the paleolithic period
30 May 06
Armstrong, Karen. A Short History of Myth. Toronto: Knopf Canada, 2005.
The fate of the Sky God reminds us of another popular misconception. It is often assumed that the early myths gave people in the pre-scientific world information about the origin of the cosmos. The story of the Sky God represented exactly this type of speculation, but the myth was a failure, because it did not touch people’s ordinary lives, told them nothing about their human nature and did not help them to solve their perennial problems. The demise of the Sky Gods helps to explain why the Creator God worshipped by Jews, Christians, and Muslims has disappeared from the lives of many people in the West. (22-23)
Armstrong’s book begins with a brief definition of the nature of myth: she reminds us that in ancient and traditional societies, the sacred and the profane are almost indistinguishable, that “[t]he very existence of the gods was inseparable from that of a storm, a sea, a river, or from. . . powerful human emotions (6)”, that myth functioned as a sort of culturally embedded psychology: “It not only helped people to make sense of their lives, but also revealed regions of the human mind that would otherwise have remained inaccessible.” (10-11)
Her chapter on paleolithic mythologies is interesting. All of what we know about paleolithic societies is based on conjecture, but Armstrong makes a convincing case for certain patterns of religious experience that seem to arise frequently in hunter-gatherer societies. Sky gods, almost always male, are found in almost every polytheistic pantheon; they are typically viewed as creator gods, responsible for having made everything, but for various reasons now removed from the world, absent from the daily lives of people. Sky gods are also normally disposed of by their successors, as in the example of Ouranos and Kronos in the Greek pantheon. What struck me about the excerpt at the head of this post is that Armstrong specifically states that the assumption “that the early myths gave people in the pre-scientific world information about the origin of the cosmos” is a misconception. If so, why does the Sky God represent this type of speculation? She seems to suggest that the Sky God was in fact a paleolithic attempt to provide information about origins, but that the Sky God was in turn doomed to fail because of a modern misconception about the nature of paleolithic myth—or perhaps a paleolithic misconception about the function of their own myths. I imagine little is known about exactly why the Sky God is almost universally dethroned, but Armstrong’s suggestion here that it’s because in some way the myths didn’t work seems facile. The parallel to the gods of western monotheisms is fascinating, nonetheless, but difficult given the weaknesses in Armstrong’s analysis of the Sky God’s demise.
The first great flowering of mythology. . . came into being at a time when homo sapiens became homo necans, ‘man the killer’, and found it very difficult to accept the conditions of his existence in a violent world. Mythology often springs from profound anxiety about essentially practical problems, which cannot be assuaged by purely logical arguments. (30)
Here, Armstrong seems to suggest that mythology can provide a mechanism to help humans cope with the ugly realities, not of life as it happens to us, but of the ugly things we have to do to survive. Admittedly, for paleolithic humans who might identify with animals in a way inconceivable to modern humans, one can imagine that hunting and killing a powerful and majestic creature might cause a certain anguish. And in our times, I suspect a considerable number of people would reconsider the casualness with which they eat meat if they were required to do the killing themselves. Nevertheless, I’m a little worried by Armstrong’s suggestions that mythology helps assuage our guilt. Returning to the parallel between the paleolithic Sky God and the modern monotheist gods, it isn’t difficult to find mythologies within the modern religions that justify and even promote atrocities. Here, for instance, is a video game promoted by dominionist christian Rick Warren. True, video games aren’t quite parallel to mythologies, but the dominionist vision behind this one arguably is. And if the function of a mythology is to help assuage the anxiety and guilt we felt as paleolithics when confronted with the need to kill big game to survive, it can also function to increase the comfort we feel as moderns when called upon to kill other people.
Thanks to Secular Front for the video game link.
Posted by pzed on May 30, 2006 at 4.33pm
Holbein’s Dance of Death Alphabet
24 May 06
Lübeck’s Dance of Death provides an overview of the Dance of Death genre, but Holbein’s Dance of Death Alphabet is the gem.
The scholarship seems careful, and there’s a short annotated bibliography; signed by the author, but perhaps not quite trustworthy. . . . I’d want to crossreference everything if I were working on a Dance of Death project again. But hey, thanks for the pictures!
Posted by pzed on May 24, 2006 at 1.42pm
vive la différence?
8 May 06
Wharton, Edith. The House of Mirth. New York: Scribner’s, 1905.
