An intriguing book about weird and wonderful things

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are you looking for an offbeat topic for a speech, perhaps to use in a Toastmasters club meeting? At my friendly local public library I found and perused an intriguing 2023 book by Milo Rossi titled The Encyclopedia of the Weird and Wonderful and subtitled Curious and Incredible Facts That Will Blow Your Mind. You can find a preview at Google Books. This book has ten chapters with the following titles:

 

The Early Years

Eat, Drink, and Be Merry

Our Best Friends

Play and Leisure

Rites and Rituals

Love and Sexuality

Fashion and Beauty

Education and Work

Sickness and Health

Memento Mori

 

Under Education and Work, on pages 181 and 182 there is a section titled Aztec Education:

 

“The Aztec people, one of the most well-known pre-Columbian groups, had an education system that vastly surpassed other parts of the world in accessibility and scope. First and foremost, education was mandatory. Not only was this unusual for most parts of the world at the time, but the formal Aztec educational system accommodated both men and women, though the systems and lessons taught to both were different in many ways.

 

For boys around the age of fifteen, there was the Telpochcalli. Translated into English as ’house of youth,’ these education centers focused on training young men in standard military tactics and skills, much like the ancient Greek Ephebate (see page 177). As a civilization with a strong military, this schooling system was a vital part of maintaining the Aztec way of life. The Telpochcalli also taught other topics to these young men, such as law, religion, and history.

 

While women were not allowed in the Aztec military or government, they were obviously still an invaluable part of maintaining a balance in society. Around the age of thirteen, Aztec women began their own educational program, separate from the men. This program focused on the complexities of running a home and raising a family, including cooking, weaving, and sewing, as well as singing and dancing for rituals and ceremonies. Great care was taken to ensure that students were able to fully hone the complexities of the myriad tasks required to run a home and a family unit. This education system even prepared women for work outside the home, such as training to be what we today refer to as a midwife.”

 

Milo also has posted some interesting YouTube videos about Pseudoarcheology under Miniminuteman. One 38-minute video is titled Pseudoarcheology and the Pseudoscience Pipeline. Another 32-minute video is titled Fighting Pseudoscience with Science Communication. And there is a series of four on the Ancient Apocalypse Netflix series by Graham Hancock – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 of I Watched Ancient Apocalypse So You Don’t Have To.

 

The Aztec art image was colored in from this one at Openclipart.