Assyria and Wizardly Geography

[Liz Muir]

No: HPFGUIDX 99187

Rowen wrote:
> > 
> > Which I completely disagree with, as pointed out in the preceding 
> > paragraphs.  There is no comparable precedent, at least that 
anyone 
> > has cared to site, and no reason for Neville to speak in that way 
in 
> > the first place.

bboy_mn replied:
> 
> But, by your own admission, you claim a heritage and cultural
> attachment to a place that no longer exist. 

Actually, I do not.  I would never even consider calling myself 
Prussian.  Even German would be a stretch because the other half of 
my family was Scottish and English.  Although I am descended from 
them, I really have no cultural ties to them, except we get to open 
one present on Christmas Eve, in remembrance of the German 
tradition.  That's it.

The reason I brought my genealogy up was merely to counter your 
condescending tone when speaking of Prussia, as if I wouldn't have 
heard of it when anyone who took a high school history class should 
know about it.  I hate being patronized and that was my subtle way of 
combating your tone in the message.  But I didn't want to make it a 
central theme and risk breaking the rule about courtious behavior 
(not a direct quote) in the HBFile.  Alright?


Liz continues:
> > 
> > This was more of the kind of discussion I was looking for!  I 
have 
> > looked up said posts, but would have appreciated it if you had 
> > focused more on this than the many invalid examples above.
> > 
> > In summary:  I find no similar case for referring to the region 
as 
> > Assyria, but do find the Quidditch World Cup posts interesting.
 
bboy_mn again:
> 
> Perhaps we have a problem with word definitions, what I gave you 
were
> not 'examples' but 'illustrations' (I do that a lot). They 
illustrate
> how cultural and social regions are frequently independant of ever
> changing political regions. They also illustrate how people can 
cling
> to cultural identities even when the geo-political place no longer
> exist, and this illustration holds true whether modern or ancient. 

Actually, where we really have a problem is this: You claim that time 
is not a factor in the illustrations, but I believe it is.  What we 
differ on it the importance of time.  I believe each 'illustration' 
shows a fairly recent change, but a _major factor_ in dealing with 
Assyria is that it was such a long time ago that it doesn't fit under 
these cases.  Therefore, I consider these illustrations not relevant.

I know that people can cling to a cultural identity, that's quite 
obvious and didn't really need to be stated, but I doubt it would 
still be valid after being gone so many years.  (Of course, I have 
now been told otherwise in the "Assyrians Still Exist" thread and 
need to research that.)

bboy_mn again: 
> I think my illustrations, now deleted, and this example all point to
> the same thing, that a social and culturally defined region is
> independant of political boundaries. 

Yes, they are illustrating the same thing, but they are illustrating 
a point which I consider invalid.

I'm not going to bother really arguing the rest of this post because 
a) I don't consider these points valid, and b) it is making me more 
than a little angry at being so obviously patronized.

Rowen,
who would appreciate a few less illustrations and more points.