All the recent discussion on the list about religion lately sent me diving into the depths of the Internet, searching for a particular site: "The MythoPoet's Manual", by Loren Miller. It took awhile, but I finally tracked it down to: http://www.rpgmud.com/WorldBuilding/Mythopoets/tmm.html 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. To grossly simplify, foragers are pantheists, who believe that "Everything is divine/alive/magical" and "The world is basically benevolent". Horticulturalists are polytheists, and believe that the world is hostile, because they have injured it by poking holes and planting seeds in the earth. As the number of crops a horticulturalist society grows increases, so too does the number of gods whom they worship(not a linear relation, tho.) Herders are often nomadic and unable to maintain complex belief systems; they are very likely to become monotheists, seeing the relationship between their deity and themselves as being analogous to the relationship between themselves and their herds. Religious celebrations are closely tied to the route the herd travels. Societies that use agriculture for subsistence can become far more complex than herding, foraging, or horticultural societies. Agricultural societies can support religious specialists, and like horticulturalists, tend to worship multiple deities or beings. The heavenly hierarchy mirrors the society's own organization. Instead of polytheism, where the various deities are more or less equals, agricultural societies are often henotheist, where there is a Supreme Being, surrounded by lesser deities/beings and ancestral spirits. It can be argued that medieval Roman Catholicism, as understood by the peasantry, was henotheist, not monotheist. In the cities of an agricultural society, things are different. City dwellers tend to become more irreligious. While they may maintain the religious forms, the belief in those forms is lost. There's far more in the Manual, and I highly recommend it. Andrew Janssen __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Protect your identity with Yahoo! Mail AddressGuard http://antispam.yahoo.com/whatsnewfree ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send mail to celandra-off@phoenyx.net.
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. Jefferson http://www.picotech.net/~jeff_wilson63/rpg/ ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send mail to celandra-off@phoenyx.net.
--- 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.
In a message dated 12/3/03 8:08:13 AM Mountain Standard Time, andrewdj54701@yahoo.com writes: > 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. Interesting. I hadn't heard this before, but it makes a lot of sense. Jefferson http://www.picotech.net/~jeff_wilson63/rpg/ ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send mail to celandra-off@phoenyx.net.
