From: Harald Smith 617 726-2172 (SMITHH@A1.MGH.HARVARD.EDU)
Date: Mon 27 Jun 1994 - 09:36:00 EEST
Hi all--
I think you missed the joke Martin and I spotted. I think his reference to Molucca and certainly mine to Defender's Shore were both due to your heading of the Mistress Calm entry which reads instead Mistress Clam. Naturally, Mistress Calm is an integral part of Prax.
As an ex-historian (if you actually be such), I will comment that the debate over whether humans are different now then what they were is not exclusive to this forum. In fact, its an issue that you have to base on what evidence there is available for a given culture and what your perspective of humans is.
Personally, I feel that humans have a common emotional makeup that is not exclusive to the present (people in the past got angry, fell in love, were jealous, were covetous, etc.). However, the cultural environment has been radically different and has had a vast array of differences (including views on property heavily affected by the availability of money, relations with nature and the elements, etc.).
For some interesting views on periods not that long ago I suggest the following so that you can make up your own minds.
E. Le Roy Ladurie's "Montaillou" -- 13th century peasants in the Pyrenees engaged in semi-nomadic sheepherding. Not a difficult book to get into, and it has wonderful chapters on the domus (home unit), the role of shepherds as bearers of news into the village, and magic.
Carlo Ginzburg's "The Cheese and the Worms" -- great title and a good work on 16th century Italian peasants. The idea of god emerging from the chaotic cheese and then allowing the worms to develop out of the cheese into men is particularly amusing.
Peter Laslett's "The World We Have Lost" -- 17th century English peasants and their way of life. Unfortunately, while it presents the English countryside of 300 years ago as a very different place, this work is rather dense.
Robert Darnton's "The Great Cat Massacre" -- essays on 18th century France. The essay on the development of modern folktales I think is particularly relevant to our discussions of myth, but the attitudes of people towards animals (definitely NOT seens as pets) in the title essay is also interesting in highlighting changing cultural viewpoints.
So much for being scholarly for the day.
--Harald
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