[gothic-l] Re: Names of Heruls-A.Cameron-burning alive.

[einarbirg]

--- In gothic-l at y..., "faltin2001" <dirk at s...> wrote:
> --- In gothic-l at y..., "einarbirg" <einarbirg at y...> wrote:
> > --- In gothic-l at y..., "faltin2001" <dirk at s...> wrote:
> > > --- In gothic-l at y..., "troels_brandt" <trbrandt at p...> wrote:
> > > 
> Hi again Einar,
> 
> that would be my interpretation as well. If I said 'burning alive' 
> earlier, I was likely wrong. However, at least Cameron does not 
seem 
> to read the passage as involving a funery pyre, as suggested by 
> others. Her reading of the Greek text seems to be that the 
relatives 
> of a sick or old Herul would have called a stranger to tie this 
person 
> to a tree, kill him or her and then burn the tree together with the 
> body.  What is absolutely clear is that Cameron regards this not as 
a 
> 'real' custom, but as an ethnographic cliche that Procopius 
reported.  
> Other interpretations maybe possible, but reading and interpreting 
> Procopius seems to be so difficult that I leave it to the experts.
> 
>     Einar; Hæ Dirk.                                                 

 They could have used the funerary pyre as a more honorable method or 
more respectable method than beeing tied to a tree. Anyway 
this "tied" to a tree could be symbolic. Maybe they were just tied in 
a symbolic way. One of the tribal customs. The soul was "tied" to the 
body and was released after dead. 
I see it as a great problem that just historians are interpreting 
Procopius. Historians have no training in analyzing human behavior.  
Or tribal customs.
Neither Goffart nor Cameron have such training.(at least as far as I 
know). 

A teamwork would be better were historians,anthropologists and 
specialists in human behavior worked together.

Yes,we leave it to experts. But I doubt that Goffart and Cameron are 
experts in analyzing tribal customs or the behavioral patterns of 
individuals or groups.
We need experts here,but neither of those two persons do have the 
expertise needed. They are expert Historians,nothing else.

Bless,Bless. Einar.


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