#systemised

[communistkenobi]

cannot overstate how much you should not take seriously anyone who thinks IQ is a valid or valuable measure of human beings

[chimeofthecomet]

ok so who's Albert DaSilva whats his deal

[hellokittyshinkansen]

I wish I had the kind of train neurosis that makes you actually remember to book your travel in advance. I will be yeeting across the country for train shenanigans tomorrow and the only way to accomplish this with any rhyme or reason (and for less than a cool hundred quid) is getting on a bus at the absolute arsecrack of dawn and then getting on ANOTHER bus at an equally stupid time to go to England in. Miserable.

[helenwhiteart-blog]

Synesthesia or salience: autism and environmental sensitivity

To be honest, the whole of my life has felt like one giant participatory science project, though I’m not actually “a scientist”, a statement that does its best to reflect a most particular and extremely hardwired approach to life that is “mine” and which extends back to my earliest attempts to systemise and make sense of a highly perplexing world. I don’t just lie on my back watching life happen;…

[ranjith11]

What is your "Why" for owning and creating Bookkeeping practice

Sharing the importance of running a Bookkeeping practice, here's Neha the Director of Futureproof Accountant talk about her insights on running a systemised business. Empower your business with invaluable insights on systemized bookkeeping shared by Neha, the Director of Futureproof Accountant. In this video, Neha delves into the importance of running a bookkeeping practice that's systemized for maximum efficiency and growth. Discover the "why" behind owning and creating a systemized bookkeeping practice as Neha reveals her expert strategies and tips for success. Whether you're a business owner or aspiring entrepreneur, this video is a must-watch to take your business to new heights.

[diazsdimples]

Favourite Bucktommy as Dads headcanons that have me wanting to write 100 fics.

Buck and Tommy decide they don't want to know which of them is their child's biological father, because if they've learnt anything over the years it's that biology has nothing to do with family. They both provide samples and an embryo is randomly implanted in their surrogate.

A few weeks prior to the birth, Buck goes full Clipboard and completely plans out their hospital bags, systemises their diaper bags and changing tables. Tommy ends up buying him a big toolchest, which he guts and fills with baby gear and labels the draws accordingly.

Tommy is actually more worried about being a parent than Buck is. Buck has a young niece that he's looked after since she was a baby but Tommy has had little to no experience with newborns and reads books every night from the pregnancy announcement till the birth.

Both men use their parents as a basis of what they don't want to be like as parents. Buck makes sure to tell their child he loves them at least twice a day. Tommy always shows up to their sports games or music recitals and gives them a big hug after and tell them how proud he is of them.

Tommy is a big fan of contact naps. Buck often comes home from work to find Tommy and the baby conked out on the couch or rocking chair, with the baby fast asleep on Tommy's chest while he cradles their head with his hand. Buck has a folder of photos like this in his phone.

Buck asks Christopher if he's okay with Buck having a baby before him and Tommy make solid plans, because Christopher is his son too and he never wants him to feel as though he's being replaced. Christopher is overjoyed and is the first person in their extended family to hold the baby when they're born.

The first time the baby gets sick, Buck stays up all night and holds them as they cry. Tommy tries to sleep so at least one of them is rested, but he gives up a couple of hours in and gets Buck to bring the baby into bed with them. They take turns cuddling the baby and cleaning up sick and eventually the three of them pass out sometime after dawn, all cuddle up together.

Buck likes older, more traditional names for their child, whereas Tommy likes more radical and uncommon names. They finally settle on a name the week before the baby is born.

Tommy's favourite sight in the world is when Buck carries the baby around the house in the little front pack, so the baby can see the world while he cleans or cooks.

Both men watch their baby as they sleep for the first few nights after they're born and can't believe just how lucky they are to have this perfect little human that they made.

[nando161mando]

COUNTER COUNTER PROTEST SUN 11.30AM PARLIAMENT

NEVER AGAIN MEANS GAZA 🇵🇸

This Sunday, racist opponents are holding a "Never Again Is Now" rally in solidarity with the Zionist entity currently enacting genocide in Palestine. Politicians addressing the rally will reiterate that they stand with Israel while it drops bombs over Gaza.

Western nations failed to prevent the Holocaust and "again" are failing to prevent the systemised torture, starvation and mass murder of a people.

We must directly counter Zionism, fascism and the political forces that express support for genocide and racism in society.

