The Sauk & Sac of Sauk Prairie

RFK Jr.

RFK Jr.: Experienced, intelligent, patriot, and well educated; he has a deep love for our country, has a deep understanding of republicanism and democracy, and who understands the difficulty of mixing imperialism with republicanism and democracy.

                                                                                                    RCS

Sahara Desert in Video

A variety of fun information about the Sahara Desert is revealed by scientists.  

    It's all history. OK it's mostly prehistory.

There Is A Lot We Can Learn

Our History contains valuable information about us

We profit by careful updating of our knowledge. We can benefit by being open to learning about our early doings and the early happenings around us. We are very capable of improving our judgements. There is that to be learned from our pre-history which can contribute to our survival and wellbeing

Who is Visiting History With RCS These Days?

 Stats

    

            People from a variety of countries visit this site of prehistory and more.

However, just four countries account for 70% of those visits.

34% From The USA

14% from Colombia

12% from Germany     and

10% from Sweden

                Thank you for viewing and reading. Keep coming back and give your friends the address.

                There are new essays, posts, and videos every month. Should you feel the need for a change check out some of our associated blogsites like Mago Bill or Governance With RCS.

                                                                                    Richard

Silk Road Saga Continued: Afghanistan

Afghanistan deserves more attention than this. Consider this a tip of the hat to the topic. 

            Hello, you may have noticed that here, and on my associated sites, my purpose is to offer that which you may find interesting and which you may expect to be of lasting value. This particular offering is part of a set of essays related to what has been called the Silk Road. The following few paragraphs is to give you a brief inside peek into the Silk Road country of Afghanistan.

            As I begin to prepare this post for publication I note that it may be too short for many of my readers. I will try to make future posts a little longer and more enjoyable.

Afghanistan:

            The Silk Road passes through Afghanistan. I further explorations we may note that the Silk Road trunk has many branches. We may note too that it was ancient even before the silk trade began to move on it. Much of Afghanistan's ancient history was nearly as turbulent as it's more recent history. This country is at the crossroads of central Asia and south Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and China. All places with interesting people and histories say I. I predict that we will hear of each of them more than once before we die.

            Did you notice the suffix -stan above? The countries which have the suffix in their name have something else in common. They are all in central Asia. In all of them the suffix translates to something like land of. All such countries have a significant relation to what we once called Persia and now call Iran. They are sort of Iranian cousins, perhaps second cousins.

            

            South East Asia includes the Indian subcontinent and the exotic and beautiful island nation of Sri Lanka. I mention Sri Lanka because I have strong memories of that land and people. I mention Indian because a large branch of the Silk Road heading east from Afghanistan goes there.

            Afghanistan has plenty of mountains and also has plains in the north and the Southwest. The Hindu kush mountain range accounts for mountains.

People and Afghanistan

            In addition to roads and land, Afghanistan has a variety of people. The most numerous people of the country are Pashtun, Hazaras, Tajik, and Uzbeck. There are many others as well, they include Turkman, Baloch, Aimaq, and Sadat. Afghanistan has long had commerce with China, India, the Near East, and more. When I say long I mean millenia. The great set of trade routes we are calling the Silk Road has connected many people as has contributed to the ethnic mix that is Afghanistan.

Turbulence in Afghanistan:

                First, check to see if anyone you know has an afghan in their home.

                The Graveyard of Empires is a name Afghanistan has been called. Americans are far from the only ones to have trampled on the people of this nation and to find that such trampling is not easy. Others include Russian, English, Mongols, Muslim Arabs, people of the Maurya Empire, and the army of Alexander the Great. Others helping to keep things turbulent include Mughals, Greco-Bactrians, and Iranians.

Religion in Afghanistan:

            It is also a land of various religions: Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and, more recently, Islam and some Christianity.

