Re: Constructed Religions

On Fri, 1 Jan 1999 02:39:46 -0600 Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> writes:
>Steg Belsky wrote:
>> Btw, they don't make sacrifices, and aside from the life-cycle
>ceremonies
>> and the few holidays, most of the religion is made of general moral
>> commandments such as "don't murder" - they don't have food taboos,
>except
>> for thanking what you're eating.
>Surely they have unspoken taboos, things that are never explicitely
>forbidden, but just aren't eaten, it's "natural" not to eat it.  For
>instance, in American culture, it seems natural not to eat insects or
>cats and dogs.  No one ever explicitely forbad it, it just isn't done.
What i meant by a food taboo is something explicitly forbidden.
The Rokbeigalm's diet consists primarily of fish, plants, and herbivorous
animals.  Eating something else, like an insect or a predator, would be
considered unusual and somewhat abnormal, but not "wrong".

>> The official Rokbeigalm funeral
>> ceremony is much more complicated, however.
>The Faithful Ones have a sea-burial - the Sea is associated with the
>Life-Death Balance, it gives life (most food is from the sea) and it
>takes life.
Here's a cut-and-paste of a description i sent someone of Rokbeigalmki
funeral practices:

The burial ceremony is tied into the element of Earth, but since the
Rokbeigalm have a strong affinity for water (they're nomads similar to
the ancient Polynesians - they settle down for anywhere between a few
years to a few hundred years in one place, and then move on to migrate
for another segment of time), water is also important.  The deceased's
_adereth_ (cloak, one of initial borrowings straight from Hebrew) is
spread out on the ground and covered in soil, sand or clay, [the earth
part], along with other sheets if it isn't big enough (it usually isn't).
 The body is then placed on the dirt-covered fabrics and rolled up in
them, and tied with vines or other plant matter, [the wood part].  Then
the main part of the funeral gathering takes place, with speeches,
eulogies, and all the other interactions that you'd expect at a funeral.
During this phase, the wrapped body is surrounded by a ring of flames
[the fire part].  The most important part of this phase involves  the
declaration of the deceased's full ceremonial name, including his/her
relations to his/her full immediate family, not just the parents.  As
each immediate family member is called, s/he pricks a finger and shakes
out a few drops of blood onto the wrapped body [the blood part].  After
this part, the body is brought out on a ship to a distance from the shore
as far as possible with the people on the boat still being able to see
individual figures on the beach, and the corpse is dropped overboard with
stones tied to it in order so that it will sink straight down to the
bottom of the ocean, [the water part] the soul "propelled" with it and
past it down into _shail_ "at the foundations of the world", the
Underworld.  Shail is similar to the biblical She'ol - it doesn't involve
any punishment or reward, just a continuation of existence in
semi-nonphysical form after death.
Since the burial ceremony is the ceremony of Earth, the soil that the
body is covered with is the most important part.  Under various
circumstances different parts of the ceremony can be neglected, but the
minimum that is needed is a handful of soil sprinkled over the corpse.
Without this earth to tie the soul of the dead body to the Earth, the
soul can't descend to Shail and instead remains in this world. [until it
decomposes and becomes mixed with the ground].
Each of the other life-cycle ceremonies involve each of the elements,
with the individual element which is tied into the ceremony having the
most important part of it.

>> As a last cultural note, the Rokbeigalm cover their heads as a sign
>>of respect.
>At a funeral, or as a general rule?
As a general rule....it's actually one of the few actions/customs of
theirs to show respect which is very widespread.  The Rokbeigalm are
generally a very 'first-name-basis' society - if you know someone well,
you always refer to them by their first name, no matter where they are in
the power structure (except your parents).  If you know them less well,
or want to show a degree of respect/distance, you address them by their
last name (= occupation) with _-a_ ("the") attached, for instance
_nawidh-a_, "(the) navigator".  There are no words in Rokbeigalmki that
are the equivalent of "sir" or "maam".  However, when speaking to a
leader, someone else who is involved in making important decisions with
regard to you (for instance, a teacher grading finals), anyone else who
you want to show "obvious" respect to, and also when meeting someone for
the first time and introducing yourself, a Rokbeigalmki will cover
his/her head.  The most common way of doing this is to pull the top edge
of your _adereth_ ("cloak", this word happens to be directly borrowed
from Hebrew because i like it so much) up and forwards to cover the top
of your head.  If you've seen pictures of Jews praying at the Western
Wall, you can usually see people with their _tallis_ pulled forwards this
way.  A Rokbeigalmki _adereth_ is approximately the same size and shape
as a large tallis, but much more colorful :) .
Also, at life-cycle ceremonies (including funerals), they cover their
heads, in order to respect the person who is going through the ceremony.


-Stephen (Steg)

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