Beauties and Beasts Blogging The Topic is Chivalry.

Beauties and Beasts Topic

Chivalry 2007

In days of olde when knights were bolde chivalry had its beginning

A chivalrous knight would right the treacherous wrongs

Fight the fights of honour and end all wrong full sinning

The knight on his steed his armour in need of a straight and healthy body

Would carry the flag for his country and king in chivalry ne’er too shoddy.

In today's hustle and bustle with money to earn and chivalrous acts not a' plenty

The question begs to be asked of you all my friends

“ Are acts of Chivalry only for 'The Old School' or 'The Most Gentry'?”

Topic from Shane The WCP

Chivalry Question

There has been talk in the past of women who want a Prince Charming. You know the old Fantasy of the knight in shining armour that rides up and sweeps the young maiden off of her feet. At one time women were drawn to the idea of a chivalrous man in their lives. But, are there any chivalrous men still around? If so, is it a good thing or is it detrimental to the way of life expressed now days? A man that opens doors for women, a man that always walks to the outside of a woman. Is the idea that a woman is to be held as a treasure gone completely away? The question I put forth to the panel is this…. Is chivalry dead?

Di S. A compassionate teacher, mother and lady of good humour.

Replies from the Beauty.

Chivalry, I don’t believe will ever be dead. We don’t want to confuse chivalry as simply opening doors or protecting a lady in distress. Chivalry’s definition seems to change with the times.

Chivalry, as I see it, includes caring, commitment, understanding, warmth, respect, humour, kindness, intelligence, integrity, and compassion. I think those are the intangible elements that women are looking for in her Knight in Shining Armour these days. Chivalry has taken on a whole new appearance as I view it.

Of course, every woman wants to feel secure, protected and loved. But, if she found a man with all of the qualities above, how could she not?

So, with all of this said….Chivalry is very much alive and well. There are many Chivalrous men out there.

A New Beastie with a scientific slant on the new topic is

Hddude45

Our New Beasties Response

This perspective is uniquely his own, and one derived from advanced training in evolutionary biology and anthropology.

Chivalry is commonly accepted to have evolved as a

concept created in Medieval Times related to a code of

Knightly behavior and deriving from the French word

Chevalier. Although, I have no issue with the origin

of the word, I feel the concept derives from behavior

that long predates the 10th century and in fact has

biological roots predating the origin of the hominoid

species.

Many species that exist in pack structures such as

lions exhibit protective behavior toward the young and

females when outside forces threaten the group. In

Hominoid evolution as increasing ex-uterine

development of the brain and plasticity of function

necessitated increasing gestation times and infant

dependency there was correspondingly increasing

periods of female incapacitation.

Species survival depended upon cooperative social

structure defining roles of behavior that are at the

root of the concept of chivalry. Behaviors like

protection of the weak, combat against outside threats

by the strongest and the ascendancy of a social

structure based on strength of arms, and the

preservation of the pack structure and protection from

outside threats.

For example, there were several lists written down

during the Middle Ages of chivalric codes. One example

code can be found in the book Chivalry by 19th century

French historian Leon Gautier:

• Thou shalt believe all that the Church teaches, and

shalt observe all its directions.

• Thou shalt defend the Church.

• Thou shalt respect all weaknesses, and shalt

constitute thyself the defender of them.

• Thou shalt love the country in which thou wast

born.

• Thou shalt not recoil before thine enemy.

• Thou shalt make war against the Infidel without

cessation, and without mercy.

• Thou shalt perform scrupulously thy feudal duties,

if they be not contrary to the laws of God.

• Thou shalt never lie, and shall remain faithful to

thy pledged word.

• Thou shalt be generous, and give largess to

everyone.

• Thou shalt be everywhere and always the champion of

the Right and the Good against Injustice and Evil.

At the essence, we have:

1. Preserve the pack structure and order.

2. Protect the weaker members with particular emphasis

on children and women.

3. Do not run away from this protective duty leaving

the pack to fend for itself from outside threats.

4. Your pack is better than another pack.

5. Resources such as food are shared with the weaker.

In conclusion, the concept of chivalry results from a

successful reproductive strategy for hominoids and

subsequent redefinition and explanation of this

strategy by Medieval authors in culturally relative

terms. This reproductive strategy predates hominoids

and was increasingly important to pursue as infant

dependency developed with increasing intelligence.

Because of the fundamental importance of this

strategy, it continues to underly our current social

structures such as government, countries, religions,

and codes of military service (drafts during war, for

example). Any other strategy would ignore fundamental

reproductive imperatives and is unlikely to be adapted

in the foreseeable future.

Chivalry is how monkeys make more monkeys, and at

the time this is written there are estimated to be 6,596,308,973

human monkeys as the result. It works.

Today we are only having the One Beauty in the main post with The New Beast. However All the Beauties Past and Present are invited to leave their response to the Topic in the comments section below.

Let me thank everyone above for their time and effort.

This discussion is now open to you all. Please remember it is an open public page here.

Milli 2007