(November 4, 2015 at 12:10 pm)Redbeard The Pink Wrote:(November 4, 2015 at 11:53 am)Minimalist Wrote: The story is etiological.
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It attempts to explain in terms which primitive humans could understand how things came to be. In this instance, why do different people speak different languages. Sadly, we still have primitive humans ( are you listening, Hugster?) who need such bullshit reassurances.
For that matter, imagine a jewish exile seeing Babylon for the first time. Coming from a poverty-stricken shithole and suddenly being exposed to the grandeur of such a city? The Ziggurat must have been awe-inspiring. The ancient Greeks developed a similar myth of the minotaur and the labyrinth after seeing the palace at Knossos. To a country bumpkin who lived in a mud hut it must have been mind-boggling.
Aside from the examples given on the website, the myth of sodom and gomorrah also fits into the pattern of etiological mythology: "Grandpa, grandpa, what happened over THERE?!!"
Its all horseshit made up for gullible fools. They are still with us, today.
I certainly agree that this is a major component to the origin of this story, and at the same time I still see elements of the tale geared toward the discouragement of free thought, organizing toward humanistic goals, and cooperating outside of religious control. I think the people of the cloth knew exactly what they were doing as they nudged the story along toward what eventually became the written version.
I always found this a particularly insightful comment from the very fine Israeli archaeologist, Israel Finkelstein. I suspect the sodom/gomorrah tale was amended by Judahite writers to include this little aside.
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