Agricultural Revolution

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Genesis as Critique of History

• What did the early people themselves think? – Genesis as a basis of knowing what some early peoples

thought of civilization

• Inequality of men and women is unnatural• Labor over/against nature is unnatural• War is unnatural: – it is fratricide, because all human beings are one family

• Explanation: the results of sin (i.e., separation from God, nature, and each other)

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The People v. Gilgamesh

• Gilgamesh does not leave a girl to her mother(?)

• The daughter of the warrior, the bride of the young man,

• the gods kept hearing their complaints, so• the gods of the heavens implored the Lord of

Uruk [Anu]

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• "You have indeed brought into being a mighty wild bull, head raised!

• "There is no rival who can raise a weapon against him.

• "His fellows stand (at the alert), attentive to his (orders!)

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Separation of ruler and ruled

• 1) Hunter-gatherers -- no kings• 2) Early hoe agriculture -- warrior leaders kept

in check by community (elders)– Who were the heads of the Iroquois nation?

• 3) Civilization: rulers as powers over the people– Religion: People are slaves of the gods– Versus earlier animism: “walking with God in the

garden”5

The goddess created him

• and (the gods) called out to [goddess] Aruru:• "it was you, Aruru, who created

mankind(?),• now create a zikru [opponent] to it/him.• Let him be equal to his (Gilgamesh's)

stormy heart,• let them be a match for each other so that

Uruk may find peace!"

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Creation of Enkidu

• Aruru washed her hands, she pinched off some clay, and threw it into the wilderness.

• In the wildness(?) she created valiant Enkidu,• born of Silence, endowed with strength by

Ninurta.• His whole body was shaggy with hair,• he had a full head of hair like a woman,• his locks billowed in profusion like Ashnan.

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• He knew neither people nor settled living,• but wore a garment like Sumukan.• He ate grasses with the gazelles,• and jostled at the watering hole with the

animals;• as with animals, his thirst was slaked with

(mere) water.

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God/Goddess religion

• Who created humans--God or Goddess?• Role of women in early agricultural societies– The women in hunter-gatherer society were the

specialists of the plants

• Sharp gender hierarchy of civilization develops gradually

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Historical Meaning of Gilgamesh

• King as powerful, but oppressive ruler• The “savior”: Enkidu Who/what is he?– An “animal man”

• Agricultural people recognize freedom of people who live close to animal, natural world – Warrior herders to liberate agriculturalists?

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From whose point of view?

• What is the point of view of early hearers of Gilgamesh?–Compare with the point of view of Genesis–Who are the good/bad people in each

story?

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Who is to blame?

• Genesis: the herders (Abel) are good; the agriculturalists (Cain) are evil– Is this the bias of herders?

• Gilgamesh: the herders (Enkidu) are good; the agriculturalists suffer (evil) from their own king– Agrees with the Bible on who is to blame!

• Difference between them:– Bible: agriculturalists in general are to blame– Gilgamesh: no, its our king, not us, ordinary peasants;

he oppresses us as well.

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How is Enkidu captured?

• Q: What is the historical significance of the narrative?

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The task of womankind

• “Shamhat unclutched her bosom, exposed her sex,

• and he took in her voluptuousness.• She was not restrained, but took his energy.• She spread out her robe and he lay upon her,• she performed for the primitive the task of

womankind.

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• His lust groaned over her;• for six days and seven nights Enkidu stayed

aroused,• and had intercourse with the harlot [also

“priestess”]• until he was sated with her charms.

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Meaning of sex

• Why so much sex in Gilgamesh?• Religious nature of sex act in early agricultural

societies• “Hieros Gamos” (sacred marriage)• Who seduced Enkidu? Prostitute or priestess?• What is the result of this?

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Enkidu becomes civilized

• But when he turned his attention to his animals,

• the gazelles saw Enkidu and darted off,• the wild animals distanced themselves from

his body.”• =Separation from nature (and animist religion)

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Love-hate relation to civilization• Herders are the natural enemies of agricultural

civilizations• But peasants admire their freedom– Radically different social conditions

• Herders are attracted by (seduced by!) the luxury, advantages of the cities – Material conditions, technology

• Power of the men: physical powers: physical force, war, conquest

– Beautiful women of the city • Power of the women: sexual/psychological powers

(seductive attraction)

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Separation from God(s)

• “The hearts of the Great Gods moved them to inflict the Flood.”

