Time Line is open

[White Fox]

Folks the time line of fur is now open. You will notice that it now includes only the very early history of fur. We are hoping that you will help us fill in most of the rest.

 

Feel free to post info there yourself. All you need is to be a member here. Or, you can send us the info you have and one of our staff will be happy to assist.

 

We are really looking forward to this area, but folks we really need your help since as of now it is only a tiny shadow of what it could be.

 

Also, you will note from the link that we have a new time line of internet fur sites, etc., coming as well. If you have information for that please let us know. We would like to know the different fur sites that have made an impact on the Net. What were their names, and when did they begin. Their sequence if possible, etc.

 

We really hope that you will enjoy this new area. We also hope that you will help us with it's development, and continue to give us names for our Hall of Fame as well.

 

White Fox

Administrator

[AKcoyote]

For those who may find White Fox's post a bit cryptic, he is referring to the Fur Time-Line project in the Library. The direct URL to the time-line page is: http://thefurden.com/fdwiki/?n=Main.TimeLineTrial

[ReFur]

Great job!!

[Guest]

so how do you add to it?

I can't see anywhere you can click on and type.

excuse me being a bit thick.

[White Fox]

Good Question Touch. Look for a tab (or link) called "Edit". Top right I believe.

 

That will take you to a page where you will see the typing for what already exists. Then, you can just copy the method that we used to create it. Copying that is very easy and very simple. There are some directions up above the time line to tell you what the different symbols mean, but if you just copy what is already used you don't really need to know that.

When you finish just click "Preview" and if it looks correct press save. If for some reason you want to start again from scratch, rather than pressing "save" just back out using your browser's back tab to the original page. Just press "Edit" again and begin again.

 

Remember...

 

If you make a mistake and delete something, we can bring back what you deleted almost instantly. (Takes about 30 seconds.)

 

If you need help we can do that too. Just give a pm to me, Wallee, Tryxie, Worker, or FurLoverinFL and we can make sure it gets there. We are hoping more folks will begin to post there as it is so very easy to do but we also realize that some people will not want to do that.

White

[Guest]

okay I added a few things in.

 

This could be huge. It is easy for everyone to add to it. Dates of collections, dates of movies iconic for fur (dynasty, the Bitch etc) in the Modern Age, aswell as new archeological discoveries, finds of primary sources (old master paintings , early photographs etc with significant historical characters in furs ) can be entered, aswell as dates about actual fur trade ancient or more recent. Significant factors should be changes in fashion and the ways in which furs were worn.

 

If you have or find something significant with a date just add!

[White Fox]

Indeed, thanks TOS. I or one of the mods will "Dress it up a bit" now you have added it.

 

As you mentioned it is almost unbelievably easy to post in wiki. Some people here have mentioned that they do not want to learn a whole new language but what they do not understand is that they just copy a little bit of stuff and type. We will follow up and make any tiny changes left to be made. If the page already exists, it is virtually as easy to learn how post there as it was to learn how to post on this site the first time you came in. In fact, if you consider what you went through to register here, it would be much easier to post there the first time than it was here on the forums. There is a bit more involved to make a new page, but again, you just copy what others have done. There is almost nothing to learn.

 

By the way, I forgot to mention that Staff need to approve links in wiki. This is a safety mechanism to keep intruders at a distance. You just do everything as normal. You will see a message "Approve Links" printed. Next time a staff member goes by they will approve the links and all is visible.

 

I agree that the time line is going to be a really valuable contribution to this site!

 

White

Edited February 25, 2007 by Guest

[Guest]

At the moment we are particularly missing the Egyptian greek Roman periods if anyone has an interest in these to research, and also 1956 to the present day.

 

Lots of interesting primary sources can be linked. A primary source is evidence from the period. I.E. a painting freeze writing etc.

 

Some I have for example linked are:

 

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/news/content.asp?aid=78930

 

which in the 5th millenium BC is an important find: note the naked dead, and the victors with hide shields and clothing, and leading away furbearing animals.

 

Then more recently I made an entry about 1940s movies and made a link to Carole Landis who was a style icon of the time. So its good to have maybe links with period images like this:

http://www.anthropoetics.ucla.edu/cl/cl_pp1240.jpg

 

So if anyone knows for example of any refernce to fur in the Iliad and the Odyssey, or Roman tax returns/writings, the Doomsday Book; or old Sears catalogues, or mentions of the fur trade in the Americas that they can add, or first contact sources (Cook, Columbus etc) etc or more recent fashion developments/iconic use of fur etc please add with any reference links.

