WW Chapter 4: Culture and Religion in Eurasia/North Africa






Faravahar at Persepolis (by Napishtim)

Ahura Mazda - The Zoroarstrian Diety
(Source: https://www.ancient.eu/Ahura_Mazda/)

Joseph Randall Cali
Patti Andrews
World History HST 2020-01
16 May 2019

Chapter 4: Culture and Religion in Eurasia/North Africa
500 B.C.E - 500 C.E

As ancient empires began to make sense of the world and govern themselves, the earliest forms of organized religion began to take shape and have a profound impact on the culture of civilization.  What was the relationship between worship and culture?  How did it affect social norms?  What purpose did it serve?  I've always thought about these things - maybe a little cynically, but I'd always thought it served a purpose to legitimize wealth accumulation or power of one group over another simply by association.  Men over women, believers over non-believers, clergy over the "flock".   Perhaps I could get a clear picture from Strayer's text.

After reading the chapter, I can see that it was likely that culture was more likely to have an influence on religion rather than the other way around.  A culture that expressed inequality, for example, was much more likely to find justification in worshiping a like minded male god or set of gods.  A culture like the Greeks that valued art, science and literature might believe that their endeavors were separate from what the gods were up to.  Chinese culture, steeped in order, might find the secular writings of Confucious the right path to follow in order to maintain a sense of duty and role amid the chaos and inconsistency of the Legalist society.

Culture expresses itself through religion, and horrible things happen when cultures colide.  The "true" religion MUST prevail, and the religion of the conquerer always ends up being the "true" religion (with God on our side, how could we lose?  It is destiny).  As the conquered population is indoctrinated into their new religion, they also much more easily adopt the culture of the conquerers.  Maybe this is oversimplified, but the evidence can be found in history itself.

It seems odd at first to believe that the monotheistic religions of Zoroaster, Abraham, Jesus and Mohammed could come from civlizations that were culturaly at odds with the messages of these religions.  Certainly, the political elites of Persia and Rome were less than excited about the message of justice, tolerance and equality.  The interesting thing to me is, that these religions came from a rebelious sector - the people themselves, not the leaders.  As these religions became mainstream and were adopted by the prevailing culture of the civilization, they were changed to fit in with the status quo - building in inequality that already existed.

Oh - and by the way, did anyone ever notice that the Zoroasterian depiction of Ahura Mazda is a little like the emblem of the 3rd Reich?  Yikes. Talk about appropriation.

Image result for nazi symbols

Nazi Party Flag
(Source: https://www.uncommonobjects.com/the-power-of-symbolism/)

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