> Malleus Malleficarum was written for persons such as you. Lucky you're
> nowhere near 16C Dominicans, who were savagely suspicious of women having
> fun.
luckily they cant stop me! But one of the lovely ironies is that it is the
Roman church's constant stream of edicts banning certain kinds of pagan
behaviour that gives us some of the best clues about what the Cunning Women
and Men actually did. Dancing in the churchyard comes up repeatedly - the
English bishops get quite hysterical about it as late as C14th. Even the
priests had to be repeatedly told not to join in. Which just goes to show
that you can't keep a dancing woman down! And that the Xtianisation of
England was by no means as smooth and complete as a crude historical
narrative would have us believe.
> Though re monotheism: not to argue with your point that the
> Judaeic/Christian/Muslim God might have a lot to do with that
> dichotomising
> mindset: but an awful lot of Western culture stems from the very much
> unmonotheistic Roman and Hellenistic cultures,
ooops - yes you are right of course..... but I wonder if that is to do with
the way our representation of 'Classical' culture has been shaped and
selected by the Xtians of Medieval and Renaissance Europe in the same way as
the story told about the Dark Ages is s shaped by the assumption that the
coming of Xianity was a good thing that civilised the wild peoples of the
isle? Just a thought.
I am off to hear the lovely Trevor Joyce read in Sheffield soon - anyone
else coming? 8pm at Simunye on the London Road. See you there!
Liz
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