RE: Egyptian funerary texts
December 21, 2011 at 1:46 pm
(This post was last modified: December 21, 2011 at 1:53 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
(December 20, 2011 at 12:55 pm)Minimalist Wrote: 1. The use of herding type analogies is not ( or should not ) be a surprise. The steppes gave rise to herding cultures and the Iranians were one of them. Even in the OT story of Cain and Abel we see the early conflict between herders and farmers reflected when 'god' graciously accepts Abel's animal sacrifice and tells Cain to go fuck himself. The murderous Cain whacks his holy brother and is sent to live in (gasp) a city!
That's actually one of my favorite biblical narratives. Some interpretations of the names Cain and Abel actually amount to "Farmer" and "Shepherd" literally. Making the narrative less a veiled metaphor and more an overt op-ed piece.
"God likes our way of life, and finds the city dwellers to be lacking." That's a notion that survives to this very day, though amusingly it's the farmers vs the city dwellers now, as the two have diverged and mobile herds are a thing of the past.
My favorite part of that narrative though is Cains response when asked where his brother was "Am I my brothers keeper?". Well, how should he know where his brother was? His brother was not present and no one had ever died at this point (according to the narrative). He wasn't being evasive, he was being honest..lol. This narrative has so much to say about how the culture viewed it's surroundings, itself, and others. Until someone decides to take it literally, then it's just a story. Which is honestly a shame, in my opinion.
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