Garden of Broken Trees

Informative Ancient Egypt Comics: BROS

They claimed that the Egyptians screwed up a burial.

The Egyptians. Screwed up. A burial.

Now I’m not an expert in Ancient Egypt but from what I know, and what the exhibit was telling me, burials and the afterlife and all that jazz DEFINED the Egyptian religion and culture. They don’t just ‘screw up’. So instead of thinking outside the box for two seconds and wonder why else a genetically female body was in a male coffin, the ‘researchers’ blatantly disregard the rest of their research and decided to call it a screw up. Instead of, you know, admitting that maybe this mummy presented as male during his life and was therefore honorably buried as he was identified. But it would be too much of a stretch to admit that a transgender person could have existed back then.

Then we get to the Late Period archaising and oh boy do we have some fun. Due to the Egyptian habit of being nostalgic for what they considered better periods of their history (oh wait where have I heard that before?) they tended to try to copy ‘styles’ of art from other periods without knowing the full decorum. So, as is the case with the Late Period, it’d become a mish mash of ‘ok so this is Amarna style paunch art, but we’re using the feminine coffin pose from the New Kingdom, and our art grid is off by one so everyone looks elongated’. They literally write about themselves being proud of copying these older art styles. 

I know this site likes to think in black and white terms, with a heavy amount of anti-intellectual bias, but reality is more complicated than you’d like, as is history. Knowing the full cultural context for why historical people did what they did is vital, because otherwise we assume they thought the same way we do about topics such as this, and that’s where you fall into the ‘bias’ trap. If you don’t look at something in Ancient Egypt and say ‘well what do the Egyptians themselves tell us about this’ and just immediately head to ‘well it’s this way now so archaeologists must have missed something what idiots’ then you’re doing a bad job of working with the material presented to you. 

As for Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep, well this site likes to twist their narrative pretty hard, as you can see from the above. Yeah, they’re mlm couple. That’s been the accepted narrative (bar a few outliers) for about 40 years, and it was even suggested way before that. Idk, might be a good idea to read something written after 1970 if you’re trying to get current thinking on the subject. Or you know, stuff published this century. Basing your ideas of what archaeologists think currently on publications from the 60s is as bad as assuming that scientists now have the same ideas about disease as they did in the 60s. Things move on. 

Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep are not depicted as different sizes, thus making one more ‘feminine’. They’re depicted as the same size, because it’s not just your gender in Egyptian art decorum that determines your size but also your rank and power. Look:

Here they are embracing, in what is a depiction of a kiss. They’re the same size. 

Here they are at the entrance. Same size. 

Here they are kissing again. Same size. 

One last time. Same size. 

(I’ve been to this tomb. Seen it in person. It’s very gay)

There are also loads of examples where women are not depicted as ‘small’, in fact that statement in and of itself is rather a generalisation than the actual rule. Here’s Menna and his wife:

Same size. 

Here’s Inherkhau and his wife and children:

Same size. 

And because I’m feeling petty, have one more. Here’s Irynefer and his wife:

Same. Size. 

Idk about you guys, but doesn’t seem right does it? Really, size in these tomb paintings is all about the importance of the figure, in this case the deceased, rather than their gender. The only reason they would be not of the same size in the tomb is when one is as an Osiris. When that happens the figure who is larger, and yeah it’s usually the man because you rarely get women’s tombs because they’re buried with their husbands, is representative of the deceased being ‘honoured’ as an ‘Osiris’ (you become an Osiris after death in Egypt). The size of the person depicts their importance as the revered deceased and not because one is a woman. Take here for example the tomb of Sennefer:

You can see Sennefer as the revered dead on the right, being offered a lotus (I’ll get onto that in a sec) by his wife. She’s offering him rebirth. It is only this scene in which she is depicted smaller, because on the left (at an angle) you can see them both….portrayed as the same size. Here’s another image of them together:

It is only when she is offering to him as a revered, and more important, deceased person that she is smaller. Decorum dictates that the more important you are the larger you are, so the tomb owner will always be depicted as larger than pretty much everyone else. If Khnumhotep is offering a lotus flower to Niankhkhnum, it is because Niankhkhnum at that point is the revered dead. It has nothing to do with Khnumhotep being ‘feminine’. The narrative that one of them must be taking the ‘feminine’ role seems kinda….not good?  

