(This will be one of my unpopular and weird, wacky, out-there kind of theories)
Isn't it interesting that many of these early cultures (I can't say all because I don't know all nine that you speak of) have a legend built around this agriculturalism? Stating that there is some heavenly interference/encouragement of becoming farmers? Sumeria - Inanna steals knowledge from her father and brings it to earth in defiance of his wishes - agriculture (among many other skills) is taught to the people Judaism - besides the Torah, where God punishes Adam by throwing him and Eve out of the garden and saying he must till the land, there is the Book of Enoch, which says the Nephilim came down to teach skills to men, and seems to hint at teaching agriculture, although it could be herbalism ("made them acquainted with plants") Egypt - Osiris and his wife Isis taught the people agriculture, specifically of grains
When faced with a common myth, one can take it in one of several ways. One can decide it is literal - I do not. One can decide it is metaphorical, which seems to leave some questions unanswered - fwhy then would this have appeared simultaneously around the world in an age where communication between contintents was practiacally non-existent? Or one can decide it is a mix - that something happened which a very primitive people were not able to explain in terms other than that which they could use. The typical fall back is God did it, or Demons did it. Did something happen which somehow came in such a way as to be interpreted to come from the sky? And did this something teach agriculture and other skills to people? Or is there a sort of human telepathy that exists by virtue of synchronistic evolution, so that all groups of humans arrive at a similar stage at a similar time?
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2005-05-09 03:22 pm (UTC)Isn't it interesting that many of these early cultures (I can't say all because I don't know all nine that you speak of) have a legend built around this agriculturalism? Stating that there is some heavenly interference/encouragement of becoming farmers?
Sumeria - Inanna steals knowledge from her father and brings it to earth in defiance of his wishes - agriculture (among many other skills) is taught to the people
Judaism - besides the Torah, where God punishes Adam by throwing him and Eve out of the garden and saying he must till the land, there is the Book of Enoch, which says the Nephilim came down to teach skills to men, and seems to hint at teaching agriculture, although it could be herbalism ("made them acquainted with plants")
Egypt - Osiris and his wife Isis taught the people agriculture, specifically of grains
When faced with a common myth, one can take it in one of several ways. One can decide it is literal - I do not. One can decide it is metaphorical, which seems to leave some questions unanswered - fwhy then would this have appeared simultaneously around the world in an age where communication between contintents was practiacally non-existent? Or one can decide it is a mix - that something happened which a very primitive people were not able to explain in terms other than that which they could use. The typical fall back is God did it, or Demons did it.
Did something happen which somehow came in such a way as to be interpreted to come from the sky? And did this something teach agriculture and other skills to people? Or is there a sort of human telepathy that exists by virtue of synchronistic evolution, so that all groups of humans arrive at a similar stage at a similar time?