>From: Marion Gunn <[log in to unmask]>

>We should also take care to avoid taking on board the more suspect opinions
>of nineteenth-century nerds (a fair description of many now held to be
>scholars).

I'd suggest that perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind is that
people from *e very* era are a diverse lot, not to be lumped into
categories, and that imposing *any* preconceptions is something to be
avoided. This may be easier in theory than in practice because it's not
always easy to let people of another era speak for themselves, especially
when we're not sure what they meant when they used words. But, then, if we
were sure, there would be no need for OIL, would there? ;)

Francine Nicholson

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