1 00:00:01,760 --> 00:00:02,920 Speaker 1: Whoso Media. 2 00:00:05,080 --> 00:00:08,360 Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to cool people who talk about pirates sometimes. 3 00:00:08,520 --> 00:00:10,520 Speaker 2: I'm your host, Margaret Kiljoy, and I'm talking to a 4 00:00:10,560 --> 00:00:14,280 Speaker 2: cool person about pirates sometimes whose name is Molly. 5 00:00:14,800 --> 00:00:16,840 Speaker 3: Hi, Molly, Hey, Margaret. 6 00:00:17,200 --> 00:00:20,639 Speaker 2: I suppose you have a last name, Molly Crabapple, Molly Krabapple. 7 00:00:21,680 --> 00:00:23,560 Speaker 2: If you've listened to part one, you know who Molly 8 00:00:23,600 --> 00:00:26,319 Speaker 2: Crabapple is. If you're listening only to part two, you 9 00:00:26,400 --> 00:00:29,800 Speaker 2: might still know who Molly Crabapple is because her stuff's 10 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:32,760 Speaker 2: a lot of places, and if you don't, you should 11 00:00:32,760 --> 00:00:35,559 Speaker 2: look it up. But Molly Crabapple is a like a 12 00:00:35,600 --> 00:00:41,159 Speaker 2: conflict journalist with art and it's cool. Thank you, our 13 00:00:41,159 --> 00:00:45,800 Speaker 2: producer of Sophie Hi, Sophie Hi, our editor who I 14 00:00:45,840 --> 00:00:48,360 Speaker 2: forgot to shout out last time. I'm so sorry. Rory 15 00:00:48,560 --> 00:00:51,680 Speaker 2: is Rory Hi, Rory Hi, Riy you have to say 16 00:00:51,720 --> 00:00:54,480 Speaker 2: hi to Rory too. All those we can't continue, Hey, Rory, 17 00:00:54,600 --> 00:00:57,600 Speaker 2: my brain doesn't work right? And are they? Musical was 18 00:00:57,600 --> 00:01:01,200 Speaker 2: written for us by unwoman. So this is part two 19 00:01:01,360 --> 00:01:06,520 Speaker 2: about the real Libertalia, rather the cool shit that indigenous 20 00:01:06,560 --> 00:01:09,280 Speaker 2: rebels were doing in Madagascar and how it relates to 21 00:01:09,400 --> 00:01:12,759 Speaker 2: the sometimes cool and complicated shit and sometimes terrible shit 22 00:01:13,240 --> 00:01:15,759 Speaker 2: that pirates from the rest of the world were doing 23 00:01:15,840 --> 00:01:19,479 Speaker 2: in Madagascar, and how cultures come together and do weird 24 00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:22,320 Speaker 2: and interesting things and sometimes they're good and sometimes they're not. 25 00:01:22,520 --> 00:01:25,600 Speaker 2: And there's no clear moral line to easily draw in 26 00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:30,839 Speaker 2: this week's episodes, but it sure ain't boring. So there's 27 00:01:30,840 --> 00:01:34,800 Speaker 2: this pirate haven in Madagascar, except instead of a cool 28 00:01:34,880 --> 00:01:39,400 Speaker 2: anarchist utopia, it's a slave trade port, and in order 29 00:01:39,440 --> 00:01:41,480 Speaker 2: to fence their stolen goods. I guess it's one of 30 00:01:41,520 --> 00:01:42,840 Speaker 2: those things where it's like when you're just like kind 31 00:01:42,840 --> 00:01:44,520 Speaker 2: of in the crime world, you're just like fucking around 32 00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:46,039 Speaker 2: with people who are bad also, you. 33 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:48,960 Speaker 3: Know, yeah, yeah, pretty much like the. 34 00:01:48,960 --> 00:01:52,120 Speaker 2: Jain Collective was totally working with the mafia. And it's 35 00:01:52,160 --> 00:01:58,160 Speaker 2: like very narrowly hidden subtext. You know, it's just cool 36 00:01:58,200 --> 00:02:00,480 Speaker 2: people do crime and bad people do crime. Crime is 37 00:02:00,520 --> 00:02:05,440 Speaker 2: not a useful metric by which to judge morality. This 38 00:02:05,480 --> 00:02:09,880 Speaker 2: slave trade port, sorry, this pirate haven in Madagascar wasn't 39 00:02:09,880 --> 00:02:13,399 Speaker 2: really operating under the European model of settlement in slavery, 40 00:02:13,639 --> 00:02:16,440 Speaker 2: but more like the Arab and indigenous model, which doesn't 41 00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:19,280 Speaker 2: make it Again. Whatever I've said, my piece about that 42 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:23,440 Speaker 2: they were actually coordinating with locals to purchase war captives 43 00:02:23,480 --> 00:02:28,280 Speaker 2: and sell those into slavery. And everyone is intermarrying, and 44 00:02:29,360 --> 00:02:32,120 Speaker 2: it wasn't wildly distinct from local culture in a lot 45 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:33,880 Speaker 2: of ways at the time. This doesn't make it good, 46 00:02:34,680 --> 00:02:38,679 Speaker 2: but it certainly better than the legal settlements. Rather than 47 00:02:38,760 --> 00:02:42,880 Speaker 2: like leading slave raids, various conflicts between various groups would 48 00:02:42,919 --> 00:02:45,799 Speaker 2: lead to small scale warfare which produce captives who could 49 00:02:45,840 --> 00:02:48,960 Speaker 2: be sold into slavery. And so at this point it's 50 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:52,799 Speaker 2: worth talking about the Malagasy culture of northeast Madagascar itself. 51 00:02:54,560 --> 00:02:59,720 Speaker 2: Madagascar overall was not actually particularly egalitarian, but definitely not 52 00:02:59,800 --> 00:03:03,640 Speaker 2: a modern state structure or anything like that. And honestly, 53 00:03:03,680 --> 00:03:06,320 Speaker 2: it's funny because this, like not a galitarian society, is 54 00:03:06,560 --> 00:03:09,160 Speaker 2: so much more a galitarian than the societies that probably 55 00:03:09,200 --> 00:03:13,000 Speaker 2: anyone who's listening to this lives in. Currently, there was 56 00:03:13,040 --> 00:03:15,800 Speaker 2: an established class of priests, and there was a growing 57 00:03:15,840 --> 00:03:18,440 Speaker 2: class of warriors who are above everyone else too. Those 58 00:03:18,480 --> 00:03:20,960 Speaker 2: are the things that like keep it from being moregalitarian. 59 00:03:21,320 --> 00:03:24,080 Speaker 3: And what's the what religion are the priests doing? 60 00:03:24,800 --> 00:03:26,760 Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's really interesting. It depends on what part 61 00:03:26,800 --> 00:03:30,680 Speaker 2: of the island you're on. They're doing different indigenous practices. 62 00:03:31,320 --> 00:03:34,120 Speaker 2: But even though there's no qur'an in sight, most of 63 00:03:34,160 --> 00:03:36,640 Speaker 2: the rest of the island is doing what they would 64 00:03:36,720 --> 00:03:40,560 Speaker 2: call Islam, but it does not map to other people's 65 00:03:40,640 --> 00:03:45,280 Speaker 2: understanding of Islam particularly And then in the northeast part, 66 00:03:45,560 --> 00:03:48,760 Speaker 2: it's Jewish in that same way where it's also not. 67 00:03:49,440 --> 00:03:51,520 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, exactly, it's like a folk memory of what 68 00:03:51,640 --> 00:03:54,920 Speaker 3: being Jewish might have been this. Yeah, it's like, yeah, 69 00:03:54,920 --> 00:03:56,440 Speaker 3: like this faint trace of something. 70 00:03:57,160 --> 00:04:00,280 Speaker 2: Yeah. And David Graeber, who was Jewish, was kind of 71 00:04:00,280 --> 00:04:01,800 Speaker 2: also been like and I think that they, you know, 72 00:04:01,880 --> 00:04:04,440 Speaker 2: I think some Jewish cultural traits carried on. They like 73 00:04:04,880 --> 00:04:07,960 Speaker 2: spent a lot of time actively discussing philosophy with each 74 00:04:07,960 --> 00:04:08,480 Speaker 2: other and not. 75 00:04:08,400 --> 00:04:12,320 Speaker 3: Agreeing on things and nitpicking, nitpicking the culture of graduate students, 76 00:04:12,320 --> 00:04:13,000 Speaker 3: that's our culture. 77 00:04:13,680 --> 00:04:18,159 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and again I won't say that, but grab 78 00:04:18,320 --> 00:04:19,200 Speaker 2: did and you can. 79 00:04:20,200 --> 00:04:23,240 Speaker 3: And as a Jewish woman, I will say that it's 80 00:04:23,279 --> 00:04:26,640 Speaker 3: no surprise that the culture of rabbis produced Marxists. 81 00:04:27,080 --> 00:04:34,120 Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, it makes sense. So Northeast Madagascar was a 82 00:04:34,200 --> 00:04:37,839 Speaker 2: clan structure. That whole region had about fifty clans of 83 00:04:37,880 --> 00:04:40,200 Speaker 2: several hundreds more than one thousand people in each clan, 84 00:04:40,680 --> 00:04:42,760 Speaker 2: and these were split up into these large families, and 85 00:04:42,760 --> 00:04:45,400 Speaker 2: you have villages and stuff. Most people are growing rice. 86 00:04:46,320 --> 00:04:50,039 Speaker 2: To quote Graber about the economics in any given village, 87 00:04:50,120 --> 00:04:52,599 Speaker 2: there was a great hall where everyone ate their midday 88 00:04:52,640 --> 00:04:56,440 Speaker 2: meal together, and collective granaries where each family kept their 89 00:04:56,480 --> 00:04:59,760 Speaker 2: own stock, but also a collective store any family coul 90 00:05:00,520 --> 00:05:03,280 Speaker 2: in case of shortfall. This was by no means in 91 00:05:03,320 --> 00:05:06,719 Speaker 2: a galitarian society. Well, everyone had access to the means 92 00:05:06,800 --> 00:05:09,640 Speaker 2: to sustain life, not everyone had equal access to the 93 00:05:09,680 --> 00:05:12,320 Speaker 2: means to create it. Just as the heads of villages 94 00:05:12,360 --> 00:05:16,000 Speaker 2: had multiple wives, so each clan had a dominant lineage 95 00:05:16,240 --> 00:05:18,919 Speaker 2: that managed to keep a large proportion of its daughters 96 00:05:18,920 --> 00:05:23,360 Speaker 2: to itself. It's funny that this is the like nonagalitarians. 97 00:05:23,400 --> 00:05:26,719 Speaker 2: It's so much more a galitarian than how we live now. 98 00:05:27,240 --> 00:05:30,159 Speaker 3: I mean, it seems like the losers of the nonagalitarian 99 00:05:30,200 --> 00:05:32,400 Speaker 3: society are all of the guys that get no wives 100 00:05:32,400 --> 00:05:34,400 Speaker 3: because one guy is getting a lot of them. 101 00:05:34,839 --> 00:05:37,240 Speaker 2: Yeah kind of. And then like and actually a new 102 00:05:37,279 --> 00:05:40,640 Speaker 2: clan split off all the time, started by women who 103 00:05:40,640 --> 00:05:43,800 Speaker 2: were unhappy with what was going on. And overall it's 104 00:05:43,839 --> 00:05:47,080 Speaker 2: a patriarchal and patrilineal culture, but it's like not completely 105 00:05:47,080 --> 00:05:50,279 Speaker 2: and that's also not universal across Madagascar, where there's more 106 00:05:50,279 --> 00:05:52,599 Speaker 2: of like they would, oh there's a word for it, 107 00:05:52,839 --> 00:05:55,719 Speaker 2: I don't remember, but instead of matrilineal or patrilineal, there's 108 00:05:55,720 --> 00:05:59,280 Speaker 2: a like botham version, you know, where people keep track 109 00:05:59,320 --> 00:06:02,560 Speaker 2: of both they're both their parents families. And that's like 110 00:06:02,600 --> 00:06:07,320 Speaker 2: what was happening in Madagascar overall. But northeast Madagascar was 111 00:06:07,400 --> 00:06:10,800 Speaker 2: like ostensibly led by men, but in really complicated ways 112 00:06:10,800 --> 00:06:12,520 Speaker 2: that we're going to talk about, where women actually exerted 113 00:06:12,560 --> 00:06:16,320 Speaker 2: a lot of power. These large families in the clans 114 00:06:16,360 --> 00:06:20,160 Speaker 2: themselves had sort of formal leaders who Europeans immediately called kings, 115 00:06:20,880 --> 00:06:24,000 Speaker 2: but these kings never centralized power and specifically they had 116 00:06:24,040 --> 00:06:28,320 Speaker 2: like basically no executive power. Sometimes these clans would fight. 117 00:06:28,360 --> 00:06:31,279 Speaker 2: I'll talk about decisions or whatever, spoil it already spoiled it. 118 00:06:31,320 --> 00:06:34,040 Speaker 2: They make decisions by consensus and assemblies that anyone who's 119 00:06:34,040 --> 00:06:36,040 Speaker 2: affected by a decision can come participate in. 120 00:06:36,600 --> 00:06:38,960 Speaker 3: And what makes you a king then, besides that you 121 00:06:39,040 --> 00:06:43,159 Speaker 3: have a lot of wives kind of that that's it. 122 00:06:43,240 --> 00:06:43,640 Speaker 3: That's it. 123 00:06:44,279 --> 00:06:45,719 Speaker 2: I think it's like, and you also kind of like 124 00:06:45,760 --> 00:06:47,760 Speaker 2: are doing the like I have so many daughters, and 125 00:06:47,800 --> 00:06:50,039 Speaker 2: I control what's happening to my daughter. Like, honestly, there's 126 00:06:50,080 --> 00:06:52,599 Speaker 2: some like patriarchy involved in it too, right, and you're 127 00:06:52,640 --> 00:06:58,160 Speaker 2: like wealthier more likely. Yeah. I think it's so interesting 128 00:06:58,160 --> 00:06:59,760 Speaker 2: because this happens all over the world where we just 129 00:06:59,800 --> 00:07:01,479 Speaker 2: like show up, like Europeans will show up and be 130 00:07:01,560 --> 00:07:06,159 Speaker 2: like that there's a kingdom, and people are like, what, okay, 131 00:07:06,760 --> 00:07:08,800 Speaker 2: if we say we're king, will you leave us alone? 