Colonial Religion in BSG
May. 20th, 2005 03:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vaznettiWe may be witnessing the gradual reawakening of Vanzetti's brain. Maybe.
At one point I had a long post about religion in BSG and religion in the ancient Mediterranean in my head, although it never got written. Here, in its place, are some notes on the subject. For the record, I'm a classicist with an interest in religion in the Greek and Roman worlds, and this is all rather sketchy and generalizing. Please feel free to discuss and ask question in the comments.
Belief and action: Modern monotheistic traditions place a great deal of emphasis on belief; what you believe is at least as important as how you act. This is not the case of ancient religions, in which the question "do you believe in the gods?" or "..in [some specific god]?" is largely irrelevant. In these traditions, what matters is how you act: religion is conceived as a set of ritual performances, rather than a set of beliefs about the gods. Ancient Mediterranean polytheism is extremely tolerant of agnosticism and philosophical disagreement over the nature of the gods, provided that individuals participate in public religion. Moreover, lack of belief (or a difference in belief) isn't considered a reason not to participate in public religion, any more than we would consider the loss of a foot an impediment to typing.
Seven impossible things before breakfast: Because the question of "what you believe" isn't central to ancient religion, there's little emphasis on consistency of belief. For example, an individual involved in Dionysiac cult will probably accept the truth of both the following, that Dionysus is the son of Zeus and Semele, and that Dionysus is the son of Zeus and Persephone. Within the sphere of religion, there's no contradiction there. Contrast that with the emphasis on doctrinal orthodoxy in early Christianity, in which a series of ecumenical councils are held in order to determine the nature of Christ, or the nature of the Trinity, and of which uniformity of belief is the goal. A non-christian observer would not understand why this kind of thing matters, so long as everyone is worshiping in more-or-less the same way.
There is, in addition, a great deal of variation in the gods themselves: the goddess worshiped as Artemis in Ephesus, in Asia Minor, bears very little resemblance to the goddess worshiped as Artemis at Brauron, in Attica. These two, in turn, may bear only the slightest relationship to the Artemis familiar from various myths. All three versions of the goddess are equally real and true, and they are all Artemis. The gods have many natures, often many contradictory natures, and there's no authority to determine which version is the "correct" because all are equally correct.
Textual authority: The short version is that there's no such thing, but that's not entirely right: there's no 'canon,' no closed set of holy texts and authoritative versions. There is textual material which has weight, and the most obvious case is prophecy. (I'm using text loosely here, since prophecy may be written or oral, and often goes through a set of oral stages before assuming a final form.) The interesting thing about prophecy is that although it's agreed to have meaning, there's no agreement on what that meaning is, and it's perfectly possible for prophecies to contradict each other, although in practice apparent contradictions can be interpreted away. Myth, although important to the study of ancient literature, is just not that big a deal with regard to the practice of ancient religion.
So, what does this have to do with religion in BSG? One thing that strikes me is that the religion we see is necessarily incomplete. In the ancient world, ritual may be dependent on location (there are certain rituals you'd do in Athens, for example, and nowhere else, and certain ritual which are done in a specific place within a city); it's possible that we haven't seen a lot of religious activity, outside of funerals, because the places in which people would perform religious activities are lost.
I've seen -- off and on -- a number of fannish comments about the disinterest in religion seen in many of the human characters, and I must admit that that kind of comment rubs me wrong. I think that we may not be seeing Colonial religion on its own terms; for example, we've seen Starbuck pray, privately, while holding images, but that may not be the kind of activity that's central to Colonial religion in general.
Another thing -- a certain amount of the variety in Greek religion, in particular, is due to development over a long time in a politically fragmented world. If it's the case (as I heard is claimed on the BSG website) that the unification of the twelve colonies is a relatively recent event, it's likely that religious attitudes and practices also vary within that world: so for example, there's likely to be no single pantheon of twelve gods (there was no agreement over the identities of the twelve Olympians, for instance), and the Artemis worshiped on one world may not bear all that much relationship to the Artemis worshiped on another -- and of course, that both of those Artemises might well be worshiped on a third world, in addition to a couple more. And of course, that any or all of these may be meant when, in casual conversations, someone mentions "Artemis."
The real problem, I suspect, will be in the distinction between Cylon religion and Colonial religion -- the Colonials, I suspect, simply don't have the mental categories necessary to understand Cylon religion.
In retrospect, I'm not sure how relevant all this is -- of course there's a very clear Christianizing tendency in the representation of religion on BSG, which may mean that ancient Mediterranean religion is essentially meaningless for our understanding of what the writers of BSG are trying to do -- if indeed they're consciously trying to do anything.
At one point I had a long post about religion in BSG and religion in the ancient Mediterranean in my head, although it never got written. Here, in its place, are some notes on the subject. For the record, I'm a classicist with an interest in religion in the Greek and Roman worlds, and this is all rather sketchy and generalizing. Please feel free to discuss and ask question in the comments.
Belief and action: Modern monotheistic traditions place a great deal of emphasis on belief; what you believe is at least as important as how you act. This is not the case of ancient religions, in which the question "do you believe in the gods?" or "..in [some specific god]?" is largely irrelevant. In these traditions, what matters is how you act: religion is conceived as a set of ritual performances, rather than a set of beliefs about the gods. Ancient Mediterranean polytheism is extremely tolerant of agnosticism and philosophical disagreement over the nature of the gods, provided that individuals participate in public religion. Moreover, lack of belief (or a difference in belief) isn't considered a reason not to participate in public religion, any more than we would consider the loss of a foot an impediment to typing.
