I thought it’s just because the british empire is like a plague that’s spreading everywhere…
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yeah I know, crowns have been there since prehistoric times. I guess it’s just the easiest way to signify authority.
Honestly, it makes perfect sense to me, but that’s probably because I have astigmatism.
We’ve seen the head as the seat of intellect for millennia, and glowing things (the sun, moon, and stars) have always been endowed with mystical and miraculous properties.
Glowing things look like pointy rings if you squint or have impaired vision. Combine those simple concepts – pointy glowing wreath on the head – and you get a crown.
(And earlier renditions were just gold wreaths, often made of leaves, like the Roman laurels.)
You mean this is how our ancestors intended it to be:
Be not afraid
Yeah, “divine rule” or whatever the word
It makes perfect sense and is wrong. OP is wrong. His assumption has no source bc its simply not true
Does everyone in the comments know this is true or just assume its true? OP please share sources for the rest of us.
There is no source bc it is wrong. East Asian countries for example oftentimes didnt have a crown like equivalent hat with same importance.
Chinese empires for example saw the robe as much more important. Usurpers would be indicated by having a emperor robe, not crown. And there are other symbols. All of them more important than the emperor hat
They never had contact ? Like when ? People travelling most of the globe way before British figured out basic stuff.
Ancient sumeria, Egypt, Assyrians and Indians had concepts like crowns. Also if a civilization did something cool, others usually copied it under 200 years.
Not a historian, so grain of salt.
Like the Aztecs? I believe the Spanish went there first and that was in 1519. But again I don’t have good knowledge of history so I’m probably wrong here.
5 seconds of Googling shows that the Aztec and Inca both had ceremonial headdress/crown for the ultimate ruler. 5 seconds of Googling about the Maya and the Seneca did not turn up anything.
Thorstein Veblen (19th century sociologist) would probably explain the crown/headdress prevalence around the world as a form of conspicuous consumption (he coined the term). The ruler wears a ridiculous and impractical headdress that “wasted” hours and hours of labor to show his dominance, wealth, prestige and ability to waste (and coerce). I’m not a sociologist but I have read his Theory of the Leisure Class and it fits very cleanly in his theory.
Now why a crown and not a breastplate, eg? No idea. Maybe it’s simply the most conspicuous and ridiculous thing one can wear that serves absolutely no practical purpose (whereas a breast plate could be useful in war)
Big deal -> cool hat.
Seems straightforward to me
I think you are letting yourself get fooled by the English word “coronation”. Because while it is true that coronation ceremonies are pretty universal, they mostly didn’t involve any actual coronation or crowns, which are mostly specific to the Western world for known historical reasons.
Big head = big deal person
Hats are the billboards of cultural status. A shiny metal hat bedazzled with stolen rocks of other cultures? Well that just advertises, “I’ve got a nice big army to make up for my small perspective”.
Did the Mongols have crowns too?
don’t know much about their history but apparently yes?
Not really. Asian nations obviously also had hats but they werent as significant as a crown.
Chinese empires would punish people for wearing golden robes as it indicates a rebel trying to usurp the throne. Nobody really talks about the hat.
There are other symbols similarly to the globe apple of Holy Roman Empire of Germans and England.
Mongols were heavily influenced by chinese culture even though they have significant differences. Mongols did adopt foreign customs though so Mongols in the west did adopt crowns to signal authority over the new subjects. But in Yuan Dynasty and in Mongolia the hat wasnt as important as a crown.
Good point. That is curious
Well ordaning yourself probably goes back to sexual selection. We’ve probably had tribe “leaders” since we could walk. Anything around your head, where you look at and communicate toward, is the natural spot to ordane yourself. I think necklaces are also common between cultures.