132 00:07:09,160 --> 00:07:09,320 Speaker 1: You know? 133 00:07:09,400 --> 00:07:11,880 Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, well you decide that we're quote unquote civilized 134 00:07:11,960 --> 00:07:13,040 Speaker 3: enough not to invade us. 135 00:07:13,600 --> 00:07:16,160 Speaker 2: Yeah. And sometimes these clans would go to war with 136 00:07:16,200 --> 00:07:17,880 Speaker 2: each other, and I think, actually, I think that these 137 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:20,240 Speaker 2: kings were like war chiefs a lot of times also, 138 00:07:20,640 --> 00:07:22,720 Speaker 2: which put them on equal footing with pirates in a 139 00:07:22,760 --> 00:07:25,000 Speaker 2: lot of ways. Right, Sometimes the kings would just sort 140 00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:28,200 Speaker 2: of fight duels with each other, and then during any 141 00:07:28,240 --> 00:07:31,840 Speaker 2: given war, captives were often taken. And then these captives 142 00:07:32,120 --> 00:07:36,760 Speaker 2: were generally ransom back to the original families or they 143 00:07:36,760 --> 00:07:39,320 Speaker 2: were married into the families that captured them. This is 144 00:07:39,360 --> 00:07:42,680 Speaker 2: like a way you like go get men to make 145 00:07:42,720 --> 00:07:45,360 Speaker 2: everyone not in bread this ye go, it's not whatever. 146 00:07:45,440 --> 00:07:46,960 Speaker 2: I'm not trying to put a moral judgment one way 147 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:47,240 Speaker 2: or the other. 148 00:07:47,280 --> 00:07:50,280 Speaker 3: It's obvious. So they're kidnapping. They're not doing the usual 149 00:07:50,280 --> 00:07:52,720 Speaker 3: thing where they're like kidnapping women and forcing them to marry. 150 00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:55,640 Speaker 3: They're kidnapping dudes and forcing them to marry in. 151 00:07:56,520 --> 00:07:58,920 Speaker 2: Actually, you know what, now that I'm thinking this through, 152 00:07:59,080 --> 00:08:00,600 Speaker 2: a lot of the people are being old as slaves, 153 00:08:00,640 --> 00:08:02,280 Speaker 2: are also women and children, So I think they're just 154 00:08:02,280 --> 00:08:05,960 Speaker 2: capturing people during these raids. But that's my conjecture based 155 00:08:05,960 --> 00:08:11,440 Speaker 2: on what I read. And this does not create chattel slavery, 156 00:08:12,040 --> 00:08:15,520 Speaker 2: but of course foreigners, including Arab traders and European traders, 157 00:08:15,960 --> 00:08:19,240 Speaker 2: turned it into like funneled people into chattel slavery and 158 00:08:19,320 --> 00:08:21,880 Speaker 2: the sort of modern what we think of the North 159 00:08:21,880 --> 00:08:25,520 Speaker 2: Atlantic slave trade and stuff like that. And this whole 160 00:08:25,560 --> 00:08:30,000 Speaker 2: system of conflict kept any given clan or family from 161 00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:32,920 Speaker 2: taking too much power. They were often rich and they 162 00:08:32,920 --> 00:08:35,480 Speaker 2: were surrounded by pirate treasure and shit, but they didn't 163 00:08:35,480 --> 00:08:38,440 Speaker 2: have a lot of control over other people. The political decisions, 164 00:08:38,440 --> 00:08:42,439 Speaker 2: including criminal trials, basically were made it consensus based assemblies 165 00:08:42,480 --> 00:08:45,640 Speaker 2: called cabarety, and these would involve whoever had an interest 166 00:08:45,679 --> 00:08:48,000 Speaker 2: in whatever decision was being made. Most were on a 167 00:08:48,040 --> 00:08:52,000 Speaker 2: household or clan level. Sometimes they were regional, like probably 168 00:08:52,080 --> 00:08:54,360 Speaker 2: the one that is about to kill all the pirates 169 00:08:54,920 --> 00:08:57,920 Speaker 2: was probably a regional cabaret, but we don't know. Also, 170 00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:01,240 Speaker 2: there was like women only ones for like like if 171 00:09:01,240 --> 00:09:04,319 Speaker 2: the shit involved women, then only other women were involved, 172 00:09:04,760 --> 00:09:09,000 Speaker 2: which is better gender politics than a lot of Now, 173 00:09:10,920 --> 00:09:13,960 Speaker 2: there are two ways of looking at the way women 174 00:09:14,040 --> 00:09:17,280 Speaker 2: were treated in the society. One, the primary way that 175 00:09:17,360 --> 00:09:20,480 Speaker 2: is written down by European anthropologists and by European visitors 176 00:09:21,080 --> 00:09:23,160 Speaker 2: is that women were more or less property. They were 177 00:09:23,160 --> 00:09:26,559 Speaker 2: regularly kidnapped and given away. Teenage daughters of important men 178 00:09:26,679 --> 00:09:30,040 Speaker 2: in particular were given away, especially to foreigners like pirates 179 00:09:30,200 --> 00:09:32,800 Speaker 2: like Yasically you show up and they're like, ah, nice 180 00:09:32,800 --> 00:09:35,600 Speaker 2: to meet you, foreigner. Here is my sixteen year old daughter. 181 00:09:36,240 --> 00:09:39,720 Speaker 2: Fuck yeah, no, it's not the best. Men often had 182 00:09:39,840 --> 00:09:42,760 Speaker 2: multiple wives. These are all true statements, but they don't 183 00:09:42,760 --> 00:09:46,120 Speaker 2: address the reality of what was happening. According to the 184 00:09:46,160 --> 00:09:50,319 Speaker 2: Malagasy view of what was happening, and when pirates married 185 00:09:50,360 --> 00:09:53,560 Speaker 2: Malagasy women, interestingly, it brought men into the sphere of 186 00:09:53,600 --> 00:09:57,000 Speaker 2: these important families, so it was like I'm a little 187 00:09:57,000 --> 00:09:59,440 Speaker 2: bit confused I could read this both ways. There's a 188 00:09:59,440 --> 00:10:01,280 Speaker 2: real implica that a lot of the pirate men just 189 00:10:01,280 --> 00:10:04,000 Speaker 2: basically like, like the son in law now just goes 190 00:10:04,040 --> 00:10:07,600 Speaker 2: and like lives with father in law, you know. But 191 00:10:07,679 --> 00:10:10,360 Speaker 2: I believe also women were going and living in these 192 00:10:10,400 --> 00:10:12,160 Speaker 2: coastal towns. And we'll talk about the coastal towns in 193 00:10:12,200 --> 00:10:16,000 Speaker 2: a minute. The way that Malagasy women wrote about what 194 00:10:16,040 --> 00:10:18,880 Speaker 2: was happening is wildly different than the way that European 195 00:10:18,880 --> 00:10:20,840 Speaker 2: men were talking about what was happening, even though they're 196 00:10:20,840 --> 00:10:21,880 Speaker 2: describing the same thing. 197 00:10:22,480 --> 00:10:24,920 Speaker 3: So how did they describe, for instance, like your dad 198 00:10:24,960 --> 00:10:29,160 Speaker 3: given you to the newly arrived pirate dude, so I. 199 00:10:29,280 --> 00:10:31,000 Speaker 2: We arrived pirate dude. 200 00:10:31,360 --> 00:10:31,960 Speaker 3: I like that. 201 00:10:34,880 --> 00:10:38,800 Speaker 2: So they were describing what they were doing as putting 202 00:10:38,840 --> 00:10:40,880 Speaker 2: on love charms and going down to the ocean to 203 00:10:40,920 --> 00:10:41,559 Speaker 2: attract men. 204 00:10:42,559 --> 00:10:45,040 Speaker 3: So they were just like they're having fun. 205 00:10:45,320 --> 00:10:49,120 Speaker 2: They've done witchcraft to get them to show up. They're like, fuck, yeah, 206 00:10:49,120 --> 00:10:51,480 Speaker 2: I got a guy. I went fishing at the ocean 207 00:10:51,520 --> 00:10:52,040 Speaker 2: for a guy. 208 00:10:52,480 --> 00:10:53,559 Speaker 1: Wow. Wow. 209 00:10:53,640 --> 00:10:54,559 Speaker 3: So that's very different. 210 00:10:55,360 --> 00:10:58,680 Speaker 2: Yeah, and they would marry these men and not be 211 00:10:58,840 --> 00:10:59,679 Speaker 2: subordinate to them. 212 00:11:00,240 --> 00:11:02,640 Speaker 1: So wait, they're like, oh, there's plenty of fish in 213 00:11:02,679 --> 00:11:03,679 Speaker 1: the sea, but there's like. 214 00:11:03,720 --> 00:11:05,280 Speaker 2: Literal men in the sea. 215 00:11:05,679 --> 00:11:07,680 Speaker 1: They're like, oh, I'm gonna put a cute outfit on 216 00:11:07,760 --> 00:11:10,640 Speaker 1: and perfume and go to the sea to find a man, 217 00:11:10,760 --> 00:11:12,840 Speaker 1: just like me going to a bookstore being like. 218 00:11:12,840 --> 00:11:13,920 Speaker 2: Do you read? Are you? 219 00:11:14,200 --> 00:11:14,360 Speaker 1: Are? 220 00:11:14,400 --> 00:11:19,120 Speaker 2: You look at me? I'm so alluring? Yeah, yeah, that's 221 00:11:19,520 --> 00:11:22,880 Speaker 2: that is the implication of what's happening. And they were like, hell, yeah, 222 00:11:22,920 --> 00:11:24,920 Speaker 2: my powerful witchcraft pulled a man out of the sea, 223 00:11:25,080 --> 00:11:26,480 Speaker 2: you know, honey. 224 00:11:26,600 --> 00:11:30,920 Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, you know, good for you. And then they're like, 225 00:11:30,920 --> 00:11:32,760 Speaker 3: and my dad will be a good choice for my 226 00:11:32,760 --> 00:11:33,520 Speaker 3: my sea hookup. 227 00:11:34,440 --> 00:11:36,720 Speaker 2: So I again, I don't know how it relates to 228 00:11:36,760 --> 00:11:39,320 Speaker 2: the I don't know how often they're like, dad, why 229 00:11:39,400 --> 00:11:42,280 Speaker 2: do you give me to this guy? Right? I don't 230 00:11:42,320 --> 00:11:44,720 Speaker 2: know as much about that, but by and large, I 231 00:11:44,760 --> 00:11:46,640 Speaker 2: think that the way that they are viewing marriage is 232 00:11:46,679 --> 00:11:50,080 Speaker 2: as an economic relation and not as a romantic relation. 233 00:11:50,720 --> 00:11:54,120 Speaker 2: And specifically it's an economic relation between equals in a 234 00:11:54,120 --> 00:11:56,640 Speaker 2: way that it wasn't in Europe at this time, right, 235 00:11:57,160 --> 00:11:59,240 Speaker 2: And so that's like part of why Europeans could easily 236 00:11:59,240 --> 00:12:01,240 Speaker 2: be like, oh fuck in her property and being given 237 00:12:01,280 --> 00:12:04,240 Speaker 2: around because it's like, well, women were property in England 238 00:12:04,280 --> 00:12:05,400 Speaker 2: in Europe at the time. 239 00:12:05,240 --> 00:12:07,120 Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, they couldn't even own property. 240 00:12:07,800 --> 00:12:10,400 Speaker 2: Yeah, And I don't know about the property rights of women. 241 00:12:10,440 --> 00:12:13,559 Speaker 2: I do know about how women ran all the finances. 242 00:12:13,640 --> 00:12:18,880 Speaker 2: So actually that has some implications. But any man who 243 00:12:18,920 --> 00:12:25,320 Speaker 2: mistreated his wife would be killed, cursed and killed, probably poisoned. 244 00:12:25,760 --> 00:12:27,440 Speaker 2: But it was like not presented as like I'm going 245 00:12:27,480 --> 00:12:28,880 Speaker 2: to poison you. Instead it was like, oh, I don't 246 00:12:28,920 --> 00:12:31,080 Speaker 2: mess with these women though, And then there's all of 247 00:12:31,080 --> 00:12:33,960 Speaker 2: these stories about like and then this man died randomly 248 00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:36,760 Speaker 2: of illness, you know, after he was shitty to his wife. 249 00:12:37,360 --> 00:12:39,480 Speaker 3: So you're just living. You're living with your wife, and 250 00:12:39,520 --> 00:12:42,640 Speaker 3: you just know that at any moment, if you beat 251 00:12:42,679 --> 00:12:44,160 Speaker 3: her up or get out of line, that she might 252 00:12:44,200 --> 00:12:45,240 Speaker 3: just put poison in your food. 253 00:12:45,679 --> 00:12:46,359 Speaker 2: Yeah. 254 00:12:46,480 --> 00:12:49,520 Speaker 3: Basically that seems like it would make them be respectful. 255 00:12:49,880 --> 00:12:50,080 Speaker 1: Yeah. 256 00:12:50,160 --> 00:12:52,800 Speaker 2: No, And overall that seems to be what happened. And 257 00:12:54,080 --> 00:12:58,360 Speaker 2: men were necessary basically as the bread winners of get 258 00:12:58,360 --> 00:12:59,640 Speaker 2: the fuck out of here. I don't even want to 259 00:12:59,640 --> 00:13:01,959 Speaker 2: see you. Why aren't you on the ocean robbing people 260 00:13:01,960 --> 00:13:04,120 Speaker 2: and giving me stuff? Shit? 261 00:13:04,280 --> 00:13:04,600 Speaker 3: Man? 262 00:13:05,240 --> 00:13:08,920 Speaker 2: And so men couldn't be trusted with finances, and so 263 00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:11,880 Speaker 2: women were in charge of the money. Most of the 264 00:13:11,960 --> 00:13:14,600 Speaker 2: merchants at all of these port cities of pirates, whether 265 00:13:14,640 --> 00:13:18,120 Speaker 2: they were married or not, were women, and so women 266 00:13:18,160 --> 00:13:20,679 Speaker 2: are kind of running the economic sphere. 267 00:13:20,920 --> 00:13:22,760 Speaker 3: Except for the pirate kings. 