Metagenetics

[TeaDidikai]

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[Jun Valson]

I'm a good example of a mutt. but I also have the question of what about all the people 'converted' to other relegions whether it be conquest, bagering, interest, or about a dozen other reasons people change relegions. I'm part irish (amongst many other things) for example, and a large portion of the irish community was converted to christianity (I wouldn't say all without re-checking some sources.... heh).

and in cases of indian tribes marring one member of their tribe into another to establish peace, would all the decendants of that tribe be obliged to worship both sets of deities?  

[TeaDidikai]

Jun Valson

I'm a good example of a mutt. but I also have the question of what about all the people 'converted' to other relegions whether it be conquest, bagering, interest, or about a dozen other reasons people change relegions. I'm part irish (amongst many other things) for example, and a large portion of the irish community was converted to christianity (I wouldn't say all without re-checking some sources.... heh).

and in cases of indian tribes marring one member of their tribe into another to establish peace, would all the decendants of that tribe be obliged to worship both sets of deities?

I would say that conversion for political reasons is not true conversion. That's what we see in Christanity.

As for which sets of gods? That would be based on which gender the people see as the fostering gender. (Hebrew women for example)  

[WebenBanu]

It sounds to me like establishing a pedigree for religion- like saying that one person is more entitled to a religion because they're "of the blood" and the other person isn't. It actually reminds me a bit of people who claim that you can only use magic if you're a "hereditary witch," a la Harry Potter and their purebloods- though this was an issue within the occult community long before that series came out.^_^' I don't subscribe to the theory.

From what I've read, the ancient Egyptians didn't seem to agree either. Though they were extremely xenophobic, viewing all other cultures as "barbaric" as compared to their own, yet they still brought themselves to establish Hrw and Skhmt as gods in charge of guarding the hearts of the barbarians in foreign lands, and even Akhenaten wrote, in his famous hymn:

"All distant lands, you make them to live, you made a heavenly Hapy descend for them;  He makes waves on the mountains like the sea, to drench their fields and their towns . . . A Hapy from heaven for foreign peoples."

Here we see that even the people in foreign lands could benefit spiritually, from such an intrinsically locationalized deity as the personification of the flooding of the Nile River.

The ancient Egyptians were also a people of mixed genetics, and at times all that was really necessary to consider oneself Egyptian was to learn the language and respectfully follow the customs- one could retain one's Egyptian identity even if one had to move back to foreign lands. So in cases like this, how exactly would we trace the genetics?^_^' I mean, aside from all the mixed heritages of our modern population, and the relative impracticality of tracing one's lineage back to the point that would give permission to worship the gods one follows... how would we even distinguish those members of the ancient societies which those people considered to be one of their own, and yet they would not pass our DNA tests? ^_^'

I do believe that there is a special link between a people and their gods- but I believe that it is a cultural one, and not a genetic one. Nurture, not nature.^_~ The peoples who interacted with specific pantheons over a long period of time were shaped by those gods- they learned a lot about Them, and were taught the best ways of interacting/communicating with Them. That's why it's important to establish a link with those ancient societies- the link is not defined by blood, but by worldview and practice.  

[maenad nuri]

I'm a mutt. My anscetry is Welsh and German. None of those Gods wanted me, but the Hellenes did.

I don't hold to that theory. I find that it more goes with a fear of the strange cultures that humans held, rather than the Gods themselves.  

[maluna]

i wouldn''t follow that theory for the same mutt reason. religion and blood aren''t connected. traditions in a family might determine gods and goddesses that call to a person, but not blood. i''m irish, mexican, and filipino, amongst other things... but i worship gods of the greek pantheon. now, maybe my name being greek might have something to do with it... lol, but that''s too much of a stretch to me. my name only interested my so far... it took something else to get me to actually worship greek gods.  

[TeaDidikai]

Good points.

While I would not ban someone from their religion because of their ancestry, I wouldn't go leaping into a religion claiming I have a right to it if it did had a metagenetic bent.

Also, I do find I am more interested in the gods of my Ancestors than I am in the gods of other cultures. Maybe that's just me though.  

[Fan_Boy]

Could the predisposition to a certain religion come from our own mongrel path?

Here's the history as I understand it (though I point out that I'm not a history student let alone fully qualified) - Homosapiens ability to adapt made them superior and displaced the Neaderthals. The Neanderthals were bigger and stronger as most know but they also had big brains wich were believed to have held a genetic memory. Now, if both types of "proto-man" had bred would it not be possible for the resulting offspring to have at least some of that genetic memory? Further dilution would explain how some people can "have the knack" for certain tasks - a throwback to Neanderthal man. Could this be an explanation for why some people are "called" to certain religions?  

[CuAnnan]

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[Amber Ocean]

I'm a mutt, in that case. I'm half Indian along with a lot of European nations.

My mother is Catholic, and my father is Hindu.

I'm studying Wicca.

It makes for an interesting array of holidays. ^.^;;; I'm not sure that I can say that I'm interested in the Gods/Goddesses of any culture. I believe that the Lord and Lady can be simply called that - the Lord and Lady. I don't have names for them simply because I believe calling them by name takes away some of the powers they encompass (I believe that they encompass every aspect of the ancient Gods/Goddesses).

Just my two cents.  

[TeaDidikai]

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[CuAnnan]

I want to see the actual hypothesis, the test paramaters, the control groups and the materials before I will accept this as anything but Hocum.  

[MST3Kakalina]

i think that worshipping within the pantheon of your own ancestry can be something of a significant experience, in that you can feel as though you're getting in touch with your 'roots,' so to speak. that's why i'm looking into the Russian/Slavic pantheon, myself.

that special connection you can feel, though, doesn't and shouldn't exclude people from investigating other cultures if they feel no need to practice their own, if they're mutts, or if they have no idea what their ancestry is.  

[TeaDidikai]

Most people seem to fall on the same side as I do on this stuff- but what about the religions that demand a genetic connection to be fully accepted?

For example, the Jewish faiths which hold that to be part of God's chosen, your mother's bloodline must be part of the Hebrew tribes?

As someone who is non-Hebrew, would you feel okay forcing yourself on a religion that says you are not welcome?  

[VwolfV]

I don't know whether I believe in that or not. I am part Irish, Norwiegan (mostly Norwiegian) and part German.

I feel close connection to the Irish part of me but once in awhile I do find I enjoy a good polka.

Wierd, huh?