Zionism is a racist, colonial ideology. As Jews and Palestinians, we stand against all forms of racism and all colonial, imperial violence justified through dehumanisation and hate and allowed to be mainstream.

Join the counter counter protest to the Free Palestine rallies, to say that today, "never again" includes Gaza.

Never again means respecting the memory and lessons of the Holocaust.

@antifainternational @anarchistmemecollective @radicalgraff @kropotkindersurprise

[dollettodraws]

finally got around to drawing something for my neytirix inspired cyberpunk android au thing lmaoo (ft. the og fighting sticks)

I got so much shit I wanna draw this month (au stuff, victims birthday (yes I’m late as hell lmao), another mini comic I’m makin involving the cg because they’re literally a rainbow and it’s gay month lol and other pride art) but wanted to sit down today and finally just finish this wip that’s been sitting in my gallery for god knows how long 😭

I t’s basically just my human designs but I made them more cyberpunky??? IDK LMAO, also they have more robotic features ig

also some more info for the au! decided that the name of the type of android that the CG and hollowheads are are S.T.I.C.K. models, because duh they’re originally stick figures in canon lol.

S.T.I.C.K. stands for ‘Systemised-Tech-Integrated-Controlled-Killbots’ (idk it might change IDK ROBOTICS LMAO), a specific android model designed to fight, often either for combatant military purposes, sport and/or entertainment purposes, or something along those lines

The color gang (minus second) were all created by some corporation/company that specialises in creating S.T.I.C.K.s, however after years of mistreatment and being confined to a single room, a certain curious orange fella breaks them out of there and now are just tryna get by and do good, while also being dumbass teenagers lmao

(the hollowheads are a bit different to normal S.T.I.C.K.s tho as you could probably guess, but I’ll explain that when I make their lineup)

no text + no bg

I drew this sleep deprived lmaoooo

[citrineandrosmarin]

On the comparison of Athena and Ares

Book: Athena by Susan Deacy (Highy recommend)

"It has become a near-cliché to differentiate between Ares as the embodiment of war’s violent and chaotic aspects, and Athena as the goddess who orders and systemises it [...] It is possible to identify similarities between the two deities, however, that undermine these rather neat patterns, for in order to inspire menos, (‘strength’, ‘courage’ or ‘prowess’) Athena operates in ways that are resonant of Ares. She is a warmonger from the moment she is born shaking her armour and making her war cry [...] In the Iliad, Athena gets into the thick of battle [...] The extraordinary menos of Diomedes that dominates Book 5 is inspired by the goddess. At one point he displays such unbridled rage under Athena’s influence that no one, neither Greek nor Trojan, is able to discern who he is or even which side he is on as he ‘storm[s] up the plain like a winter torrent’."

"With Athena’s help, another of her favourites, Achilleus, also takes on an appearance that differs from the usual pattern of heroic conduct when she clothes him in the aegis, places a golden cloud around his head and makes fire blaze from him. He then utters a war cry and she adds her own to it and the results are extraordinary: ‘unutterable confusion’ ensues and the panic produces deaths through ‘friendly fire’: the only instance of this in the Iliad."

"Unlike Ares, Athena is able to distance herself from war and violence. In the Iliad, she arms herself for battle by removing the self-made dress that she had been wearing, and replacing it with weapons, most strikingly, the ‘terrible tasselled aegis’ which contains the personified abstractions Phobos (Fear), Eris (Strife), Alke (Strength), blood-chilling Ioke (Pursuit), and then, most of all ‘the head of the terrible monster the Gorgon, both fearful and awful to look on’. These abstractions become part of the spectacle she produces; but they are also detachable. Ares, meanwhile, has a more permanent kind of attachment with some of these figures: Phobos and Eris are even his relatives."

"The standard way of evaluating Athena’s interventions in war is too limiting. [...] The comparison brings out Athena’s particular manner of operation as a warrior, intervening to assist her favourites and able to inspire their displays of warrior power, while deriving her power from her weapons rather than some natural affinity with war of the kind exemplified by Ares."

