Hi Ted,

Quote Originally Posted by Jedburgh View Post
Marc, now that's something I'd be interested in giving a look-over. Although I enjoy reading the truly ancient, what I've found most useful in that regard is the memoirs, diaries and travel reports of the old Brit "Political Officers" (mostly covering the Middle East & Central Asia) in the late 1800s-early 1900s.
As I said, it's a backburner project at the moment. Part of the reason is that my Latin, Greek (for the Byzantine stuff) and Arabic just isn't up to the task of translating most of what I need . The memoires, diaries, travelogues, etc. are really interesting. I've always been partial to both the popular ones and the organized ones like the Jesuit Relations.

For me, one of the more interesting things about them is the insights on how people built their taxonomies of the world in terms of perception (what do I see that makes a difference), understanding (verstehen) and explanation (erklaren). Sort of taking Bateson's definition of information ("a difference that makes a difference") and inverting it to analyze the cultural mindset of the producers of the document. If I can get a similar thing from the "other side(s)", that's when it gets really interesting, although so far I have only found one (the meeting between the leaders of the First Crusade and the Byzantine Emperor recorded by Fulcher of Chartres and Anna Comnenus).

At any rate, I'll stop side-tracking the discussion .