Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2018 August 30

= August 30 =

Jeremiah Evarts Chamberlain
I’m trying to find what novel by Jeremiah Evarts Chamberlain is mentioned here?KAVEBEAR (talk) 08:47, 30 August 2018 (UTC)
 * There is not a lot on the web about him. It seems he went by the name "J. Evarts Chamberlain" or sometimes just "Evarts Chamberlain", and there's some interference in the research from two other people with similar names, Jeremiah Evarts was a notable missionary for whom your guy was named, and there's also a "John Evarts Chamberlain" that appears to be a different person.  Other than your book, I only find This newspaper discussing his memorial service in a short blurb, This yearbook mentions on page 10 that he attended Williston Northampton School in 1846, and there's not much else I am finding.  -- Jayron 32 10:44, 30 August 2018 (UTC)
 * John Evarts was his nephew. Here is what I found on him. It is still not much and doesn’t answer the question about the novel he wrote. Can anyone help find concrete sources of his service in th Civil War. This said he served in the 7th Wisconsin Volunteer while this States he served in Captain Edmond’s Volunteer Company (whatever that is). While the book I linked above States he was served on a Mississippi steamboat. So context wise, Chamberlain seems to be a Union military chaplain who served in a Wisconsin or Michigan regiment or both and saw action at the Battle of Shiloh. He attended Harvard Law and lived in St. Joseph, Michigan after the war until returning to Honolulu in 1873. Can anyone with a better research knowledge of the Civil War find any more information him? KAVEBEAR (talk) 16:54, 30 August 2018 (UTC)

What does Captain Edmond’s Volunteer Company mean? Which regiment is that? KAVEBEAR (talk) 01:42, 4 September 2018 (UTC)

Kitchener's three salaries
In Asquith by Roy Jenkins, we read of Kitchener that "his special status, as Sir Philip Magnus has informed us, was symbolised not only by his sitting on the right hand of the Prime Minister in Cabinet, but also by his drawing three salaries". One salary would of course be that of Secretary of State for War, but what were the other two? DuncanHill (talk) 10:37, 30 August 2018 (UTC)
 * He was still earning his Field Marshal's crust, and he had a "special allowance" of £1140 a year. Source: . --Antiquary (talk) 12:47, 30 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Thank you. Do we know what a Field Marshal got in those days? And, for that matter, a Secretary of State for War? I see our article Philip Magnus is not about the author, who is at Philip Magnus-Allcroft. I'll have a go through the incoming links to sort them out. DuncanHill (talk) 13:15, 30 August 2018 (UTC)
 * So he only had to sit in one place but had three salaries? I was robbed, I once had three different jobs with three desks on different floors of a building - but they only gave me one salary ;-) Dmcq (talk) 17:02, 30 August 2018 (UTC)
 * This referenced article says: "In the British Army of 1914, the commander in chief was paid at an inclusive rate (excepting field and travelling pay) of £4,500 per year. A general received £800 per year".
 * I had thought that not being an active officer, Kitchener might be on half-pay or a pension, but it appears that " field marshals never retire, and this is a way of rewarding them for the great services which they have rendered to the country in order to reach that exalted rank". Hansard 1956 Alansplodge (talk) 17:18, 30 August 2018 (UTC)
 * That google books link does not display the text for me. The link to Hansard is here, and talks of field marshals being on half pay in 1956. We still don't know what a field marshal in the First World War would have been paid, or whether Kitchener got full- or half-pay for it, nor do we know what he got as secretary of state. DuncanHill (talk) 10:46, 31 August 2018 (UTC)

OK, I found this in Hansard from March 1916, Arthur Lynch and William Cowan asked about Kitchener's salary, David Lloyd George, as Minister of Munitions answered "On the outbreak of War, Lord Kitchener was in receipt of £6,140 a year, which was the salary drawn by the British Agent and Consul-General in Egypt while on leave. On his acceptance of the post of Secretary of State for War this salary was continued." DuncanHill (talk) 10:50, 31 August 2018 (UTC)
 * According to this a Secretary of State at the time would have received £5,000. This, with the "special allowance" of £1,140 would make the £6,140 that Lloyd George referred to. We still don't know what his military salary was. DuncanHill (talk) 16:43, 2 September 2018 (UTC)

Prayer as Cultural universal?
I was expecting to find prayers included in the long list of cultural universals. However, apparently it's either implicit in things like "attempts to control weather" or "Death rituals, mourning" or it's simply not really a universal. Has some anthropologist an opinion on this? --Doroletho (talk) 17:32, 30 August 2018 (UTC)
 * As far as I know, you would only need one significant cultural group that doesn't pray to make it not a universal. I believe that Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology does not include prayer.  -- Jayron 32 17:42, 30 August 2018 (UTC)


 * I think Meditation is the real "cultural universal" in that sense since also rituals and dances, from Tea ceremony over Sufi Dance up to aboriginal Songlines, are forms of meditation and prayer is actually just another variation of meditation common to the Abrahamic religions civilizations. --Kharon (talk) 11:42, 31 August 2018 (UTC)
 * I think "prayer" is subsumed under myth and ritual. "I asked the gods to make my crops grow, and they did, so they must have heard my request." Prayer as a distinct "thing" is a bit Abrahamic religion-centric; many religions (as noted by Kharon) involve ritualistic dancing, trances, etc., which are intended to commune with gods/spirits/etc., but it's hard to point to a specific element of these and say "that's prayer". (Cultural universal could do with some work. That whole big list appears to be pulled from a single book, and it's unclear whether the items are intended to be an exhaustive list or examples of each category.) --47.146.63.87 (talk) 07:31, 1 September 2018 (UTC)