[communistkenobi]

Something I’ve grappled with a lot is a dissatisfaction with the popular use of the word “ignorant” - it is meant to describe not merely an absence of knowledge in a person’s head, but an absence of belief itself. “they don’t know any better” “they’re just ignorant on the topic” and other similar sentiments, most commonly used to apologise for a bigoted statement or impolite comment, is a defense that is based on the concept of epistemic innocence, the argument that bigotry itself arises not from active beliefs about the world but rather a simple absence of knowledge. this has the effect of perpetually excusing bigotry, and when systemised, means that bigots don’t actually exist, only masses of the uninformed, the epistemically unconverted.

and over the years I have developed a better understanding of why this view of bigotry is wrong, but I think Said has a particularly enlightening perspective on it in Orientalism. He spends a lot of time talking about how Orientalism is a knowledge framework, a way of not just viewing the East but of understanding the West as well. And this is a constraining framework, one that leads you to particular conclusions (while excluding others) because the foundation of the “East-West” distinction, of sorting all of human life and history into this binary, is brutally limiting. And in particular what he says on ignorance here is extremely productive for this conversation:

[…] it is finally Western ignorance [of Islam] which becomes more refined and complex, not some body of positive Western knowledge which increases in size and accuracy. For fictions have their own logic and their own dialectic of growth or decline.

(Chapter 1, p. 62)

And similarly throughout this chapter he talks about how the Orient does not exist as such but rather is a construction of the West - “it is Europe that articulates the Orient” and so on. And this is not a mutually-agreed upon articulation: “[the] imaginative geography of the “our land - barbarian land” variety does not require that the barbarians acknowledge the distinction.”

And so to return to the topic of ignorance, I think it is much more productive to view ignorance as a system of beliefs all its own. Or perhaps, when describing bigotry, “ignorance” is a fundamentally incorrect diagnosis for what is happening - bigotries are an epistemic model for viewing the world, they contain systems of information and knowledge. transphobia and racism and misogyny are not products of ignorance but rather fictions of cis-heteronormativity, white supremacy, and patriarchy, respectively (all of which are not mutually exclusive and overlap heavily). These are ways of viewing and knowing the world. Now these systems are not empirical; they do not stand up to even basic scrutiny, and so me calling them epistemic frameworks is not to legitimise their beliefs but rather a desire to not let them off the hook. A person who says something sexist or racist is advancing a particularly type of understanding of the world, whether they “know” they’re doing it or not. It may be unintentional, and an intellectually honest person, when corrected, will admit fault and refrain from repeating this bigotry again, but those systems of bigotry do not themselves arise from the ether of pure ignorance. They have definite and mappable origins, and the beliefs they contain cannot be described as an absence of knowledge about the world. The bigot does know! They just don’t like what they see

[twstgarden]

—✦ ❝𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬❞

❝ 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝'𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐥 ❞

➻ pleasant greetings to you all, my lovely daisies! your florist has decided to open commissions for both writing and match-ups to celebrate the 700 follower count. i've included the rules, prices, and other necessary details listed under the cut. ➻ thank you so much to all those who read, liked, commented, and reblogged my writing! i enjoy reading your notes and i appreciate every like and reblog ♥

❝ 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐬 ❞

➻ writing commissions: open ↪ open slots: 4/5 ➻ match-up commissions: open ↪ open slots: 5/10

— commissions details — 

➻ commissions event duration: until all slots are filled

❝ 𝐀 𝐋𝐎𝐓𝐔𝐒 𝐅𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑'𝐒 𝐍𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐄 ; 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 ❞

— a lotus flower's narrative is like the usual story writing that i post in this blog. this is open to twisted wonderland only and covers all genres listed in the original rules list. the following characters are available for this commission listing:

‣ all heartslabyul characters (riddle, trey, cater, ace, deuce) ‣ all savanaclaw characters (leona, ruggie, jack) ‣ all octavinelle characters (azul, jade, floyd) ‣ all scarabia characters (kalim, jamil) ‣ all pomefiore characters (vil, rook, epel) ‣ all ignihyde characters (idia, ortho) ‣ all diasomnia characters (malleus, lilia, silver, sebek) ‣ all yuus (yuuken, yuuka, yuuta, yuuya) ‣ all nrc staff (dire, divus, ashton, mozus, sam) ‣ all side characters (rollo, fellow, gidel, knight of dawn, etc.)

