of my ancestors was a Scottish slave trader who married a Sierra Leona woman, hence why my African side I am West African Admixture,with Iberian because my father grandfather was a white Iberian man. On my mother side I am a Spaniard tied with Basque and Jewish North African with Askenazi and Shephardi.
What made this wise woman Oral history stand out? Initially and objectively speaking, should have been her full name listings, however I was not objective, I was subjective, because under my mother dismissiveness I assumed my grandmother arteriosclerosis had got the best of her.
If we look at history this way, as something that takes several people to make or pay attention to bring it to live, we can conclude that there are more important determinants in bringing accurate history to life, and these are namely oral history and history materialised in primary sources.
Hence why, I want to focus on bringing to live primary sources who have so much to say and add to the narrative that connect us all together in this web of stories that we call our own, History with a capital H.
History unveiled into a realisation of our expectations is a subjective construction which I will not engage, because this will compromise the objective first line of our independent research that is vital to build the blocks of a common house called Past History. I will look at my primary sources and bring details to life without assumptions and interpretations and let you all decide that each fact is worst of pursuing by connecting to other building blocks or are just like vases standing on its own outside this House.
We will call this House History Research and we will call you all commenting and pursuing any line of thoughts masons of your own house.
Therefore, once again welcome to this blog and to the Art of Connecting the Dots while building Past connections into Master Historical Research Houses.
Kind regards,
Ariane Crafts
ARIANE CRAFTS 