“Ah, there’s the difference—a girl must, a man may if he chooses.” She surveyed him critically. “Your coat’s a little shabby—but who cares? It doesn’t keep people from asking you to dine. If I were shabby, no one would have me: a woman is asked out as much for her clothes as for herself. The clothes are the background, the frame, if you like: they don’t make success, but they are a part of it. Who wants a dingy woman? We are expected to be pretty and well-dressed till we drop—and if we can’t keep it up alone, we have to go into partnership.” (12)
The character Lily Bart speaks these words to an acquaintance in the first chapter of the novel. Pointedly, although their conversation is somewhat intimate, she never refers to him as other than Mr. Selden, nor does the narrator reveal to the reader his first name. Miss Bart has taken up Mr. Selden on his impromptu offer for a cup of tea in his apartment, but we realize by the end of the chapter that this was an indiscretion. Social mores were such that for an unmarried girl (albeit, who is 29 years old) to visit a bachelor’s apartment would be considered scandalous. Mores have changed considerably on this issue, but arguably not so much on the matter of appearance that is the topic of the fragment quoted above. Evidence? Check out some of these tv news anchors ratings and reviews. Ah, well, it’s only been a hundred years or so.
Posted by pzed on May 8, 2006 at 2.48pm
cyrenaics
3 May 06
The Cyrenaics were a school of ancient Greek philosophy, “notable mainly for their empiricist and skeptical epistemology and their sensualist hedonism” (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy). It’s possible that epicureans would be a better name for this category than cyrenaics, but Epicurus “taught that the point of all one’s actions was to attain pleasure (conceived of as tranquility) for oneself, and that this could be done by limiting one’s desires and by banishing the fear of the gods and of death” (also IEP), and that doesn’t quite cut it. Besides, “epicurean” has come to be used almost exclusively to refer to the pleasures of food—just drop the word in Google as evidence.
So cyrenaics it is.
Posted by pzed on May 3, 2006 at 9.50am
Whisky Classified
3 May 06
There’s a book, but the salient details are on this page:
Cluster A ( Full-Bodied, Medium-Sweet, Pronounced Sherry with Fruity, Spicy, Malty Notes and Nutty, Smoky Hints): Balmenach, Dailuaine, Dalmore, Glendronach, Macallan, Mortlach, Royal Lochnagar;
Cluster B ( Medium-Bodied, Medium-Sweet, with Nutty, Malty, Floral, Honey and Fruity Notes): Aberfeldy, Aberlour, Ben Nevis, Benrinnes, Benromach, Blair Athol, Cragganmore, Edradour, Glenfarclas, Glenturret, Knockando, Longmorn, Scapa, Strathisla;
Cluster C (Medium-Bodied, Medium-Sweet, with Fruity, Floral, Honey, Malty Notes and Spicy Hints ): Balvenie, Benriach, Dalwhinnie, Glendullan, Glen Elgin, Glenlivet, Glen Ord, Linkwood, Royal Brackla;
Cluster D (Light, Medium-Sweet, Low or No Peat, with Fruity, Floral, Malty Notes and Nutty Hints ): An Cnoc, Auchentoshan, Aultmore, Cardhu, Glengoyne, Glen Grant, Mannochmore, Speyside, Tamdhu, Tobermory;
Cluster E (Light, Medium-Sweet, Low Peat, with Floral, Malty Notes and Fruity, Spicy, Honey Hints ): Bladnoch, Bunnahabhain, Glenallachie, Glenkinchie, Glenlossie, Glen Moray, Inchgower, Inchmurrin, Tomintoul;
Cluster F (Medium-Bodied, Medium-Sweet, Low Peat, Malty Notes and Sherry, Honey, Spicy Hints ): Ardmore, Auchroisk, Bushmills, Deanston, Glen Deveron, Glen Keith, Glenrothes, Old Fettercairn, Tomatin, Tormore, Tullibardine;
Cluster G (Medium-Bodied, Sweet, Low Peat and Floral Notes ): Arran, Dufftown, Glenfiddich, Glen Spey, Miltonduff, Speyburn;
Cluster H (Medium-Bodied, Medium-Sweet, with Smoky, Fruity, Spicy Notes and Floral, Nutty Hints ): Balblair, Craigellachie, Glen Garioch, Glenmorangie, Oban, Old Pulteney, Strathmill, Tamnavulin, Teaninch;
Cluster I (Medium-Light, Dry, with Smoky, Spicy, Honey Notes and Nutty, Floral Hints): Bowmore, Bruichladdich, Glen Scotia, Highland Park, Isle of Jura, Springbank;
Cluster J (Full-Bodied, Dry, Pungent, Peaty and Medicinal, with Spicy, Feinty Notes): Ardbeg, Caol Ila, Clynelish, Lagavulin, Laphroaig, Talisker.
Some might even consider this a sort of checklist.
Posted by pzed on May 3, 2006 at 9.32am
