Re: Jordan Peterson on the Enuma Elish
Owen Cramer <[email protected]>
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On Bachofen, I think the point is that the "matriarchy" he identified isn't the mirror image of the kind of aggressive patriarchy Jordan Peterson's more avid fans imagine. I always liked Gerda Lerner's notion of the patriarchy as a bad bargain made as pushing large animals around for agriculture came to be valued in the Neolithic: women negotiated away too much of their gatherer-hunter-era power and we've needed to rebalance ever since. Enuma Elish, of course, had its most consistently important interpretation in the first chapter of Genesis, part of the Priestly document (as over against the J document that sets in in chapter 2). Jews in exile in Babylon would have seen the performance at the New Year's festival and thought about Ti'amat as tehom (the deep) and the wind Marduk used to inflate the salt-sea mother as ruach Elohim. The Holy Ghost, indeed. OC -----Original Message----- From: Classical Greek and Latin Discussion Group <[email protected]> On Behalf Of June Samaras Sent: Tuesday, April 9, 2019 9:14 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Jordan Peterson on the Enuma Elish This email originated outside Colorado College. Do not click links or attachments unless you know the content is safe. The part I most enjoyed was her last line! June On Tue, Apr 9, 2019, 10:33 AM DANIEL P. Tompkins, <[email protected]> wrote: > Many of us, I'd bet, have taught the Babylonian Creation Myth. We may > have marveled at the surrounding modern commentary. Now, Jordan > Peterson in Toronto has weighed in, and Rebecca Futo Kennedy (on > Twitter) has drawn attention to this critique < > https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedi > um.com%2Fs%2Fstory%2Fjordan-peterson-is-a-very-poor-researcher-whose-o > wn-sources-contradict-his-claims-464633558b75&data=02%7C01%7COCram > er%40COLORADOCOLLEGE.EDU%7C0ee92c1d105d45b5d76408d6bcfe1491%7Ccfc7b13c > 12964387b3085de08fd13c99%7C1%7C0%7C636904196784358909&sdata=Zcb5di > 79H0m%2Bts3zuou4vISMBaMazqX7vvXJ257jS4M%3D&reserved=0 > > > by Emily Pothast, who is primarily, I think, a journalist, has weighed > in with this survey of scholarship, based on this earlier, more > scholarly piece < > https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww. > academia.edu%2F38606226%2FThe_Great_Mother_and_The_Dragon_of_Chaos_Jor > dan_Peterson_s_Misuses_of_Mythology&data=02%7C01%7COCramer%40COLOR > ADOCOLLEGE.EDU%7C0ee92c1d105d45b5d76408d6bcfe1491%7Ccfc7b13c12964387b3 > 085de08fd13c99%7C1%7C0%7C636904196784358909&sdata=AM9fVxSIujm4paxf > 1TxxPwr5ttoUYXXITI217T1dov0%3D&reserved=0 > > > from her. I found both worthwhile. > > It is interesting to see her citing Bachofen, who is hardly read these > days but was central to Norman O Brown's teaching of ancient history > in the 1960s. > > Dan >