Re: Eurmali Plausible? (was Re: Eurmali)

From: donald_at_...
Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 23:14:57 GMT

In message <dc6a2d+p9ea_at_...> "Rob" writes:
>Jane wrote:
>> There's this strange tendency for parents to defend their
>> children no matter how outrageously they behave.
>
>Jeff:
>> You'd be surprised how willing parents are to take extreme actions
>> against children that have violated basic social mores - especially
>> if the culture explicitly permits such extreme actions.
>
>This is absolutely true. Look at the behaviour of Chinese/ Arab/
>African folk to their children/ children in general in relatively
>recent history (and in some cases still do). I think the general
>western populace is oblivious to the incredibly savage nature of
>some cultures.
>
>I was reading this Afghan Womens page which was detailing the womens
>movement of Afghanistans struggle against the Warlords who routinely
>rape and murder women and young children. And these guys are
>supposed to be religious fanatics!!

You don't need to go to foreign countries for cases of child rape. The scandals within various Christian churches in both the US and Europe have shown that. And that's before you consider individuals who break the law.

However you need to distinguish between what people do to their own children and what they do to other people's especially if they are from a different community. The only cases I can think of where parents are keen to exclude their own children are communities where there is a fanatical religious basis for the exclusion. In Heortling culture family comes a long way before religion.

Certainly the families disown a trickster but that's important for legal liability and doesn't necessarily sever emotional bonds. I'd compare it to the practice of wealthy families in the 19th Century locking up mad relatives in isolated rooms in their mansions. The family knows they are there but nobody talks about them especially in the presence of outsiders.

The idea of having a mad son or daughter bound as a trickster will be seen as the best alternative to a difficult problem. And after all "mad" can be defined as unable to fit into the culture's social mores.

-- 
Donald Oddy
http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/