268 00:13:23,280 --> 00:13:26,439 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like the only specific pirate king. Okay, so 269 00:13:26,480 --> 00:13:29,000 Speaker 2: when I'm talking about these coastal cities, I'm actually talking 270 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:31,800 Speaker 2: about post that pirate king getting run out of town, 271 00:13:31,800 --> 00:13:33,120 Speaker 2: and I'm going to talk about him getting run of 272 00:13:33,120 --> 00:13:34,760 Speaker 2: town after I finished the like a side about the 273 00:13:34,760 --> 00:13:38,040 Speaker 2: Malagassy folks, and I don't know, I suspect there were 274 00:13:38,040 --> 00:13:40,080 Speaker 2: also probably European traders as well, but the people who 275 00:13:40,120 --> 00:13:43,319 Speaker 2: were kind of like interfacing stuff coming in and out 276 00:13:43,320 --> 00:13:48,760 Speaker 2: of the islands were often women. Observers wrote with scandal 277 00:13:49,080 --> 00:13:51,880 Speaker 2: about how all of the Malagasy women who were married 278 00:13:51,880 --> 00:13:56,800 Speaker 2: could fuck whoever they wanted, whenever they wanted. If a 279 00:13:56,840 --> 00:14:00,360 Speaker 2: pirateman had multiple wives, each must be provided with her 280 00:14:00,400 --> 00:14:03,560 Speaker 2: own home, and then like if he's not home, they're 281 00:14:03,559 --> 00:14:06,760 Speaker 2: allowed to do whatever they want. Basically, it reached the 282 00:14:06,800 --> 00:14:09,560 Speaker 2: point where the coastal pirate towns were called cities of 283 00:14:09,600 --> 00:14:13,160 Speaker 2: women because women ran them and it was mostly women 284 00:14:13,240 --> 00:14:16,679 Speaker 2: living in them. Because all the husbands are at sea. 285 00:14:16,800 --> 00:14:19,120 Speaker 2: Isn't that weird how both those stories are true. 286 00:14:19,560 --> 00:14:22,600 Speaker 3: That's amazing, because, yeah, the Europeans, they had no frame 287 00:14:22,760 --> 00:14:26,200 Speaker 3: to interpret a world where like, first of all, where 288 00:14:26,200 --> 00:14:28,560 Speaker 3: a woman who was married could sleep around, right, where 289 00:14:28,600 --> 00:14:31,800 Speaker 3: a woman would control all of the commerce, where a 290 00:14:31,840 --> 00:14:34,280 Speaker 3: woman would poison her husband if he gave her a 291 00:14:34,280 --> 00:14:38,240 Speaker 3: black eye. They had no way to imagine or I mean, 292 00:14:38,240 --> 00:14:39,760 Speaker 3: I'm sure they had a way, but they hadn't. They 293 00:14:39,920 --> 00:14:43,520 Speaker 3: refused to imagine women as equal humans. And so if 294 00:14:43,560 --> 00:14:46,400 Speaker 3: you can't see women as equal humans, you cannot understand 295 00:14:46,400 --> 00:14:47,560 Speaker 3: at all what's going on. 296 00:14:48,240 --> 00:14:51,640 Speaker 2: Right, And then you're still talking about like a fundamentally right, 297 00:14:51,640 --> 00:14:54,080 Speaker 2: you're still talking about a slave society, right, And so 298 00:14:54,160 --> 00:14:56,360 Speaker 2: on some level, the giving away daughters, it's like, well, 299 00:14:56,360 --> 00:15:00,120 Speaker 2: people are capable of becoming property temporarily in the society 300 00:15:00,200 --> 00:15:02,880 Speaker 2: or even permanently in the society. But then like when 301 00:15:02,880 --> 00:15:06,360 Speaker 2: men are captured, they're often married into the family or whatever. Right, 302 00:15:06,520 --> 00:15:09,080 Speaker 2: so it's just different. Like I feel like this is 303 00:15:09,120 --> 00:15:11,760 Speaker 2: one of the best examples of cultural relativism I've ever seen, 304 00:15:12,040 --> 00:15:14,800 Speaker 2: where I can tell the story that does not look good, 305 00:15:15,360 --> 00:15:17,040 Speaker 2: and then I can tell the story that sounds cool 306 00:15:17,040 --> 00:15:20,440 Speaker 2: as shit, and they're both true in that it's kind 307 00:15:20,440 --> 00:15:22,160 Speaker 2: of not good and it's kind of cool as shit, 308 00:15:22,560 --> 00:15:26,960 Speaker 2: you know, at the same time. And yeah, that is 309 00:15:27,000 --> 00:15:29,440 Speaker 2: the Malagasy people on the northeast coast at the time. 310 00:15:29,560 --> 00:15:32,320 Speaker 2: This is the culture that these pirates are showing up 311 00:15:32,320 --> 00:15:35,680 Speaker 2: and intermarrying with and hanging out with. And so you've 312 00:15:35,720 --> 00:15:38,360 Speaker 2: got this first pirate settlement off on the island, and 313 00:15:38,400 --> 00:15:41,000 Speaker 2: they're sending a few slaves here and there. It's basically 314 00:15:41,040 --> 00:15:43,400 Speaker 2: in their best interest to make sure the various clans 315 00:15:43,480 --> 00:15:46,400 Speaker 2: keep fighting each other because that produces captives which they 316 00:15:46,400 --> 00:15:48,800 Speaker 2: can turn around and sell. And so there's an economic 317 00:15:48,880 --> 00:15:51,400 Speaker 2: incentive for them to go around and stir up shit. 318 00:15:51,560 --> 00:15:52,320 Speaker 2: So that's not good. 319 00:15:52,800 --> 00:15:54,840 Speaker 3: And they are stirring up shit. Do they know how 320 00:15:54,840 --> 00:15:55,560 Speaker 3: they stir up shit? 321 00:15:56,120 --> 00:15:58,440 Speaker 2: I don't know how they're stirring up shit. What I 322 00:15:58,480 --> 00:16:01,480 Speaker 2: do know is specifically late they're going to be the 323 00:16:01,560 --> 00:16:05,440 Speaker 2: fucking mediators, my god, and so I know the shift, 324 00:16:05,480 --> 00:16:07,760 Speaker 2: but I don't know what they were doing beforehand. 325 00:16:07,720 --> 00:16:11,320 Speaker 3: Being gospy bitches. They were being like, oh this one, sure, yeah, yeah, 326 00:16:11,320 --> 00:16:14,400 Speaker 3: this one says that your communal cafeteria has shitty food 327 00:16:14,440 --> 00:16:16,720 Speaker 3: and the meat is dry, you just do something about it. 328 00:16:17,200 --> 00:16:22,040 Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, yeah, they just cointel prode that shit, and 329 00:16:23,360 --> 00:16:27,880 Speaker 2: their primary interest is fencing stolen goods. But then the 330 00:16:27,920 --> 00:16:30,760 Speaker 2: New York City businessmen were like, you send far too 331 00:16:30,800 --> 00:16:33,520 Speaker 2: few slaves. And so the pirate king he's kind of 332 00:16:33,560 --> 00:16:36,400 Speaker 2: like he thinks forced but whatever, fuck him. He starts 333 00:16:36,400 --> 00:16:40,600 Speaker 2: stepping it up. And what he does in he didn't 334 00:16:40,600 --> 00:16:43,720 Speaker 2: write in the script sixteen ninety seven. Mm. Yeah, he 335 00:16:43,760 --> 00:16:46,200 Speaker 2: tricks a bunch of people into coming into his fort 336 00:16:46,920 --> 00:16:48,880 Speaker 2: and then he scoops them up and sells them. And 337 00:16:48,880 --> 00:16:51,960 Speaker 2: this is entirely outside the social contract of like the 338 00:16:51,960 --> 00:16:54,880 Speaker 2: way slavery is supposed to work around here, right, So 339 00:16:56,000 --> 00:16:58,360 Speaker 2: the locals burn his fucking fortress down and slit the 340 00:16:58,360 --> 00:16:59,400 Speaker 2: throat of every pirate they. 341 00:16:59,360 --> 00:17:01,760 Speaker 3: Saw, I mean understandably. 342 00:17:02,120 --> 00:17:04,800 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, except a bunch of the pirates had been 343 00:17:04,840 --> 00:17:06,920 Speaker 2: given a heads up by their wives who they were 344 00:17:06,920 --> 00:17:09,120 Speaker 2: actually nice to and had nothing to do with any 345 00:17:09,119 --> 00:17:10,680 Speaker 2: of it, and weren't there that day. 346 00:17:11,200 --> 00:17:14,199 Speaker 3: And they never they never retaliated against those pirates. Did 347 00:17:14,240 --> 00:17:16,320 Speaker 3: those pirates have to go away forever? Did they just 348 00:17:16,400 --> 00:17:17,560 Speaker 3: like leave until. 349 00:17:17,440 --> 00:17:20,320 Speaker 2: Oh they wipe out the fucking town, Like it is. 350 00:17:20,320 --> 00:17:23,160 Speaker 3: The ones who're the ones who have not been there 351 00:17:23,160 --> 00:17:23,560 Speaker 3: that day. 352 00:17:23,640 --> 00:17:25,080 Speaker 2: No, I know what I'm saying is there's no one 353 00:17:25,119 --> 00:17:28,960 Speaker 2: to retaliate against them. They show up and they slit 354 00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:33,919 Speaker 2: everyone's throats. That time, that period of slavery on this 355 00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:39,280 Speaker 2: island is over. In one attack, they wipe out a 356 00:17:39,320 --> 00:17:40,200 Speaker 2: slave trade port. 357 00:17:40,880 --> 00:17:41,280 Speaker 3: Wow. 358 00:17:41,920 --> 00:17:45,399 Speaker 2: Yeah, that particular pirate king, he escaped the knife because 359 00:17:45,440 --> 00:17:47,280 Speaker 2: he was out at sea. I don't think he was 360 00:17:47,320 --> 00:17:50,159 Speaker 2: tipped off. And he just never goes back. He's like, 361 00:17:50,600 --> 00:17:51,520 Speaker 2: I'm fucking out of here. 362 00:17:51,760 --> 00:17:52,760 Speaker 3: He knows it's fucking over. 363 00:17:53,240 --> 00:17:57,800 Speaker 2: Yeah, And basically all the pirates realized their allegiance is 364 00:17:57,840 --> 00:18:01,480 Speaker 2: not to fucking Europe or to sl They are at 365 00:18:01,520 --> 00:18:04,800 Speaker 2: war with the whole civilized world. After all. They stop 366 00:18:04,880 --> 00:18:08,440 Speaker 2: slave trading, and they cut out the trying to stir 367 00:18:08,520 --> 00:18:13,119 Speaker 2: up conflict between groups, and they more go native. I 368 00:18:13,840 --> 00:18:16,120 Speaker 2: don't know the proper way to use. I know it's 369 00:18:16,119 --> 00:18:17,159 Speaker 2: a shitty phrase. I just don't know. 370 00:18:17,160 --> 00:18:19,680 Speaker 3: They become Malagasy, they integrate. 371 00:18:19,640 --> 00:18:22,840 Speaker 2: More so, they do more of that. They're still distinct 372 00:18:23,080 --> 00:18:24,760 Speaker 2: and their children are going to become this kind of 373 00:18:24,800 --> 00:18:27,439 Speaker 2: separate clasp and we'll talk about that later. And they 374 00:18:27,480 --> 00:18:31,480 Speaker 2: moved to the mainland, and then slavers avoid northeast Madagascar 375 00:18:31,680 --> 00:18:36,480 Speaker 2: for decades because well, the pirates will still attack slave ships. 376 00:18:36,720 --> 00:18:39,440 Speaker 3: Because it turns out that that was highly effective. 377 00:18:39,880 --> 00:18:42,040 Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, and they're probably not doing it because they're 378 00:18:42,040 --> 00:18:45,560 Speaker 2: like we individually. But honestly, I'm will into bed. The 379 00:18:45,600 --> 00:18:48,119 Speaker 2: average pirate who believes in this all galitarian shit might 380 00:18:48,119 --> 00:18:50,320 Speaker 2: be like kind of anti slavery. I don't know. I mean, 381 00:18:50,359 --> 00:18:53,040 Speaker 2: obviously some of them weren't, you know, I could see it. 382 00:18:54,200 --> 00:18:59,239 Speaker 2: So the place that inspired Libertalia fell destroyed righteously, and 383 00:18:59,280 --> 00:19:03,160 Speaker 2: what rose and stay were these cities of women and 384 00:19:03,440 --> 00:19:09,040 Speaker 2: then a whole crazy rebellious confederation that is really fucking interesting. 385 00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:13,400 Speaker 2: But before we talk about it, I want to talk 386 00:19:13,440 --> 00:19:17,480 Speaker 2: about medieval weapons. Have you purchased medieval weapons lately? If 387 00:19:17,520 --> 00:19:20,760 Speaker 2: you haven't purchased a new medieval weapon, your soul has 388 00:19:20,800 --> 00:19:22,560 Speaker 2: a sword shaped hole in it. 389 00:19:23,200 --> 00:19:26,160 Speaker 3: Sword shaped holes is also what happens when you don't 390 00:19:26,160 --> 00:19:28,680 Speaker 3: purchase medieval weapons and someone else around you has. 391 00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:31,320 Speaker 2: I know, those without swords can still die upon them. 392 00:19:31,400 --> 00:19:46,439 Speaker 2: That's our slogan. Anyway, here's other ads ed, Rebecca, So 393 00:19:47,280 --> 00:19:48,840 Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you about another pirate. This is 394 00:19:48,880 --> 00:19:51,120 Speaker 2: going to lead to the weird legend stuff that people 395 00:19:51,160 --> 00:19:54,280 Speaker 2: are going to build. There's a guy named Henry Avery, 396 00:19:54,440 --> 00:19:56,480 Speaker 2: and he's like in the like list of like he's 397 00:19:56,480 --> 00:19:59,679 Speaker 2: not Blackbeard, but he's like up there right. He's one 398 00:19:59,720 --> 00:20:03,359 Speaker 2: of the the guys people talk about. He was active 399 00:20:03,359 --> 00:20:06,000 Speaker 2: for all of two years and he pulled off the 400 00:20:06,040 --> 00:20:10,639 Speaker 2: greatest haul in pirate history probably and he was never caught. 401 00:20:10,760 --> 00:20:13,800 Speaker 2: He's one of the only motherfuckers that didn't get caught him. 402 00:20:13,840 --> 00:20:15,480 Speaker 3: And the Chinese pirate queen. 403 00:20:15,560 --> 00:20:17,080 Speaker 2: Oh does she get away in the end? That rules? 404 00:20:17,160 --> 00:20:19,720 Speaker 3: She did. At the end, she was so powerful that 405 00:20:19,920 --> 00:20:22,280 Speaker 3: the government like cut a deal with her and she 406 00:20:22,280 --> 00:20:23,840 Speaker 3: got to like retire with all her money. 407 00:20:24,160 --> 00:20:27,720 Speaker 2: Yeah, that makes sense. Most of Avery's folks, who we 408 00:20:27,800 --> 00:20:30,040 Speaker 2: know where they ended up. They just like showed up 409 00:20:30,080 --> 00:20:32,240 Speaker 2: to the Americas and were like, Hey, if we give 410 00:20:32,280 --> 00:20:34,760 Speaker 2: you like a shit ton of stolen stuff, can you 411 00:20:34,840 --> 00:20:38,840 Speaker 2: just not kill us? And America was like, yeah, that 412 00:20:38,880 --> 00:20:43,840 Speaker 2: sounds up our alley, you know. But most Golden Age 413 00:20:43,840 --> 00:20:46,160 Speaker 2: pirates got their start in a similar way as our 414 00:20:46,160 --> 00:20:52,080 Speaker 2: guy Avery, unpaid wages. The Charles two was a ship 415 00:20:52,080 --> 00:20:54,760 Speaker 2: that wasn't paying its sailors and there was a big 416 00:20:54,760 --> 00:20:58,640 Speaker 2: old warship, and so the sailors were like, well, we 417 00:20:58,680 --> 00:21:00,520 Speaker 2: want to get paid though, and they were like, well, 418 00:21:00,560 --> 00:21:01,879 Speaker 2: we're not going to pay you right now. And they 419 00:21:01,920 --> 00:21:05,200 Speaker 2: were like, there's a lot of us, and so they mutinied. 