Age of Reason
17th-century philosophy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
17th-century philosophy in the Western world is generally regarded as being the start of modern philosophy, and a departure from the medieval approach, especially Scholasticism.
Early 17th-century philosophy is often called the Age of Reason or Age of Rationalism and is considered to succeed the Renaissance philosophy era and precede the Age of Enlightenment.
Renaissance philosophy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Renaissance philosophy was the period of the history of philosophy in Europe that falls roughly between the Middle Ages and the Enlightenment. It includes the 15th century; some scholars extend it to as early as the 1350s or as late as the 16th century or early 17th century, overlapping the Reformation and the early modern era. Among the distinctive elements of Renaissance philosophy are the revival (renaissance means "rebirth") of classical civilization and learning; a partial return to the authority of Plato over Aristotle, who had come to dominate later medieval philosophy; and, among some philosophers, enthusiasm for the occult and Hermeticism.
As with all periods, there is a wide drift of dates, reasons for categorization and boundaries. In particular, the Renaissance, more than later periods, is thought to begin in Italy with the Italian Renaissance and roll through Europe. The English Renaissance is often thought to include Shakespeare, at a time when Italy had passed through Mannerism and to the Baroque. As importantly the 16th century is split differently (see lumpers and splitters). Some historians see the Reformation and Counter-Reformation as being separated from the Renaissance and more important for philosophy, while others see the entire era as one sweeping period.
Age of Enlightenment
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Age of Enlightenment (or simply the Enlightenment) is the era in Western philosophy, intellectual, scientific and cultural life, centered upon the 18th century, in which reason was advocated as the primary source for legitimacy and authority.
Developing simultaneously in France, Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Portugal and the American colonies, the movement was buoyed by Atlantic Revolutions, especially the success of the American Revolution, when breaking free of the British Empire. Most of Europe was caught up, including the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russia, and Scandinavia, along with Latin America in instigating the Haitian Revolution. The authors of the American Declaration of Independence, the United States Bill of Rights, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, and the Polish-Lithuanian Constitution of May 3, 1791, were motivated by Enlightenment principles.[1]
The "Enlightenment" was not a single movement or school of thought, for these philosophies were often mutually contradictory or divergent. The Enlightenment was less a set of ideas than it was a set of values. At its core was a critical questioning of traditional institutions, customs, and morals, and a strong belief in rationality and science. Thus, there was still a considerable degree of similarity between competing philosophies.[2] Some historians also include the late 17th century, which is typically known as the Age of Reason or Age of Rationalism, as part of the Enlightenment; however, most historians consider the Age of Reason to be a prelude to the ideas of the Enlightenment.[3] Modernity, by contrast, is used to refer to the period after The Enlightenment; albeit generally emphasizing social conditions rather than specific philosophies.
wordiq.com
The Age of Enlightenment (or The Enlightenment for short) was an intellectual movement in 18th-century Europe. The goal of the Enlightenment was to establish an authoritative ethics, aesthetics, and knowledge based on an "enlightened" rationality. The movement's leaders viewed themselves as a courageous, elite body of intellectuals who were leading the world toward progress, out of a long period of irrationality, superstition, and tyranny which began during a historical period they called the Dark Ages. This movement provided a framework for the American and French Revolutions, as well as the rise of capitalism and the birth of socialism. It is matched by the high baroque era in music, and the neo-classical period in the arts.
In his famous 1784 essay "What Is Enlightenment?", Immanuel Kant defined it as follows:
"Enlightenment is man's leaving his self-caused immaturity. Immaturity is the incapacity to use one's own understanding without the guidance of another. Such immaturity is self-caused if its cause is not lack of intelligence, but by lack of determination and courage to use one's intelligence without being guided by another. The motto of enlightenment is therefore: Sapere aude! Have courage to use your own intelligence!"
