Bored Bohemian

   Ideas and Quotes from Riveting Reads : A HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IDEAS : FROM THE STONE AGE TO THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES - BY MIRCEA ELIADE III. The Mesopotamian Religions The Sumerian texts, the earliest written documents going back to third millennium, are a rich source of religious beliefs. The people who spoke Sumerian ( a non-Semitic language)  settled in Lower Mesopotamia and toward the middle of  the third millennium, nomads from Syrian desert speaking the semitic language Akkadian, overrun Sumerian cities. Though the dominant Akkadians absorbed much of the defeated culture, the Sumerian and Akkadian religious identities are different. From Sumerian texts we learn of their triad of the great gods : An (Meaning sky, a uranian god), En-lil ( "Great Mount", the god of atmosphere, and En-ki ( "Lord of the Earth"). The goddess Nammu, represented by the primordian sea, gave birth to the Sky and Earth (the masculine and feminine principles) and brought forth all the ...

 Ideas and Quotes from Riveting Reads : A HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IDEAS : FROM THE STONE AGE TO THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES - BY MIRCEA ELIADE II. The Longest Revolution : The Discovery of Agriculture - Mesolithic and Neolithic The end of Ice Age around 8000 B.C. brought about great changes in climate, flora, and fauna.  Mesolithic cultures developed during the following millennia. Domestication of first animals and beginnings of agriculture took place in Southwest Asia, especially Palestine. Other inventions like bow, nets, hooks and boats take place. The imagination discovers new analogies among different levels of the real. Symbolism and sacredness pervades the world of work and tools. With the end of the unity of Paleolithic populations, divergences between groups take root. As the cultivation of food begins, warriors and conquerors are seen to carry on the symbolism of the hunter. Blood sacrifices continue, as " A type of behavior that, for one or two million years, had been in...

Ideas and Quotes from Riveting Reads : A HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IDEAS : FROM THE STONE AGE TO THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES - BY MIRCEA ELIADE Every manifestation of the divine is of great fascination to the scholar of religions. "The Sacred is an element in the structure of consciousness and not a stage in the history of consciousness." Deeds and their tenor are conceived to have a sacramental value. We cannot presume to conflate the date of earliest available religious documents with the date of the origin of those beliefs.  I. Magico-Religious Behavior of the Paleanthropians   "Uprightness cannot be maintained except in a state of wakefulness." Paleanthropians used tools and also, tools to make tools. The slow pace of technological progress does not reflect a similar rate of intellectual growth, for " every innovation brought with it the danger of collective death" ( Andre Varagnac).  the earliest document of fire use goes back to 600,000 B.C. Domestication of...