Hi all,
Constance wrote:
>Tony articulates my gut response to Geoff's remark -- a wagon is NEVER, I'd
>say, just the sum of its components. Ask any teenager -- a car, even a
>non-57 Caddy (or Chevy), is freedom, maturity, sexuality, peer acceptance,
>lots of other stuff I've forgotten ...
Cheers, and thanks for your deconstruction...
>In the ancient world, for example,
A good example. The" ancient world" is a goood illusion. It makes us feel good.
>the wagon is often iconographically tied to journeys to the afterlife
(>the same way, take a hippocamp apart and you have a horse + a sea creature
>-- together you have a vehicle into eternity as well as a fun hybrid of two
>meaningful animals and their associations). The aspects that Geoff lists,
>perhaps meant as entirely practical and soulless, are precisely those that
>carry a great deal of meaning, of personal and social, not to mention
>numinous significance: A wagon is a wagon is a wagon: it rolls, it
>carries stuff, it needed something to pull it..."
Yes. But someone *pulls* it. Who's that? What are their resons? Imperialism?
>it could carry a given load,
Right! Archaeology is always loaded!
>took a given amount of time and/or labour, material and skills to produce,
>and may already have been used and abused and exposed to various
>elements...< to roll, to carry things, to interact with its creators,
>users, animals and environment -- these are all things that can mean a
>great deal in the ancient world. If Hittite rituals, for a rather random
>example, give any indication, the mere transport of people and objects from
>one place to another is an integral part of processional religious
>experiences.
Ah, Constance, forget everything about the past, just inquire your own
illusions, and in the mean time, you will see "things", as they are!
Bjorn
>"Celtic" hotshots are buried on, with or near four-wheeled wagons or,
>later, two-wheeled chariots, inside wood-clad chambers. Considering the
>configuration of the tombs and that the body is way taller than a chariot
>is long, there's no way the vehicles were used to transport the body into
>the tomb. The "Lady" of Vix is buried on the bed of a wagon, the four
>wheels of which were removed but included in the tomb assemblage. If
>they're "just" wheels, why take up precious space in an exceedingly opulent
>tomb with them?
>
>Sorry to rant, but what an interesting choice ...
>Cheers
>Cze
>
>
>>The corpse
>>was then placed in the back of a rickety old ox wagon and driven to
>>a secluded spot in the Nkhandla forest, where he was buried. The
>>grave had no marker but the wagon was left there to decay, and its
>>remains could still be seen beside the grave 50 years later. Its
>>metal wheel rims are now in a museum, a symbol of the king's final
>>journey and a reminder of a history now proudly remembered by
>>the Zulu people.
>>
>>Is a wagon is a wagon is a wagon?
>
>+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
>Constanze Witt
>Instructional Technology Specialist
>UT Austin Classics Dept; Waggener Hall 17, C3400
>Austin TX 78712
>[log in to unmask], (512) 471 8684, fax (512) 471-4111
>http://www.utexas.edu/depts/classics/
>
>Wired [7.02]: So do you "think Different"?
>Matt Groening: I'm total Mac.
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