>Some easy examples are how the agricultural/pastural ones emphasize
>gods/goddesses/rituals/etc. based on their need for good weather, good
>harvests, protection of their land.  Hunter/gatherers are often more
>animistic, needing, I think, to be more aware of how intimately connected
>with their ecosystem they have to be to survive.  And we're still seeing
>the effects of nomadic belief systems in the middle east...
>

But many H/Gs had rituals regarding the hunt. Even in Greek mythology, there
is a goddess of the hunt (Diana).

Probably much is lost when we try and translate aspects of others' cultures
into "our own" terms. If you know many Native Americans, they generally
avoid discussing their spiritual issues with non-Indians due to what they
regard as gross misinterpretations and downright stealing by New Ageans.
Christianity as an organized religion today also has a history of such
translation problems. The farther it moved west, the more was lost through
translations. If you want the most accurate interpretation of the Bible
(technically), you'll have to learn to read Hebrew, Latin and Greek.
Undertstand the language and culture. Most people don't understand that much
is lost when you translate a non-Romance language into any Romance language.
Most American schools only teach Romance languages in the foreign language
program. A lot of Americans think that for every English word, there's an
equal Arabic, or Mohawk, or Japanese word.

Consider how apalled the Christians were by the ancient tradition of Day of
The Dead http://www.public.iastate.edu/~rjsalvad/scmfaq/muertos.html
When the Euros first encountered the Incas, to them it seemed grisly that
these people were so obsessed with death, they had skull images painted
everywhere. Actually to the Incas, the skull symbolized life, not a
preoccupation with death. Consider also that when scientists discovered the
voluptuous statue Venus of Willendorf, they had the impression of an ancient
culture obsessed with sex. This is what I mean by "translating" a culture.

Someone here has a sig that says "In a cat's eyes, all things belong to
cats". Beauty isn't the only thing that's in the eye of the beholder.

Stacie
(but you all have pig faces! - remember that TZ episode? and the SNL spoof?)
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