From: ian (i.) gorlick (igorlick@nortel.ca)
Date: Thu 08 Aug 1996 - 23:42:00 EEST
Peter Metcalfe:
That is actually a good example for the position that the Vadeli are the victims
Again there is a lot of propaganda here. The Spanish did their best to demonize
'Um, child sacrifice was part of daily Carthaginian Life'
of propaganda. The records of extensive child sacrifice in Carthage are all
written by the Romans who were the Carthaginians' worst enemies.
to be some reason to suspect that there may have been occasional child
sacrifices from the families of the city leaders in times of emergency. However
that custom was not unique to Carthage or the Phonecians. The idea that such
sacrifice was widespread and a daily event is debatable.
'bloodletting was a key part in Mesoamerican religious traditions
(the Aztecs took it to extremes).'
the native religions in Central and South America.
human sacrifice in the Aztec culture, and some human sacrifice in the other
cultures. Most of the bloodletting was self-inflicted on the leaders of the
culture, kings and nobles ritually drew blood from their own tongues and penes.
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I don't think either of these examples stands up against the kind of behaviour
being suggested for the Vadeli. The difference seems to be that in all real
world cultures with practices that outsiders consider despicable, the
practitioners of the despicable acts have felt them to be morally correct by
some internal cultural values. In contrast, the Vadeli seem to have deliberately
chosen acts that they themselves regard as immoral precisely because of the
magical energy inherent in the violation of taboos. They have chosen to act in a
despicable fashion and they do not justify or rationalize, rather they revel in
the immorality of their actions.
Since it is too formalized to be considered 'chaos' the only label that I can
find for it is 'evil'.
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