Re: Pagan Seminaries Aicerno OCathasaigh akiernox_ocasey@hotmail.com Thu May 27 22:09:12 1999 Jenny wrote,*br*<snip>*br*: Personally, I like the other approach suggested better: *br*: concentrating on one area and studying it: African history, *br*: Chinese history, etc. Another way of generating depth *br*: without over specializing is to concentrate on smaller *br*: topics. For instance, I really like the idea of the *br*: Historical Structures 101 class -- a class that would *br*: examine how various cultures defined sacred space. Classes *br*: like this would avoid superficiality, yet allow *br*: cross-cultural comparison and dialogue.*br*: For what it's worth, these are some of the categories I'd *br*: consider important to understand the history of *br*: Neo-Paganism. It's admittedly Euro-centric, but then *br*: Neo-Paganism is largely a Euro-American phenomenon. Plus *br*: it's the area I know. <g>:*br*:*br*: 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 *br*: 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 *br*: 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, *br*: etc.)*br*<G> Again, this may be a personal bias of mine, but when I think "Classical" my thoughts center around pre-Roman Gaul, Britain, and Ireland. I guess one might say that I apply #XIV Regional Studies to #'s III through XIV. I am aware of of events outside of the realm of what might be classified as "Celtica", however I look at those events and how they influenced Ireland and surrounding environs.*p*: I like the suggestions for "meta-historical" *br*: advanced subjects such as patterns and extrapolation. Some *br*: other categories you might want to consider are:*br*:*br*: Historiography, or historians as myth-makers. Examining our *br*: histories to see what they tell us about ourselves. For *br*: instance, Diane Purkiss' _The Witch in History_ does a *br*: wonderful job of showing how both feminists and mainstream *br*: historians re-interpret historical witches to suit *br*: themselves.*br*:*br*: History as propaganda. History isn't just something we *br*: learn from, it's a tool we use to make points or to inspire *br*: people to act as we wish. Some examples or texts would be: *br*: Nazi use of the swastika and "Germanic religion", *br*: the film "Triumph of the Will"; Bernal's _Black *br*: Athena I_, which discusses racism in Classics and how *br*: historical interpretations of the Greeks helped justify *br*: European colonialism; some of the more extreme writings *br*: from the Goddess-movement, which use evidence of prehistoric *br*: goddesses to encourage egalitarian societies; or Irish *br*: ballads, the ways that Irish musicians used songs to *br*: encourage rebellion against the British.*br*:*br*: Historical criticism. Learning to read texts critically.*br*:*br*: Jenny*p*Definitely some good points here, probably the most important one of them all is the last point Jenny made, i.e.: Historical Criticism: Learning to read texts critically. The reason for this being that a student of any history should be able to discern bias when they encounter them in the studies. To do this, a student should be aware of the various influences on biases, and how to spot them. . . This requires being able to read critically or without judgement.*p*Aicerno Re: Pagan Seminaries Jenny 470 Mon May 24 19:30:11 1999