Birth of Afghanistan:

            Afghanistan may be said to have become a nation with the Hitak dynasty. This dynasty was founded by Ghilji Pashtuns, who may be seen as early cousins of the Persians. The Hotak ruled into the early 1700s BC. They took over from the older and longer lasting Persian Safaid empire. The Safaid were horsemen on the Silk Road,
        

            This is far from the end of this story, but I am about to end this essay. May I recommend that you make time to reread this piece and note with some care the questions that may arise. You may find some answers on your own. Please feel free to tell us about them. Also you could ask me a couple of questions.

            When I was younger we called Iranians, Persians and Iran, Persia. I was going to say they are the same people, but people change and the keep dying and getting born. Than again a people who share a history share a great deal.

            Among the names I may check out their relationship to the Silk Road I include: Tajikistan, Tajiks, Pashtuns, Hazaras, Sadat, Hindu Kush, Greco-Bactrians, Persian Safai, and more. There is much of interest and of value to be found. When you find something, please tell us a bit about it. I may include your finding in a post if that is OK with you. I will include your name if you want.

            Thank you for reading. Share this address with another.

                                                                    Richard Sheehan

Fun Prehistory With Dani

Discover Ancient Mesopotamian Literature With Me! 📜☀️ Cuneiform + Litera...

I hope you enjoy this video as much as I have. I seems to contain selections from about 3000 years of prehistory in  mesopotamia beginning with the Sumerians, I call it the story of the history and the history of the stories. Its presented in living color, good humor, pleasant if contagious enthusiasm.

We Can Learn from History

   Acupuncture; history notes

 

                Are we too superior in our conceits to recognize the ability we ought to see in others?

                '

                I write here in hope that we may more enjoy the fruits of acupuncture. The French and Russians began to enjoy those fruits of the acupuncture part of Chinese Health Care many years ago. Our AMA has not pointed us to a legal road to making acupuncture an active part of our health care system. It  that seems finding and setting up that road is up us, we the people. 

               

                 The people of some countries have struggled a bit with deciding how to regulate acupuncture, bur most have allowed it legal practice. Russian elites have demanded it. Chinese demand that extensive education and careful oversight of the the practice be established and maintained. European countries have demanded that all acupuncturists be medical doctors as well. Some of them have neglected the supervision of its teaching.

 

                Some knowledge of the history of acupuncture may prove of help to to us. Allow me to pass on some of that history which have begun to learn.

 
Before 900 AD                

                A medical school was established in China during the Tang dynasty before 900 AD. Its name, translated to English can be, the Imperial Institute of Physicians. The college trained 350 students at a time in herbal medicine and surgery. Herbal medicine seems to have been the more important part of the instruction. Surgery was mainly limited to fractures, skin diseases, and wounds.

 
600 AD                

Tang emperors also organized the nation's doctors into the grand Medical Service. It will be great when we can organize our healthcare to include the best of the kinds available in other countries. The development of organized healthcare in China began at least as early as 600 AD. Certainly we ought to be able to improve and extend our healthcare in the near future.

 
About 700 AD             

    Chinese health care was regulated and delivery improved beginning in about 700 AD. Prospective doctors underwent rigorous examinations. Future doctors were examined on their familiarity with the principles of acupuncture and its diagnosis and techniques, also on the best written works. 

 

                Chinese controlled the quality of their health care then and now. There were and are laws prohibiting the practice of healthcare and cure without licenses.

 

                    

According to surviving healthcare books and documents from as far back as the Tang, a variety of maladies were treated. their practice dealt with tuberculosis, goiter, rickets, beriberi, dropsy, Cholera, dysentery, measles, smallpox, and leprosy.

As we begin to use our choice of the very best European and Asiatic healthcare, we can learn from and adopt some of their methods of  control and safety. There  is much of value we can learn if we would. We can learn to benefit from acupuncture as have the French, and Russians, and others. Our healthcare professionals have much to teach others.

Let's get back to the Tang dynasty way of dealing with acupuncture. On the second day of their examinations was a demonstration of one's effectiveness of dealing with the needles of acupuncture. A great deal more of Chinese history is becoming available these days and the Chinese share share much of their modern healthcare understanding, knowledge, and techniques. We can learn from them and help them to learn from us.