The Enlightenment began then, from the belief in a rational, orderly and comprehensible universe - and proceeded, in stages, to demand a rational and orderly organization of knowledge and the state, such as found in the idea of Deism. This began from the assertion that law governed both heavenly and human affairs, and that law gave the king his power, rather than the king's power giving force to law. The conception of law as a relationship between individuals, rather than families, came to the fore, and with it the increasing focus on individual liberty as a fundamental reality, given by "Nature and Nature's God", which, in the ideal state, would be as expansive as possible. The Enlightenment created then, the ideas, of liberty, property and rationality which are still recognizable as the basis for most political philosophy even to the present era: that is, of a free individual being most free within the context of a state which provides stability of the laws.
wordiq.com
Deism - Definition
Deism is belief in a God or first cause based on reason, rather than on faith or revelation, and thus a form of theism in opposition to fideism. Deism is usually synonymous with natural religion in 18th century Enlightenment writings. Deism originated in 17th century Europe, gaining popularity in the 18th century Enlightenment especially in America as a modernist movement inspired by the success of the scientific method. Deists emphasize the exclusive application of reason and personal experience to religious questions. Deism is concerned with those truths which humans can discover through a process of reasoning, independent of any claimed divine revelation through scripture or prophets.
The names used for the divinity by Deists include the following:
* Creator (used in the United States Declaration of Independence)
* Divine Author
* Divine Providence (used in the United States Declaration of Independence)
* Divine Watchmaker
* First Cause
* Grand Architect
* Nature's God (used in the United States Declaration of Independence)
* Providence
The root of the word "deism" is from the Latin "deus",
www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Age_of_Enlightenment
Enlightenment thinkers reduced religion to those essentials which could only be "rationally" defended, i.e., certain basic moral principles and a few universally held beliefs about God. Aside from these universal principles and beliefs, religions in their particularity were largely banished from the public square. Taken to its logical extreme, the Enlightenment resulted in atheism.
The age of Enlightenment is considered to have ended with the French Revolution, which had a violent aspect that discredited it in the eyes of many. Also, Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), who referred to Sapere aude! (Dare to know!) as the motto of the Enlightenment, ended up criticizing the Enlightenment confidence on the power of reason. Romanticism, with its emphasis upon imagination, spontaneity, and passion, emerged also as a reaction against the dry intellectualism of rationalists. Criticism of the Enlightenment has expressed itself in a variety of forms, such as religious conservatism, postmodernism, and feminism.
The legacy of the Enlightenment has been of enormous consequence for the modern world. The general decline of the church, the growth of secular humanism and political and economic liberalism, the belief in progress, and the development of science are among its fruits. Its political thought developed by Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), John Locke (1632-1704), Voltaire (1694-1778) and Rousseau (1712-1788) created the modern world. It helped create the intellectual framework not only for the American Revolutionary War and liberalism, democracy and capitalism but also the French Revolution, racism, nationalism, secularism, fascism and communism.
The Enlightenment was a time when the solar system was truly discovered: With the accurate calculation of orbits, such as Halley's comet, the discovery of the first planet since antiquity, Uranus by William Herschel (1738-1822), and the calculation of the mass of the Sun using Newton's theory of universal gravitation. These series of discoveries had a momentous effect on both pragmatic commerce and philosophy. The excitement engendered by creating a new and orderly vision of the world, as well as the need for a philosophy of science which could encompass the new discoveries, greatly influenced both religious and secular ideas. If Newton could order the cosmos with natural philosophy, so, many argued, could political philosophy order the body politic.
'Racism': History of Hatred
By KWAME ANTHONY APPIAH
''Racism: A Short History'' does not stray beyond Western racism, in part, Fredrickson says, because it has had a wider impact than any comparable ideology, spreading, as it did, with European empires around the globe. But he also believes that racism received its fullest theoretical elaboration in the West because racist ideology developed in societies where it offended against a growing conviction that ''all men are created equal.'' As a result, as the ideology developed, it was also ''condemned and resisted.'' If racism is indeed an ideology that grows up in order to rationalize expulsion, elimination or exploitation, it makes sense then that it is a relatively modern phenomenon in the West. For it is only in the modern period that these offenses against others needed rationalizing.
