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Re: On oral traditions and muddied waters
Gary Goodman (sap@TANK.RGS.UKY.EDU)
Sun, 19 May 1996 20:18:26 EDT
Mike,
MS>I still think MY point is being missed. I'm not out to traduce the Inuit
MS>after all. I was trying to show that a three century old folk memory is
MS>not IMMEDIATELY clear to non-acculturated observers. From which it
MS>follows that millenia old legends and myths created by long vanished
MS>cultures are very likely going to be totally undecipherable in the modern
MS>age.
MS>Which is a pity. I'm interested in ancient things after all. I'd love
MS>to be able to say "here's a clue as to how the Sumerian villages which
MS>became city states triumphed over their neighbors" or "this helps us
MS>understand the economic status of early artisans and craftsmen." And
MS>maybe we can get some useful ideas from myths and folklore which were
MS>contemporaneous with this those events. But I still think there are
MS>limits on what we can achieve in looking into the very distant, pre-literate
MS>past through mythology.
You are correct. I WAS missing your point. My apologies.
MS>Anyhow, the disussion has been posted. Shall we sit back for a while and
MS>see what emerges from the lists?
With baited breath...
Gary D. Goodman
sap@TANK.RGS.UKY.EDU
Pentad Communications
McDaniels, KY (502) 756-9012
"....Symbolic language is the only universal language the human race
has known. It is the language used in myths five thousand years old
and in the dreams of our contemporaries...."
--Erich Fromm, Psychoanalysis and Religion, 1950, pg. 110
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