• Why?

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Why the gods destroyed humans

• “In those days the world teemed, the people multiplied, the world bellowed like a wild bull, and the great god was aroused by the clamour. Enlil heard the clamour and he said to the gods in council, ‘The uproar of mankind is intolerable and sleep is no longer possible by reason of the babel.’ So the gods agreed to exterminate mankind.”

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Why the flood? Why evil to Humans?

• Question 1: why is there evil (=harm to humans)?

• Answer?• Enlil and Ea: two gods, one who does evil, one

who does good (to humans)– Polytheism

• Question 2: why did Enlil want to destroy humans?

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The Flood: Genesis• “And now God found that earth was full of men’s

iniquities, and that the whole frame of their thought was set continually on evil; and he repented of having made men on the earth at all.

• “So, smitten with grief to the depths of his heart, he said, I will blot out mankind, my creature, from the face of the earth, and with mankind all the beasts and the creeping things and all that flies through the air; I repent of having made them. Only on Noe did God look with favor.” (Genesis 6: 5-9)

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Who is to blame for misery of mankind?

• In Gilgamesh, (a) God is to blame– Time of Gilgamesh 2600 BCE

• So the Bible story responds to the older story that blames God(s) – Time of Moses: about 1200 BCE

• Which was first? – Implications of this?

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God is not to blame (in Genesis)

• Where does evil come from in the Bible?– 1) the sin of Eve, and then of Adam– 2) The serpent-tempter (why a snake?)

• God is not to blame– (Later) theology of the serpent: a fallen angel who

rebels against God takes this form to speak to Eve– But why a snake?

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Minoan Snake Goddess

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Bible’s story of the flood

• 1) Problem of monotheism: why the flood, why harm to humans? – Because of an evil god? – Because of … ??

• 2) What is the difference between making noise and committing “iniquities”? – Ethical monotheism – versus anthropomorphic polytheism

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Cause of death?

• 1) Gilgamesh falls asleep– Ordinary human weakness: not an ethical failing– The snake eats the fruit that gives immortality– And then it sheds its skin, to be reborn

• 2) Eve and then Adam disobey a command of God– Wilful act of defiance: immorality – perspective of ethical monotheism– The tree of immortality is barred from them

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Evolution of religion

• 1) Animism • 2) “Anthropomorphic polytheism”• 3) ethical monotheism• Dates? – 120,000 BCE to present (Paleolithic: Old Stone

Age)– Gilgamesh: 2700 BCE (Bronze Age)– Hebrew Bible: 1000-500 BCE (Iron Age)

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Oneness with Nature/God

• Religion of hunter-gatherers: animism– Divine in nature– Harmony of divine and human– Cave paintings: Spodek 31

• Why deep in caves?– See Venus figurine: Spodek 30– Cave as uterus of world; Earth Mother (Gaia)– Shamanism: humans participate in creation

• =Oneness of humans with “God” – Genesis: Adam and Eve walked with God in the Garden of

Eden

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“Natural” (kinship) society

• Technological dependence on independent nature: – Animals (hunting, men)– Plants (gathering, women)

• Kinship as natural unity of people• Religion of nature – animism – Not passive, active: participation with/in divine– Symbolic exchange between humans and gods, not

domination of gods over humans32

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Shamash and Hammurabi

• Which is which? (Spodek, 59)• Gods look like kings (and vice versa)• Separation of ruler from ruled • Separation of divine from human• God-given laws cement human divisions– Rich and poor– Men and women

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Threefold approach to society

• Relation to nature – technology • Relation between people – social structure• Belief system – form of consciousness• Harmony between these levels (normally)

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Historical “fall” (summary)

• On technological level– from dependence on independent nature– to control over nature

• On social level– from family-based, egalitarian society– to class-based, male dominant society– rulers are all powerful

• On consciousness level– Animist oneness > Gods/priests are all powerful

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