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mandianansi t1_ix6muac wrote

The thing that he kept saying that made me cringe was his repeated use of pre-history. Wtf does that even mean.

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LateInTheAfternoon t1_ix6nuq2 wrote

Prehistory is an accepted term and quite harmless as well. It just means the time before we have written sources (which can vary for different places). Why he would need to repeat it often is weird but as with so many cranks it might be just to pad the run time; when there's not much substance to a theory (and there never is with conspiracy theories) there is always a need for repetition, redundancy and futile exercises in pedantry.

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mandianansi t1_ix6ocyy wrote

Nice answer. Yeah he just said it like 5 times per episode. I got through grad school, not a history major, but took my fair share of history classes and never heard the term before. Just sounded weird.

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LateInTheAfternoon t1_ix6ozqz wrote

If that's the case, then it seems a bit off and I can see how it can come across as cringe-y. Kinda suggests to me that he's using it as a crutch.

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Kaminosai t1_ix6qahq wrote

Technically it means "before we started writing things down", but it's usually meant as "before ancient greece". Often ignoring that people in other places wrote a lot of things down before that, or that other cultures oral histories go back much further.

In this context, it just leans much harder on the racism as these guys always say non-European people are too ignorant or innocent to know what their own stories mean. And obviously this renegade historian knows the REAL truth where they couldn't.

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rookieseaman t1_ix6s7kb wrote

I’d argue it means before Sumer personally since that’s when written records can first be established.

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degotoga t1_ix6t1aq wrote

it's generally accepted to be a regional term. prehistory in mesopotamia is not the same as prehistory in europe

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rookieseaman t1_ix6u4er wrote

Meh. Prehistory is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as the period of time before the use of writing. There was no writing before ancient Sumer, thus, anything before ancient Sumer is prehistory, regardless of where you are.

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degotoga t1_ix72cdj wrote

the development of writing in sumer is irrelevant to someone studying the history of europe

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rookieseaman t1_ix72z56 wrote

Okay? The prehistory of humanity begins at Sumer, by definition. Dunno what that has to do with studying history in Europe but okay.

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