I guess, that's ultimately my point. We create a mythos in order to sustain power, to justify the social order of rules and regulations. However, there is, IMO, a difference between tribal non-civilized societies and the bibliological (by that I mean book, not "The Holy Bible") civilizations. I don't think you can look at law apart from the mythos of a given age. I think this difference goes beyond mere appearances. I guess I'm a sucker for the "noble savage" myth. That non-civilized cultures have a more free and less stressful life. There surely are hardships, and it's not an anarchistic society, no doubt... but there are certain things that I think are valuable in those societies that we, as a literate culture have lost. That said, there is no way, with our population density, we could ever go back, so I'm not naive nor stupid to imagine we can have some utopian tribal paradise.
What interests me is how the function of religion has moved from theistic law to deistic law (or rather, how the paradigm has shifted from theism to deism, and the justifications have been altered to fit the new theological stances). Social groups may require roles, but it's quite clear that roles change. What role did Deism play (and, in a sense, science and perhaps protestantism) in the evolution of modern Democracy? Of course, there's the Greek/Roman influence as well. I guess that's what I'm curious. What are the structures not necessarily of social order, but legal power? How did they form (from early banking/temples and coinage)? How did they become what they are now? How did the stories we tell ourselves change through time? What paradigms forced changes? What are the things that are nearly universal in this history of myths of power?
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Date: 2007-02-08 04:01 pm (UTC)What interests me is how the function of religion has moved from theistic law to deistic law (or rather, how the paradigm has shifted from theism to deism, and the justifications have been altered to fit the new theological stances). Social groups may require roles, but it's quite clear that roles change. What role did Deism play (and, in a sense, science and perhaps protestantism) in the evolution of modern Democracy? Of course, there's the Greek/Roman influence as well. I guess that's what I'm curious. What are the structures not necessarily of social order, but legal power? How did they form (from early banking/temples and coinage)? How did they become what they are now? How did the stories we tell ourselves change through time? What paradigms forced changes? What are the things that are nearly universal in this history of myths of power?