askhistorians

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Native American tribes had a taboo against mouth breathing, believing it sapped spiritual and physical strength. Do we know the source/reasoning for this taboo, and how nose breathing was enforced/taught on a community level? How universal was this practice among Native Americans?	15
What's the history of the all-you-can-eat buffet?	15
Was it usual to lock your daughters inside at night to keep them safe in 19th century Texas?	15
Modern product advertisements are dominated by celebrity endorsements, but those from the 19th and early 20th centuries often focused on the attributes of the product. When and why did celebrities become sales drivers?	15
When New York was a decaying hellscape in the 1980s, the Guardian Angels promised to protect the vulnerable from crime. How'd they do?	15
Why didn't Virgil want his masterpiece, the Aneid, to be published? His own emperor was keen to preserve it, so what did he fear?	15
The Antonine emperors famously adopted talented heirs rather than relying on their biological children, to good effect. Was this really a conscious policy decision, or a necessity forced on them by a lack of surviving offspring?	15
Portugal rounded the Cape of Good Hope and established an incredibly profitable spice trade in the Indian Ocean. What did that look like, in practice? Were they conquering islands as supply depots? Was the whole enterprise a giant money sink until they managed to actually reach India?	15
Were average Americans excited when the Transcontinental Railroad stitched the east and the west together? Was there a huge rush to go explore? Or was going west mostly for those looking to permanently resettle and the rich who had money and time?	15
Louis XVI was executed by French revolutionaries. Was he a particularly bad king, or did he just have the bad luck of reigning at a time when the western world was awash in revolutionary fervor?	15

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