❝ 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐏𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐋'𝐒 𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 ; 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡-𝐮𝐩 𝐛𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐥𝐞 ❞

— the carnation petal's foresight is the match-up bundle listing. this is open to three (3) fandoms: twisted wonderland, honkai: star rail, genshin impact. this is called a bundle because one match-up commission includes three (3) categories, namely:

‣ main match (platonic, romantic, or both) ‣ voice lines (from 5 random characters) ‣ fandom-centred inclusion (dormitory match for twst, paths match for hsr, vision match for genshin)

— pricing — 

❝ 𝐀 𝐋𝐎𝐓𝐔𝐒 𝐅𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑'𝐒 𝐍𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐄 ; 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 ❞

‣ $ 2 per 100 words regardless of the type and genre

↪ for example, a 1,500-word oneshot costs $ 30

❝ 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐏𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐋'𝐒 𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 ; 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡-𝐮𝐩 𝐛𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐥𝐞 ❞

‣ $ 3 per category in one fandom

↪ 1 fandom = 3 categories, so $ 3 x 3 categories for one fandom = $ 9 ; 2 fandoms = 6 categories, so $ 3 x 6 categories for two fandoms = $ 18 ; 3 fandoms = 9 categories, so $ 3 x 9 categories for three fandoms = $ 27 ↪ if you add another category (for example, you purchase both platonic and romantic matches instead of just one of the two), an additional charge of $ 3 will be added to your total.

— general rules — 

all the general rules listed in the original rules list still apply. those listed below are just additional rules used for commissions.

— commission details are sent by filling out this form.

‣ for systemised and organised purposes, you may fill out this form to indicate all the details of your commission. this is only for sending out the details, any other relevant topics shall be discussed through various channels. you can reach out to me through tumblr's dm system, instagram, and email.

— payments can be made through paypal, buy me a coffee or ko-fi.

‣ this is my first time opening commissions, so i confess that i do not know how the payment methods work as i do not use paypal as one of my daily payment methods. i have set everything to a default, so the payment currency is in USD $, only because SAR is not an option in the currency list. (update: 03/13/2024) i discovered that paypal's fees are quite huge here in my place, so i opted to try buy me a coffee instead. ko-fi is still available only if you can't send it through buy me a coffee. links to both sites are at the bottom of this post. (update: 04/19/2024) i am having issues with my payout on buy me a coffee so i am unlinking it first!

— payment options are flexible.

‣ my payment options are entirely flexible. you may pay upfront at the moment of sending the commission request, you may pay half during the requesting period and the other half once the commission is done, or you can pay the full amount once the commission is done. if you decide to pay the full amount once the commission is done, you will need to send the payment before i post or send the commission.

— once payment is made, you cannot cancel or withdraw from our agreement. alternatively, once i have already started working on your commission halfway through, you cannot back out at the last minute.

‣ since my payment options are flexible, the way you pay me is entirely your choice, and i have naturally given you enough time to ponder whether you are sure about this commission or not. once you have sent a payment, whether it is half or full, you cannot cancel or withdraw from our agreement or ask for a refund.

‣ additionally, even if you opted for a flexible payment, you cannot withdraw or cancel once i have started halfway through your commission or once i am finished. i don't want to experience completing a commission only for the requester to back out at the last minute again. it takes me 2 to 7 days to complete a commission, so please keep that in mind.

— suggestive content is fine, but no nsfw.

‣ i am 20, but i want to keep this blog open to all ages. i can write suggestive themes and whatnot, but i do not know how to write pure nsfw, so i will not include that in my content.

— reposting is okay as long as you link it back to me.

‣ you can repost the commissions since you did pay for it, after all. however, i would appreciate if you tag me in it.

— commissions are posted on tumblr publicly unless requested to be posted on another platform or privately.

‣ all commissions are automatically posted on tumblr. however, if you wish to post it on another platform, i can do so. you also have the option to have the commission publicly or privately. publicly would mean i will be posting it on tumblr or another platform, and privately would mean i will send it to you via our direct messaging platform as a pdf file, or google drive link, etc.

— writing rules — 

all the writing rules listed in the original rules list still apply. those listed below are just additional rules used for commissions.

— detailed.

‣ detailed commission requests allow me to finish it faster. however, you can still be a bit vague, but it might take a while for me to complete it as i still have to think of a perfect way to do the commission to your liking.

— reader-insert by default, ocs are fine.

‣ this blog has been known to be a twst reader-insert fic provider, so it is highly appreciated to request a reader-insert to allow everyone to indulge themselves in the story. however, you can still request for an oc, especially if you want the commission to be sent privately.

— child characters are naturally strictly not allowed for anything romance-related.