As for the symbol of a lotus flower? That’s nothing to do with ‘femininity’. At all. In Egyptian culture, the lotus flower symbolised power and rebirth, as in one creation myth, the mound grew from the waters of Nun, and from this mound grew a lotus flower. When this lotus flower opened it provided the first ‘man’ and that’s how mankind came into existence. This is why we have a statue of Tutankhamun emerging from a Lotus flower. 

Khnumhotep offering this flower to Niankhkhnum is not symbolising his ‘femininity’ it’s offering him rebirth into the afterlife. A symbol that was extremely important in Ancient Egypt. 

Oh and finally, Archaeologists from 1964, and up until the early 80s, thought they were brothers because that’s literally what they refer to each other as. They call each other ‘sn=i’ ‘my brother’. Yeah it seems obvious now that they’re not, but when you start translating something you’re not looking at anything deeper. If it says they were brothers, and they themselves have said this, why would we think differently? It was not until the mid 70s when we worked out that Middle Egyptian Hieroglyphs (though they’re using Old Egyptian, but the flaw is the same) has limited words for family. We only have words for: father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter, husband, and wife. There are no words for ‘uncle’ or ‘cousin’ or ‘nephew’. So we ended up having to go back and reassess some stuff, and it turned out where someone had said ‘so and so is my father’ they’re actually saying ‘so and so is my grandfather or uncle’ and the same goes for ‘son/nephew’, cousins are brothers and sisters. Yes, there was some absolute homophobia going on when it was first suggested that they might not actually be brothers, but lovers. There are some that still think this way. But the vast majority no longer hold this view, and haven’t since the 1980s. 

Here is a link to everything we currently know about the presence of LGBT individuals in Ancient Egypt. It’s written by an excellent Egyptologist (Deborah Sweeney), and has an extensive bibliography on everything written so far about LGBT individuals in Ancient Egypt often by LGBT Egyptologist and Archaeologists themselves. The PDF is free to read, and was published in 2011.

Nowhere did @thatlittleegyptologist claim that homophobia was never or isn’t still a problem in certain areas of academia in general and/or in Egyptology in particular, nor that the marginalisation of LGBTQIA+ folk isn’t real. That wasn’t the point. The point is that the heteronormative view of “oh this can’t possibly have been queer”, as produced by a world where it was illegal to be gay, is no longer the overall view of Egyptology.

The comic itself isn’t even the issue here because yes, that’s basically how it happened. It does however lack some context and therefore can be used to harm public perception of a field as well as efforts of LGBTQIA+ scholars. This is because, as this post and others like it make inescapably clear, the resulting narrative becomes “All Egyptologists are homophobic pieces of shit” really quickly, driven mostly by people who have no knowledge of what they’re talking about (see: the person who said they’d never fuck up burials in ancient Egypt), but who do yell in the call-out style Tumblr is so fond of and likes to take as solid fact.

Perhaps from your end it’s not a frustration with Egyptology as a field. But it’s clear that the majority of people we see talking about this buy into the idea of Egyptology/historians/academics as a homophobic monolith who haven’t evolved past a time when being gay was still a crime in many countries. Times change. We change with it.

But in order to defend myself, nowhere did I say ‘there is no homophobia within Egyptology’. That is a fallacy. What I did say can be quoted in two sentences from my original response above:

Please stop believing that the homophobia of 1920s, or even 1970s, scholars is still the most current and widely held belief in Egyptology.

Yes, there was some absolute homophobia going on when it was first suggested that they might not actually be brothers, but lovers. There are some that still think this way. But the vast majority no longer hold this view, and haven’t since the 1980s. 