420 00:21:05,760 --> 00:21:08,320 Speaker 3: Good for them, Good for them as a freelancer who 421 00:21:08,320 --> 00:21:11,600 Speaker 3: has often gotten paid later or not gotten paid at all. Yeah, 422 00:21:11,600 --> 00:21:12,680 Speaker 3: I salute you, pirates. 423 00:21:12,920 --> 00:21:16,720 Speaker 2: Yeah exactly, mutineers. You'll get the death penalty if you 424 00:21:16,800 --> 00:21:18,560 Speaker 2: go back to port. So they're like, all right, we're 425 00:21:18,600 --> 00:21:20,840 Speaker 2: pirates now, all because your boss has tried to get 426 00:21:20,880 --> 00:21:22,320 Speaker 2: you to work for free, almost like that was a 427 00:21:22,359 --> 00:21:25,360 Speaker 2: big hole thing during the seventeen and eighteenth century. 428 00:21:25,720 --> 00:21:28,520 Speaker 3: They didn't pay you for that children's book you illustrated. 429 00:21:28,480 --> 00:21:31,000 Speaker 2: Nope, nope. So it's time to just go to war 430 00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:34,639 Speaker 2: against the world exactly. And I feel like there's a 431 00:21:34,720 --> 00:21:38,280 Speaker 2: lesson in here somewhere about how, for example, unpaid wages 432 00:21:38,520 --> 00:21:42,080 Speaker 2: are the largest category theft in the US today. The 433 00:21:42,119 --> 00:21:45,800 Speaker 2: Economic Policy Institute calculates that workers in this country now 434 00:21:45,920 --> 00:21:48,800 Speaker 2: not talking about the old seventeen hundreds, are robbed of 435 00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:51,639 Speaker 2: fifty billion dollars a year, which is one hundred times 436 00:21:51,640 --> 00:21:56,359 Speaker 2: more than the combined sum of all robbery. So all 437 00:21:56,400 --> 00:21:58,399 Speaker 2: these motherfuckers run out there and buy guns to protect 438 00:21:58,400 --> 00:22:01,040 Speaker 2: themselves from robbery, are pointing the guns in the wrong direction, 439 00:22:01,160 --> 00:22:05,560 Speaker 2: is all I'm saying. Anyway, before criminally actionable things get said, 440 00:22:06,920 --> 00:22:09,040 Speaker 2: back to ye oldie times, that's obviously what we're talking about. 441 00:22:09,040 --> 00:22:11,080 Speaker 2: We're only talking about ye oldie times, which. 442 00:22:10,920 --> 00:22:12,800 Speaker 3: Is safely in the past and has no relevance to 443 00:22:12,800 --> 00:22:13,760 Speaker 3: the present whatsoever. 444 00:22:14,400 --> 00:22:17,720 Speaker 2: No, I can't even imagine any comparisons that could be made, 445 00:22:17,880 --> 00:22:20,000 Speaker 2: like the one I just made. So Avery and his 446 00:22:20,000 --> 00:22:23,680 Speaker 2: friend's mutiny and they elect Avery captain, and so they 447 00:22:23,680 --> 00:22:27,200 Speaker 2: renamed their ship the Fancy, which is a cool fucking 448 00:22:27,280 --> 00:22:28,720 Speaker 2: name for a pirate ship. 449 00:22:28,480 --> 00:22:32,639 Speaker 3: The Fancy. Yeah, yeah, does that like Swarowski crystals are 450 00:22:32,640 --> 00:22:33,280 Speaker 3: their pasties? 451 00:22:33,440 --> 00:22:33,879 Speaker 2: I don't know. 452 00:22:34,160 --> 00:22:34,480 Speaker 3: I don't know. 453 00:22:34,520 --> 00:22:37,399 Speaker 2: Well, it's pretty soon gonna have the most treasure a 454 00:22:37,480 --> 00:22:39,280 Speaker 2: ship has ever stolen on it. 455 00:22:39,400 --> 00:22:41,600 Speaker 3: So I hope they're doing some like glam shit with 456 00:22:41,640 --> 00:22:42,560 Speaker 3: that Fancy. 457 00:22:43,080 --> 00:22:44,600 Speaker 2: That's one of the things that's so fucking weird about 458 00:22:44,600 --> 00:22:47,320 Speaker 2: pirates is so interesting. They're stuck doing glam shit because 459 00:22:47,320 --> 00:22:49,320 Speaker 2: they can't always fence that shit, and so they're just 460 00:22:49,320 --> 00:22:52,280 Speaker 2: like walking around like covered in jewels, because you can't 461 00:22:52,320 --> 00:22:54,760 Speaker 2: sell this like rare jewel that everyone knows that if 462 00:22:54,800 --> 00:22:57,000 Speaker 2: you sell it, you'll get murdered by the state, you know. 463 00:22:57,640 --> 00:22:59,920 Speaker 3: So you always you always have to dress fancy. 464 00:23:00,480 --> 00:23:03,280 Speaker 2: Yeah, And so they sailed to the Indian Ocean. I 465 00:23:03,280 --> 00:23:05,080 Speaker 2: think they start off off the coast of Spain and 466 00:23:05,160 --> 00:23:07,399 Speaker 2: been more certain about things. And they go to the 467 00:23:07,440 --> 00:23:09,399 Speaker 2: Indian Ocean and they join a fleet and they attack 468 00:23:09,480 --> 00:23:12,000 Speaker 2: some fuck off rich ships from the Mughal Empire. I 469 00:23:12,040 --> 00:23:14,560 Speaker 2: promise you, the Mughal Empire. This is where they come up. 470 00:23:15,560 --> 00:23:19,280 Speaker 2: The amount that they stole is calculated now to be 471 00:23:19,359 --> 00:23:22,560 Speaker 2: somewhere between two hundred to four hundred million dollars in 472 00:23:22,600 --> 00:23:23,320 Speaker 2: today's money. 473 00:23:23,760 --> 00:23:26,280 Speaker 3: And the Mughal Empire then, like the level of fanciness 474 00:23:26,320 --> 00:23:29,280 Speaker 3: that the Mughal Empire is, there is no fanciness like 475 00:23:29,320 --> 00:23:32,280 Speaker 3: that in Europe. Europe is a backwater. Then. I mean, 476 00:23:32,320 --> 00:23:34,520 Speaker 3: these are the people who are building the taj Mahal. 477 00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:36,840 Speaker 3: These are the people that if you went to like 478 00:23:36,880 --> 00:23:39,760 Speaker 3: a party in England then it would smell like shit 479 00:23:39,960 --> 00:23:42,760 Speaker 3: and I don't know, stale beer. If you went to 480 00:23:42,800 --> 00:23:45,359 Speaker 3: a party in the Mughal Empire, it would smell like 481 00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:48,280 Speaker 3: one thousand two roses that were arranged in a lot 482 00:23:48,400 --> 00:23:53,160 Speaker 3: ornate persian ate patterns in giant golden flagons of water. 483 00:23:53,840 --> 00:23:56,280 Speaker 3: It is the most it is the most lavish place 484 00:23:56,320 --> 00:23:59,320 Speaker 3: on earth. So whatever they eluded from the Mughal Empire 485 00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:01,399 Speaker 3: is shit though. Make a European's eyes pop. 486 00:24:02,280 --> 00:24:06,360 Speaker 2: Yeah, And this is like, this is more than even 487 00:24:06,359 --> 00:24:09,080 Speaker 2: the pirate King of Madagascar because this happens before they 488 00:24:09,119 --> 00:24:11,200 Speaker 2: all get their throat split a couple of years earlier, 489 00:24:11,280 --> 00:24:15,640 Speaker 2: I think sixteen ninety five whatever. But even the pirate 490 00:24:15,680 --> 00:24:19,080 Speaker 2: King of Madagascar could not realistically fence all this shit. 491 00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:24,480 Speaker 2: This theft was an international incident. It almost got England 492 00:24:25,200 --> 00:24:29,400 Speaker 2: kicked out of India, like, it almost ruined international trade 493 00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:32,560 Speaker 2: because India or the Mubile Empire was like, this is 494 00:24:32,640 --> 00:24:36,199 Speaker 2: y'all's fault, and England was like, we're really sorry. We 495 00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:38,800 Speaker 2: swear they hadn't. They had not yet conquered India obviously, 496 00:24:39,200 --> 00:24:39,520 Speaker 2: so this. 497 00:24:39,480 --> 00:24:41,280 Speaker 3: Could have been like a cautionary thing that kept the 498 00:24:41,320 --> 00:24:43,480 Speaker 3: Brits out from take colonizing India. 499 00:24:43,600 --> 00:24:47,800 Speaker 2: I know, Avery almost saved the day, but instead England 500 00:24:48,480 --> 00:24:52,400 Speaker 2: declared avery the enemy of all humanity and the world's 501 00:24:52,480 --> 00:24:54,520 Speaker 2: first international manhunt was. 502 00:24:54,480 --> 00:24:57,760 Speaker 3: On most wanted man in the Ship, the Fancy. 503 00:24:58,040 --> 00:25:01,879 Speaker 2: Yeah mm hmm, and his crew, who disappeared to the Americas, 504 00:25:01,880 --> 00:25:03,400 Speaker 2: where they bought their way in. I think a lot 505 00:25:03,400 --> 00:25:05,359 Speaker 2: of them went to Ireland. I read two sources that 506 00:25:05,760 --> 00:25:09,639 Speaker 2: seemed to disagree about that, and twenty four of his 507 00:25:09,680 --> 00:25:12,080 Speaker 2: crew were arrested and six of them were hanged. Avery 508 00:25:12,160 --> 00:25:15,360 Speaker 2: himself was never caught. There are a thousand stories about 509 00:25:15,359 --> 00:25:18,040 Speaker 2: what he did next. There's a he went and retired rich. 510 00:25:18,160 --> 00:25:21,320 Speaker 2: There's a he got screwed over by diamond merchants. Oh 511 00:25:21,400 --> 00:25:23,640 Speaker 2: my god, that's probably an anti Semitic conspiracy theory. There's 512 00:25:23,680 --> 00:25:26,280 Speaker 2: a he got screwed over by diamond merchants and died poor. 513 00:25:26,960 --> 00:25:30,280 Speaker 2: And there's a like he became a spy for blah 514 00:25:30,280 --> 00:25:33,120 Speaker 2: blah blah, and just no one fucking knows. 515 00:25:33,480 --> 00:25:35,800 Speaker 3: What do you think happened to him? 516 00:25:35,840 --> 00:25:39,200 Speaker 2: Honestly, maybe because of what I just read. I think 517 00:25:39,240 --> 00:25:42,080 Speaker 2: he married his way into a Malagassy family and was like, 518 00:25:42,080 --> 00:25:42,680 Speaker 2: I'm good. 519 00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:45,400 Speaker 3: And he was just enjoying, like the beautiful weather and 520 00:25:45,640 --> 00:25:48,600 Speaker 3: the yeah, cool society, gossiping at the communal table. 521 00:25:49,440 --> 00:25:52,080 Speaker 2: That's like my best guess. But I don't have a 522 00:25:52,080 --> 00:25:53,840 Speaker 2: good sense of him as a person. He kind of 523 00:25:53,840 --> 00:25:55,879 Speaker 2: has that thing where the reputation around him is that 524 00:25:55,920 --> 00:25:57,879 Speaker 2: he was like a little bit more of like a 525 00:25:57,920 --> 00:26:00,720 Speaker 2: proper gentleman and like a family man, and he ust less. 526 00:26:01,119 --> 00:26:02,720 Speaker 2: Because actually a lot of those people would be the 527 00:26:02,720 --> 00:26:04,800 Speaker 2: people who get elected captain, because people were like, oh, 528 00:26:04,960 --> 00:26:07,520 Speaker 2: we like that guy is like a little bit calmer 529 00:26:07,560 --> 00:26:10,439 Speaker 2: and shit, you know, and are more likely to be literate. 530 00:26:10,480 --> 00:26:13,000 Speaker 2: Often it was like the literate people who were elected captain. 531 00:26:13,680 --> 00:26:17,439 Speaker 2: But I don't know. I don't know what happened to him, 532 00:26:17,760 --> 00:26:22,440 Speaker 2: But I do know what happened to his reputation, which 533 00:26:22,480 --> 00:26:25,800 Speaker 2: is that the pirates on Matta Gascar did this wild 534 00:26:25,960 --> 00:26:29,840 Speaker 2: scam against the entire world with his legacy. By the 535 00:26:29,880 --> 00:26:32,840 Speaker 2: early seventeen hundreds, about ten years later or so, they 536 00:26:32,840 --> 00:26:35,720 Speaker 2: announced that Avery was there with ten thousand men, and 537 00:26:35,760 --> 00:26:39,159 Speaker 2: that they had set up an entire country, a utopian 538 00:26:39,200 --> 00:26:43,840 Speaker 2: democratic society, and they sent out emissaries all over the 539 00:26:43,880 --> 00:26:48,120 Speaker 2: fucking world, or scam artists independently just decided this would 540 00:26:48,119 --> 00:26:51,879 Speaker 2: be fun to do. Basically, people claiming to be emissaries 541 00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:55,800 Speaker 2: showed up to all over Europe, and the Ottoman Empire 542 00:26:56,400 --> 00:26:59,119 Speaker 2: to try and convince them to make treaties with this 543 00:26:59,200 --> 00:27:00,439 Speaker 2: fucking pirate kingdom. 544 00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:02,200 Speaker 3: What did they call the pirate kingdom? 545 00:27:02,720 --> 00:27:05,399 Speaker 2: I don't know. I'm like annoyed by this. I'm annoyed 546 00:27:05,400 --> 00:27:08,399 Speaker 2: that I don't know the answer to that. England and 547 00:27:08,440 --> 00:27:10,760 Speaker 2: France and the Netherlens told them to kick rocks when 548 00:27:10,760 --> 00:27:13,600 Speaker 2: the emissaries showed up. But they made allies in Sweden, 549 00:27:13,680 --> 00:27:16,280 Speaker 2: Russia and the Ottoman Empire and Sweden actually signed some 550 00:27:16,320 --> 00:27:18,359 Speaker 2: treaties before they figured out they were being lied to. 551 00:27:19,240 --> 00:27:19,440 Speaker 3: No. 552 00:27:20,119 --> 00:27:23,000 Speaker 2: And Daniel Dafoe, the Robinson Crusoe guy, was a really 553 00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:25,840 Speaker 2: important writer and wrote about Salien and shit all the time, 554 00:27:25,840 --> 00:27:28,080 Speaker 2: and pirates and shit. He like wrote this whole thing 555 00:27:28,080 --> 00:27:30,160 Speaker 2: about how interesting all this was, and then ten years 556 00:27:30,240 --> 00:27:31,560 Speaker 2: later when he found out it was like a lie, 557 00:27:31,640 --> 00:27:34,840 Speaker 2: he wrote this like long, like it's a lie. He's 558 00:27:34,880 --> 00:27:36,439 Speaker 2: like also the guy who like myth busted it. 559 00:27:37,080 --> 00:27:38,960 Speaker 3: He actually like did a correction of himself in a 560 00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:40,480 Speaker 3: way that is exceedingly rare. 561 00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:44,800 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's true, I know, right. Props to you, Daniel Dafoe. 