‣ though you may know this by now, i will reiterate again. child characters (ortho, gidel, etc.) are strictly not allowed to be included in romance genres (story or matchup-wise).

— no limits.

‣ though the original rules list states that there is a dormitory and character limit, there is no limit when it comes to commissions. you may request as many characters and as many dormitories as you want, but do keep in mind that the word count and the pricing will be affected.

— matchup bundle rules — 

all the matchup rules listed in the original rules list still apply. those listed below are just additional rules used for commissions.

— specify the nature of the relationship.

‣ although the form already establishes the question of whether you want a platonic, romantic, or both of the matches, this is a reminder to not forget to specify. if you don't, i will automatically do romantic as that is the default of my matchup requests.

— child characters are not an option.

‣ this is already a widely known fact, but child characters (ortho, bailu, qiqi, etc.) are not an option in the results and possible matches.

— state the fandom.

‣ the form has already established the question of which fandom you want to be matched in. you have the option to choose one, two, or all three, but do keep in mind that it affects the pricing.

➻ i believe that is all of the details needed, but you may freely DM me as you wish! this is my first time opening commissions, so i apologise for any inconvenience if there are any ♥ relevant links: ➻ commissions form ➻ buy me a coffee ➻ ko-fi ➻ original rules list (this is not for commissions) ➻ catalogue (if you want to check my work)

[justplainwhump]

Handlers

Adrian faces some colleagues. They don't get along.

[Pet Safety masterlist]

Content/warnings: BBU, WRU company internal quarrels, implied noncon, systemised dehumanisation, derogatory language. (This is a short one.)

When Adrian got back to the Clinic, there was a handler leaning to the wall next to the Chewtoy's room. Her grey uniform was slightly crumpled, Adrian noted, her hair tied into a messy ponytail. She was scrolling through her phone, but looked up as he approached.

He knew what happened, even before she spoke up. Fuck. He should've seen that coming.

"Not right now," she said, words drawn out lazily. "Handler Grimm's inside. Quality assurance."

"I don't think that's necessary," Adrian said flatly and stepped forward.

The handler pushed herself off the wall, folding her arms as she blocked his way. She was sturdy built, and even though a lot shorter than him the threat was tangible. "I don't think it's necessary a pet safety inspector tells us how to do our job. It's protocol. It's in the rules. And for all I know, you guys love the company sticking to the rules, huh?"

Adrian cursed to himself. Facility 012. Their department never get rid of that. It hadn't even been any Pet Safety Officer; it had been Adrian himself who had gotten the facility to shut down because of systematic misconduct. He still counted it as a success, morally; but practically it had come with a huge toll. There'd always been a rift between them and the handlers, but the atmosphere had never been this hostile.

"Pet gets shipped to an owner, it must pass quality control. 'Adhere to WRU's high standards', isn't that what you call it?" She grinned at him, but there was no amusement in her eyes. "So I guess you just go on your ways and let us do our job here, Delgado."

Adrian felt his jaw clench, holding back from pointing out he actually was the prospective owner. It wouldn't make a difference. He'd lost this fight already, and he couldn't risk any more.

Before he could say anything else, the door opened and Handler Grimm stepped out, hair damp from the shower, still adjusting his belt. "Wanna compare notes, Smith? I'd not let her pass if she weren't filed as an internal sale. Knows her positions, very flexible, pretty good fuck, but fucked up attitude. Complied just fine, but didn't even try to make me think she enjoyed any of it. Only way to get any reaction out of her is pain, and she doesn't even make that be any fun."

"She has several fractured ribs," Adrian said, as calmly as he could muster. "She's probably been in pain for all of it."

Smith jugged her chin towards Adrian. "PSI Delgado didn't think it was necessary to test her."

"Delgado?" Grimm raised an eyebrow. "You're the whore's prospective, aren't you? Makes it somewhat ironic to lecture us, doesn't it?"

Adrian folded his arms. "Maybe I just don't want you to break my property even more."

Grimm scoffed. "Trust in the company a bit more. This isn't my first rodeo. I'm pretty sure every Romantic handler here knows how to fuck a product with a broken bone and not leave lasting damage. Even on one that is that messed up already. Anyway. My assessment is a narrow pass. What's your verdict, Smith?"

"Passed." Smith smirked. "Knowing who's the prospective does make it way easier to ship a substandard product, doesn't it." She boxed Adrian's shoulder and he had to fight the reflex to break her arm for it. "Let's see how a PSI fares with a stubborn bitch Romantic and still keeps everything pretty and 'humane', huh."

