the Wheel and Dating PIE

[Stanley Friesen]

At 12:02 AM 2/27/00 -0600, roslyn frank wrote:

>I believe that there may be a slight problem with the notion of
>"sacrificed" and/or "sanctified" when read through the framework of modern
>thought. In traditional cultures even a 'tree' can be understood to be
>giving up its life when cut down; or an herb when plucked from the soil. I
>would argue that we need to be careful about rendering judgements on past
>ritual practices based on the secular view that dominates western thought
>vis-a-vis the natural world and the way that its 'resources' are regularly
>utilized.

>Ritualization of the death of an animal, asking its forgiveness when the
>hunter is about to take its life, it not unusual in traditional cultures,
>whether that animal be a bear or a rabbit.

If *that* is the sort of rituals the IE horse rituals were, this would be
meaningful.  But they do not have the structure of ritualized prayers for
forgiveness - at least not *from* the horse.  (Some variants may have been
supplications for forgiveness from Dye:us P'ter - but the horse's
permission was not asked for).

Indeed the common elements of horse rituals that show up in all the early
IE cultures are more associated with martial pursuits, or at least
competition, than with hunting.

>Therefore, I would be interested in knowing what the source is, i.e., the
>ethnographic data base, for the statement "... animals that are *primarily*
>food animals are rarely sanctified."

I was thinking more in terms of the sorts of treatments where the horse
stands in for some other person or activity.  Shamanistic sanctification is
of a different sort.

> In the case of the traditional
>cultures with which I'm familiar, it is precisely those animals and plants
>that are used by humans for food that receive the most elaborate and
>special ritual treatment, not others that are left alone and not harvested.

Certainly the ones *left *alone* are not given special religious
significance.  My point was that the horse in PIE culture was *even* *more*
central to the culture than if it were a domesticated food animal.

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May the peace of God be with you.         sarima at ix.netcom.com