"The Mesopotamian Venice: The Lost Floating Homes of Iraq" Topic
6 Posts
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Tango01 | 19 Dec 2014 11:46 a.m. PST |
"There's a lot of talk nowadays about how to live more sustainably, but what surprises me is how complicated people choose to make this process. If you really want to live in a sustainable home and lead a sustainable lifestyle, you need not look too further – just go back to the roots. Sadly, the world right now is on the brink of a cultural amnesia. A language is dying every two weeks, urbanization is taking momentum once more and every nation's heritage is slowly eroding away. One needs only to learn about the Ma'dan to understand what I'm jabbering about. The Ma'dan, or Marsh Arabs inhabit the marshy area at the junction of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Iraq. They are a seminomadic tribal people with their own distinct culture, whose way of life has changed very little in the past couple thousand years. They're called Arabs of the marsh because they live in marshes created by the annual flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Their whole way of life revolves around the marshes – they live in floating houses made entirely of reeds harvested from the open water and Qasab , a kind of giant grass that looks like bamboo, which can grow as tall as 25 feet (7.6 meters)…" link Main page link Good view for Post-Apoc? Amicalement Armand |
Redroom | 19 Dec 2014 3:51 p.m. PST |
That is pretty amazing. I wonder if the inclusion of bamboo would make it more stabile/buoyant. It almost looks like you could possibly grow some plants on the structures (flat areas around the building), traveling garden to augment hunting/gathering. |
Tango01 | 19 Dec 2014 9:51 p.m. PST |
Happy you enjoyed it my friend!. (smile) Amicalement Armand |
Muerto | 20 Dec 2014 1:04 p.m. PST |
The fallacy that life was better 'closer to nature'. A child died here last week because the mother thought raw milk, being closer to nature, would be better. What's the life expectancy of this applauded marsh lifestyle? Do people so living often die of preventable diseases, starvation or violence? What's the infant mortality rate? Is this author going to live there? "… and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." |
etotheipi | 21 Dec 2014 10:11 a.m. PST |
What's the life expectancy of this applauded marsh lifestyle? Actually, in this case, not as bad as you would think. Their "applauded marsh lifestyle" is supplemented by food, imported medical care, and medicines from outside. In modern days, it is pretty much impossible to not be influenced (for good or bad, whatever they mean) and supported by the major industrial movements of the day. It takes a dedicated, conscious effort to pull it off. I agree with Muerto about the author over romanticizing the lifestyle, and that from someone very glad that this group has been able to preserve as much of their ancestral culture as they have/want. ----- To the OP question, dammmit, another project for "The List"(TM). |
infojunky | 26 Dec 2014 4:02 p.m. PST |
Wow, I hit this from the PA board, while the article is preachy I could see a number of terrain sets. The floating village isn't a stranger to these boards as an idea for a battle ground, nor have the related vehicles/figures. My biggest roadblock is what to use for floatation barrels in 15mm. |
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