--- RulingNations@aol.com wrote: > In a message dated 11/30/03 6:20:51 PM Mountain Standard Time, > andrewdj54701@yahoo.com writes: > > > It's not really complete, being a collection of draft notes for a > > larger project, but it has a very interesting discussion of how > the > > form of a culture's religion is *very* strongly influenced by its > > subsistence pattern. > > Thanks for the link. I read this a few years back, but it'll be > interesting > to review it again. However, I've found it much more useful to base > religion > on a culture's historical government than on patterns of subsistence, > though > the two are remarkably similar in principle. Note that this is > scarcely the > whole story though as the breakout of Islam remains inexplicable. I wouldn't go that far; while I do find it difficult to understand how Mohammed convinced the Arab tribes to follow him, there's a logical reason why the Byzantine Empire lost their eastern provinces(Syria, Palestine, Egypt) to Islam: It was all Emperor Justinian's fault. Justinian was trying to reconquer all of the old Roman empire, while also trying to impose Orthodox Christianity on the whole empire. The problem was that the overwhelming majority of the populations in Syria, Palestine, and Egypt adhered to Monophysitism, the belief that Jesus' nature was wholly mortal. These provinces provided much of the Byzantine's food and manpower, so in retrospect, Justinian was nuts to come down so hard, but he was trying to make a good impression on the Pope. Anyway, when Islam appeared, its creed was similar enough to Monophysitism that whole communities converted en masse, seeing it as a way to end the persecutions they were enduring. So, in the last analysis, Islam's spread was greatly aided by the Byzantines' insistence on a rigid Orthodox Christianity. Andrew Janssen > Jefferson > http://www.picotech.net/~jeff_wilson63/rpg/ > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, send mail to celandra-off@phoenyx.net. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Protect your identity with Yahoo! Mail AddressGuard http://antispam.yahoo.com/whatsnewfree ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send mail to celandra-off@phoenyx.net.
