Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 11

Thread: Myth of the bearded mountain man

  1. #1
    Banned
    Join Date
    Aug 2015
    Last Online
    03-21-2018 @ 04:03 PM
    Location
    USA
    Meta-Ethnicity
    Anglo-Saxon, Pro-Circumcision
    Ethnicity
    English American
    Ancestry
    English and Lowland Scottish immigrants to North America. Pro-Circumcision.
    Country
    United States
    Age
    29
    Gender
    Posts
    4,610
    Thumbs Up
    Received: 8,888
    Given: 2,144

    3 Not allowed!

    Default Myth of the bearded mountain man

    he universal image of the Mountain Man today is that of a heavily bearded individual, appearing as if he hadn’t shaved since the day he left St. Louis. This image has been promoted by both popular fiction and by Hollywood:
    Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact it was the rare individual who maintained facial hair, even while living in the mountains. Ruxton, in his novel, Life in the Far West, states “The elder of the company was a tall gaunt man,with a face browned by a twenty years' exposure to the extreme climate of the mountains; his long black hair, as yet scarcely tinged with gray, hung almost to his shoulders, but his cheeks and chin were cleanly shaved after the fashion of the mountain men.” -- Rudolph Friederich Kurz


    A Swiss artist who depicted both Indian and white trapper/traders in the late 1840’s and earliest 1850’s shows only a small number of “whites” with any form of facial hair. Most are shown as clean shaven. Alfred Jacob Miller, an artist who accompanied William Drummond Stewart to the 1837 Rendezvous also shows clean shaven Mountain Men.
    So why was it that the Mountain Men went to the trouble and effort of regularly scraping the hair off of their face? It certainly would have been much easier just to let nature take its course. There were three main reasons for shaving: hygiene, fashion and trade.

    Hygiene: Mountain Men were not noted for their cleanliness, often not bathing for months, or longer, at a time. Head lice were a major problem in those times, both in civilized parts as well as in the wilderness. Beards only encouraged the nasty little critters to expand their habitat to include the face. Besides being most unpleasant, this could be extremely distasteful, especially when eating.

    Fashion: Beards and any other type of facial hair simply weren't in fashion, either in the United States or Europe until the middle 1850’s, and wasn’t widespread until the 1860’s. Kurz’ drawings, based on his experience on the Upper Missouri River from 1846 to 1851 show most “whites” from the bourgeois to the lowest engagé, as clean shaven. Of that minority shown with facial hair, only two men are shown with an unkempt, bushy beards, and one of those was a traveler on his way to California.

    Business and Social: Except at rendezvous, most commercial contact mountain men had was with the Indians. Indians were not only a source of furs and skins, but also provided food, shelter, horses, clothing, and wives. Indian males had only sparse or no facial hair. Any stray hairs which appeared would be carefully plucked. The Indians considered any man with a full beard to be a barbarian, applying to such individuals the insulting description “Dog Face.” When trade with the Indians was necessary or desirable for Mountain Men, it was always advantageous to start with the respect of the potential trade partner rather then with their condescension. Furthermore, winning the favors of an Indian maiden would have been far more difficult if the woman was thinking “Dog Face.”

    Maintaining a clean-shaven aspect would not have been difficult. Straight razors were known from trade inventories of the time, and it’s highly improbable these items were intended for trade with the Indians. Straight razors are effective at removing stubble of less than a few days growth, however, it becomes increasingly difficult to use as the beard gets longer. It’s likely that shaving didn’t take place daily, but was done every few days.

  2. #2
    Veteran Member
    Apricity Funding Member
    "Friend of Apricity"

    Oneeye's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Last Online
    01-08-2022 @ 01:35 PM
    Meta-Ethnicity
    Germanic
    Ethnicity
    Anglo American
    Ancestry
    Anglo/German/Dutch/Norse American
    Country
    United States
    Region
    Oregon
    Y-DNA
    E-V12
    mtDNA
    T2f1
    Politics
    Right
    Hero
    Evola
    Religion
    Traditionalist
    Gender
    Posts
    12,879
    Thumbs Up
    Received: 23,081
    Given: 56,859

    0 Not allowed!

    Default

    Getting some native waifus sounds the most liekly to me.

  3. #3
    Banned
    Join Date
    Aug 2015
    Last Online
    03-21-2018 @ 04:03 PM
    Location
    USA
    Meta-Ethnicity
    Anglo-Saxon, Pro-Circumcision
    Ethnicity
    English American
    Ancestry
    English and Lowland Scottish immigrants to North America. Pro-Circumcision.
    Country
    United States
    Age
    29
    Gender
    Posts
    4,610
    Thumbs Up
    Received: 8,888
    Given: 2,144

    2 Not allowed!

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Oneeye View Post
    Getting some native waifus sounds the most liekly to me.
    Wearing a beard was unfashionable in Western society until the late 1800s when sanitary conditions improved with modern medicine and indoor plumbing. Having a beard meant you had lice which harbored the plague. You had to be clean shaven if you wanted to get a waifu of any kind. Everybody shaved the filthy dog hair off their face.

  4. #4
    Banned
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Last Online
    04-05-2018 @ 07:02 AM
    Meta-Ethnicity
    Espańol
    Ethnicity
    Celtíbera
    Ancestry
    Espańola
    Country
    Spain
    Politics
    Espańa
    Gender
    Posts
    5,827
    Thumbs Up
    Received: 2,846
    Given: 2,495

    0 Not allowed!

    Default




    This is the kind of beard I wear actually.

    I have to visit the barber twice a month if I want the hair not to invade my eyes and my breath ways...

