Re: Pagan Seminaries
Jenny
 
Mon May 24 19:30:11 1999
Hi Searles,*p*While I think most of this sounds great, I have some suggestions on the history section.  *p*I guess my first question is, what is the purpose of the history requirement?  Is it to give the student a vague understanding of the course of history throughout the world?  A more detailed understanding of a smaller area?  Or an understanding of the history of our religion(s)?*p*The first two topics suggested -- the Inquisition and the Salem trials -- have little or nothing to do with Paganism.  And while they're both fascinating, they're minor episodes in history.  Worse, they're episodes that are easy to misunderstand if you take them out of context.  Salem can't be understood outside of the question of the Great Hunt as a whole.  You can't understand the Inquisition if you don't know anything about the structure of the Catholic Church.  I don't think that either of them makes a decent stand-alone category for study.*p*A survey course that covers all "Pagan" religions, of all the world, is equally problematic.  There's simply too much material, and I worry that a course that tried to cover the whole planet would end up painfully superficial.  The student would come away capable of dropping names, but not having a detailed understanding of anything.*p*Personally, I like the other approach suggested better:  concentrating on one area and studying it:  African history, Chinese history, etc.  Another way of generating depth without over specializing is to concentrate on smaller topics.  For instance, I really like the idea of the Historical Structures 101 class -- a class that would examine how various cultures defined sacred space.  Classes like this would avoid superficiality, yet allow cross-cultural comparison and dialogue.*p*For what it's worth, these are some of the categories I'd consider important to understand the history of Neo-Paganism.  It's admittedly Euro-centric, but then Neo-Paganism is largely a Euro-American phenomenon.  Plus it's the area I know. <g>:*p*I. Neolithic religion and megalithic structures*br*II. The Indo-Europeans*br*III. Early civilizations (Egypt and Mesopotamia)*br*IV. Classical Paganism:  the Greeks and the Romans*br*V. Roman syncretism and the Mystery Religions (including Christianity)*br*VI. The Christian conversion of Europe*br*VII. The development and structure of the Catholic Church*br*VIII. Pagan survivals in the Middle Ages*br*IX. Kabbalah and mystical Judaism*br*X. Ceremonial magick and the occult rebirth of the Renaissence*br*XI. Popular religion and folk magick*br*XII. The Great Hunt, aka the Burning Times*br*XIII. Hermeticism*br*XIV. Regional histories (Celtic history, Germanic history, etc.)*p**br*I like the suggestions for "meta-historical" advanced subjects such as  patterns and extrapolation.  Some other categories you might want to consider are:*p*Historiography, or historians as myth-makers.  Examining our histories to see what they tell us about ourselves.  For instance, Diane Purkiss' _The Witch in History_ does a wonderful job of showing how both feminists and mainstream historians re-interpret historical witches to suit themselves.*p*History as propaganda.  History isn't just something we learn from, it's a tool we use to make points or to inspire people to act as we wish.  Some examples or texts would be:  Nazi use of the swastika and "Germanic religion", the film "Triumph of the Will";  Bernal's _Black Athena I_, which discusses racism in Classics and how historical interpretations of the Greeks helped justify European colonialism;  some of the more extreme writings from the Goddess-movement, which use evidence of prehistoric goddesses to encourage egalitarian societies; or Irish ballads, the ways that Irish musicians used songs to encourage rebellion against the British.*p*Historical criticism.  Learning to read texts critically.*p*Jenny
Re: Pagan Seminaries
Searles
468
Sun May 23 22:49:40 1999