I would like someone to point out where in these two sentences I implied that there is no homophobia in academia/Egyptology anymore. You can’t, because I didn’t. I literally said the overall view is not one of homophobia, but that some people do still cling to it. I made that clear on a number of occasions in my response and yet here I am once again, despite giving numerous caveats, asking you to consider things not in black and white terms and read what I actually wrote.

As for Egyptian Egyptologists, if you’d bothered to look at the resource I provided written by Egyptologists, you’d notice that there are two Egyptian scholars in that list. Just because Egypt itself is not LGBT friendly, does not mean that its scholars do not have access to works published by other scholars in other countries, nor does one assume that all of them ascribe to the anti-lgbt rhetoric present in Egypt. Nowhere in my post did I say that LGBTQIA+ academics were not marginalised in countries where LGBT rights are still being fought for. That’s not what the post was about. 

I did not take issue with the comic itself. I find it funny because that’s exactly what happened, as I did in fact explain in my original response (i.e. they read sn=i as ‘my brother and it was before we’d worked out that Egyptians had limited terms for family members). Let me repeat: The.Comic.Was.Not.The.Issue. However, I did explicitly take umbrage with the comments listed below, that were not only wildly incorrect on a number of Egyptian cultural aspects, which I took pains to show why they were so, but also were dismissive of explanations for why things were presented the way they were (i.e. the egyptians could never mess up a burial…yes they could Janet) but also assumed that these explanations were the result of bigoted historians and not, y’know, an actual reflection of Egyptian cultural narrative. 

The comments below the comic (NOT THE COMIC ITSELF) and comments on this post in general, demonstrate that it is the prevailing view of people on this site that Egyptology, and by extension academia, are monoliths to bigotry and homophobia that haven’t changed since the advent of the discipline. It is this that directly harms LGBTQIA+ scholars who have been working on changing the narrative and bringing historical LGBTQIA+ individuals to the forefront for well over 3 decades now. Yes, there are countries and scholars who are marginalised because they are LGBTQIA+ and therefore cannot further their own narrative, and we should not ignore or silence them, but there are others who are not and it is the rampant anti-intellectualism and the firm belief that academia itself is still 100% a homophobia monolith (as evidenced by comments on this post, again not the comic itself) that are harmful to LGBTQIA+ scholars because their voices are silenced in the rush to be woke and shit on academics for views that the majority no longer have. Yes there still is a problem with homophobia in academia, no one denies this, but let’s not tout this as the sole narrative academia has, as then not only are those marginalised LGBTQIA+ scholars who can’t speak pushed further down in the mire, but those LGBTQIA+ scholars who can speak for LGBT historical figures and themselves get pushed down in favour of the ‘academia is just homophobic and wrong and they’ll never change’ narrative. 

So one time when I was doing my high school volunteer hours at this animal shelter, she showed up and said she had some kittens to drop off and some to pick up. I thought it was weird but I figured she fostered them and so I assumed she fostered cats and that explained the amount of random cats I’d see at her place (turns out she’d lure strays in for spaying/neutering and then take them to shelters around the area for socializing and ideally adoption).

So she dropped off three extremely socialized and friendly kittens that I guess she had picked up 2 days prior. And then grabbed a kennel thing with five feral-ass kittens one of the donors found near a dumpster.

I had seen them earlier but the day manager told me they had just gotten them the day before and they had not been socialized because they were waiting for “the expert”. And I guess that was this lady. So she puts on these thick black gloves and goes “Sweetheart can you hold this for me? I gotta prep the babies”, and I held the kennel still while this woman just 100% no fear sticks her hand in there and grabs a kitten that is NOT happy about it. She then grabbed it by the head gently, wrapped a tea towel or some type of cloth thing around it, and then laid it down to do something that was like equal parts origami fold and burrito roll?? Idek. Point is the kitten was PISSED. But it couldn’t move or anything because she wrapped it and secured the wrap with one of them big old timey baby pins. And she did it to the others as well. It didn’t even take her 5 minutes lmaooo. Then she put them back in the kennel and went home.

