Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: CHAT: cultural interpretation [was Re: THEORY: language and the brain]

From:taliesin the storyteller <taliesin@...>
Date:Friday, July 4, 2003, 8:19
* Mark J. Reed said on 2003-07-03 23:55:11 +0200
> > > For instance, compare the Scandinavian practice of requiring that > > > babies be given first names chosen from a church-approved list with > > > the U.S.'s mandatory separation of church and state and complete > > > governmental apathy toward what and how people are named. > > > Not that it matters alot, but at least Sweden does not have a such practice. > > Well, it does matter. I made a sweeping generalization and got called on it. > Sorry. What I said is, or recently was, reportedly true in Norway,
Nope. Never has been, and isn't the case now. It's the same as in Sweden, plus it's frowned upon to use a last name as a first name and the first name is preferably not gender-neutral. I doubt a church would have allowed the norse non-christian names fr instance. I've also heard that there are countries where you can only take church- approved names; that these are generally only the names of saints, and that France is such a country. Further, that among other the french Basques and the Bretons are not amused by this. Urban legend? As for the position of the church in the state; yes there are obligatory lessons in Religion in school (which is by some teachers used to brainw^Wproselytize) and I sincerely hope the human-rights court in Strasbourg puts a stop to this once and for all, but Norway is also the country with the world's largest humanist organization, HEF (Human-Etisk Forbund) of which I am a member. (As a friend jokingly said the other the day, HEF is the Sinn Fein of Hedningesamfundet [the Heathen Society]. There's also the new "Holistisk Forbund" IIRC, for the New Agers. HEFers are usually sceptics, as am I, so I think the last one is quite cute :) non-religious indeed...) t.

Replies

Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>
Ian Spackman <ianspackman@...>