 Acupuncture points

                In 1027 AD the sung dynasty emperor, Je Tsug ordered Wang Wei, a noted acupuncturist and sculpture to cast two hollow figures with the acupuncture points points marked by their names and small holes. The figures were covered with wax and filled with water. These figures were used to train and test students. Similar figures are used by students and teachers and students today, Since the Sung dynasty only about a dozen points have been changed, added, or deleted. I understands that a total of about 365 points are used today. For the interested person there is much historic and present day information available online.

 
 Chaing Kai-shek              

 During the reign of Chaing Kai-shek, western medicine was extolled and acupuncture was repressed and schools closed. Still, the Chinese people looked to their traditional medicine. Thousands were killed by quacks and the untrained in the use of traditional medicine. Many came to doubt their ''medicine."

When the communist consolidated power acupuncturists began to use the needles where they were most likely to be used correctly, on themselves. A graduate from their schools may have pricked himself ten thousand times refining his skills and touch until teachers and testers were sure of his ability. There remained much to be learned of diagnosis.  

 

                Now, acupuncture has been modernized by Chinese doctors also trained in western medicine. Acupuncture is used extensively. Electronic needles are used, and their use has moved into most modern Chinese medicine. 

 "Head Zones"

                In 1893 Sir Henry Head, a British nerve specialist, noticed that some patients suffering from diseased gallbladders and kidneys felt pain in parts of the body far from from the stricken organs. The pain was external, on the surface of the skin, and a specific disease always resulted in pain from the same place. Think of the diagnostic possibilities, Some wise doctors have been trained in "Head Zones."

German doctors soon began to use their knowledge of "Head Zones" to deaden areas of the skin to relieve pain in internal organs. Does that remind you of anything in particular?

 

                Some American doctors add to this practice by injecting these surface areas with chemical Anesthesia to get the same result. American doctors were amazed to find that their injections in Head Zones not only relieved pain, but in many cases cure diseases. Head Zones have been too largely forgotten, but there is still a bit of ongoing work being done in the U.S. and elsewhere. 

 

            By the way, the areas of the skin Dr. Head linked with the gallbladder and kidneys are the same ones acupuncturists use today and the same ones they have used for many hundreds of years.

 

                I believe that we can benefit from careful training of good acupuncture practitioners in the U.S. I believe we would benefit even more by good appropriate oversight of those practitioners and of all physicians and health practitioners. For developing appropriate training of acupuncturists in the U.S. we could increase exchange of healthcare practitioners between China and America.

 

                

            Thank you for reading

 

 

                                                                                                RCS 

Anthropology of the Colusa of Florida

 North American Indians

The Calusa of what is now Florida, USA

                A great people who deserve more talk and understanding.

                I haven't yet written much of the early peoples of North America, but if I live long enough I intend to write much more.

                    

            The words I now write of the Calusa are few. Even so I expect that will be sufficient to fix the Calusa  people and the name Calusa in the minds of a few our readers.

                    In the 1500s the Calusa still controlled much of  the southwest of Florida. They defended their land against the aggression  of other peoples including European explorers.  The Spaniards knew them as fierce. The Caloosahatchee River, with its mouth on the southwest of  Florida, was theirs.

                They lived mostly along the inland waterways and developed them for transportation and food production. The sea was also a source of food for them. They left middens of seashells large enough in size to compete with their great mounds and other earthworks. The fished with nets and tapped fish.

                The Calusa had a strong influence on the tribes around them. That influence may be because of their wide trading. They typically used dugouts for use at sea and along their inland waterways. They also built  and used larger vessels. They visited Cuba regularly and probably sailed much farther into the Caribbean.

                Their homes were built on platforms on pilings over the water. Their buildings had particularly handsome roofing of palmetto leaves. It is said that some of their 'houses' were large enough to easily accommodate 2000 persons!

                They were excellent wood workers and they also did some fine wood carving. They were excellent farmers, sailors, fishermen, and traders, They are probably responsible for the construction of what we have called bayous.

                The apex of their culture probably dates well before 100 BC. Their middens and and earth works have been dated to that time.