I asked the manager about it and he said “Oh yeah she’ll be here in 2 days to drop them off. She has a M E T H O D.” And just as he said she showed up two days later, with 5 perfectly friendly kittens in tow!

When the vaccines were first approved, we did not know if the vaccines stopped transmission, so we were told to act as though they did not stop transmission for safety reasons. They didn’t test for it in the emergency phased trials. It was speculated the entire time that the vaccines likely reduced transmission... because that’s how vaccines work.

Now we have evidence that the mRNA vaccines, Pfizer and Moderna, do actually prevent transmission. Animal studies have shown decreases in transmission. In Israel, where a majority of the adult population is vaccinated (with Pfizer), they have seen a 75-89% reduction in asymptomatic infections, meaning that getting the vaccine significantly reduces your changes of being an asymptomatic spreader. Oxford also has evidence that their AstraZenica vaccine also reduces transmission. It may not be peer reviewed and replicated research, but for all intents and purposes, as of me writing this on March 31, 2021, we can confidently say that the vaccines do prevent some level of transmission.

what if when ariadne cast the rope across a broken branch aphrodite stepped in with a reminder that this, this is not the kind of love you die for.

what if when achilles was ready for war ares appeared with a smile and said “you win well when you win, but what are you unwilling to lose if you lose?” and achilles knew the answer.

if you could retell the tale wouldn’t you want to tell it kinder? wouldn’t you want to give them peace, even love, where you could?

On Feb 23rd, in reaction to news about camps, AOC tweeted this:

In response to this, AOC then received this question from another user, which she answered, and which is being displayed in isolation above:

If you’re not following, AOC went in on how we need to completely revamp our immigration system and fundamentally restructure it away from a carceral state mentality (aka, prison-based).

She was then honest that this is not something that can be done in 2 months, so she called on everyone to keep pushing towards a radical future.

In response to a very specific question about how we should handle children who arrive at the border unattended, while we get this process of revamping the entire system started, AOC’s response was to:

1. Immediately require that only licensed facilities can house children 

2. Address the actual question of whether or not these services should be contracted out as they are now (Which AOC just made VERY clear her stance on)

3. Specifically cited the issue of companies who are pushing to reopen (again, her stance on this is clear).

4. Then directly drew attention to a comprehensive framework for legislation which AOC and Rep Jayapal are actively trying to get support for. And the only way we get the support, to drive this kind of radical change, is to underscore that the people have power to make this change, and our activism and support is vital.

STOP LETTING PEOPLE PRESENT INFORMATION OUT OF CONTEXT SO THAT IT IS INCENDIARY AND UNDERMINES THE ACTUAL POLITICAL PUSHES THAT ARE IN YOUR INTEREST AND IN LINE WITH YOUR OWN RADICAL POLITICS.

are more genetically compatible than These

This

And this

Are more distantly related from one another than you and I are from a lungfish

are genetically closer than these

these

are genetically closer than these

these

are more genetically similar than these

Zoos don’t look like this anymore.

They look like this:

Good zoos do not keep their animals in “tiny spaces” with no enrichment.  I’m not pro-roadside zoo.  I’m pro-accredited zoo.  Zoos are incredibly important for conservation and education.

Are Zoos Necessary?

The Importance of Zoos: Resource Post

Why Zoos and Aquariums Matter: Assessing the Impact of a Visit to a Zoo or Aquarium

Why I Want to be a Keeper

Except the sea lions are blind. One was found as an adult after suffering a gun shot wound to the face that destroyed his eyes. The other was found as an adolescent, weak and starving because it had been blinded and unable to hunt. So they were rescued and introduced and the zoo built them a nice pool where they can swim and sunbathe and people toss them fish. It’s not the biggest exhibit, or the fanciest. But it’s a home for them, where they’re safe and well fed. Sea lions aren’t the most romantic of animals, but they’re a part of SF culture and a lot of us have a soft spot for the loud, bulbous things. And because of zoos, these two get to live long, happy lives.