562 00:27:44,800 --> 00:27:47,560 Speaker 2: I don't know anything about you as a person. And 563 00:27:48,119 --> 00:27:50,840 Speaker 2: one of the reasons that this is so interesting is 564 00:27:50,880 --> 00:27:54,600 Speaker 2: this is the grand scale version of what pirates did anyway, 565 00:27:54,960 --> 00:27:57,760 Speaker 2: which was create wild myths about who we are so 566 00:27:57,800 --> 00:28:01,719 Speaker 2: people don't fuck with us. And it's going to kind 567 00:28:01,760 --> 00:28:04,320 Speaker 2: of lead to what people are then going to do 568 00:28:04,840 --> 00:28:09,440 Speaker 2: with what Graber presents is a myth that still is pervasive, 569 00:28:10,280 --> 00:28:14,800 Speaker 2: basically like this concept of like mock kings and mock kingdoms. 570 00:28:16,320 --> 00:28:19,119 Speaker 2: With the fall of that small island community, pirates were 571 00:28:19,160 --> 00:28:20,760 Speaker 2: moving to the mainland and they set up a bunch 572 00:28:20,800 --> 00:28:22,760 Speaker 2: of port towns all over the northeast of the island. 573 00:28:23,160 --> 00:28:26,480 Speaker 2: And we know a little bit about how they function. 574 00:28:26,560 --> 00:28:29,520 Speaker 2: We have educated guesses. We know, for example, that a 575 00:28:29,560 --> 00:28:34,560 Speaker 2: pirate we believe the sources are iffy or the sources 576 00:28:34,560 --> 00:28:37,280 Speaker 2: say this happened, but you know whatever. We know that 577 00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:39,640 Speaker 2: a pirate crew moved on to mainland Madagascar at the 578 00:28:39,680 --> 00:28:41,960 Speaker 2: end of seventeen oh three and elected a guy named 579 00:28:42,080 --> 00:28:44,760 Speaker 2: Nathaniel North as their captain. And this is the first 580 00:28:44,760 --> 00:28:48,640 Speaker 2: time we see the sort of evidence of people saying, hey, 581 00:28:48,640 --> 00:28:51,440 Speaker 2: this system worked on a ship, why not try it 582 00:28:51,480 --> 00:28:53,960 Speaker 2: on land. What if we like elect the guy who's 583 00:28:54,000 --> 00:28:56,240 Speaker 2: in charge and then make most of our decisions by 584 00:28:56,280 --> 00:29:00,880 Speaker 2: direct democracy. This place was called Ambo Navalla, and we 585 00:29:00,960 --> 00:29:04,560 Speaker 2: don't actually know where it was. There's some guesses and 586 00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:08,440 Speaker 2: these pirates once they moved on to land. According to 587 00:29:08,480 --> 00:29:11,080 Speaker 2: that not really trustworthy, but the only actual source book 588 00:29:11,080 --> 00:29:15,760 Speaker 2: about pirates, they became conflict resolution specialists with the locals. 589 00:29:16,480 --> 00:29:19,320 Speaker 3: Because they had this cultural memory of having started so 590 00:29:19,360 --> 00:29:20,920 Speaker 3: much shit, they knew how to de escalate it. 591 00:29:21,840 --> 00:29:24,400 Speaker 2: So instead of promoting conflict because it led to more 592 00:29:24,440 --> 00:29:27,560 Speaker 2: captives and therefore more slaves, they were running around listening 593 00:29:27,560 --> 00:29:30,800 Speaker 2: to both sides of issues and helping people find peaceful resolution. 594 00:29:31,720 --> 00:29:34,920 Speaker 2: And the book goes on at length discussing their strategies, 595 00:29:34,920 --> 00:29:38,080 Speaker 2: but not necessarily their motives behind it. There's self interest 596 00:29:38,120 --> 00:29:40,640 Speaker 2: here first. The one I can tell you what their 597 00:29:40,640 --> 00:29:44,120 Speaker 2: self interest was is that internally they developed a lot 598 00:29:44,160 --> 00:29:48,760 Speaker 2: of conflict resolution methods because they absolutely needed to provide 599 00:29:49,160 --> 00:29:53,160 Speaker 2: show a united front to the outside, because if they 600 00:29:53,160 --> 00:29:56,240 Speaker 2: were seen as divided, people would probably come raid them 601 00:29:56,280 --> 00:29:58,200 Speaker 2: and you know, fuck them up right. 602 00:29:58,320 --> 00:30:00,000 Speaker 3: And there would also be a lot of extreme conflict 603 00:30:00,080 --> 00:30:01,760 Speaker 3: if you're strapped on a ship with each other. 604 00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:03,800 Speaker 2: Yeah, no, totally, Well now they're on an island, but yeah, 605 00:30:03,800 --> 00:30:05,440 Speaker 2: it was stly in so many of you. You know, 606 00:30:06,680 --> 00:30:09,800 Speaker 2: and I think that doing it for other people, it's 607 00:30:09,840 --> 00:30:13,240 Speaker 2: either getting presented as this like quirky moral good they're 608 00:30:13,280 --> 00:30:15,720 Speaker 2: like motive isn't really that I was able to figure 609 00:30:15,720 --> 00:30:18,800 Speaker 2: out explain, but it certainly makes them useful to the 610 00:30:18,840 --> 00:30:20,560 Speaker 2: locals and makes people like you if you're the person 611 00:30:20,600 --> 00:30:25,360 Speaker 2: who always like makes everything work okay, you know. These 612 00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:28,480 Speaker 2: pirates and many many others married locals and got involved 613 00:30:28,520 --> 00:30:31,880 Speaker 2: in local politics, basically becoming part of the large clan 614 00:30:31,960 --> 00:30:34,200 Speaker 2: families in some cases and in other cases, they would 615 00:30:34,200 --> 00:30:36,080 Speaker 2: set up these like cities of women on the coast, 616 00:30:37,480 --> 00:30:42,360 Speaker 2: and then a local group of five clans elected themselves 617 00:30:42,600 --> 00:30:44,120 Speaker 2: or picked it. I don't know how they picked it 618 00:30:44,520 --> 00:30:47,360 Speaker 2: ended up with a high king and they formed the 619 00:30:47,640 --> 00:30:52,320 Speaker 2: Sokoa Confederation. These folks, they're slightly further to the south, 620 00:30:52,360 --> 00:30:55,240 Speaker 2: and they were landlocked or they didn't specifically control a port, 621 00:30:55,680 --> 00:30:58,320 Speaker 2: and they didn't want to be landlocked, so they conquered 622 00:30:58,320 --> 00:31:01,720 Speaker 2: the ports, and they were dicks about it. According to 623 00:31:01,760 --> 00:31:05,200 Speaker 2: some sources, they were just absolute tyrants. Their leader was 624 00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:08,640 Speaker 2: a guy named raman Gano, which is more of a 625 00:31:08,680 --> 00:31:11,880 Speaker 2: title than a name, and it means he who does 626 00:31:11,920 --> 00:31:13,200 Speaker 2: exactly as he pleases. 627 00:31:13,800 --> 00:31:14,360 Speaker 3: Oh god. 628 00:31:15,040 --> 00:31:15,520 Speaker 2: Yeah. 629 00:31:15,640 --> 00:31:17,640 Speaker 3: So so Elon Musk comes. 630 00:31:18,600 --> 00:31:21,360 Speaker 2: Yeah, he's our main villain here. 631 00:31:21,800 --> 00:31:22,000 Speaker 3: Yeah. 632 00:31:22,040 --> 00:31:24,320 Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a war that's gonna there's gonna be a 633 00:31:24,320 --> 00:31:25,640 Speaker 2: rebellion in a war. It's kind of one of the 634 00:31:25,680 --> 00:31:27,400 Speaker 2: main things that we're gonna talk about the rest of 635 00:31:27,400 --> 00:31:31,120 Speaker 2: this episode. And there's only one fucking source on it again, 636 00:31:31,320 --> 00:31:34,120 Speaker 2: and this is a different source. This source is that 637 00:31:34,160 --> 00:31:39,200 Speaker 2: a French spy, years later, working for a European con man, 638 00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:42,360 Speaker 2: went around and interviewed the rebels about what they had 639 00:31:42,360 --> 00:31:43,640 Speaker 2: done forty years earlier. 640 00:31:44,120 --> 00:31:46,440 Speaker 3: Okay, okay, I'm gonna go to Tangent. You're gonna forgive me. 641 00:31:46,800 --> 00:31:48,960 Speaker 3: So why does a fucking con man have a spy 642 00:31:49,320 --> 00:31:50,840 Speaker 3: And does the spy know that the guy is a 643 00:31:50,880 --> 00:31:52,280 Speaker 3: con man or does he think that he's like a 644 00:31:52,320 --> 00:31:54,800 Speaker 3: lost Romanov monarch? What the fuck tell me? You gotta 645 00:31:54,800 --> 00:31:55,080 Speaker 3: tell me? 646 00:31:55,160 --> 00:31:57,320 Speaker 2: Oh my god. It was so complicated that I was 647 00:31:57,360 --> 00:31:59,400 Speaker 2: like I started writing into the script and then I 648 00:31:59,440 --> 00:32:04,240 Speaker 2: was like, this is so complicated. It he was trying 649 00:32:04,280 --> 00:32:07,520 Speaker 2: to prove some shit about the way that Matta Gascar 650 00:32:07,760 --> 00:32:10,560 Speaker 2: was so he could like sell some shit to some Europeans. 651 00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:14,920 Speaker 2: Like he was like he like wanted to basically, I think, 652 00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:16,640 Speaker 2: like sell settlements or something. 653 00:32:17,240 --> 00:32:19,880 Speaker 3: So he's like selling fucking time shares to the Europeans, 654 00:32:19,880 --> 00:32:22,280 Speaker 3: and he has a spy to like get Intel to 655 00:32:22,400 --> 00:32:24,080 Speaker 3: sell to sell like fake time shares. 656 00:32:25,160 --> 00:32:27,760 Speaker 2: I don't think you're wrong, but I also don't know 657 00:32:27,800 --> 00:32:30,600 Speaker 2: if you're right. I basically like this part of it. 658 00:32:30,640 --> 00:32:33,840 Speaker 2: I was like, oh my god, this is so complicated. 659 00:32:33,880 --> 00:32:36,240 Speaker 2: The thing that it is was so complicated that I 660 00:32:36,320 --> 00:32:37,800 Speaker 2: was like, I'm going to simplify this. But if I 661 00:32:37,840 --> 00:32:39,600 Speaker 2: had thought this through and realized that you were my guests, 662 00:32:39,600 --> 00:32:41,400 Speaker 2: I realized I should have done the European con men 663 00:32:41,480 --> 00:32:42,400 Speaker 2: more justice that. 664 00:32:42,360 --> 00:32:43,760 Speaker 3: I was going to just like tear you down that 665 00:32:43,880 --> 00:32:44,720 Speaker 3: rabbit hole, you know. 666 00:32:45,360 --> 00:32:49,320 Speaker 2: Yeah, and this is where our history comes from, right, 667 00:32:49,400 --> 00:32:51,600 Speaker 2: So this is not a reliable source. But this man 668 00:32:52,160 --> 00:32:55,120 Speaker 2: does seem to be genuinely really and he fell doun 669 00:32:55,160 --> 00:32:57,920 Speaker 2: a fucking rabbit hole. He was like, I want to 670 00:32:58,040 --> 00:33:02,680 Speaker 2: know about this fucking confederation of rebels that's going to form. 671 00:33:02,760 --> 00:33:05,920 Speaker 2: But he's talking to people and he builds his hagiography, right, 672 00:33:06,800 --> 00:33:10,280 Speaker 2: like the making of a saint about this man who 673 00:33:10,280 --> 00:33:12,120 Speaker 2: we're going to talk about soon. The sort of the 674 00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:14,959 Speaker 2: person who's presented as the grand leader of this confederation, 675 00:33:15,960 --> 00:33:19,360 Speaker 2: and it absolutely emphasizes this great man of history narrative 676 00:33:19,360 --> 00:33:22,560 Speaker 2: of what's to come. But that narrative is not held 677 00:33:22,640 --> 00:33:27,040 Speaker 2: up by anthropological evidence. So Graber's claim is that this 678 00:33:27,080 --> 00:33:30,600 Speaker 2: is another mock king. This is a war chief who 679 00:33:30,680 --> 00:33:32,960 Speaker 2: has now been They're like, oh, yeah, we totally have 680 00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:34,400 Speaker 2: a high king. Don't fuck with us. 681 00:33:34,880 --> 00:33:37,680 Speaker 3: Oh wow wow. So this guy does not actually have 682 00:33:37,760 --> 00:33:40,400 Speaker 3: any of the power of a king. He's a guy 683 00:33:40,440 --> 00:33:42,760 Speaker 3: that was good in battle, and then when the battle 684 00:33:42,800 --> 00:33:45,239 Speaker 3: is over, he's no longer in power. But they make 685 00:33:45,320 --> 00:33:47,760 Speaker 3: him like almost like a mascot, like a mythological figure. 686 00:33:48,600 --> 00:33:50,400 Speaker 2: Yes, and no, he still has some of the same 687 00:33:50,440 --> 00:33:53,040 Speaker 2: power as like kind of the like heads of clans 688 00:33:53,040 --> 00:33:55,240 Speaker 2: and stuff we were talking about earlier, where he can 689 00:33:55,320 --> 00:33:57,720 Speaker 2: like summon up some warriors and he sort of gets 690 00:33:57,720 --> 00:33:59,760 Speaker 2: as many wives as he wants and stuff. But he 691 00:34:00,320 --> 00:34:04,400 Speaker 2: all the decisions are still being made by consensus decision 692 00:34:04,440 --> 00:34:06,960 Speaker 2: making councils that take days. 693 00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:09,680 Speaker 3: Oh god, oh god, and have the most truculent person 694 00:34:09,760 --> 00:34:12,640 Speaker 3: ever keep everyone from taking care of their kids. 695 00:34:12,719 --> 00:34:15,000 Speaker 2: That night, Yeah, they had the people's mic. It was great. 