Re: Conreligion

Sheets, Jeff wrote:

> Certainly there are going to eventually be discordant voices (such as
> mine) who start preaching of an apocalyptic time when the Old Eagle
> Woman "gives up on us".  These people could then start acting like the
>
> Old Eagle Woman has contacted them, with the intention that there be
> many sacrifices in her honor.  I cannot envision a place where every
> single person believes the same thing, and they all aren't the least
> afraid that the OEW will get tired or give up.  If this comes off like
> a
> challenge, it is not intended as such.  I just want to understand why
> your conculture is so docile.  Your response?
Well, I think it's jumping to conclusions a bit to call the Tokana
"docile" just because they don't worship their creator.  As I
said before, the Tokana don't have a personal relationship
with Old Eagle Woman, and would probably have a hard time
understanding prayer, communication with spirits, and other
such features of our familiar Western religions (monotheistic
or polytheistic).  Like some Amerindian cultures, the Tokana
view the world as being something that 'just happened'.
Human beings developed out of the interaction of various
'forces' and were not directly, wilfully created by Old
Eagle Woman.  Hence the Big Bang analogy...

I should mention that life for the Tokana is not all that
hard.  Their society is small-scale agrarian and non-industrial,
and the population (which is quite small) is rather
thinly spread.  Food is plentiful, the weather is relatively
mild - though harsh winters are not uncommon - and
outbreaks of disease or drought are rare.  About the worst
natural disasters they have to deal with are the frequent
earthquakes.  (The Tokana live on the Pacific Rim during
a comparatively active period in geologic history.)  It may sound
like a hopelessly utopian conculture, but it's not meant to be.
I modelled the Tokana on the kinds of kinship-based societies
found in places like precolonial Indonesia, New Guinea, and
Central America.  Their religion should thus be expected
to reflect that kind of 'lifestyle'.

But to respond to your hypothetical situation:  Millenarian
movements are most common among societies that are
experiencing severe social pressures:  overpopulation,
large-scale warfare, epidemics, revolutions and other
rapid social, political, or economic changes.  At their
current period of history, the Tokana are experiencing none
of these pressures.  So why should they believe that Old
Eagle Woman would 'give up' on them?

Matt.