Re: Godlearner cultural relativism

From: Argrath_at_aol.com
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 1995 20:40:27 -0500


In V2 #225, Steve Lieb writes:
>... the Godlearners were the only proponents of Cultural Relativism.

While I really don't want to reopen this thread, I dispute the idea that the GL's were cultural relativists. They were cultural imperialists, a worldview only possible if one believes that one's own culture is superior to all others. They did not respect the myths of others, as a cultural relativist would, but were mined as supernatural resources for the GL's own ends. True, in the earlier stages, the GL's merely tried to fit all myths into their monomyth, but this is not a culturally relative act either: it necessarily assumes that one's own myth--the monomyth--is superior to all others by subsuming all others.

The Lunars are the most culturally relative of all existing Gloranthan cultures. The most culturally relative of all pronouncements by a Gloranthan voice is the bit by "John Winniston" in Wyrms Footprints. He's identified as being of, or at least in, Imther. Unlike the monomyth, JW's "all myths are true" worldview grants equality to all. Naturally, the Lunars see JW's sermon as foreshadowing Lunar insight.

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