Re: Religion and Holidays, were Socialism (WAS: Re: Why Can't We Just Not Talk Politics?
| From: | Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...> |
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| Date: | Friday, December 26, 2003, 6:07 |
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Hope those of you who celebrate Christmas had a merry one . . .
On Wed, Dec 24, 2003 at 10:58:47PM -0500, John Cowan wrote:
> Costentin Cornomorus scripsit:
>
> > Something reminiscent of Hinduism (Vedic) might
> > have been around at that time.
>
> Indeed, there are common elements, like the worship of Sky-Father,
> visible in many IE languages; we can also find legal elements (and that
> far back, law is part of religion) that are in common across the IE-speaking
> cultures, e.g. noxal surrender (the practice of transferring an animal or
> child that has injured another to the other).
Interesting. I'll keep that in mind; thanks! (I had only come across
noxal surrender as a Roman law, with respect to slaves . . . didn't know
it was more widespread, or applied to other kinds of livestock . . .
and children!)
> The theme of the "kingship in heaven", where successive waves of new gods
> supersede the old ones, seems to be a Semitic notion that the Greeks
> picked up at some point, perhaps when they invaded Greece and mixed with
> the Shore People.
Wasn't that the basic idea of Norse Ragnarok . . . the old gods being
replaced by new ones?
-Mark
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