The idea that humankind, or to be more accurate mankind, is apart from nature seems to be one that is deeply rooted in western civilization. In contrast to the 'animistic' religions of many indigenous peoples, which, to use our terms, see culture in nature and nature in culture, Judaeo-Christian traditions tell of an origin in which man was given dominion over the beasts. Indeed, even the most ancient of the world's epics, the Tale of Gilgamesh, recounts the primordial struggle between kingly civilisation and the forests, the source of all evil and brutishness.
In ancient Greece, untamed nature was perceived as the domain of wild, irrational, female forces that contrasted with the rational culture ordered by males. In this world view, not only was nature a dangerous threat to the city state, but the wilderness beyond was peopled by barbarians, the epitome of whom were the Amazons—long haired, naked, female savages who represented the antithesis of Greek civilization.
These precepts endure to this day. In Europe's middle ages the image was sustained of an ordered world of culture managed by civilised men, bounded by a chaotic wilderness peopled with savages, the abode of pagan warlocks and witches who drew their power from the dangerous, evil forces of nature, the realm of Beelzebub himself. Similar images continue to sustain the views of fundamentalist Christian missionaries who perceive the shamanism of indigenous peoples as 'devil worship', and believe that as 'Commandos for Christ' they have a God-given role to 'reach the lost until they have reached the last', in 'Satan's last stronghold'.
Pioneering Christian fundamentalists brought these same views of nature to the New World where they found them strongly reinforced. Beset from the first by naked, long haired 'salvages' who knew nothing of Christ or modesty, their precarious frontier world depended on a taming of nature as they sought to wrest a living from a hostile 'wilderness'. As one local poet wrote in 1662, the forests of the New World were:
A waste and howling wilderness,
Where none inhabited
But hellish fiends and brutish men
That devils worshipped.
The notion that their society had a 'manifest destiny' to tame the wilds became for them a fundamental truth and political imperative.
"In ancient Greece, untamed nature was perceived as the domain of wild, irrational, female forces that contrasted with the rational culture ordered by males. In this world view, not only was nature a dangerous threat to the city state, but the wilderness beyond was peopled by barbarians, the epitome of whom were the Amazons—long haired, naked, female savages who represented the antithesis of Greek civilization."
ReplyDeleteRob, I love your blog, but this statement is ridiculous..I'm sure you realize that scholars fail to interpret traditional knowledge correctly regardless of where it originated. My Dad is Caddo, my mother Arbereshe.. also known as Greek Sicilian. We are traditional on both sides of the family.
The Greeks have a long history of honoring nature and traditional healing, but this is not what is taught in Euro school systems. My mothers town is Greek Orthodox but still practices a 4000 year old Wheat ceremony held on the summer Solstice. We still sing the Wheat songs for planting and gathering. In this ceremony the seeds of the Wheat are combined with water from the mountain spring source (woman)... Later in the evening the Phallic tree is burned..Fire and Phallus of the man together with water and seed from woman ensures the blessing of the harvest. Check out this link...www.muzzuni.com ...notice the similarites in rug weaving designs also..
Even the Greek Ortho Church still uses water, smoke and plants to bless the people...check out this video on You Tube of the Epiphany ceremony (officially the last day of the Winter Solstice) the Blessing of the water, and the blessing using RUDA. Notice how the Priest places the fire INTO the water, connecting the two sources together. There are many other pre-Christian similarities that continue to exist between people all over the world. the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrJwx8Zd_go
(if the link doesn't work type: Piana Degli Albanesi)
I am not Christian, but I do realize that the Christianity known in America is but a shadow of the Mediterranean traditions that continue to flourish today.
my site www.CasadeCura.com
I didn't write that paragraph. It came from the "Salvaging Wilderness" paper by Marcus Colchester of the World Rainforest Movement.
ReplyDeleteIf you're a regular reader, you know I don't agree with everything I post. In this case, I have little idea what the ancient Greeks thought about nature. I wouldn't presume to take a position on the subject.
But just to play the devil's advocate...when we think of Greek civilization, we think of the famous statesmen, philosophers, and poets living in Athens and other city-states. Did these city-dwellers hold wheat ceremonies and sing wheat songs? Or were they as divorced from farming and rural life as city-dwellers are today?