TheMaverickSergeant

Img credit : Medievalists Let’s go on a bloody and painful journey. Medicine in medieval Europe was wildly different to that of current standards and knowledge. Some of the practices were… mind-boggling to say the least. The medical knowledge of the times had common ties with Arab medicine throughout medieval Europe, all of which looks back to Greek scholars and doctors.  During the middle ages, European and Arab doctors believed in the four humours , which were primary bodily fluids. Superstition also played some part during these times, which led to people praying to saints in order to cure some illnesses, but a great many remedies of that time involved balancing out the humours. This knowledge derived from Greek medicine and has consistently undergone development, expansion and revision through generations of scholars and practitioners alike until modern times. This knowledge was transmitted to the Western world by the Arabs .   Suffering from depression or seizures? Best cut a hol

Image credit:  Gorilla Studio The international use of English as a language gives rise to contradictory feelings and emotions, a ‘marmite’ language if you will. English is intricately bound with political, economic, cultural, and social issues and therefore is not a neutral phenomenon. Attitudes towards a language can be determined by a number of things. International writers, film makers, and broadcasters have a love/hate relationship with their use of English and, as such, perceptions towards it vary wildly. This article will explore some of the motivations regarding love and hate towards the English language and its use. Writers in South Africa have a choice of  eleven official languages , English being one of them. The predominant languages used in their literacy are English and Afrikaans. Although measures were made in post-colonial South Africa, which intensified in the 1990s with the release of the anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela and which continues to be “at the heart o

Shostakovich: Secret Memoir This article explores how the composer Dmitri Shostakovich offers both tradition and dissent within his music, especially in that of his string quartets. String quartet, or chamber music, as a genre can be romantic, modern, or classic in style. Shostakovich (1906 – 1975) was a Russian composer who had the ability to communicate personal messages and feelings in a seemingly covert fashion through his music. At a time of great turbulence and censorship in his homeland, he found ways to covertly speak from the heart without, for the most part, being pushed around and controlled by his government. His musical works include fifteen string quartets among many other pieces. Chamber music was initially produced to be heard in private locations to small audiences, making it a much more intimate account as opposed to a symphony being played in a hall in front of large numbers of spectators (Richards, 2008, p196). Without the intense scrutiny of a large audience, stri