                We have much to learn from and about the Calusa. Please feel free to extend and correct our knowledge of them.

                What is your interest in American Indians? Help me write to your interests.

                Thank you for reading.

                


                                                                                by R.C.S.

Acupuncture: history and scientific observation

 Acupuncture: history notes
 

                Are we too superior in our conceits to recognize the ability we ought to see in others?

               

             I write here in hope that we may more enjoy the fruits of acupuncture. The French and Russians began to enjoy those fruits of the acupuncture part of Chinese Health Care many years ago. Our AMA has not pointed us to a legal road to making acupuncture an active part of our health care system. It  that seems finding and setting up that road is up us, we the people. 

               

                 The people of some countries have struggled a bit with deciding how to regulate acupuncture, bur most have allowed it legal practice. Russian elites have demanded it. Chinese demand that extensive education and careful oversight of the the practice be established and maintained. European countries have demanded that all acupuncturists be medical doctors as well. Some of them have neglected the supervision of its teaching.

 

                Some knowledge of the history of acupuncture may prove of help to to us. Allow me to pass on some of that history which have begun to learn.

 

                A medical school was established in China during the Tang dynasty before 900 AD. Its name, translated to English can be, the Imperial Institute of Physicians. The college trained 350 students at a time in herbal medicine and surgery. Herbal medicine seems to have been the more important part of the instruction. Surgery was mainly limited to fractures, skin diseases, and wounds.

 

                Tang emperors also organized the nation's doctors into the grand Medical Service. It will be great when we can organize our healthcare to include the best of the kinds available in other countries. The development of organized healthcare in China began at least as early as 600 AD. Certainly we ought to be able to improve and extend our healthcare in the near future.

 

                 Chinese health care was regulated and delivery improved beginning in about 700 AD. Prospective doctors underwent rigorous examinations. Future doctors were examined on their familiarity with the principles of acupuncture and its diagnosis and techniques, also on the best written works. 

 

                Chinese controlled the quality of their health care then and now. There were and are laws prohibiting the practice of healthcare and cure without licenses.

 

                According to surviving healthcare books and documents from as far back as the Tang, a variety of maladies were treated. their practice dealt with tuberculosis, goiter, rickets, beriberi, dropsy, Cholera, dysentery, measles, smallpox, and leprosy.

            As we begin to use our choice of the very best European and Asiatic healthcare, we can learn from and adopt some of their methods of  control and safety. There  is much of value we can learn if we would. We can learn to benefit from acupuncture as have the French, and Russians, and others. Our healthcare professionals have much to teach others.

            Let's get back to the Tang dynasty way of dealing with acupuncture. On the second day of their examinations was a demonstration of one's effectiveness of dealing with the needles of acupuncture. A great deal more of Chinese history is becoming available these days and the Chinese share share much of their modern healthcare understanding, knowledge, and techniques. We can learn from them and help them to learn from us.

 

                In 1027 AD the sung dynasty emperor, Je Tsug ordered Wang Wei, a noted acupuncturist and sculpture to cast two hollow figures with the acupuncture points points marked by their names and small holes. The figures were covered with wax and filled with water. These figures were used to train and test students. Similar figures are used by students and teachers and students today, Since the Sung dynasty only about a dozen points have been changed, added, or deleted. I understands that a total of about 365 points are used today. For the interested person there is much historic and present day information available online.

 

                During the reign of Chaing Kai-shek, western medicine was extolled and acupuncture was repressed and schools closed. Still, the Chinese people looked to their traditional medicine. Thousands were killed by quacks and the untrained in the use of traditional medicine. Many came to doubt their ''medicine."

                When the communist consolidated power acupuncturists began to use the needles where they were most likely to be used correctly, on themselves. A graduate from their schools may have pricked himself ten thousand times refining his skills and touch until teachers and testers were sure of his ability. There remained much to be learned of diagnosis.  

 

                Now, acupuncture has been modernized by Chinese doctors also trained in western medicine. Acupuncture is used extensively. Electronic needles are used, and their use has moved into most modern Chinese medicine. 

