Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

ariel · 7th January 2007, 04:10 AM

Nationalism is a Romanticism in sheep clothes. That is, as long as it does not degrade into jingoism.
These romantic aspirations are pretty much obvious: who besides the Americans would collect Civil War swords? Most of the Moro weapon collectors are likely to trace their ancestry to the Philippines and native Iranians would sell their birthright for a true Assadollah shamshir

. Nothing wrong about it: we are all trying one way or another to connect with our past. Deep down, Andrew and Mark may entertain fantasies that their great-grandmothers were from Chiang Mai

The problem starts when one denigrates other cultures or other people: this is not romanticism anymore, just plain vileness. The other side of the same coin is the assertion of ethnic superiority in general and of the ability of only "native" person to understand a particular culture (weapons, in our case). What innate advantage does, say, Turkish ancestry offer to the ability to study the evolution of Kilijes? Or Moro to kampilans? Or any other to whatever weapon one wishes to designate? As Rivkin said, language fluency is a great plus, but that is all. Even that is not a prerequisite: Astvatsaturyan is the greatest living specialist in Caucasian weaponry and she repeatedly mentions her gratitude to X and Y for translating Chechen inscriptions. Elgood wrote an astonishingly-good book on South Indian weapons; is he fluent in a bewildering multitude of local dialects?
The ability to read an inscription is just that and no more. It does not translate into academic excellence or even into academic mediocrity: an amateur always remains an amateur.
Most of us here are enthusiastic amateurs (proud to be one!), whether we collect weapons of our ancestors or not. To pretend, however, that one is a true " academician" simply because he or she spent some years traipsing around museums in exotic places and schmoozing with the curators in a native tongue is a laughable hubris.
Nationalism, when used wisely, is a good tool; it should be kept in check, however, to prevent its poisonous transformation.

7th January 2007, 04:10 AM	#3
ariel Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 5,503	Nationalism is a Romanticism in sheep clothes. That is, as long as it does not degrade into jingoism. These romantic aspirations are pretty much obvious: who besides the Americans would collect Civil War swords? Most of the Moro weapon collectors are likely to trace their ancestry to the Philippines and native Iranians would sell their birthright for a true Assadollah shamshir . Nothing wrong about it: we are all trying one way or another to connect with our past. Deep down, Andrew and Mark may entertain fantasies that their great-grandmothers were from Chiang Mai The problem starts when one denigrates other cultures or other people: this is not romanticism anymore, just plain vileness. The other side of the same coin is the assertion of ethnic superiority in general and of the ability of only "native" person to understand a particular culture (weapons, in our case). What innate advantage does, say, Turkish ancestry offer to the ability to study the evolution of Kilijes? Or Moro to kampilans? Or any other to whatever weapon one wishes to designate? As Rivkin said, language fluency is a great plus, but that is all. Even that is not a prerequisite: Astvatsaturyan is the greatest living specialist in Caucasian weaponry and she repeatedly mentions her gratitude to X and Y for translating Chechen inscriptions. Elgood wrote an astonishingly-good book on South Indian weapons; is he fluent in a bewildering multitude of local dialects? The ability to read an inscription is just that and no more. It does not translate into academic excellence or even into academic mediocrity: an amateur always remains an amateur. Most of us here are enthusiastic amateurs (proud to be one!), whether we collect weapons of our ancestors or not. To pretend, however, that one is a true " academician" simply because he or she spent some years traipsing around museums in exotic places and schmoozing with the curators in a native tongue is a laughable hubris. Nationalism, when used wisely, is a good tool; it should be kept in check, however, to prevent its poisonous transformation.