thank you, textbook. *sighs*
Mar. 28th, 2005 03:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivendellroseArchaeology textbook: Blah blah blah, people claiming Kennewick man was European in ancestry... "One group, the Asatru Folk Assembly, which says it practices an ancient Celtic religion, even claimed that Kennewick Man was their ancestor."
Me: "Thank you for making them sound more like idiots than they deserve. #@^&%@$&!"
Asatru is a "Celtic" religion in that pre-Christian Scandinavian and Celtic mythology are close enough that only names and specific details really separate them in a lot of ways. However, Asatruism, being derived from a name meaning something along the lines of the worship of the Aesir is relatively firmly Scandinavian in origin. That specific group, I grant them, vocally embraces worship of the Celtic pantheon as well. But the fact that Asatru is specifically Scandinavian is important in this case because it actually makes sense for them to think that one of their ancestors (or, at least, an ancient kinsman in the sense that he might have worshipped the same gods as them - he certainly wouldn't have been a direct ancestor of any of these people) might have been in the Americas. It's a fairly firm archaeological fact, now, that the Vikings attempted to colonize North America sometime in the late tenth century or so. So... pooh on them for making pagans (once again) sound like pie-in-the-sky idiots.
On the other hand, the Asatru Folk Assembly should be smart enough to know that it'd be a hell of a stretch to say that one of Eirik the Red's crew might have found his way all the way to Washington State, and I definitely didn't get the impression from Eirik the Red's Saga that any of them would have considered marrying the locals, thus negating the possibility that this might've been a case of Scandinavian genetic heritage in the area. So bad on them, too.
Back to reading.
ETA: Now that I've finished the reading, here's a link to the Asatru Folk Assembly's website - http://www.runestone.org/flash/home.html. I ran across them last year while doing research on Asatru for my Scandinavian Mythology class. Having re-checked it, I feel the need to point out that it states exactly what the derivation of their religion is at least three times right there on the opening page. Silly textbook authors really ought to check their facts a bit better.
Me: "Thank you for making them sound more like idiots than they deserve. #@^&%@$&!"
Asatru is a "Celtic" religion in that pre-Christian Scandinavian and Celtic mythology are close enough that only names and specific details really separate them in a lot of ways. However, Asatruism, being derived from a name meaning something along the lines of the worship of the Aesir is relatively firmly Scandinavian in origin. That specific group, I grant them, vocally embraces worship of the Celtic pantheon as well. But the fact that Asatru is specifically Scandinavian is important in this case because it actually makes sense for them to think that one of their ancestors (or, at least, an ancient kinsman in the sense that he might have worshipped the same gods as them - he certainly wouldn't have been a direct ancestor of any of these people) might have been in the Americas. It's a fairly firm archaeological fact, now, that the Vikings attempted to colonize North America sometime in the late tenth century or so. So... pooh on them for making pagans (once again) sound like pie-in-the-sky idiots.
On the other hand, the Asatru Folk Assembly should be smart enough to know that it'd be a hell of a stretch to say that one of Eirik the Red's crew might have found his way all the way to Washington State, and I definitely didn't get the impression from Eirik the Red's Saga that any of them would have considered marrying the locals, thus negating the possibility that this might've been a case of Scandinavian genetic heritage in the area. So bad on them, too.
Back to reading.
ETA: Now that I've finished the reading, here's a link to the Asatru Folk Assembly's website - http://www.runestone.org/flash/home.html. I ran across them last year while doing research on Asatru for my Scandinavian Mythology class. Having re-checked it, I feel the need to point out that it states exactly what the derivation of their religion is at least three times right there on the opening page. Silly textbook authors really ought to check their facts a bit better.
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no subject
Date: 2005-03-29 03:20 am (UTC)How was the first day of the new quarter?
no subject
Date: 2005-03-29 04:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-29 04:00 am (UTC)They're having a special exhibition titled "Waking Dreams - The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites from the Delaware Art Museum"
Doesn't that sound wonderful?
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Date: 2005-03-29 04:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-29 04:21 am (UTC)