 

                In 1893 Sir Henry Head, a British nerve specialist, noticed that some patients suffering from diseased gallbladders and kidneys felt pain in parts of the body far from from the stricken organs. The pain was external, on the surface of the skin, and a specific disease always resulted in pain from the same place. Think of the diagnostic possibilities, Some wise doctors have been trained in "Head Zones."

            

            German doctors soon began to use their knowledge of "Head Zones" to deaden areas of the skin to relieve pain in internal organs. Does that remind you of anything in particular?

 

                Some American doctors add to this practice by injecting these surface areas with chemical Anesthesia to get the same result. American doctors were amazed to find that their injections in Head Zones not only relieved pain, but in many cases cure diseases. Head Zones have been too largely forgotten, but there is still a bit of ongoing work being done in the U.S. and elsewhere. 

 

            By the way, the areas of the skin Dr. Head linked with the gallbladder and kidneys are the same ones acupuncturists use today and the same ones they have used for many hundreds of years.

 

                I believe that we can benefit from careful training of good acupuncture practitioners in the U.S. I believe we would benefit even more by good appropriate oversight of those practitioners and of all physicians and health practitioners. For developing appropriate training of acupuncturists in the U.S. we could increase exchange of healthcare practitioners between China and America.

 

                Check RCS Posts for health related posts.

            Thank you for reading

 

 

                                                                    RCS 

The Way of the Great Wagon Road

  The Blue Ridge Mountains

            Help me add to this story. I remember Arthur Godfrey being on the radio. A song he often sang was The Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. There was music in those mountains from the earliest days of European settlement. That music was not just in Virginia. It spread around an area of is now several U.S. states. Quite a lot of that music spread into what is now North Carolina.

            I could well have called this piece The Lost Provinces, many others have. The settlers among those rolling hills beyond the ridges were largely separated from the colonies and then from the states. Many did not remember that they were there. Some of the people in that Blue Ridge country didn't keep up much on the rest of the country. They were "The Lost Provinces."

            But there is a lot more to the story, I still have some of it in mind. I remember being told that in a far western corner of what became the state of north Carolina is a rolling plateau separated from the rest of the state by the abrupt slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Families settled there. Some say that they became the heart of those provinces.

            For years the Provinces were isolated from much of the country and even the rest of North Carolina. The isolation was so great that most of their trade and communication was with the neighboring states of Tennessee and Virginia. i suspect that they did not feel their isolation so very much. I some way it is part of the road they chose and much like the road many others were choosing in those days.

            There were those who came before them, but many to the area throughout the 1700s and after. They became isolated rapidly from a rapidly changing world. They shared little of that world. No Arthur Godfrey on the radio. Many came by way of the Great Wagon Road of the Shenandoah Valley. They had no industry and a barely subsistence agriculture with few of the implements of agriculture. Early arrivals had good hunting. Some arrived with little more than a rifle and an ax. They did feel their independence, I have heard. They may have called it freedom.

            The Cherokee, Shawnee, and Creek had hunted the territory for centuries, it is said. The first recorded visits by Europeans occurred in 1752. Augustus Spangenberg, a Moravian Bishop from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and a handful of men entered the territory. The Bishop was impressed by the mountains. H seems not to have been guided well.

            Those who came, somehow had a great deal of music. Perhaps feelings of freedom and independence helped. They brought their musical culture from Germany, England, and elsewhere. Violins were not the first of the musical instruments to be popular. But in time violins were brought to the land, made there there, and played there. They were popularly called fiddles. They danced to the music of the fiddle.

        In 1799 the North Carolina General Assembly designated the high country as Ashe County, named for Samuel Ash, Revolutionary War patriot and three time governor of the state.

        After the Civil War, more instruments and many kinds of music came and was welcomed in the "Lost Provinces.

        There is much more to this story. The Cherokee, Welsh, and others could tell us that. Help me out and tell us what you can find out about The Blue Ridge Mountains and Lost Provinces territory.

            Thank you for reading.        

                                                                                Richard Sheehan