Relax, Adrian told himself. They were done. This part of the game was over. He'd just need to keep his composure, before they could change their mind again.

It cost insane effort to just tilt his head and give them a cold smile. "Great. Now that we're done with the small talk, may I finally go in and collect my purchase?"

"Go ahead." Grimm stepped aside. "She's still in the shower. If you want to seize the opportunity."

They both chuckled behind his back, as they strolled off.

Adrian kept his shoulders straight. He didn't turn around, just counted to ten, forced his racing heartbeat to slow down, before he opened the door to face the person that was going to be his.

[thatsalamander]

Hey fnaf fandom I've a question

What would happen if an animatronic was possessed by a teenager? Like either they died in the suit from a prank or was killed by William Afton and stuffed into one.

How would they be integrated? Like since they're a teen I'd assume they'd be pretty moody. Like they'd be a bit of a Wildcard I'd feel, maybe take on more of a systemised approach to killing or just straight up murk someone. I also kinda feel like they'd grow to have a hate/love relationship with the others because we all know how annoying kids can be. But ig it all depends on how well Afton brainwashed them.

It's just been a thought rattling around since I saw the movie.

[fatehbaz]

Traditional scholarship in the history of science associates the quantifiable, universal human body with the European Enlightenment or ‘new science’. This measurable, universal body, it is argued, came to define modern medicine. Behind it lay the driving forces of political economy, [...] life insurance, and modern industrial [profit] [...]. But this widely accepted history of the universalisation and systemisation of human corporeality [...] [involves] an earlier global history of enslaving and measuring bodies in the Indies, born of the Iberian slave trade between Africa and colonial Iberian America. It was in the violent and profitable world of this slave trade that universal concepts and calculations of health risks, disease and bodily characteristics [...] emerged. Indeed, the scale of data production about bodies in the early modern world of Iberian slave trading far outpaced all contemporary systems of production of knowledge about the human body.

The key concept in this early modern quantification of the body was the pieza de Indias (Spanish) or peça da India (Portuguese). [...]

The appearance of this new measure and epistemology was intimately linked to the unprecedented rise in the size and complexity of the transatlantic commerce in human bodies during the first decades of the 17th century. The new, universal measure of man was the result of the slave trade’s need to quantify the risks of investing in human corporeality and its modern afflictions. By the late 16th century, Iberian slave traders, governments, corporations and financiers from around Europe (particularly from Genoa, Florence and the Netherlands) were already thinking of the transportation of slave bodies as units of risk.

---

The original licences for slaves transacted in Iberia were contractual concepts that did not refer to bodily characteristics [...] [and] were of limited help [...] for calculating the productivity [of a slave's body] [...]. Consequently, slave traders and slave-trading organisations, including the House of Trade (Casa de Contratación) in Seville, developed methodologies that allowed them to translate slave bodies into numbers and calculate the inherent value [...] as it related to an increasingly normalised, constant unit called the pieza. The concept of the pieza (the piece) allowed for the creation of contracts where investors, providers and the state could prospectively calculate tariff, gains and risk using quantifiable notions of bodies [...].

The historical record makes clear that the concept of ‘the piece of the Indies’ itself was already firmly established across the Atlantic basin by the early 1600s. [...] In addition to peça, Portuguese slave traders [in West Africa] used several other terms to refer to slaves who were not adult [...], reflecting an increasingly rich taxonomy [...]. Muleque or muleca [...]. Slave traders began using these terms to refer to young bodies that they discounted at rates [...]. Calculating the value of cañengues, muleques and mulecas by converting them into standard adult [...] piezas was a common practice [...]. Portuguese officials in Sao Paulo da Assumpcao de Loanda deployed the concept when they tallied ‘the dispatch’, or fees due to the Portuguese crown, for the embarkment of African slaves bound for the Americas. Such methods to appraise slave bodies became normative in Spanish America for determining the tariffs that traders had to pay to introduce slaves in the New World.

By the late 1530s, crown officials were counting the ‘pieces of slaves’ (piezas de esclavos) disembarking in Santo Domingo and selling them to miners [...] [and] hacienda owners [...] to work in the mines and estates of the island. [...] [A] concept of an ideal body for transportation and labour [...] had emerged across the Atlantic, and during the first decades of the 17th century it was disseminated across the Pacific and Indian Oceans, being widely used in Dutch trading records. [...] [S]lave traders and government officials used the term pieza to talk about other captive bodies from the Indies, most notably native or 'Indian' bodies in the Caribbean.

