"Superstitious", per Fall Guy & Michaelson, is probably right on the money

Posted by Inbanana from 198.187.135.242 on January 25, 2001 at 16:51:19:

In Reply to: Just a quick comment about Raiders. posted by Indiana Dog on January 25, 2001 at 13:09:40:

In the absence of open proclamations from characters (cf Henry Sr.'s remark about "blasphemy"), it's problematic ascribing religious views to them. All possibilities exist, eg, Sallah may have been a follower of the Gnostic gospels (not uncommon in Cairo); he may have been a practicing Sikh, Buddhist, or Appalachian evangelical snake-handler (unlikely, but would explain his knowledge of asps...).
He may have been a superstitious agnostic, for that matter.
As an anthropologist, I feel duty (ha! he said "Doody"!) bound to pontificate about the dangers in ousiders' generalizing about individual interpretations of another's faith, regardless of one's scholarship in the matter. Yikes, what a sentence. And, I would add, ascribing characterizations to religions based on viewings of emotionally-charged public displays via the television news seems counter to the tolerance of cultural complexity and diversity displayed by Indy. This isn't meant to discourage initial stages of debate on the matter, just to underscore the real-life complexities and implications of discussing even these fictional portrayals.
That's not to say that nazis don't suck, by the way.
If anyone's interested, check out the more encylopaedic works of departed University of Chicago (yeah, THAT one) historian of religions Mircea Eliade, particularly his "digest" and multi-volume "handbook" on world religions (sorry, forgot the title).
It rocks.
Death is a great subject for anthropological investigation, by the way; but perhaps all of this discussion only, ultimately, reflects John Rhys-Davies' momentary wooden reading of the script!
cheers,
Inby

Follow Ups:

Re: "Superstitious", per Fall Guy & Michaelson, is probably right on the money Fedora 18:08:19 1/25/2001 (5)
- true, true, Inby 20:23:13 1/25/2001 (2)
  - Well, not to disagree, but... Michaelson 16:00:45 1/26/2001 (1)
    - I did not misspell "knowldege", I have dyslexic fingers (grins) (nm) Michaelson 16:04:06 1/26/2001 (0)
- Well, my final thought for the day... Michaelson 19:52:09 1/25/2001 (1)
  - Re: Well, my final thought for the day... Inby 20:09:26 1/25/2001 (0)

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: In the absence of open proclamations from characters (cf Henry Sr.'s remark about "blasphemy"), it's problematic ascribing religious views to them.  All possibilities exist, eg, Sallah may have been a follower of the Gnostic gospels (not uncommon in Cairo); he may have been a practicing Sikh, Buddhist, or Appalachian evangelical snake-handler (unlikely, but would explain his knowledge of asps...).
: He may have been a superstitious agnostic, for that matter.
: As an anthropologist, I feel duty (ha! he said "Doody"!) bound to pontificate about the dangers in ousiders' generalizing about individual interpretations of another's faith, regardless of one's scholarship in the matter.  Yikes, what a sentence.  And, I would add, ascribing characterizations to religions based on viewings of emotionally-charged public displays via the television news seems counter to the tolerance of cultural complexity and diversity displayed by Indy.  This isn't meant to discourage initial stages of debate on the matter, just to underscore the real-life complexities and implications of discussing even these fictional portrayals.
: That's not to say that nazis don't suck, by the way.
: If anyone's interested, check out the more encylopaedic works of departed University of Chicago (yeah, THAT one) historian of religions Mircea Eliade, particularly his "digest" and multi-volume "handbook" on world religions (sorry, forgot the title).
: It rocks.
: Death is a great subject for anthropological investigation, by the way; but perhaps all of this discussion only, ultimately, reflects John Rhys-Davies' momentary wooden reading of the script!
: cheers,
: Inby

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