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Category Archives: duelling

‘It’s Pistols at Dawn, Sir!’ (again)

30 Wednesday May 2018

Posted by historianludlow in Aborigines, duelling, History, Russia

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Aborigine, Amor Towles, duelling, Literature, Russia

‘It’s pistols as dawn, Sir!’

Some five years ago, I blogged the question “Whatever happened to duelling?”

to which Paul Bailey replied that the first libel laws were passed to stop people from settling disputes with duels. More recently, American author Amor Towles wrote in his wonderfully perceptive book “A Gentleman in Moscow”: When duelling was first discovered by the Russian officer corps in the early 1700s, they took to it with such enthusiasm that the Tsar had to forbid the practice for fear that there would soon be no one left to lead his troops.

I had always been under the impression that duelling was a historically recent contest between two people to settle a point of honour, and, indeed, my computer’s dictionary backed me up with:  the sense of duelling as a contest to decide a point of honour dates from the early 17th century.

However, last week I participated in a seminar in which one of the speakers, Ray Kerkhove, mentioned that Australia’s Aboriginal people also conducted individual and collective duels under strict rules and fought with their traditional weapons such as spears, boomerangs or fighting sticks. Presumably, the history of their duels dates back much further than the European’s 17th century. 

Maybe our sense of honour has always been an inherent part of our human nature, and more importantly, its defence seems vital to our survival as individuals, communities, or nations.

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  • Smoke on the water
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  • On the origins of the term Lazaret
  • An Innocent Abroad (London and New York)
  • An Innocent Abroad (Japan and Russia)

Recent Comments

Robin on An Innocent Abroad (London and…
glen stephenson on Reminders of Peoples Past – 08…
glen stephenson on Reminders of Peoples Past – 08…
historianludlow on Accessing Peel Island
Ross Cameron on Accessing Peel Island

Archives

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Categories

  • 1960s scene
  • Aborigines
  • Aircraft
  • Art
  • Avebury
  • Bancroft
  • Bath
  • Bee Gees
  • boats
  • Bradford on Avon
  • Bribie Island
  • Brisbane
  • bushfires
  • Caboolture
  • Christmas
  • Cleveland
  • Coins
  • CSIRO
  • CyArk
  • Deception Bay
  • Dromagh
  • Drones
  • duelling
  • Dunwich
  • Electronics
  • Faith
  • Fantome Island
  • film
  • football
  • George Symons Suits
  • Glengariff
  • Google Earth
  • Gustav Dux
  • Heide Museum of Modern Art
  • Historic buildings
  • History
  • Hobart
  • Hogmanay
  • Hong Kong
  • Ian Fairweather
  • Immigration
  • indigenous
  • inebriates
  • Ireland
  • Jack The Ripper
  • jetties
  • jigsaw
  • John Oxley
  • Karl Marx
  • Kastellorizo
  • Kleinschmidt
  • Leprosy
  • Literature
  • London
  • Mallalieu
  • mandala
  • Maryborough
  • Matthew Flinders
  • Memories
  • Metropol Hotel
  • Moreton Bay
  • Moreton Island
  • Moscow
  • Mud Island
  • Museums
  • music
  • National Geographic Magazine
  • New Year
  • Paris
  • Pasternak
  • Pebble Beach
  • Peel Island
  • Petrie
  • Phillip Island
  • Photography
  • Politics
  • Port of Brisbane
  • quarantine
  • Raby Bay
  • Redcliffe
  • Redevelopment
  • Redlands
  • Robert Burns
  • Rotary
  • Russia
  • science
  • Scotland
  • sharing
  • sharks
  • ships
  • Siberia
  • soccer
  • Stanthorpe
  • Stourhead
  • Submarines
  • sugar cane
  • Towles
  • travel
  • TV
  • Uncategorized
  • Walter Porriott
  • whales
  • Woodford
  • World War I
  • World War II
  • zoos

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