Introductory Essay 10

Comments on Cultural Conflicts - Some Times You Win Some Times You Lose, And Some Time You Can’t Tell The Difference Between The Two.

Another concept we need to discuss prior to the main story line is that of cultural conflict over the course of history; we need to introduce the idea of the “absorbing” and “absorber” cultures.

• The “absorbing cultures” tend to be those open and willing to add concepts from other “more advanced” civilizations. Examples of “absorbing” cultures include, but are obviously not limited to the German tribes such as the Vandals that tried to act more Roman than the Romans, the peoples of the Middle East who tried to become Hellenes, with the arrival of the Greeks and Alexander the Great, and also the Turks who upon entering the Middle East during the 7-10th Centuries attempted to become model Muslims.
• The “absorber” cultures tend to be the “dominant” culture of their time. Other peoples tend to emulate them the best that they can, and these absorber cultures tend to assimilate, over time, all the invading forces. Egypt and China are two examples of great absorber cultures. The Egyptian culture was developed some 6,000 years ago, the Chinese at least some 5,500 ago. For some 4,500 years, when any nation conquered Egypt, (until the Muslim conquests) the invaders soon copied the Egyptian frame work of religion, culture, and governance. Egypt absorbed the conquerors. The same can be said for China and its invaders; the development of the “fashion” of the Chinese pigtail was not a matter of taste, it was a mandate from a foreign conqueror (the Manchurians) in an effort to make the Chinese completely distinguishable from the Manchu invaders. This was intended to prevent the Manchu peoples from being “absorbed” into Chinese culture. The effort failed.

Most of what we know of as “great cultures” (Greece, Rome, England, etc) became absorber cultures, where people attempted to imitate the great. We should also include Phoenicia as one of these great absorber cultures of history, as many peoples in their times attempted to become Phoenician, in culture. While we have some understanding of the process of the spread of Hellenism, we have only limited knowledge of the history of the spread of the Phoenician culture. It appears that the processes were similar (although the Phoenicians were more likely to pass on the culture through trade than by warfare).

However, all these “great cultures” did not “jump full grown from the head of Zeus,” but started as absorbing cultures, gaining and adapting many ideas from the “preceding great culture.” For example, we now understand that the Romans built on the foundations of the Etruscans, etc. , and it also appears that much of Greek religion and culture was greatly influenced by Phoenicia. In fact, we can trace much of cultural development back through these rising and falling absorber cultures, to almost a common beginning. To be more precise, there were more likely four separate common beginnings- in China, India, Sumer and Egypt, with Egypt’s actually being the least important over the long term.

One of the hallmarks of the absorber cultures is an openness to at least allow for religious change and experimentation. As we have seen in studying the “great cultures” the religion of a “subjected people” becomes at the very least, an object of great curiosity, if not a great deal more to the super powers of the day.

• We can see simple examples of this in the Beatles becoming involved in Indian Mysticism, and how that led others in the West to experiment with this lifestyle.
• Of course, China’s fascination with Buddhism during the 7-9th centuries is a far more important example from world history.

Often, the religions of the absorbing cultures have a great long term impact. It is often with the fall of the culture, and the crises that arise from the fall, that greatly alters the religion of the “absorbing peoples”. For example, throughout the history of China we see that with the onset of economic crises, revolts based on new religions almost always ensue.

• Therefore, much of the history of these books will not be linked so much to the rise of the cultures, but to the fall of the cultures, and the role that religions play in explaining the fall, and offering answers for the failure to the people that are affected at the time.

It is at this point, when a cultural void develops. When the absorbing (major) culture is in great decline or has in fact “fallen” and there is no major dominant power around, that religion often can make manifest a “revelation, ” creating a new and different interpretation of past events. Religion intercedes, explaining why empires rise and fall, and why peoples are enslaved or liberated. In the face of loss, the conquest, or the fall, life seems unbearable and defeat is all around. It is at such times, then, that religion can offer other views of the meaning of devastation.

Throughout history, security and freedom seem ephemeral at best. Societies used religion to address this loss of security and freedom on at least two levels:

• The first was to organize society, based on religion, to address the loss of security and freedom, and to rally resistance of people to the invading forces and to mandate support for the resistance, (As represented by the Jews against the Greeks and Romans, or the Muslim resistance to the West today.) and;
• The second is to offer people an alternative expectation for existence; an existence free from constant state of fear and tyranny and, eventually, free from the fear of “death.” Religion offered people escape from the feeling of no hope for any difference in the current state of the world in which they lived. It was used to offer hope for a better life “next time around” or “in the next world”, however that next time or next life was defined. In other words, religion provided hope for the hopeless (as during the time of the Fall of Rome, or during the time of Russian serfdom, or American slavery, etc.).

This highlights the need to look closely at political issues as well as “sacred” ones. This evolution of religion (a nice commingling of ideas) and religious practices varied greatly in different settings based on the political realities and numerous other factors and impacts. Some of these include the invasions of other peoples, the changing needs in a given society, as a result of the invasions and other life and societal altering events.

• These books are not a story of humankind’s search for the sacred, but how the profane established our view of the sacred.

One interesting issue, and a good example that serves as a basis for my point of view, is that of the religious views of the Roman state as it evolved from the Republic to the Principate, and finally to the Empire.

• As the state of Rome evolved from that of citizens in debate in the senate, to the eventual establishment of a military dictatorship of the Emperor, the Religion of Rome evolved from a belief in multiple gods arguing with each other (a senate of gods) to a sole god, all knowing and unchallengeable, with his court of angels.

Heaven itself changed. Where once it had looked like the old Senate, it soon resembled the court of the Emperor. As we will see later, the process of developing a One God/One Emperor religion took nearly one hundred and fifty years and included several options other than Christianity.

Therefore, the rise and fall of societies, and how they responded to both the rise and the fall, has greatly impacted religion. How we view this rise (as political or divine, or enviable) is critical to understanding the effort I put forth in these books. And also, we will see that, contrary to logic, often it is the absorbing culture, the losing, defeated or weaker culture that seems to often have the greatest impact on the religion of the times.

The one real power over time that the absorbing culture may have is religion and the use of religion against the power of the dominant, often absorber power. Some clear examples of this involve Christianity

• Christians (the religion of a defeated people) impacting Roman rule and culture
• Christians (the religion of the fallen empire) impacting the German replacement states of the Roman Empire

But there are clearly other examples in which religion is used as the basis for fighting against dominant powers

• The role of Islam in fighting Imperialism in the 19th centuries (revolts in Sudan and North Africa) and in the current struggles between the West and Islam
• And perhaps we can use the role of religion in fighting racism and Jim Crow in the United States.

Interestingly, the terms of religion, actually became the terms used in political and cultural resistance, simply because they were the only terms available for the people to use.

• This is either because of the terms of repression were developed under a religious context or because other terms had not yet been developed (Marx lived in the 19th Century, so the terms of resistance developed through Marx are relatively new to world history)

One of the prime examples of this use of religious terms known to the American experience is the use of religious song (spirituals) by African-Americans, both during slavery and Jim Crow, to express hope for the future, and to change the intent or the religion as presented to them, (salvation in the future) to meet their needs (liberation now). When the “battle for freedom” came in the later half of the 20th century, these religious songs cemented the movement together and provided the spirit and courage to the freedom fighters.