    In fact, I got exactly the same leather jacket he's wearing, not the bat with the barbed wire... unfortunately

  5. #5
    Companhia dos Leőes da Beira
    Apricity Funding Member
    "Friend of Apricity"

    Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2016
    Last Online
    @
    Meta-Ethnicity
    Romance
    Ethnicity
    Portuguese
    Country
    Portugal
    Y-DNA
    R1b-L21
    mtDNA
    H15
    Religion
    Cultural Christian
    Relationship Status
    Married
    Gender
    Posts
    18,363
    Thumbs Up
    Received: 24,023
    Given: 16,803

    0 Not allowed!

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Grab the Gauge View Post
    Wearing a beard was unfashionable in Western society until the late 1800s when sanitary conditions improved with modern medicine and indoor plumbing. Having a beard meant you had lice which harbored the plague. You had to be clean shaven if you wanted to get a waifu of any kind. Everybody shaved the filthy dog hair off their face.
    Lol, what? Having a beard was always a standard and pretty common in Western society (maybe not only among certain classes of the aristocracy). Men only started shaving in masses after the first world war with the introduction of the Gillette.
    YDNA: R1b-L21 > DF13 > S1051 > FGC17906 > FGC17907 > FGC17866


  6. #6
    Companhia dos Leőes da Beira
    Apricity Funding Member
    "Friend of Apricity"

    Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2016
    Last Online
    @
    Meta-Ethnicity
    Romance
    Ethnicity
    Portuguese
    Country
    Portugal
    Y-DNA
    R1b-L21
    mtDNA
    H15
    Religion
    Cultural Christian
    Relationship Status
    Married
    Gender
    Posts
    18,363
    Thumbs Up
    Received: 24,023
    Given: 16,803

    0 Not allowed!

    Default

    Examples from the American Civil War soldiers and generals:







    Pretty much everyone had facial hair.
    YDNA: R1b-L21 > DF13 > S1051 > FGC17906 > FGC17907 > FGC17866


  7. #7
    Banned
    Join Date
    Aug 2015
    Last Online
    03-21-2018 @ 04:03 PM
    Location
    USA
    Meta-Ethnicity
    Anglo-Saxon, Pro-Circumcision
    Ethnicity
    English American
    Ancestry
    English and Lowland Scottish immigrants to North America. Pro-Circumcision.
    Country
    United States
    Age
    29
    Gender
    Posts
    4,610
    Thumbs Up
    Received: 8,888
    Given: 2,144

    2 Not allowed!

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Viriato View Post
    Examples from the American Civil War soldiers and generals:







    Pretty much everyone had facial hair.
    Completely wrong. Facial hair was in the minority, even discriminated against.

  8. #8
    Companhia dos Leőes da Beira
    Apricity Funding Member
    "Friend of Apricity"

    Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2016
    Last Online
    @
    Meta-Ethnicity
    Romance
    Ethnicity
    Portuguese
    Country
    Portugal
    Y-DNA
    R1b-L21
    mtDNA
    H15
    Religion
    Cultural Christian
    Relationship Status
    Married
    Gender
    Posts
    18,363
    Thumbs Up
    Received: 24,023
    Given: 16,803

    0 Not allowed!

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Grab the Gauge View Post
    Completely wrong. Facial hair was in the minority, even discriminated against.
    Lol, tell that to the majority of american generals:



    General George McClellan



    General Tecumseh Sherman



    General James Lane



    General James Terrill



    Lieutenant General Richard Ewell



    General George Sears Greene



    General J.E.B. Stuart



    General Ambrose Burnside



    General John Bell Hood

    Discriminated you say?
    YDNA: R1b-L21 > DF13 > S1051 > FGC17906 > FGC17907 > FGC17866


  9. #9
    Banned
    Join Date
    Aug 2015
    Last Online
    03-21-2018 @ 04:03 PM
    Location
    USA
    Meta-Ethnicity
    Anglo-Saxon, Pro-Circumcision
    Ethnicity
    English American
    Ancestry
    English and Lowland Scottish immigrants to North America. Pro-Circumcision.
    Country
    United States
    Age
    29
    Gender
    Posts
    4,610
    Thumbs Up
    Received: 8,888
    Given: 2,144

    1 Not allowed!

    Default

    These pictures are post 1850 you illiterate Negrito. Now shave that crude off your face.

  10. #10
    Banned
    Join Date
    Aug 2015
    Last Online
    03-21-2018 @ 04:03 PM
    Location
    USA
    Meta-Ethnicity
    Anglo-Saxon, Pro-Circumcision
    Ethnicity
    English American
    Ancestry
    English and Lowland Scottish immigrants to North America. Pro-Circumcision.
    Country
    United States
    Age
    29
    Gender
    Posts
    4,610
    Thumbs Up
    Received: 8,888
    Given: 2,144

    1 Not allowed!

    Default

    Dispelling the modern bullshit: What America's frontiersmen actually looked like:

    Mountain man paintings by people who were actually there:








    Actual surviving mountain men:

    Jim Beckworth:



    Richens Lacy Wootton:




    Richard May:





    Nathaniel James Wyeth:





    William Thomas Hamilton:






    " ...You cannot pay a free trapper a greater compliment than to persuade him you have mistaken him for an indian brave; and in truth, the counterfeit is complete. "

    William Irving, The Adventures of Captain Bonneville pgs. 110-111

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Similar Threads

  1. Mountain ethnicities in the world
    By Root in forum Ethno-Cultural Discussion
    Replies: 158
    Last Post: 12-02-2019, 09:29 AM
  2. Norway will not gift mountain top to neighbour Finland
    By Sui Generis in forum News Articles
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 10-15-2016, 09:18 PM

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •