Sunday, October 17, 2010

Post for October 18

Hello All,

For Monday's post, just find one quote from Eliade pages 49-92 that you find meaningful or thought-provoking.

1. Provide the quote.
2. Explain what it means.

16 comments:

  1. Brian Dolph

    "the disappearence of the moon is never final, since it is necessarily followed by by new moon, the disappearence of man is not final either" (Eliade 87)

    I found this quote to be very interesting, as well as a lot of the lunar mythologies from the book. I believe this quote helps Eliade to express the fact that the moon shows a common trend of extended time of events and populations. A population starts off small (the appearance of the moon) and begins to grow ( the waxing of the moon) until a point in which they are prosperous (full moon), and then slowly they begin to die down due to disease to catastrophe (the waning of the moon) until ultimately they are no more (new moon). However, they come back and the process is started off once again by the survival of people which are later on seen as heroes or special, chosen people.

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  2. Melchor Ynostroza

    "Lord Ormazd will produce the resurrection adn the 'second body' and that the world will be saved from impotence with the demons, the drugs, etc. And there will be abundance everywhere; there will be no more want of food; the world will be pure, man liberated from the opposition [of the evil spirit] and immortal for ever." (Eliade 63)

    I found this quote to be thought provoking because it shows that people have strived for, hoped for similar things for many hundreds, if not thousands of years. It is fascinating to me that despite the changes and differences between societies' that even today, as 'civiilized or modern' people, humans continue to want the exact same things they did in ancient times.

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  3. Nathan Whiting

    "The esoteric magic and avowed purpose of the focal ceremonies comprising the system include reestablishment or firming of the earth, first-fruits observances, new fire, prevention of calamity and disease for another year or biennium." (p.72)

    This is similar ceremonial practice of the Karuk, Yurok and Hupa tribes of California to symbolize the beginning of the new year and the new beginning that the people hoped for. With the new year comes the possibility of new beginnings. Many other ceremonial rituals are performed all over the world for the new year. The New Year's eve celebration in the United States and the annual celebration of the Chinese that brings in the new year and the symbol that goes along with that particular year are two, more modern examples.

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  4. -Mark Macanas

    Leaving aside the conceptions of the transformation of the dead into "ancestors," and regarding the fact of death as a concluding of the "history" of the individual, it still seems very natural that the post-mortem memory of that history should be limited to, in other words, that the memory of passions, events, of all that is connected with the individual comes to an end at a certain moment of his existence after death.

    - this quote makes me think about the memories that a person can leave behindboth good or bad. Once a person is gone they are gone there's no bringing back. The only way to keep them alive is through memories. With that said, memories are only as good as they are remembered. Eventually memories fade and die along with that person. That makes me think about some of the reasons why I want to teach. To leave a memory behind and influence another person to have the same passion for education and pass that on to the next. I guess in a sense that's a way for me to pass the torch to the next generations to come, an off symbol of what I used to be.

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  5. Trisha Morrissey

    “But in the primitive conception, a new era begins not only with every new reign but also with the consummation of every marriage, the birth of every child, and so on. For the cosmos and man are regenerated ceaselessly and by all kinds of means, the past is destroyed, evils and sins are eliminated, etc.” (p. 81)

    History is always made because life is always moving forward. Nothing stays in the past. Every time the sun rises, that is a start to a new day and a new beginning. This quote reminds me that we do not have to start over on January 1st of every new year. We can start a new year’s resolution any time we need too. Marriages and babies are good examples of new starts because not every baby and marriage happens on the first of the year. We can create a new beginning whenever we want too.

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  6. Jessica Delgadillo

    "The ritual extinguishing of fires is to be attributed to the same tendency to put an end to existing forms (worn away by the fact of their own existence) in order to make room for birth of a new form, issuing from a new Creation"(69).

    Mircea Eliade is refering to the rituals our ancestors performed to demonstrate the disappearing of the past in order to make room for the present. In this quote, Eliade is explaining how the extinguishing of fires is symbolic to putting out the old such as sin, demons, and diseases, in order to make room for new things such as birth and marriage. It is also symbolic of how on New Year's we put out the "past" and enter into a new year. In addition, it can also symbolize someone's new chapter in life and how he/she "puts" out the old and lets the new come in.

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  7. "Almost everywhere the expulsion of demons, diseases, and sins coincided-or at one period coincided-with the festival of the New Year" (Eliade, p.54). Eliade goes on to talk about ceremonies or rituals that have been and continue to be performed today. When reading of this quote, I thought of a related religious ritual in the Catholic community and perhaps other religions. Such ritual is that of the confession of sins. I think the expulsion of sins that is found in this quote coincides with this idea. Many people believe that when you confess a sin, you experience a sort of rebirth. By confessing a sin, you are also getting rid of that sin or maybe even demon or disease you had. As such, you are also riding yourself of a history to create a new or better one. Response by: Maria De La Riva

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  8. Jorge Solis

    “Man cannot give a healing ceremony until he has the ceremony given over him” (p. 83).