696 00:34:15,520 --> 00:34:16,480 Speaker 3: Oh fuck man. 697 00:34:17,040 --> 00:34:19,600 Speaker 2: And so this is the best narrative we have about 698 00:34:19,600 --> 00:34:23,400 Speaker 2: this war, the unreliable narrator. He said that the conquering 699 00:34:23,440 --> 00:34:28,000 Speaker 2: of port towns by this Soca confederation meant quote, their 700 00:34:28,040 --> 00:34:30,400 Speaker 2: young daughters were taken away and sold on board to 701 00:34:30,440 --> 00:34:34,520 Speaker 2: European ships who frequented the coasts. The slightest murmur was 702 00:34:34,560 --> 00:34:39,279 Speaker 2: punished by slavery and death. And basically they were doing 703 00:34:39,320 --> 00:34:41,799 Speaker 2: the stuff that like European settlers had been doing. They 704 00:34:41,840 --> 00:34:46,560 Speaker 2: were like state making. They were stealing everything that they wanted. 705 00:34:46,640 --> 00:34:49,239 Speaker 2: They were desecrating the tombs of ancestors. It's not a 706 00:34:49,239 --> 00:34:51,360 Speaker 2: specifically state making thing, but it's a shitty thing to do. 707 00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:56,040 Speaker 2: And whole towns were wiped out. And it's probable that 708 00:34:56,080 --> 00:34:59,440 Speaker 2: his power wasn't so completely absolute because there wasn't really 709 00:34:59,480 --> 00:35:03,200 Speaker 2: a state apparatus to like seas and wield. But they 710 00:35:03,200 --> 00:35:06,120 Speaker 2: took control of everything they could. They taxed everything, they 711 00:35:06,160 --> 00:35:10,319 Speaker 2: desecrated tombs, and they started doing slave raids instead of 712 00:35:10,360 --> 00:35:12,440 Speaker 2: the way that you're supposed to do slavery at this time, 713 00:35:12,520 --> 00:35:16,160 Speaker 2: which is the captives. That thing that had gotten so 714 00:35:16,200 --> 00:35:19,759 Speaker 2: many pirates killed a few years back. Now this Malagasy 715 00:35:19,840 --> 00:35:25,319 Speaker 2: chief is doing. People were unhappy, and so they did 716 00:35:25,320 --> 00:35:29,440 Speaker 2: something about it which actually involved, in addition to modern weapons, 717 00:35:29,480 --> 00:35:31,800 Speaker 2: which is not a sponsor of our show, it involved 718 00:35:31,960 --> 00:35:34,799 Speaker 2: medieval weapons or hand to hand weapons, because it's not 719 00:35:35,120 --> 00:35:40,200 Speaker 2: specifically part of the medieval period. But Spears, you ever 720 00:35:40,200 --> 00:35:43,880 Speaker 2: held a spear? It's nice this show brought to you 721 00:35:43,920 --> 00:35:49,520 Speaker 2: by Spears. Get the new Spears catalog and whatever other 722 00:35:49,560 --> 00:36:01,320 Speaker 2: ads come next, and we're back. The person who is 723 00:36:01,360 --> 00:36:03,280 Speaker 2: presented as the big man of history of this story 724 00:36:03,960 --> 00:36:08,720 Speaker 2: is a man named Ratsimalajo, and he is an interesting fellow. 725 00:36:08,880 --> 00:36:13,360 Speaker 2: He seems genuinely coal. It's just, you know, he wasn't 726 00:36:13,440 --> 00:36:18,760 Speaker 2: the king of everything. Probably Ratsimalajo wasn't himself a pirate, 727 00:36:19,200 --> 00:36:21,080 Speaker 2: or if he was, he didn't do it for very long. 728 00:36:21,520 --> 00:36:23,680 Speaker 2: His father was a pirate. His father was an English 729 00:36:23,760 --> 00:36:28,600 Speaker 2: pirate named either Tom or Tomo. Maybe Fomo. It's probably Tomo, 730 00:36:28,719 --> 00:36:34,680 Speaker 2: it's Thamo, some weird English name, and everyone's like, oh, 731 00:36:34,719 --> 00:36:36,839 Speaker 2: he was the son of Tom too, or like other 732 00:36:37,120 --> 00:36:39,920 Speaker 2: famous Tom pirates. He almost certainly was not. He was 733 00:36:39,920 --> 00:36:42,960 Speaker 2: almost certainly the son of some pirate named Tom. There 734 00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:46,000 Speaker 2: were a lot of pirates named Tom, because there's a 735 00:36:46,000 --> 00:36:47,960 Speaker 2: lot of people named Tom, and a lot of people 736 00:36:47,960 --> 00:36:51,560 Speaker 2: are pirates. His dad was just some guy. But the 737 00:36:51,600 --> 00:36:55,000 Speaker 2: thing is, when your dad's just some guy and a pirate, 738 00:36:55,400 --> 00:36:58,279 Speaker 2: it means his dad was rich as shit, because if 739 00:36:58,280 --> 00:37:01,800 Speaker 2: you're a pirate, there's two things. You are rich and doomed. 740 00:37:02,560 --> 00:37:04,080 Speaker 3: The most romantic figure on earth. 741 00:37:04,440 --> 00:37:06,520 Speaker 2: I know. I don't understand how people are so in 742 00:37:06,560 --> 00:37:09,480 Speaker 2: love with it. I can't imagine. Yeah, so he's rich 743 00:37:09,520 --> 00:37:12,400 Speaker 2: as shit. His mother was named Rahenna and was the 744 00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:14,280 Speaker 2: daughter of one of the leaders of one of the clans, 745 00:37:14,360 --> 00:37:15,879 Speaker 2: one of the people who would sort of get called 746 00:37:15,880 --> 00:37:19,279 Speaker 2: a king. We're pretty sure about that. We're pretty sure 747 00:37:19,280 --> 00:37:23,839 Speaker 2: that his parents' names. Everything else, we're not so sure about. 748 00:37:24,120 --> 00:37:26,000 Speaker 2: The most common story, which may as well be true, 749 00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:27,839 Speaker 2: So I'll tell it like it is, is that when 750 00:37:27,880 --> 00:37:29,520 Speaker 2: he was a teenager, his dad sent him off to 751 00:37:29,560 --> 00:37:32,120 Speaker 2: England for an education, and he was like, I don't 752 00:37:32,200 --> 00:37:35,360 Speaker 2: like Englin. Fuck this. He came home and so his 753 00:37:35,440 --> 00:37:37,120 Speaker 2: dad was like, all right, well, here's a ton of 754 00:37:37,120 --> 00:37:39,600 Speaker 2: guns and money, go and earn your way in life. 755 00:37:40,719 --> 00:37:44,520 Speaker 2: And what he did was lead a revolution, or join 756 00:37:44,600 --> 00:37:46,799 Speaker 2: one as an equal among other war chiefs. Helping lead 757 00:37:46,800 --> 00:37:51,960 Speaker 2: a revolution. In seventeen twelve, he's eighteen years old. He 758 00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:53,520 Speaker 2: and some of his friends are like, all right, let's 759 00:37:53,560 --> 00:37:56,799 Speaker 2: go fuck this tyranny. Shut up. They sent someone down 760 00:37:56,800 --> 00:37:59,440 Speaker 2: to go talk to that high king and be like, hey, look, 761 00:37:59,760 --> 00:38:02,239 Speaker 2: you really wanted a port. You keep one of the 762 00:38:02,239 --> 00:38:05,920 Speaker 2: ports and give all the rest back. How's that sound 763 00:38:06,680 --> 00:38:09,520 Speaker 2: And they were like, no, we're in charge. Fuck you. 764 00:38:10,880 --> 00:38:14,040 Speaker 2: So the rebels set up a rebel camp. Local folks 765 00:38:14,040 --> 00:38:17,120 Speaker 2: are like, oh, I want to not have tyranny. That 766 00:38:17,239 --> 00:38:20,960 Speaker 2: sounds nice. And so they get together a cabrey An 767 00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:23,840 Speaker 2: assembly and they figure this is going to take days, 768 00:38:24,200 --> 00:38:26,200 Speaker 2: So they build little shacks and shit to sleep in 769 00:38:26,239 --> 00:38:26,759 Speaker 2: while they talk. 770 00:38:27,400 --> 00:38:29,040 Speaker 3: We should have thought of that. Why didn't we think 771 00:38:29,040 --> 00:38:29,239 Speaker 3: of that? 772 00:38:29,680 --> 00:38:32,880 Speaker 2: I know, I mean tense, but you know, not quite. 773 00:38:32,760 --> 00:38:34,759 Speaker 3: The same on hard concrete, nah, I know. 774 00:38:35,080 --> 00:38:36,920 Speaker 2: And also just like admitting that you're like, no, the 775 00:38:36,960 --> 00:38:39,080 Speaker 2: meeting is going to take days, like that is what. 776 00:38:39,560 --> 00:38:42,640 Speaker 2: That is the weird downside of horizontal life. But you 777 00:38:42,680 --> 00:38:45,120 Speaker 2: know what, if you do it right, it's fun. And 778 00:38:45,120 --> 00:38:48,480 Speaker 2: then here's a part that I'm curious about. The main 779 00:38:48,560 --> 00:38:51,719 Speaker 2: source is that this particular Cabarey, very much as an 780 00:38:51,760 --> 00:38:55,560 Speaker 2: exception to the norm, excluded women. No women allowed at 781 00:38:55,560 --> 00:38:57,800 Speaker 2: our war talk party. 782 00:38:58,040 --> 00:38:58,360 Speaker 1: Why not? 783 00:38:58,440 --> 00:38:58,759 Speaker 2: Why not? 784 00:38:58,880 --> 00:38:59,200 Speaker 3: Why not? 785 00:38:59,800 --> 00:39:03,480 Speaker 2: So oh the way it's sort of presented, Okay, So 786 00:39:03,640 --> 00:39:05,400 Speaker 2: one of the reasons it might have been written that 787 00:39:05,400 --> 00:39:08,200 Speaker 2: way is that the source like he actually had a 788 00:39:08,280 --> 00:39:11,040 Speaker 2: version where he was like, no cabarets allowed women, and 789 00:39:11,040 --> 00:39:12,600 Speaker 2: then he had to like cross that out because it 790 00:39:12,640 --> 00:39:15,600 Speaker 2: was like so blatantly untrue. But so like, yeah, I 791 00:39:15,640 --> 00:39:18,120 Speaker 2: get him. I get the impression this guy like wasn't 792 00:39:18,120 --> 00:39:23,520 Speaker 2: a big woman lover or appreciator, respect her, and I 793 00:39:23,520 --> 00:39:27,520 Speaker 2: think all of those things misogynist will call themselves. But 794 00:39:28,200 --> 00:39:32,440 Speaker 2: the other argument that seems to have some credit is 795 00:39:32,480 --> 00:39:37,880 Speaker 2: that this was like oddly at statement around returning rule 796 00:39:38,080 --> 00:39:42,120 Speaker 2: back to the sort of linear clan structure instead of 797 00:39:42,160 --> 00:39:46,160 Speaker 2: this new economic force of women in the cities, even 798 00:39:46,200 --> 00:39:48,399 Speaker 2: though the women in the cities were not part of 799 00:39:48,440 --> 00:39:52,560 Speaker 2: this new evil empire thing that was taking over, right, 800 00:39:53,160 --> 00:39:54,600 Speaker 2: And so it was kind of like almost like a 801 00:39:54,640 --> 00:39:57,840 Speaker 2: weird classes the wrong construction. But it was like a 802 00:39:57,840 --> 00:40:00,960 Speaker 2: weird thing. But I also I wonder whether it's even 803 00:40:01,040 --> 00:40:04,040 Speaker 2: true because of something I'm going to say about their oath. Yeah, 804 00:40:04,080 --> 00:40:05,839 Speaker 2: so they get together for days and they talk about 805 00:40:05,880 --> 00:40:07,279 Speaker 2: whether or not to go to war, and they hear 806 00:40:07,320 --> 00:40:10,319 Speaker 2: everyone out, and in the end they reach consensus they 807 00:40:10,360 --> 00:40:13,520 Speaker 2: will form a new confederation and go to war. This 808 00:40:13,600 --> 00:40:18,919 Speaker 2: new confederation is called the Betsimisaraka. Or actually it's funny 809 00:40:18,920 --> 00:40:20,520 Speaker 2: because I've seen it spelled a bunch of different ways. 810 00:40:20,520 --> 00:40:22,399 Speaker 2: The Internet wants to spell it differently than Graver wants 811 00:40:22,400 --> 00:40:23,799 Speaker 2: to spell in this book. They might not have an 812 00:40:23,800 --> 00:40:26,200 Speaker 2: a at the end of it. I don't know. It's 813 00:40:26,600 --> 00:40:30,919 Speaker 2: different sources complain with each other. This name means those 814 00:40:30,920 --> 00:40:33,719 Speaker 2: who will not be sundered, Like the confederation isn't going 815 00:40:33,760 --> 00:40:36,000 Speaker 2: to break up. We are a fucking unbreakable. It's a 816 00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:39,200 Speaker 2: good name. And they do a bunch of rituals before 817 00:40:39,239 --> 00:40:41,319 Speaker 2: they decide to go to war. Right, These meetings kind 818 00:40:41,320 --> 00:40:44,200 Speaker 2: of sound fucking interesting, right. You go for several days, 819 00:40:44,239 --> 00:40:46,560 Speaker 2: you camp out, you argue ship for a long ass time, 820 00:40:46,600 --> 00:40:50,320 Speaker 2: and at the end they do both a pirate ritual, 821 00:40:50,840 --> 00:40:53,560 Speaker 2: which was that they drank seawater mixed with gunpowder. 822 00:40:54,120 --> 00:40:56,239 Speaker 3: What the fuck? And how are they like living after 823 00:40:56,280 --> 00:40:57,600 Speaker 3: this lovely pirate ritual? 824 00:40:57,840 --> 00:40:59,960 Speaker 2: Well, what's funny is that usually it was just seawater 825 00:41:00,120 --> 00:41:02,800 Speaker 2: and gunpowder, but this one they also seem to have 826 00:41:02,880 --> 00:41:06,760 Speaker 2: put like musket balls and stuff in it. So, which 827 00:41:07,360 --> 00:41:10,040 Speaker 2: is that scene from The fucking Crow right where they 828 00:41:10,080 --> 00:41:13,960 Speaker 2: like drink bullets with their fucking whiskey. 829 00:41:14,080 --> 00:41:17,560 Speaker 3: What the fuck? I must have blocked that one out 830 00:41:17,560 --> 00:41:18,680 Speaker 3: in my goth upbringing. 831 00:41:19,040 --> 00:41:21,680 Speaker 2: Yeah, the very beginning of the Crow, the like arsonist 832 00:41:21,760 --> 00:41:24,920 Speaker 2: crew that's like running around being the batties. They're like 833 00:41:25,320 --> 00:41:27,239 Speaker 2: fired up, and then they like take a shot and 834 00:41:27,680 --> 00:41:31,200 Speaker 2: drink a bullet or I guess a cartridge because it 835 00:41:31,200 --> 00:41:34,560 Speaker 2: has all the stuff, and so that's like weirdly accurate 836 00:41:34,640 --> 00:41:35,279 Speaker 2: pirate thing. 