At my age I generally find actually doing the sex too much of a bother. Oh, how I've changed. But I still find the theory of sex and how it is done in various manners very interesting.
I was recently reminded of the Afghan cameleers in Australia in the 1800s who delivered goods packed on camels throughout outback Australia, outback meaning desert.
My sixty second research devotion did tell me some things.
They as foreign types were up for racist media criticism. The Afghans, who were actually a conglomeration of Moslems from various countries were soundly vilified for no reason I could see. They were just so important in the the 19th century to building railways and telephone cabling to connect our large continent.
I am not sure if it was formal or not but some stayed for three years before returning to their homeland. Others stayed for their life, and some being relatively young and unattached, they would have liked a bit of the jiggy jig, or rumpy pumpy if you prefer.
Some formed relationships with Australian aboriginal women and quelle horreur, some married white women, who have may or not be called harlots for their love of a foreign type. White women certainly lost respect for marrying a Moslem but desire knows no bounds.
Some people's DNA tests must be turning up some rather interesting results as they discover they have some Arab or Indian genes.
All so interesting and I'm sure someone has written a book about the Afghan cameleers and their connections to Australian society as it was back then.
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It's interesting that the North-South long-distance train is called the Ghan. I'm told it costs a fortune.
ReplyDeleteTasker, that is correct. Once the line a decade or so ago was extended all the way from Adelaide in the south to Darwin in the north, its passenger operations were handed to a private company and it is certainly no longer public transport, with the same going for east coast to west coast train line.
DeleteFrowned on or not I am quite certain that you are right and there was exchange of bodily fluids and sometimes genes. If I came across the book you describe in your final sentence I would assuredly read it.
ReplyDeleteEC, it would be interesting to read and know more about the personal lives of cameleers. As someone mentions in comments below, their would have been prostitution happening too, to satisfy the cameleers.
DeleteThe way you put it is similar to what I used to think. Mateship seems odd from evolution point of view
ReplyDeleteRoentare, just like swans who were thought to be faithful to their life partners, gene testing tells us otherwise.
DeleteBack then a protestant marrying a catholic was shocking - one can only imagine the outrage at marrying a moslem or person of colour (they would have struggled to decide which was worse). We owe so much of our current way of life to the Afghans, Chinese, Indians, and so on. And yet a large portion of our population still clings to the white is right.
ReplyDeleteMerlot, maybe a proddy marrying a mick might have been worse than a white marrying a Moslem. I have two family members who should not investigate their genes, one quite old and one somewhat younger, and then that goes to the children too. Immigration has been good for our country but it does need to be controlled, from not too many now, to increase the numbers, to not too many from this one country. I think our immigration policy for refugees has failed on my last point.
DeleteIt's how we all mix up and rid ourselves, one fine day, of our differences because we're so mixed up genetically from the mating game eventually.
ReplyDeleteStrayer, we don't end up as blended and bland coffee coloured people but mosaic people.
Delete"who have may or not be called harlots for their love of a foreign type"
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't be surprised at all that there were prostitutes that serviced these Afghan workers. That some exchange of fluids may have occurred without an exchange of money, well, that wouldn't surprise me either, though it may have happened less often. There are the rules that society sets in place (such as no race-mixing), and the things some people do when the mood strikes (like fraternize outside of their race). It's one reason why social rules changes with the passage of time: not enough people are obeying them.
KIrk, your comment gives me a duh moment. Of course there would have been prostitution and so a blind eye would be turned, rather like happened with your deep south slave areas. Your are right about social rules changing and we have seen many examples in our lifetimes, our assuming you aren't a twink.
DeleteVery interesting back then Andrew, the Afghans and their camels, their women along with other races of people who were hear long ago and the Afghans even left some of their camels here so hence a population of camels in the outback, never did come across many.
ReplyDeleteIndeed interesting Margaret. We were surprised to see wild camels between Broken Hill and Silverton quite a few years ago.
DeleteIt makes me smile to think of camels in Australia. I don't know why.
ReplyDeleteJB, they are just another imported pest species into Australia and there are culls at times, but never elimination. Rabbits, foxes, horses gone wild, pigs, buffalo, deer...all are disastrous for our environment.
DeleteI once met an Afghani with golden eyes and smooth skin. It made the whole concept very modern.
ReplyDeleteWell, I mean, imaginatively speaking
Kylie, yes of course imaginatively speaking, but how interesting. I hope in your imagination it met your expectations.
DeleteUnless an Australian is indigenous, every single one of us is a migrant or the descendent of a migrant. Thankfully.. the gene pool is constantly refreshed.
ReplyDeleteSorry, appearing as anon is awful. Hels
DeleteAnon, I think even our indigenous came from some where else, a few hundreds of thousand years ago. We are all immigrants to everywhere in the world, all traced back to African monkeys, or something like that. Refreshing gene pools is good.
DeleteIf there are men, there will be sexual activity of some kind.
ReplyDeleteMen are such beasts, TP.
DeleteI knew that you had camels there but had no idea how or why they got there. Mixing the genes is a good thing, Andrew.
ReplyDeletePat, it is but no matter how hard I've tried in the past, I've never been successful. Something about biology...whatever.
DeleteI knew about the camels as a point of fact, but I guess that I didn't know the back story on that. It always seems to me though, that when a foreign population flooded into our country, it was always the same. The negroes brought here to be our slaves, the Chinese, the Irish, now we have the same sort of thing going on with latino immigrants. No matter where they came from, they were vilified and treated as less than human. Sad but true.
ReplyDelete