🏵️ On Learning About Cultures From Stories

On stone gods, internet monsters, and the cultural practices that aren't quite what we think when we think of religion... but aren't exactly not, either.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about cultural clusters of things around religion that aren’t quite religion. Things like folkloric monsters, rituals, how prolific writers generally aren’t representative of their cultures, the practical benefits of various religious practices, etc. I’ve also read several fantasy books lately with incredibly well-thought-out religious and magic systems. My favorite is probably The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold (that’s an affiliate link, all the book links are affiliate links, because why not?). I can’t believe I slept on these books for so long!

One of my hobbyhorse opinions that I sometimes get into arguments about is the idea that storytelling is an effective way to ensure true understanding — and to convey knowledge. Back in 2022, I wrote a whole article on the topic called Sensemaking through Fiction, but I thought it might be fun to offer up some recent examples of how it works in practice.

3 Links I Learned From

• I often say I learn a lot about history and the world from literature and film. This review of the works of filmmaker Edward Yang gave me more insight into Taiwan than anything else I’ve ever read. “Born in Shanghai, raised in Taipei, and naturalized as an American citizen after spending much of his adulthood in the U.S., where he studied and worked in computer systems, Yang brought an effortless cross-cultural literacy, along with a healthy skepticism, to his dispatches from a fast-changing, increasingly cosmopolitan Taiwan.”

• Back in early 2023,

  Jane Psmith
  and
  John Psmith
  wrote a really great review of a book called The Ancient City: A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome, by Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges. A friend sent it to me, and I read the whole thing with utter fascination. The general point is that guys like Socrates were writing directly in opposition to contemporary Greek culture, and that looking at the culture thru the lens of their writing is dangerous. “We have a tendency to think of the Greek philosophers as emblematic of their civilization, when in reality they were one of the most bizarre and unrepresentative things that happened in that society.” One of my favorite aspects of the wide-ranging review was when Jane referenced one of my favorite anthropology books, The Horse, The Wheel, and Language by David Anthony. It was a major reference for my 2021 article about the Early Pastoral Economies of the Eurasian Plains.

• This deep dive on Why Monsters Take Certain Shape is a thoughtful look into a creepy bit of early internet folklore. It’s a neat history, although I don’t recommend reading it before bed — the author is a psychology MSc graduate currently working for the University of Oxford, and writes horror stories on the side. The account tracks the history of one of the less-known bits of creepy folklore our culture has produced, and comes up with an evo-psych explanation for why so many folkloric monsters have so much in common even when they don’t share common origins. “Look up photographs or artists’ impressions of the monsters I listed above. Do you see the pattern? Long legs. Pale, grey bodies. Enormous eyes, shining out in the gloom. A vicious, predatory countenance. These monsters are all spindly, emaciated creatures with bodies built for speed, agility, and silent hunting. And, despite many originating entirely separately from each other, they look almost identical.”

2 Remixed Highlights

The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie is a really weird book, and kind of obscure. The author is much more famous for her award-winning (and deservedly so, imo) Ancillary Justice series. But I thought about it because a friend of mine was complaining that there aren't enough stand-alone fantasy books anymore... and this is a good one, right up my alley, super nerdy in a way I continually have reasons to appreciate.

For example, a few weeks ago I picked up the Ancient Assyria edition (affiliate link) of the Oxford “Very Short Introductions.” I chose it for my park read that weekend because I didn't want to deal with electronics, and I wanted something lightweight, since I had to carry it three miles in a backpack with my notebook, picnic blanket, lunch, and water bottles for myself and my son. It was a great choice. I finished it in two days and learned a ton, so stay tuned for a bunch of Assyria content in the coming weeks (months, realistically…) as I finish processing those notes.

The Strength and Patience of the Hill, who narrates The Raven Tower, is a big rock — who also happens to be a god. According to Adrienne Mayor’s The Amazons, the Scythians of the Eurasian Plains happened to worship a very particular large black stone:

Veneration for a sacred black stone was a prominent feature of ancient Anatolian worship of the great “mountain mother” Cybele of Asia Minor. […] At Cybele’s sanctuary at Pessinus in central Anatolia, the goddess was worshipped in the form of “a black stone that fell from the sky.” (from Chapter 10, the “Amazon Religion” section.)

This sort of veneration of a meteorite is relatively unusual from a historical perspective. It is not, interestingly, unique. Ancient Assyria’s religious cult — which flourished for thousands of years — was also centered on a divine rock.

The city’s god, who shared its name and was the divine manifestation of the site, was conceived as the sovereign in whose name the human ruler governed ... the god Aššur and the city of Aššur are inseparable, as the deity is the personification of the rocky crag called Qal’at Sherqat in Arabic that towers high above a bend of the river Tigris. Shaped like the prow of a ship, the roughly triangular crag rises 40 metres above the valley, providing shelter and opportunities for the people who settled there since at least the mid-third millennium BC. As the city developed, the natural defences provided in the north and east by the rock cliffs and the Tigris below were completed with a crescent-shaped fortification wall, resulting in an enclosed area of c. 65 hecatres. — Ancient Assyria

Ann Leckie does a fantastic job of showcasing how this sort of religious belief might come to be, without at any point being dismissive toward the beliefs and practices of different cultures. The Strength and Patience of the Hill is one of many gods who play a role in The Raven Tower, which relies on the trope of gods gaining strength through faith and worship.

During the “flashback” scenes of The Raven Tower, Strength and Patience of the Hill makes an effort to stay out of the affairs of the world. It is, in fact, moderately appalled to discover that people have been worshipping and praying to it, because in many cases, Strength and Patience of the Hill deliberately ignored the prayers of the faithful, deliberately failing to respond to attempts to use rune-stones for communication. But sheer chance and coincidence were enough to convince people that Strength and Patience of the Hill was listening, and helping.

Looking back into real-world history, one can imagine the ancients having a similar sort of relationship with Cybele and Aššur… although interestingly absolutely none of the online sources I checked about “Ashur” or Qal’at Sherqat mention this crag. I assume Karen Radner is correct and this minor detail just didn’t make it into any of the cursory English-language articles about ancient Assyria, but if you have any evidence to the contrary please let me know.

For a lengthier examination of this excellent book, check out Nathan Goldwag’s recent review of The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie.

& a Photo from my Ramblings

The weather in Maryland has been absolutely wonderful for going outside and reading. I hope it’s been as lovely for y’all!