Why Genealogies?

[shadowfax]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

Nor mine til my sister spent time at an elephant sanctuary in Thailand. It didn't actually smell. I don't think they had cotton in Middle earth. Isn't it a plant of the new world? Ok they had spuds but , aybe they were brought from the west via Numenor. We do take cheap paper for granted.

What did Rosie Cotton's name mean if they didn't know what cotton was?

[Mithalwen]

Originally Posted by shadowfax

What did Rosie Cotton's name mean if they didn't know what cotton was?

Well Shire names are "translated" and cotton was to pun with gamgee (for the encased cotton wool dressing Gamgee tissue) but maybe Alfirin's truly fascinating post explains that I was simply wrong about cotton.

The breadth and depth of knowledge round here never ceases to amaze me.

It may also be that in a relatively small and isolated community of the Shire it made sense to keep track of families so as to discourage too close intermarriage. Obviously they wouldnt' have known about genetics and I am not suggesting that but they may have observed problems when there was too much shared blood. I am not suggesting that they went in for hispanic Hapsburg style inbreeding but in small static communities the gene pool could get a bit murky.

[Morthoron]

As a parallel, look at the U.S. Short-lived as it is in comparison to European states, still there are organizations like the Daughters of the American Revolution who are more than willing to overlook any number of cutthroats, drunkards and spendthrifts as long as they can number one of the Founding Fathers as their direct ancestor.

One signer of the Declaration of Independence moldering in his grave trumps a host of skeletons in the closest.