 

We are looking for any ways in which fur was used differently, unexpectedly, significantly...for fashion prestige, power, sex appeal etc...with references.

 

It is with an entirely modern eye that most historians sadly work. In our age, the resources we value....gold, oil etc were NOT those valued in previous times perhaps. This time line hopefully will set out to remedy this and give us some idea of the true nature of human beings across many cultures and periods and how they valued animals, hunting and furs.

[Guest]

This is fun to research. I started wondering what the hell the Vikings would be doing needing an Arab ambassador , as depicted in the film "the Thirteenth Warrior". My suspicions were right.

 

Well it seems that the Arabs had quite a taste for the plush northern furs, and that both cultures were far ahead of other cultures of the time regarding trade, especially in the Viking and Rus case, in furs. I posted an interesting link in the timeline. Both these cultures need re evaluating in this light. The Vikings are not often portrayed as enlightened, or indeed the Arabs as writing so prolifically and learnedly.

 

Also how many people know that the Normans introduced the European rabbit to Britain for hunting as a source of meat and fur?

[Guest]

Lynxette Whitefox and I among others have put a lot of effort ino the timeline and it has lots of interesting links, and hopefully will enable us to see the history of man and fur in a completely different light to how it has traditionally been viewed.

Some feedback....even if negative so we can improve or correct it....would be nice. There are also huge gaps ...including 1956 to the present day....that can be added to.

The "sexualisation" of fur as a toy of seduction in the 1970s as portrayed in movies like midnight Cowboy, Emmanuelle and The Bitch clearly should be a relished job for someone, as will 80's fashions and the "power" fur. Links need to be approved, but please feel free to have a go.

 

Also the Egyptian Roman and greek periods need some attention, and if anyone knows of primary sources (eg from Homer, or Roman records, etc) that would be excellent.

[Guest]

Input and feedback needed please!

If you haven't been to the timeline I suggest you look. Incredible and fascinating insights into the history of fur.

BUT there are lots of gaps so if you can contribute please do!

[ReFur]

You are doing a great job, TOS!! Keep up the good work.

 

Unfortunanely, as you have probably learned, you need to know the value of what you do. You will not get much recognition for it. We mods have learned this long ago.

 

Thanks again!

 

Linda

[Guest]

Thanks Linda; but actually its not thanks we need but input. Many nations are represented here and they will know their own history better than that of others....so their input could be valuable.

Areas of specialist knowledge too may be useful; so for example someone with knowledge of mouton (of which I have put in just a line) or maybe with an interest in Henry VIII or the Eyptians or Lewis and Clarke or Dior's new look or power furs in the eighties ,etc could add a great deal re the history/use of fur.

 

Also people need to realise the importance of this as it has never been attempted before. Fur , being an eventually bio degradable resource, does not survive in many cases in archeaological finds. Its importance to man has thus been greatly underated by conventional History.

 

Only WE can put this right. Nearly ALL History, like Science, is tainted by the ideology of the day. Cures for disease for example will always be sadly lacking when the view of the day is Prevention. Likewise, in an age where we valued "kings and queeens" then a lot of emphasis was on that, and we began to value social and economic history and the life of the ordinary person in the current climate. We misjudged many people from history because we analysed them with modern glasses....so Vikings were always represented as savages...something that is being re evaluated but slowly, and still not with the fur paradigm by conventional history.

 

Incidentally; and something not dealt with by the Time Line as that deals exclusively with man.....but significant re the fact that fur doesnt survive long....it now is increasingly looking like some dinosaurs were covered with fur and feathers.

[Guest]

There is something I'd like to add to what ToS is saying.

 

We would like the Time Line not only to be of interest to us but also an Academic research tool. To add authority to your input could you also include your reference sources, either the url to the original text, or author and book reference. This is just in case some interested party wants to read further. Something like this would have been invaluable to me when I did my term paper at uni but was unavailable.

 

My thanks to everyone who has contributed.

[White Fox]

I want to express my thanks to some people for getting this time line off the ground. MrC, Lynxette, Tryxie, and TouchofSable all worked very hard to get this project off the ground and I want to thank them for this. Indeed as Tryxie says, this can certainly be a research tool for students and others as this is going to be a pretty unusual tool not only for us and not only on the internet but indeed anywhere.

 

However, we do lack huge amounts of information, so please give us anything that you have.

 

White Fox