Seven impossible things before breakfast: Because the question of "what you believe" isn't central to ancient religion, there's little emphasis on consistency of belief. For example, an individual involved in Dionysiac cult will probably accept the truth of both the following, that Dionysus is the son of Zeus and Semele, and that Dionysus is the son of Zeus and Persephone. Within the sphere of religion, there's no contradiction there. Contrast that with the emphasis on doctrinal orthodoxy in early Christianity, in which a series of ecumenical councils are held in order to determine the nature of Christ, or the nature of the Trinity, and of which uniformity of belief is the goal. A non-christian observer would not understand why this kind of thing matters, so long as everyone is worshiping in more-or-less the same way.
There is, in addition, a great deal of variation in the gods themselves: the goddess worshiped as Artemis in Ephesus, in Asia Minor, bears very little resemblance to the goddess worshiped as Artemis at Brauron, in Attica. These two, in turn, may bear only the slightest relationship to the Artemis familiar from various myths. All three versions of the goddess are equally real and true, and they are all Artemis. The gods have many natures, often many contradictory natures, and there's no authority to determine which version is the "correct" because all are equally correct.
Textual authority: The short version is that there's no such thing, but that's not entirely right: there's no 'canon,' no closed set of holy texts and authoritative versions. There is textual material which has weight, and the most obvious case is prophecy. (I'm using text loosely here, since prophecy may be written or oral, and often goes through a set of oral stages before assuming a final form.) The interesting thing about prophecy is that although it's agreed to have meaning, there's no agreement on what that meaning is, and it's perfectly possible for prophecies to contradict each other, although in practice apparent contradictions can be interpreted away. Myth, although important to the study of ancient literature, is just not that big a deal with regard to the practice of ancient religion.
So, what does this have to do with religion in BSG? One thing that strikes me is that the religion we see is necessarily incomplete. In the ancient world, ritual may be dependent on location (there are certain rituals you'd do in Athens, for example, and nowhere else, and certain ritual which are done in a specific place within a city); it's possible that we haven't seen a lot of religious activity, outside of funerals, because the places in which people would perform religious activities are lost.
I've seen -- off and on -- a number of fannish comments about the disinterest in religion seen in many of the human characters, and I must admit that that kind of comment rubs me wrong. I think that we may not be seeing Colonial religion on its own terms; for example, we've seen Starbuck pray, privately, while holding images, but that may not be the kind of activity that's central to Colonial religion in general.
Another thing -- a certain amount of the variety in Greek religion, in particular, is due to development over a long time in a politically fragmented world. If it's the case (as I heard is claimed on the BSG website) that the unification of the twelve colonies is a relatively recent event, it's likely that religious attitudes and practices also vary within that world: so for example, there's likely to be no single pantheon of twelve gods (there was no agreement over the identities of the twelve Olympians, for instance), and the Artemis worshiped on one world may not bear all that much relationship to the Artemis worshiped on another -- and of course, that both of those Artemises might well be worshiped on a third world, in addition to a couple more. And of course, that any or all of these may be meant when, in casual conversations, someone mentions "Artemis."
The real problem, I suspect, will be in the distinction between Cylon religion and Colonial religion -- the Colonials, I suspect, simply don't have the mental categories necessary to understand Cylon religion.
In retrospect, I'm not sure how relevant all this is -- of course there's a very clear Christianizing tendency in the representation of religion on BSG, which may mean that ancient Mediterranean religion is essentially meaningless for our understanding of what the writers of BSG are trying to do -- if indeed they're consciously trying to do anything.
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no subject
Date: 2005-05-20 03:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-20 06:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-22 11:43 am (UTC)Although I suppose it would justify reading some Orson Scott Card. If you were searching for such a justification, anyway.
Weren't you going to do a paper on Crichton and the Odyssey last year? Or am I thinking of someone else?
(And this is a very cool entry; pity I can't find anything more to say than appreciative cooing.)
no subject
Date: 2005-05-22 01:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-22 01:59 pm (UTC)Still want to see that essay.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-02 12:57 am (UTC)I'm really glad someone linked me to this, because you're the first person I've seen who is anywhere near on the same page in the way we see the human religion on BSG.
I think the lack of any sort of specific cults on the show gives us some difficulty in parsing exactly how the religion would be practiced, especially considering how the framgmentation of "established" cults in the Empire era (and even just in the Republic) really fell cult to cult. I do think you see some "christian" tendancies in the Herculian and other messianic-style cults where the focus was more on "belief" in a redeemer figure as much as cultish participation. Correct me on that if I'm totally off the mark, but it's been my reading that the whole "redeemer" archetype was hardly invented by the 1st cent CE hellenized jews.
Anyway, I see the BSG humans as having moved away from the classical concept of religion as devotion and votive offereings to something more personal. Amongst some of them. But not in any way all. I agree with you totally that planet to planet the worship of a given figure would be totally different. I think in the same way, what is considered "normal" practice religiously varies from planet to planet, so we have the Gemenonians (um, ? Gemenonites?) being considered very hardline--which I read to mean more based on strict interpretation of the Scrolls and also bound by ritual and practice rather than personal feelings or beliefs--and then people like Starbuck who obviously has a personal, "christian" relationship with which ever dieties it is she worships.
Yah for you, been dying for this.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-02 04:54 pm (UTC)Oh, definitely -- we see this in a lot of mystery cults in antiquity, although it's often not so much a matter of correct belief (which is very much a Christian thing) as hidden knowledge (about the real origins of humanity, or the real nature of the afterlife). And the notion of private prayer and a personal relationship to the gods is found in pagan antiquity just as in Christianity.
It's really hard for me to read the religious situation in BSG, although you're right that we see a lot of variation -- the Geminons (I think?) put a lot of emphasis on prophecy, and on the literal truth of prophecies, but yes, Kara definitely seems to focus on private prayer to her gods. But there's no evidence for sacrifice or votive offerings, and in a way that saddens me. I wish Colonial religion were stranger-looking.