I mentioned last week that the post on divorce marked the completion of one year of the New Worlds Patreon, but I neglected to mention that I’m going to have a special reward for patrons to celebrate the occasion. So if you’re interested in backing the project, do so by the beginning of March and you’ll be included in that!
There’s still so much I could say on the topic of marriage, but since I try not to sit on any one subject for too long, we’re wrapping up this month of the New Worlds Patreon with divorce.
And that concludes the first year of this project! It’s going strong, with enough topics on my hit list that I’m sure I’ll be able to fill a second year — and probably a third — and at the rate I keep coming up with new things to discuss, probably a fourth. Now is a splendid time to become a patron (because it’s always a splendid time to become a patron!). If you are one already, thank you so much for your support.
Historical romance novels are full of families concerned about dowries, but you hear much less about bridewealth and dower (not the same thing as dowry) in the West. Any way you slice it, though, getting married has often required a lot of financial planning. Read the latest New Worlds Patreon post at Book View Cafe, and comment over there!
Onward through the topic of marriage! Now it’s time for the New Worlds Patreon to talk about monogamy vs. polygyny vs. polyandry vs. things like line marriage, and the social effects these different structures have. Comment over there!
Marriage is one of those enormous topics I’m not getting through in a single post. I could probably fill all of this February and next February just discussing it and its ancillary subjects. But we’re starting off with the question of why people get married and who’s allowed to do it, as our first installment of the New Worlds Patreon this month. Comment over there!
I have two posts up at BVC today. The first is an expansion of my post in response to the passing of Ursula Le Guin; with the benefit of a little more distance, I have additional things to say about the effect she’s had on my life and career.
The other, of course, is my New Worlds post for this week. Completing our tour through certain features of the natural world, I discuss deserts: not always hot, not always filled with sand, but very interesting for stories.
Our jaunt through the physical landscape of your invented world continues with a discussion of mountains and how people relate to them: as resources, mythical loci, places of danger, boundaries, and more. Comment over there!
This week on New Worlds: plate tectonics! And also mountains, volcanoes, earthquakes, and other things that go along with the fact that our world is a big ball of rock plates floating on a sea of molten lava. Comment over there!
Kicking off the new year, I’m going back to the physical world with the topic of rivers and how societies use them.
I’ll also note that Patreon backers have a chance this month to vote on how these posts will be organized into ebooks. So if you would like to register an opinion on that, sign up as a patron and let me know what you think — with some extra perks in the process!
The most recent New Worlds Patreon post is a bonus one, focusing more on the concepts in worldbuilding rather than the content — in this case, liminality, as we approach the liminal moment of turning from one year to the next.
And since I think I forgot to link to last week’s post, go back and read about residence patterns if you missed it before!
The dust is settling at Patreon, with the planned changes to their fees taken off the table (hallelujah!). And so I continue with the New Worlds series, with the latest post covering fictive kinship — the ways someone can be family without being related by blood. Comment over there!
The most recent Patreon post is “Third Cousin Twice Removed”, about kinship terminology and which categories we differentiate or don’t.
For those who haven’t heard, Patreon is planning to institute some changes in how they handle the processing fees for pledges. Unfortunately, their plan for doing this involves charging the fees to patrons — which is especially bad for people who have made a lot of small pledges, since (for example) each $1 pledge will actually cost $1.38. Patreon creators are pretty united in saying this is a bad idea, since it’s already causing people to reduce their pledges or cancel them entirely; if you want to speak out against it, there’s a petition you can sign, or you can send a comment to Patreon directly via Zendesk (note that you’ll need to register at the end of the process for your message to go through). I encourage you to do this; the messages I’ve gotten from Patreon indicate that public pressure may already be having an effect, so let’s keep it up.
Over on the New Worlds Patreon, my theme for December is going to be kinship — the anthropological term for “family,” and a favorite subject in the field. We start with lineage, including a discussion of how people often misunderstand what matrilineality means. Comment over there!
The last November post for the New Worlds Patreon covers dining customs! How do you eat? When? Where? And with whom? All interesting questions to consider . . .
Have you ever given much thought to your kitchen, and how you would keep yourself fed without one?
Whether the answer is yes or no, come along to the latest New Worlds Patreon post and read all about kitchens!
This week on the New Worlds Patreon, I delve into things like the Columbian Exchange and how thyme used to be exotic to American cooks with a discussion of local and imported food. Comment over there!
Since we’re just a few days away from Halloween, it seemed like the ideal time for the New Worlds Patreon to discuss the afterlife: ghosts, reincarnation, Heaven and Hell, all that good stuff. Comment over there! And consider supporting the Patreon — you get photos, access to bonus essays, and more!
October’s theme continues with a discussion of mourning customs. Remember, if you become a Patreon backer, you get a photo every week — and at higher levels, the opportunity to request topics or read behind-the-scenes essays!
Another week, another New Worlds post — this one a wee bit different from the usual, in that it’s all about a rather taboo topic. But in all honesty, there is probably quite a bit you didn’t know about cannibalism, so why not click through?
Also, don’t forget that Ars Historica is now available for pre-order! It comes out November 7th.
For the New Worlds Patreon, I’ve decided to pursue a somewhat morbid theme for October, with a series of posts that talk about how various societies deal with death, grieving, and so forth. The first of those is on funerary customs — comment over there!