837 00:41:35,600 --> 00:41:37,279 Speaker 3: I'm starting to believe that there aren't any women at 838 00:41:37,280 --> 00:41:39,520 Speaker 3: this assemblies, that they're doing this fair enough. 839 00:41:39,560 --> 00:41:42,239 Speaker 2: There's only one line that makes me think otherwise, okay, 840 00:41:42,320 --> 00:41:47,520 Speaker 2: and probably there weren't women. Now Ratsimalajo is the only 841 00:41:47,560 --> 00:41:50,880 Speaker 2: partly white person in attendance. Probably there's a lot of 842 00:41:50,920 --> 00:41:53,640 Speaker 2: like the way that this whole rebellion has talked about it. 843 00:41:53,640 --> 00:41:55,480 Speaker 2: It's talked about as if all of the sons of 844 00:41:55,520 --> 00:41:58,680 Speaker 2: the white pirates and the non white Indigenous women are 845 00:41:58,719 --> 00:42:01,120 Speaker 2: the people who rose up. But like there's a lot 846 00:42:01,120 --> 00:42:03,160 Speaker 2: of anthropological reasons that that is not to believe that 847 00:42:03,320 --> 00:42:05,239 Speaker 2: is not the case, mostly in that most of those 848 00:42:05,239 --> 00:42:08,719 Speaker 2: people were children at the time, but pirate culture is 849 00:42:08,760 --> 00:42:11,719 Speaker 2: rubbing off on folks. The other ritual they do is 850 00:42:11,760 --> 00:42:15,160 Speaker 2: a malagassy ritual. They each cut their own stomachs the 851 00:42:15,200 --> 00:42:17,560 Speaker 2: tiniest bit to draw blood the way that we might 852 00:42:17,600 --> 00:42:19,440 Speaker 2: like prick a finger or like cut a palm in 853 00:42:19,520 --> 00:42:22,840 Speaker 2: like other literature, you know, they're not like gutting themselves. 854 00:42:23,360 --> 00:42:25,480 Speaker 2: And then they soak a piece of ginger root in 855 00:42:25,560 --> 00:42:29,040 Speaker 2: everyone's blood, and then they swear an oath to one another, 856 00:42:29,160 --> 00:42:32,799 Speaker 2: and then they eat the ginger. Here's the quote. They 857 00:42:32,800 --> 00:42:35,600 Speaker 2: swore a solemn oath to take back their land, to 858 00:42:35,640 --> 00:42:38,600 Speaker 2: stop letting their wives and daughters be sold off overseas, 859 00:42:39,120 --> 00:42:42,560 Speaker 2: and to stop letting their husbands die. Oh and that's 860 00:42:42,600 --> 00:42:44,960 Speaker 2: the line where I'm like, wait, you said no women allowed, 861 00:42:44,960 --> 00:42:47,040 Speaker 2: but their oath is like, let's stop letting husbands die. 862 00:42:47,040 --> 00:42:49,479 Speaker 2: And I'm not. I mean, I don't know. Maybe they're queer, 863 00:42:49,480 --> 00:42:51,200 Speaker 2: but like I feel like that would have come up. 864 00:42:51,880 --> 00:42:52,279 Speaker 1: I don't know. 865 00:42:53,760 --> 00:42:57,000 Speaker 2: And this was a war basically to prevent the creation 866 00:42:57,080 --> 00:43:01,360 Speaker 2: of a state, to preserve the lineage clan structure. Along 867 00:43:01,400 --> 00:43:03,200 Speaker 2: the way. They put a lot of work, but not 868 00:43:03,280 --> 00:43:05,799 Speaker 2: like infinite work into making sure the war captives would 869 00:43:05,800 --> 00:43:08,279 Speaker 2: be returned to their families. They were like very into like, no, no, 870 00:43:08,320 --> 00:43:11,040 Speaker 2: we ran some people back instead of selling them away overseas. 871 00:43:11,880 --> 00:43:13,799 Speaker 2: This did not turn into a like let's free all 872 00:43:13,840 --> 00:43:17,759 Speaker 2: the slaves thing. And they went to war and they 873 00:43:17,800 --> 00:43:21,279 Speaker 2: won first. At first they win, they trapped the high 874 00:43:21,360 --> 00:43:24,400 Speaker 2: king in his mountain fortress, and the piece from what 875 00:43:24,440 --> 00:43:26,920 Speaker 2: they originally offered. They're like, hey, you can have one port, 876 00:43:27,080 --> 00:43:30,080 Speaker 2: but just stop fucking taking everything over. And they agreed 877 00:43:30,080 --> 00:43:32,200 Speaker 2: to those terms. But then they break the truce and 878 00:43:32,239 --> 00:43:34,320 Speaker 2: the war goes on for years. It lasts from seventeen 879 00:43:34,360 --> 00:43:39,840 Speaker 2: twelve to seventeen twenty. Eventually the new confederation, the Betsimisaraka, 880 00:43:40,800 --> 00:43:45,120 Speaker 2: they win. During this war, the pirates in the coastal towns, 881 00:43:45,520 --> 00:43:47,279 Speaker 2: some of them maybe went and fought and stuff, but 882 00:43:47,360 --> 00:43:50,120 Speaker 2: like overall they're kind of staying out of it, except 883 00:43:50,120 --> 00:43:54,280 Speaker 2: they're helping the rebellion behind the scenes. The pirates pretended 884 00:43:54,280 --> 00:43:56,640 Speaker 2: to play both sides, but they supported the rebellion. They 885 00:43:56,640 --> 00:43:59,120 Speaker 2: sold over priced muskets to the enemy in order to 886 00:43:59,160 --> 00:44:02,360 Speaker 2: get prisoners free, and then supplied the rebels more honestly, 887 00:44:03,400 --> 00:44:06,080 Speaker 2: and this is like, this would be such a fucking 888 00:44:06,160 --> 00:44:08,600 Speaker 2: good setting. I would watch the shit out of a 889 00:44:08,840 --> 00:44:11,840 Speaker 2: long ass series set in this war. Hell's yes, Hell's yes, 890 00:44:11,880 --> 00:44:17,280 Speaker 2: you're talking about like some guns, because there's some guns available, 891 00:44:17,440 --> 00:44:20,359 Speaker 2: but that mostly really shitty guns because the colonial center 892 00:44:20,360 --> 00:44:24,640 Speaker 2: doesn't like sending it's good guns out overseas. But Ratsimlajo 893 00:44:25,320 --> 00:44:27,920 Speaker 2: he actually has some really good guns, and so like 894 00:44:28,360 --> 00:44:30,400 Speaker 2: that's one of the main reasons that they win. And 895 00:44:30,400 --> 00:44:33,040 Speaker 2: then there's this whole thing about how like it's still 896 00:44:33,080 --> 00:44:36,239 Speaker 2: the like heroic warfare where there's a lot of like 897 00:44:36,320 --> 00:44:38,560 Speaker 2: one on one fights and duels in the middle of 898 00:44:38,600 --> 00:44:42,480 Speaker 2: battles and shit, while mixed with modern warfare where the 899 00:44:42,600 --> 00:44:46,160 Speaker 2: like overall grand strategy was around disruption of supply lines. 900 00:44:46,160 --> 00:44:49,560 Speaker 2: And it's just like it's like it's like a strategy dream. 901 00:44:49,560 --> 00:44:52,960 Speaker 3: Like, so it's the exact moment where everything is changing, 902 00:44:53,000 --> 00:44:55,440 Speaker 3: but where you still could possibly have this notion in 903 00:44:55,440 --> 00:44:56,960 Speaker 3: your head that warfare was romantic. 904 00:44:57,600 --> 00:45:00,480 Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's not near the colonial center and no 905 00:45:00,880 --> 00:45:04,600 Speaker 2: neither side is armed by the colonial center, so you 906 00:45:04,640 --> 00:45:10,880 Speaker 2: have yeah, and uh. Along the way, Ratsimalajo during the 907 00:45:10,920 --> 00:45:14,160 Speaker 2: first Truce, he's made the high king of the whole confederation. 908 00:45:14,440 --> 00:45:17,319 Speaker 2: That's what everyone says but there's no evidence to back 909 00:45:17,360 --> 00:45:20,360 Speaker 2: that up that he actually took any there's a lot 910 00:45:20,400 --> 00:45:23,600 Speaker 2: of there's no state formation that ever forms, there's no 911 00:45:23,680 --> 00:45:27,120 Speaker 2: sense that he centralized any control, and other contemporary sources 912 00:45:27,160 --> 00:45:29,520 Speaker 2: are very clear that he was just one war chief 913 00:45:29,560 --> 00:45:32,480 Speaker 2: among others, or even there's multiple things that are like, 914 00:45:32,480 --> 00:45:35,359 Speaker 2: oh no, here's this other guy's second in command. Oh shit, 915 00:45:35,760 --> 00:45:37,719 Speaker 2: he might not even been a war chief at all. Right, 916 00:45:37,880 --> 00:45:39,920 Speaker 2: there's like two different guys that he's like, Ah, is 917 00:45:39,920 --> 00:45:43,000 Speaker 2: that guy's second in command? Like he is the guy 918 00:45:43,040 --> 00:45:45,120 Speaker 2: that they're like, Oh, you're the guy. That's fine, we 919 00:45:45,200 --> 00:45:45,719 Speaker 2: needed the. 920 00:45:45,760 --> 00:45:48,440 Speaker 3: Guy, Like you're the charismatic figurehead. 921 00:45:49,280 --> 00:45:52,560 Speaker 2: Yeah, only I think that to present to the outside world. 922 00:45:52,920 --> 00:45:53,680 Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. 923 00:45:53,719 --> 00:45:56,319 Speaker 2: Although after the war, it does seem like he kind 924 00:45:56,320 --> 00:45:59,239 Speaker 2: of becomes one of these sort of you know, like 925 00:45:59,320 --> 00:46:02,000 Speaker 2: quote unquote and I don't mean to when I say 926 00:46:02,040 --> 00:46:03,719 Speaker 2: quote unquote kings, I'm not trying to put it down. 927 00:46:03,719 --> 00:46:07,280 Speaker 2: I'm rather saying, like, fuck the European assumption that everyone's 928 00:46:07,280 --> 00:46:12,080 Speaker 2: a king, you know, and the rumors in Europe are 929 00:46:12,080 --> 00:46:15,240 Speaker 2: that there's this great high king and this powerful kingdom 930 00:46:15,760 --> 00:46:18,840 Speaker 2: because they're doing the pirate thing, They're like, got powerful 931 00:46:18,920 --> 00:46:23,080 Speaker 2: ruler leave us the fuck alone, and they win, and 932 00:46:23,160 --> 00:46:28,040 Speaker 2: for thirty years there's peace in this confederation. Ratsimalajo is 933 00:46:28,120 --> 00:46:30,200 Speaker 2: the king in his way. He has a rich court, 934 00:46:30,440 --> 00:46:33,320 Speaker 2: but lots of people have rich courts. Again, the greatest 935 00:46:33,360 --> 00:46:36,400 Speaker 2: treasure hall in history has come here and couldn't be sold, 936 00:46:36,520 --> 00:46:36,719 Speaker 2: you know. 937 00:46:37,160 --> 00:46:40,160 Speaker 3: So everyone is hanging around with rubies and diamonds, and 938 00:46:40,360 --> 00:46:43,360 Speaker 3: there are liberated women wearing their love charms to the ocean, 939 00:46:43,480 --> 00:46:44,959 Speaker 3: and it is the best party ever. 940 00:46:45,760 --> 00:46:49,000 Speaker 2: Yeah, or none of that's true, you know, It's like 941 00:46:49,040 --> 00:46:51,040 Speaker 2: it's like, yeah, it's like seems like that is that 942 00:46:51,120 --> 00:46:53,360 Speaker 2: is a very likely way of reading it, And I 943 00:46:53,360 --> 00:46:55,040 Speaker 2: suspect it's like one of those things where it's like 944 00:46:55,520 --> 00:46:58,120 Speaker 2: I suspect a lot of people experience the society that way, 945 00:46:58,120 --> 00:47:00,680 Speaker 2: and other people experience the society very differently, you know. 946 00:47:01,640 --> 00:47:03,520 Speaker 2: And with his power as one of the kings, he 947 00:47:03,520 --> 00:47:06,239 Speaker 2: can summon soldiers, but like only some of them, he 948 00:47:06,280 --> 00:47:11,120 Speaker 2: has no particular executive power. Malagasy culture in this confederation 949 00:47:11,600 --> 00:47:17,000 Speaker 2: becomes explicitly more egalitarian than Malagasy culture elsewhere. The priest 950 00:47:17,120 --> 00:47:19,680 Speaker 2: caste and the warrior cast are more or less gone. 951 00:47:20,400 --> 00:47:23,239 Speaker 2: Clans are no longer ranked against one another. There is 952 00:47:23,239 --> 00:47:27,279 Speaker 2: an exception. The Zana Malata is the sort of new 953 00:47:27,320 --> 00:47:31,000 Speaker 2: class formed by the mixed race descendants of pirates, and 954 00:47:31,040 --> 00:47:34,399 Speaker 2: they form a sort of nobility, and that's why there's 955 00:47:34,480 --> 00:47:37,560 Speaker 2: kind of this like rumor. That's why the legend is 956 00:47:37,600 --> 00:47:39,359 Speaker 2: that these are the people who like fought to build 957 00:47:39,360 --> 00:47:43,759 Speaker 2: the confederation, whereas like, they almost certainly weren't. But what's 958 00:47:43,800 --> 00:47:47,840 Speaker 2: interesting is that the raising of them to power was 959 00:47:47,880 --> 00:47:51,320 Speaker 2: actually the raising of their mothers to power, right, because 960 00:47:51,320 --> 00:47:53,960 Speaker 2: they're children at this time, and so it's all of 961 00:47:54,000 --> 00:47:57,120 Speaker 2: the women of the cities who are like, all right, 962 00:47:57,640 --> 00:48:00,520 Speaker 2: we're going to build this like weird new merchant nobility. 963 00:48:01,480 --> 00:48:05,360 Speaker 2: And yeah, they created a mock kingdom which was already 964 00:48:05,360 --> 00:48:07,200 Speaker 2: more a galitarian than what we fucking live in now. 965 00:48:07,960 --> 00:48:12,640 Speaker 2: Decisions continue to be made in consensus based assemblies. Unfortunately, 966 00:48:13,680 --> 00:48:16,320 Speaker 2: pirates were cleared out of the area by Western European 967 00:48:16,360 --> 00:48:19,040 Speaker 2: powers around seventeen twenty four, and so the slave trade 968 00:48:19,040 --> 00:48:22,680 Speaker 2: comes back. So even during this like a galitarian, beautiful confederation, 969 00:48:23,360 --> 00:48:27,240 Speaker 2: slave trades back. And then the Great Confederation fell apart 970 00:48:27,560 --> 00:48:32,000 Speaker 2: after Ratsimalaju died, and the argument that the most likely 971 00:48:32,080 --> 00:48:35,160 Speaker 2: reason why it fell apart when he died. Is that 972 00:48:35,560 --> 00:48:39,320 Speaker 2: the Zanomalada the new sort of powerful nobility or whatever. 