They also do work with camel populations because the local human population use the camels for food sources the zoos help monitor the camels health.

Another zoo, I want to say it’s the Oregon zoo but don’t quote me on that, is helping female inmates. The zoo works with the female prisons by encouraging the inmates to assist in the breeding and raising of endangered species of butterflies. They plant the specific plants that the butterflies and catapillars need, raise them, and release them. These inmates get noted in any scientific journals that get published. They are giving these inmates a sense of accomplishment and validation.

Zoos not only save species but bring together and assist communities in an effort to save the environment. Zoos, good zoos, are essential to the future and I will fight anyone who tries to say otherwise.

Ad Nauseum is an adblocker that stores the ads it blocks and continuously generates fake clicks, fucking with analytics and costing the ad companies money

TrackMeNot automatically does randomly generated searches on a variety of search engines to obscure your real searches and fuck with analytics, and you can set it up to work with anything that has a search bar (including facebook, twitter, amazon, youtube, etc)

WhatCampaign replaces analytics parameters in links with the string “FuckOff”. I thought there was a similar extension that used random strings, but I can’t seem to find it

Privacy Possum is a fork of Privacy Badger with a focus on costing tracking companies as much money as possible, and idk if my limited tech knowledge is enough to understand what it does but the description does say it falsifies some data so that’s good enough for me

0° Celsius gets you ice. 100° Celsius gets you tea.

0: snow weather (freezing point of water), 10: rain weather, 20: light jacket dry weather, 30: summer weather, 35: global warming.

that's not an opinion. it's a fact.

because the precision of a unit of measurement is how close the numbers are.

what you measure in 35 degrees, we measure in 64. that means our degrees are closer together. it is LITERALLY more precise.

The 0/10 etc thing is also not ridiculous lmao, and I'm pretty sure that people using the Fahrenheit have this sort of reference frame. As for the "only in cold weather", here I'll add the hotter temperature for you:

40 is when it's starting to get really uncomfortably hot (it's basically the equivalent to 100°F in terms of absolute tenperature)

45°C, you get those temperatures during really hot waves in countries that usually have moderate temperatures. If you don't live in a hot area, you're very unlikely to ever get beyond this temperature

50° is extremely hot, like Sahara during the day hot. You won't get those temperatures outside of hotspots, and someone who doesn't usually live in one of those hotspots is very unlikely to be able to bear such a temperature

Basically you have a roughly 10 points reference for how hot it is (depending on if you go by 5° steps or 10° steps), it's fairly accurate and grounded in real sensations of hotness/coldness for people who know this system.

Americans are wild. Do you think Europeans are so proud that we wouldn't jump over to another system if it didn't serve our needs?

0° Celsius gets you ice. 100° Celsius gets you tea.

0: snow weather (freezing point of water), 10: rain weather, 20: light jacket dry weather, 30: summer weather, 35: global warming.

that's not an opinion. it's a fact.

because the precision of a unit of measurement is how close the numbers are.

what you measure in 35 degrees, we measure in 64. that means our degrees are closer together. it is LITERALLY more precise.

The 0/10 etc thing is also not ridiculous lmao, and I'm pretty sure that people using the Fahrenheit have this sort of reference frame. As for the "only in cold weather", here I'll add the hotter temperature for you:

40 is when it's starting to get really uncomfortably hot (it's basically the equivalent to 100°F in terms of absolute tenperature)

45°C, you get those temperatures during really hot waves in countries that usually have moderate temperatures. If you don't live in a hot area, you're very unlikely to ever get beyond this temperature

50° is extremely hot, like Sahara during the day hot. You won't get those temperatures outside of hotspots, and someone who doesn't usually live in one of those hotspots is very unlikely to be able to bear such a temperature

Basically you have a roughly 10 points reference for how hot it is (depending on if you go by 5° steps or 10° steps), it's fairly accurate and grounded in real sensations of hotness/coldness for people who know this system.