EUROPE, BEFORE 1258 THE EXHIBITION Moses, Oedipus, Gilgamesh, Romulus and Remus, Siegfried… All these children were abandoned according to an ancient principle that God will provide for their destinies. What has been called the exhibition of the child is in a way a eugenic ordeal in use since Antiquity. …

ITALY, 80 — HUNTING LEGION Given the consumption that circus games made of animals of all kinds, some soldiers of the Roman legion were specially assigned to capture wild animals wherever they went. It was necessary to provide, especially in lions, wild animals favorites of the Roman public. …

THE WHOLE WORLD, 2016 — MARIAN VIRGINITY Considered symbolic by Protestants but very real by Catholics, the virginity of Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ is a model of purity for the Roman Catholic Church, which even established the principle of Immaculate Conception as a dogma in 1854. Originally imposed probably to preserve the fertility of women and…

MEXICO, 1486 — WIZARDS OF CONQUISTADORS The Spanish conquistadors did not have a special reputation for being sensitive or impressionable. They even forged a solid reputation as thugs torturing, massacring and blithely looting this America which they enslaved with fire and iron. …

FRANCE AND JAPAN… 1347 AND 1923 — JAPAN + KOREA Relations between Koreans and Japanese are complex and steeped in a long history. First a military ally, Korea became a Japanese protectorate in 1905 and suffered a very harsh occupation. A Korean workforce emigrated to Japan, sometimes forced by a very demanding Japanese industry. In 1923, it is estimated that there…

Exploits, glory, sweat, rivalry, cheating, doping, scandals… The cocktail that made the success of the Olympian events has lasted until our modern Olympic Games. With one big nuance: the ancient competition took place in honor of the gods. — In 1896, Baron de Coubertin restored the tradition of the Olympic Games, during competitions symbolically disputed in Athens. Pedagogue supporter of the practice of sport in the French school system, he first disseminated his projects via the Athletic Review, before creating, in 1894, the IOC (International Olympic Committee). The ideology…

In ancient Egypt, the harem was not only the place dedicated to the sensual pleasures of the ruler. This institution bringing together wives, mistresses and concubines also played a decisive role in the foreign policy of the pharaonic state. — In ancient Egypt, everything that touched the person of the pharaoh was meticulously codified and ritualized. Starting with his closest family: his wives with their different statuses — main wives, secondary wives, favorite, concubines — and his children came under the institution of the royal harem; his sisters and his…

La Pucelle knew how to sign, but historians still wonder if she also knew how to read and write. But we are also talking about a time when ignorance was a singular force. — Whether or not Jeanne knew how to read and write is still an open question today. Nineteenth-century historians generally leaned towards the ignorance of the Maid. For Catholics, God inspired Joan and dictated her answers. All knowledge could be explained by voices. For the Republicans, Jeanne was an illiterate daughter…

We are in 1314, and never has the King of France been so powerful. — At forty-five years old, the grandson of Saint Louis, Philippe le Bel, is truly “emperor in his kingdom”, sole master of a monarchy that he centralizes and whose preeminence he reaffirms over the vassals. Died in 1305, his tender wife Jeanne de Navarre assured the dynasty by giving him three…