    I think that Eliade is trying to say, that a man cannot give a lecture of something, if he has not mastered it himself. In other words, we cannot go around the world and tell people what’s right or wrong, when our life has been miserable and we have picked the wrong decisions. We must learn from our mistakes and then give advices to people.

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  9. Basil Qumsiyeh
    Neither the instability and latitdue in beginning of the New Year, nor the different legths attributed to the year by different people were able to lessen the importance attached, in all countries, to the end of the period.

    What eliade is trying to say is that there has been people in all times and everywhere in the world who has been always obssesed with the idea that there will be an end of this life and all will die and a new life will start. the New Years is not more than a reminder for these poeple to give them a wake up call that a year is over and another year started and we don't know how many years left. but people would be still concerned that there is an end for their period.

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  10. "what is important is that man has felt the need to reproduce the cosmogony in his constructions, whatever be the nature; that this reproduction made him contemporary with the mythical moment of the beginning of the world and that he felt the need of returning to that moment, as often as possible, in order to regenerate himself." (p.76-77)
    This quote by Mircea Eliade seems meaningful and a bit provocative since she explains that men believe that in order to recreate the universe they shall base it on their constructions. In addition, construction rituals performed by man represent the reactualization of the theory and origin of the universe.

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  11. Danielle Williams:

    "On the occasion of the division of time int independent units, "years", we witness not only the effectual cessation of a certain temporal interval and the beginning of another, but also the abolition of the past year and of past time. And this is the meaning of ritual purifications: a combustion, an annulling, of the sins and faults of the individual and of those of a community as a whole--not a mere 'purifying'. Regeneration, as its name indicates, is a new birth." (PG. 54)

    When Eliade is discussing the concept of "regeneration of time", he is talking about the end of one year and the beginning of the new year. Every culture has a New Year in which the old year is erased and a new year takes its place. Eliade states that in the celebrating of a New Year, people, as individuals and as a community, come together to wipe the slate clean, dissolve of the previous years past mistakes, and simply start from the beginning with an entirely new slate. Eliade argues that people use the New Year to erase all past mistakes and simply start fresh; this is where he talks about demons and sin being released. Furthermore, Eliade believes that the New Year is a reenactment of Original Creation. Whatever culture one belongs too, whatever religion he/she adheres to, the New Year, for them and for their peers, is Creation all over again. A new year is the beginning of time in which sin has not previously existed; everyone has a clean slate and the chance to be sin-free, to make no mistakes. This is what Eliade is referring to when he refers to the "Regeneration of Time".

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  12. Nadee Ramirez
    “The sacrificer’s conscious effort to re-establish the primordial unity, that is, to restore the whole that preceded the creation, is a very important characteristic of the Indian spirit with its thirst for primordial unity, but we cannot pause to consider it”(pg 78). I found this quote very interesting because there are so many different believes out in the world and this is one of them. Eliade uses this quote to explain their believe, which is to “restore the primordial unity.” It is said that the gods use to do offerings to restore and revive, which is similar to the Indian sprit; by sacrificing they are restoring the primordial.

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  13. Erma Morales

    "Here is a new day of a new month of a new year; what time has wasted must be renewed. It is on this day too that the fate of men is fixed for a whole year" (p. 64-5). Eliade states, that in the coming of a New Year people tend to feel renewed. A year has gone by and what hasn't been accomplished can be accomplished in the near future. The New Year represents reincarnation for people and other living things such as agriculture. Also, the fate of men is fixed for a whole year symbolizes the status of a man. A man who has faith in what he will accomplish will be shown through his actions, and people will be able to sense changes within him. However, a man who has no ambition will seal him fate for the rest of the year as a waste of time.

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  14. Megan Reimer

    "A "new era" opens with the building of every house" ( Eliade, 2005. p.76). In this part of the book Eliade is explaining new beginings such as: the New Year, new world, and new houses. This quote is not directly refering to actual homes being built, but it is referring to a new year or new life. At the begining of the New Year people are letting go of the past and preparing for a better year with new goals. At the begining of a new journey, perhaps moving to a new city, a "new era" is opening up bringing about new things and starting all over. There is no history of you in this place and no archetypes. The "new era" is making history and starting events or rituals. When you move into a new house you know nothing about the house. We make memories over the years of living in our homes by starting routines which become traditions. This is how we make history. When we start with a clean slate we do things that we knew to do before just in a new home, city, business or country.

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  15. "And this conception of periodic creation, i.e., of cyclical regeneration
    of time, poses the problem of the abolition of 'history', the problem which is our prime concern in this essay." This sounds like his thesis
    Steve

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  16. " The Creation of the world, then, is reproduced every year.This eternal repetition of the cosmogonic act, by transforming every New Year into the inauguration of an era, permits the return of the dead to life, and maintains the hope of the faithful in the ressurection of the body" (pg 62).
    Every New year, the ressurection of the body is prevalent and is believed to ressurect at the beggining of eah year of a new epoch.

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