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The concept of the piece of the Indies appears in full form in the 1660s as part of negotiations of the terms of the asiento de negros or slave monopoly between the Spanish crown and the Genoese financiers Domingo Grillo and Ambrosio Lomelín. The contract with the Grillos established that they would ‘bring 24,500 blacks, piezas de Indias, over the course of seven years and starting in 1662’. The monopoly established as one of its conditions that ‘the said quantity of blacks should be piezas de Indias, each one seven cuartas of height and up’. [...] Slave traders used height as a proxy for life histories of health and nutrition and as a predictor of the slave’s potential productivity [...] [and] created a complex system around the marker of height [...].

[H]aving grey hair, for instance, translated into a reduction in value of one cuarta or one-seventh of the standard pieza. The conditions of 'cloud in one eye [cataracts]' signified a reduction of two cuartas; scurvy, two cuartas; phlegm, one and one-half cuartas; a 'benign hernia', one cuarta [...]. Being older than 35 years merited a one-cuarta deduction [...]. The presence of lobanillos (small tumours) was worth one and one-half cuartas’ reduction; small fingers, one-half cuarta; incapacitating scars (burns), one and one-half cuarta; [...] localised ulcers, one-sixth of a cuarta; generalised ulcers, one cuarta; [...] short-sightednesss, two cuartas; [...] missing molars, one cuarta [...].

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The contractual articulation of the concept of the piece of the Indies [...] formalised slave-based knowledge production about human bodies. The contract assembled a vast storehouse of knowledge, much of it held in the House of Trade in Seville, obtained from thousands of records of bodily characteristics and diseases for hundreds of thousands of bodies [...]. The Grillos’ contract set a precedent for the 1679 contract between Spanish and Portuguese merchants and the Dutch West India Company. The 1696 asiento between Spanish crown and [financier F.M.] and [financier N/P.], for example, agreed they would transport 10,000 tonnes of freight including 30,000 piezas de Indias of the ‘regular measure of seven cuartas’. Similarly, a 1709 contract between the French Compagnie de Guinée and Dutch slave traders, settled in Amsterdam, specified that the French would pay 110 pièces de huit (pieces of eight) ‘for each black piece of Indies’ delivered in the Caribbean.

As the ‘new science’ of the European Enlightenment dawned in Europe, the piece of the Indies was well established as the most disseminated universal measure of the human body.

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All text above by: Pablo F. Gomez. "Pieza de Indias: Slave Trade and the Quantification of Human Bodies". A chapter in New World Objects of Knowledge: A Cabinet of Curiosities (edited by Mark Thurner and Juan Pimentel), pp. 47-50. Published 2021. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism purposes.]

[nashaalya]

so what is the deep environmentalist plan for the observable ability of non-human animals to modify their environment at the expense of the natural cycle? genuine question. should we systematically slaughter all sea otters capable of breaking urchins with rocks before we sterilise all africans and smash every insulin needle? it's demonstrably a small step from rubbing sticks and throwing pebbles to intensive agriculture and animal husbandry

sry for being uncharitable. well actually i'm not sorry at all. 'primitivism' and other systemised forms of misanthropy make me feel like a roman orthodox christian listening to the heretical ravings of a gnostic—you're so, so close to being right, the neuroses underlying ur ethical system are asymptotic to those underlying mine, and yet you choose to derive falsehoods from ur priors. maddening!

[suncaptor]

the problem is that I see things I need to do and how things will happen and what I want and how to react how the future looks with every action in this brilliant clarity. like the ideas are in FULL saturation. I feel like I am a moth trying to look away from a flame. but I KNOW I'm not trustworthy but that makes it even scarier that makes me want it to all end even sooner. like I can't trust illogical visions as answers I can't act in pure emotional faith. but my impulses are screaming inside of me. I feel borderline out of my mind. like I know that when this happens I need to be logical I need to trust to how to systemise it all down. but how do I explain it's like a window I'm looking out and I just need help being pushed out because the sky is so clear and I can't breathe another second here? the power of imagery in my mind's eye is not some reliable narrator of reality but it is so clear. it is so clear. why can't reality twist to me anyways?