elanya

Everyone know pirates are cool, right?

But did you know *how* cool? For example, it has been hypothesized that the realong the skull and crossbones was adopted for the standard pirate flag was because of its early associations with the Templars and the Masons. http://www.templarhistory.com/sidon.html
(I don't know how to imbed links, but if anyone wantt to tell me.... ;)

Also, Masonic symbols were found in association with a pirate graveyard on Saint Marie Island, off of Madagascar. see http://www.discovery.com/exp/madagascar/captainkidd/dispatch17.html for just the relevant bit, or http://www.discovery.com/exp/madagascar/captainkidd/dispatch.html for a report of the whole expedition to try and find Captain Kidd's sunken ship, the Adventure Galley

Right. I just e-mailed Dr. John de Bry, the (an?)archaeologist involved in that expedition, about those pirate graves. I hope he can tell me some good stuff!

Also, here is a mini rant. My life is too expensive! There are two books that I really want... The History of Pirates by Angus Konstam, and Honor Among Thieves by Jan Rogozi'nski. The former has an artical on the symboloism of the Jolly Roger, which is obviously related to my dissertation topic, and the latter is about the 'pirate utopia' that existed on Saint Marie Island. I don't believe all the hype. I know there were colonies, but anyone who is billing it as 'the only truly egalitarian democracy to have ever existed', or whatever the claim was, is a little deluded. For one thing. Pirates kept slaves. And let us not even start on their treatment of their fellow man. But I still want to read that damed book, *sigh*... Oh here is the actual quote. "The Saint Mary's pirates formed the most democratic and egalitarian society in human history."

You can find the write ups for both books here: http://ferncanyonpress.com/pirates/scholars.shtml

I wouldn't really mind having a copy of Bandits at Sea, either....