973 00:48:40,080 --> 00:48:43,280 Speaker 2: A lot of them don't want their kids to even 974 00:48:43,320 --> 00:48:46,600 Speaker 2: marry other Zanamlada. They want their kids to marry foreigners. 975 00:48:46,760 --> 00:48:50,600 Speaker 2: They want their kids to marry hey, because there's this 976 00:48:50,719 --> 00:48:56,400 Speaker 2: whole concept there of the sort of like the foreigners 977 00:48:56,400 --> 00:48:59,080 Speaker 2: this interesting and powerful person worth bringing in. They bring 978 00:48:59,080 --> 00:49:01,279 Speaker 2: in the riches and do all of this stuff, right, 979 00:49:01,800 --> 00:49:04,520 Speaker 2: and so there's this like, if you marry a foreigner, 980 00:49:04,880 --> 00:49:10,040 Speaker 2: we will become more powerful. Unfortunately, what instead happened is 981 00:49:10,080 --> 00:49:12,920 Speaker 2: that enough people who had enough power married enough foreigners 982 00:49:12,920 --> 00:49:15,760 Speaker 2: that they fell under foreign influence and basically betrayed the island. 983 00:49:16,680 --> 00:49:21,120 Speaker 2: So that's how it ended. But along the way they 984 00:49:21,160 --> 00:49:24,279 Speaker 2: did this like crazy experiment that was like kind of 985 00:49:24,320 --> 00:49:26,600 Speaker 2: weird and kind of misogynistic at its core, but also 986 00:49:26,920 --> 00:49:31,840 Speaker 2: fascinating and egalitarian. And it's so messy and it's so interesting. 987 00:49:31,960 --> 00:49:33,000 Speaker 2: That's how I feel about it. 988 00:49:33,680 --> 00:49:37,000 Speaker 3: And it's so interesting on two levels, right, Like there's 989 00:49:37,080 --> 00:49:40,120 Speaker 3: the the level of the actual fact, like all those 990 00:49:40,160 --> 00:49:43,560 Speaker 3: fucking alliances, like a spy for a con man, that 991 00:49:44,200 --> 00:49:47,640 Speaker 3: people dripping rubies, like all of the stuff that's unknown. 992 00:49:47,680 --> 00:49:50,560 Speaker 3: But then there's also the cultural residence right of the legend. 993 00:49:51,040 --> 00:49:54,080 Speaker 3: I mean, I just remember like being this weirdo, you know, 994 00:49:54,239 --> 00:49:57,520 Speaker 3: kid hanging on the anarchist bookstore because I lived literally 995 00:49:57,520 --> 00:49:59,960 Speaker 3: in one room with two roommates that we divided up, 996 00:50:00,120 --> 00:50:02,279 Speaker 3: curtains that had no window, and a fucking suck, so 997 00:50:02,280 --> 00:50:05,319 Speaker 3: I need to be in the anarchist bookstore and you know, 998 00:50:05,880 --> 00:50:09,080 Speaker 3: reading sort of I'm not going to call them history books, 999 00:50:09,080 --> 00:50:13,120 Speaker 3: but basically like these sort of cultural the like flickerings, 1000 00:50:13,160 --> 00:50:16,359 Speaker 3: the cultural flickerings produced by this and being inspired as 1001 00:50:16,760 --> 00:50:18,640 Speaker 3: on a different way to live. And I think that 1002 00:50:19,680 --> 00:50:21,719 Speaker 3: something I've thought a lot about when I'm trying to 1003 00:50:21,719 --> 00:50:24,279 Speaker 3: write history. It's like there's the real truth, which is 1004 00:50:24,320 --> 00:50:27,480 Speaker 3: always more messy and sordid and treacherous and fucked up 1005 00:50:27,520 --> 00:50:30,360 Speaker 3: that you can possibly imagine, and has no clear moral lesson. 1006 00:50:30,719 --> 00:50:33,520 Speaker 3: But then there's also the poetic afterlife, which often does 1007 00:50:33,600 --> 00:50:36,600 Speaker 3: have a clear moral lesson because it's imposed on that 1008 00:50:36,600 --> 00:50:39,799 Speaker 3: that influences so many other things in the future and 1009 00:50:40,080 --> 00:50:42,000 Speaker 3: is fascinating in its own way. And I always think 1010 00:50:42,040 --> 00:50:45,000 Speaker 3: the interaction between how do I put it, the beautiful 1011 00:50:45,000 --> 00:50:50,440 Speaker 3: and inspirational bullshit that that drives the presence versus the twisted, 1012 00:50:51,800 --> 00:50:55,279 Speaker 3: treacherous but fascinating and human story of the past. That 1013 00:50:55,320 --> 00:50:58,719 Speaker 3: interaction obsesses me and I feel it's so much here. 1014 00:50:59,000 --> 00:51:01,280 Speaker 2: No, that makes so much sense, because that is absolutely 1015 00:51:01,360 --> 00:51:04,520 Speaker 2: what's happening. And the thing that I love honestly about 1016 00:51:04,520 --> 00:51:06,800 Speaker 2: Graver's work, and then also just one of things I 1017 00:51:06,800 --> 00:51:10,120 Speaker 2: love about fiction is just saying, like, look, I'm not 1018 00:51:10,160 --> 00:51:12,359 Speaker 2: going to paint a better society, I'm just gonna paint 1019 00:51:12,360 --> 00:51:15,120 Speaker 2: a different one. Or maybe it's better, but it's not perfect, 1020 00:51:15,520 --> 00:51:18,080 Speaker 2: because one, there is no perfect with society. And two, 1021 00:51:19,120 --> 00:51:22,319 Speaker 2: just like things don't have to be the way they 1022 00:51:22,360 --> 00:51:26,040 Speaker 2: are because they can be different. They have been different before, 1023 00:51:26,200 --> 00:51:29,440 Speaker 2: they will be different again. It's something we need to 1024 00:51:29,480 --> 00:51:33,480 Speaker 2: know because, to constantly quote our Solo Gwin, we live 1025 00:51:33,560 --> 00:51:36,480 Speaker 2: under capitalism. Its power seems inescapable, so do the divine 1026 00:51:36,520 --> 00:51:39,440 Speaker 2: right of kings. We struggle to imagine that things could 1027 00:51:39,440 --> 00:51:42,560 Speaker 2: be different. And one thing I love about Graver's anthropology 1028 00:51:42,600 --> 00:51:46,279 Speaker 2: is an anthropology in general and specifically like anthropology that 1029 00:51:46,400 --> 00:51:49,480 Speaker 2: stops looking at things from such a white European point 1030 00:51:49,480 --> 00:51:52,239 Speaker 2: of view, even though Graver's you know, a white man, 1031 00:51:52,239 --> 00:51:54,640 Speaker 2: but like is trying to undo a lot of that 1032 00:51:54,760 --> 00:51:58,840 Speaker 2: work is just saying things can be fucking different, And 1033 00:51:58,920 --> 00:51:59,320 Speaker 2: I think. 1034 00:51:59,200 --> 00:52:02,440 Speaker 3: It's so essential because the way the things are is 1035 00:52:02,640 --> 00:52:05,480 Speaker 3: collapsing around us. I mean, you were just you were 1036 00:52:05,480 --> 00:52:10,200 Speaker 3: just delivering mutual aid in this like unforeseen climate disaster. 1037 00:52:10,320 --> 00:52:12,759 Speaker 3: We're literally places that are so high above sea level 1038 00:52:12,840 --> 00:52:15,840 Speaker 3: or seeing the houses being wiped away. So it's like 1039 00:52:16,520 --> 00:52:19,239 Speaker 3: the physical, practical reality of the world is telling us 1040 00:52:19,280 --> 00:52:21,000 Speaker 3: that things are going to change, and so we have 1041 00:52:21,120 --> 00:52:24,200 Speaker 3: to realize that there are other ways of ourselves living. 1042 00:52:24,840 --> 00:52:27,279 Speaker 2: Yeah, and one of those ways is we could have 1043 00:52:27,320 --> 00:52:29,560 Speaker 2: fucking granaries where if you don't have enough food, you 1044 00:52:29,600 --> 00:52:30,960 Speaker 2: can just go get food at it. 1045 00:52:31,640 --> 00:52:33,600 Speaker 3: That would be the yeah, yeah we can. 1046 00:52:33,680 --> 00:52:36,120 Speaker 2: You don't even have to declaric communism or whatever. You 1047 00:52:36,120 --> 00:52:38,640 Speaker 2: can have a weird non egalitarian society where people just 1048 00:52:38,719 --> 00:52:40,960 Speaker 2: don't fucking starve to death and no one is means 1049 00:52:41,000 --> 00:52:42,360 Speaker 2: testing people getting food. 1050 00:52:43,280 --> 00:52:45,040 Speaker 3: Yeah, we could have that. We could have that. 1051 00:52:45,960 --> 00:52:51,160 Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, what people can also have is information about 1052 00:52:51,200 --> 00:52:53,640 Speaker 2: how to follow you and your work. 1053 00:52:54,960 --> 00:52:59,160 Speaker 3: So you can go see my art at mollikrabapple dot com, 1054 00:52:59,239 --> 00:53:01,879 Speaker 3: or you can follow Instagram, which where I post all 1055 00:53:01,920 --> 00:53:07,040 Speaker 3: of my obsessive, obsessive drawings and I'm supposed to plug 1056 00:53:07,120 --> 00:53:09,560 Speaker 3: my two projects. So I have a book about the 1057 00:53:09,600 --> 00:53:14,440 Speaker 3: Jewish Labor Boond, a Jewish anti Zionist revolutionary party that 1058 00:53:14,480 --> 00:53:16,839 Speaker 3: I've been working on for five years. It's not coming 1059 00:53:16,880 --> 00:53:17,719 Speaker 3: out for another year. 1060 00:53:18,280 --> 00:53:19,120 Speaker 2: Books are like that. 1061 00:53:19,680 --> 00:53:21,239 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I just believe in it. Believe in it. 1062 00:53:21,239 --> 00:53:23,600 Speaker 3: It's going to come out. It's called here, where we 1063 00:53:23,640 --> 00:53:24,640 Speaker 3: live is Our Country. 1064 00:53:25,120 --> 00:53:26,640 Speaker 2: And that's such a good title. 1065 00:53:26,840 --> 00:53:30,200 Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you. It was the Boons slogan, and 1066 00:53:30,239 --> 00:53:32,359 Speaker 3: it was such a defiant thing, right because they're living 1067 00:53:32,400 --> 00:53:35,200 Speaker 3: in these countries that are so racist, that want nothing 1068 00:53:35,640 --> 00:53:38,359 Speaker 3: more than to expel them, and they're like, no, here 1069 00:53:38,440 --> 00:53:40,120 Speaker 3: is our fucking land. And if you don't like it, 1070 00:53:40,120 --> 00:53:41,160 Speaker 3: we have brass knuckles. 1071 00:53:41,560 --> 00:53:42,400 Speaker 2: Oh yeah. 1072 00:53:42,440 --> 00:53:45,320 Speaker 3: And then my other book that I'm doing with Indian 1073 00:53:45,440 --> 00:53:49,760 Speaker 3: historian Ruby Lal is a children's book about nor Jahan 1074 00:53:49,960 --> 00:53:53,520 Speaker 3: that Ruby is writing and I'm illustrating. It's called Tiger 1075 00:53:53,600 --> 00:53:57,160 Speaker 3: Slayer because nor Jehan hunted tigers with a musket from 1076 00:53:57,160 --> 00:53:58,000 Speaker 3: the back of elephants. 1077 00:53:59,160 --> 00:54:01,520 Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's cool. 1078 00:54:01,920 --> 00:54:03,160 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, what do you say? 1079 00:54:03,400 --> 00:54:07,839 Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm on tour. If you want to see me talk, 1080 00:54:07,960 --> 00:54:10,040 Speaker 2: I'm going to be reading fairy tales set in the 1081 00:54:10,040 --> 00:54:11,959 Speaker 2: same world as my book, because I decided it would 1082 00:54:11,960 --> 00:54:13,680 Speaker 2: be boring to go around and just read a part 1083 00:54:13,680 --> 00:54:15,560 Speaker 2: of my own book that you might have already read 1084 00:54:15,560 --> 00:54:17,319 Speaker 2: by now. It's a book called The Sapling Cage about 1085 00:54:17,320 --> 00:54:20,719 Speaker 2: a young trendswitch who has to disguise herself as a 1086 00:54:20,719 --> 00:54:22,439 Speaker 2: girl to go off and join the witches, and then 1087 00:54:22,960 --> 00:54:25,800 Speaker 2: has to defend the world from what's a thinly veiled 1088 00:54:25,840 --> 00:54:28,320 Speaker 2: metaphor for climate change and the destruction of the environment. 1089 00:54:29,000 --> 00:54:31,000 Speaker 2: And I will be reading fairy tales from that at 1090 00:54:31,000 --> 00:54:33,640 Speaker 2: a whole bunch of different places around the US. And 1091 00:54:33,880 --> 00:54:35,880 Speaker 2: if I'm not coming to your city specifically, it is 1092 00:54:35,920 --> 00:54:40,279 Speaker 2: because I dislike you personally, and that's the way it is. 1093 00:54:41,000 --> 00:54:42,879 Speaker 2: But you can check out my tour dates by going 1094 00:54:42,880 --> 00:54:45,920 Speaker 2: to my substack or my Instagram. My website's down so 1095 00:54:45,960 --> 00:54:48,040 Speaker 2: you can't go there. So if you guys, thing you 1096 00:54:48,040 --> 00:54:49,760 Speaker 2: want to plug, Yeah, I'll plug. 1097 00:54:49,800 --> 00:54:52,560 Speaker 1: A sixteenth Minute of Fame host by Jimmy Loftus. We've 1098 00:54:52,600 --> 00:54:55,520 Speaker 1: got a fun one coming out in this next month 1099 00:54:55,600 --> 00:54:59,480 Speaker 1: or so, all about viral hippo moo dang and why 1100 00:54:59,760 --> 00:55:02,280 Speaker 1: me be Zoo's not a great idea? 1101 00:55:02,680 --> 00:55:07,200 Speaker 2: Maybe? Hell yeah, I love how Jamie takes the like, hahaha, 1102 00:55:07,400 --> 00:55:10,520 Speaker 2: here's the funny, quirky thing. Now let's learn how the 1103 00:55:10,520 --> 00:55:11,640 Speaker 2: fucking world works. 1104 00:55:12,160 --> 00:55:17,399 Speaker 1: It's literally that. That is literally the episode. But yeah, all. 1105 00:55:17,360 --> 00:55:19,239 Speaker 2: Right, talk to you all next week. 1106 00:55:19,760 --> 00:55:20,719 Speaker 3: Bye, you see you later. 1107 00:55:26,120 --> 00:55:28,600 Speaker 1: Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff is a production of 1108 00:55:28,640 --> 00:55:31,760 Speaker 1: cool Zone Media. Or more podcasts on cool Zone Media, 1109 00:55:31,920 --> 00:55:35,160 Speaker 1: visit our website foolzonemedia dot com, or check us out 1110 00:55:35,239 --> 00:55:38,400 Speaker 1: on the iHeartRadio app, app A Podcasts, or wherever you 1111 00:55:38,440 --> 00:55:39,440 Speaker 1: get your podcasts.