In,
Prof. Fredrickson’s book, Racism: A Short History
Fredrickson argues that Western racism has two prime strands -- one anti-Semitic, the other white supremacist -- and that anti-Semitism came first. It was only in the 15th century that the religious anti-Judaism of the European Middle Ages -- which allowed that, though Judaism was religiously incorrect, Jews, once converted, were as good as anyone else -- was replaced, in Spain, with something more like racism.
Similarly, when the Atlantic slave trade in Africans began, it largely involved the capture and exploitation of heathens. Even as slaves in the New World came increasingly to be baptized, there was no need to justify their enslavement -- until it was challenged, in the Enlightenment. At that point slavery's defenders needed an ideology. It is something of an irony that the tools with which they addressed this task came increasingly from another side of the Enlightenment, the rationalizing, scientific side that was beginning to treat human beings not (or at least, not only) as God's special creation but as natural creatures whose history could be studied along with that of other organisms. It is in the Enlightenment that the first modern attempts at racial classification, based not on religious ideas but on purportedly scientific ones, were developed. And these naturalistic accounts of the supposed inferiority of blacks and Jews eventually overtook the religious ones that dominated the debates of the early 19th century about slavery.
Fredrickson's idea, then, can be put this way. People everywhere, throughout history, have sometimes been beastly to members of groups they thought of as different. What is distinctive about racism in the West is the development of a full-scale systematic ideology to explain why these others deserved bad treatment. And that theory was necessary only because modern Western societies were unlike most others, which did not share the assumption that human beings were created equal and thus had nothing to explain away.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Isaac Satanow
Isaac Satanow
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Isaac Satanow (born at Satanow, Poland, 1733; died in Berlin, Germany, 25 December 1805) was a Polish Jewish scholar and poet.
Life
In early manhood he left his native country and went to Berlin in search of learning. There he became the protégé of Isaac Daniel and David Friedländer, who found him employment as a teacher in some prominent families.
Satanow represents a peculiar type. Like Byron, he was, both physically and mentally, a conglomeration of contrasts. He dressed in the garb of the Polish Jew of the period, yet was a thorough German in his actions and habits. Though Orthodox in his beliefs, he nevertheless favored Reform in practise. He was one of the greatest authorities on Jewish tradition and lore, yet he was one of the most free-thinking of philosophers. He was a shrewd physicist and an inspired poet; a realist and an idealist.
[edit] Works
In his Mishle Asaf he so blended the style of the Bible with modern fine writing that the critics of his time were at a loss how to characterize the work. Some were inclined to revere it as a relic of antiquity, while others attacked the author as a literary charlatan who desired to palm off his own work as a production of the ancient writers. Rabbi Joseph of Frankfort gave a clever criticism :
"I do not really know to whom to ascribe these sayings [of the "Mishle Asaf"]; it may be the publisher himself has composed them; for I know him to be a plagiarist. He, however, differs from the rest of that class in this respect, that they plagiarize the works of others and pass them for their own, while he plagiarizes his own works and passes them for those of others."
While writing his Mishle Asaf, a work in which noble thoughts are expressed in the choicest diction, he did not disdain at the same time to write a treatise on how to drill holes through three hundred pearls in one day and how to mix successfully different kinds of liquors. Even in the most earnest and solemn of his writings there can always be detected an undercurrent of the most playful humor.
Satanow as a poet belongs to two distinctly different schools. In his earlier works he followed the theory of the old school, which considered plays on words, great flourish of diction, and variegated expressions as the essential requirements of good poetry; but in his later works he used the simple, forceful style of the Biblical writers, and he may be justly styled "the restorer of Biblical poetry." It is sufficient to compare his "Eder ha-Yeḳar" and "Sefer ha-Ḥizzayon" with his "Mishle Asaf" to see at a glance the difference in style.
Among Satanow's most important works are the following:
* "Sifte Renanot," a brief exposition of Hebrew grammar (Berlin, 1773).
* "Sefer ha-Ḥizzayon" (ib. 1775 [?]), in eight parts: part i., a treatise on criticism and knowledge; ii., on poetry; iii., a collection of proverbs; iv., treatises on different scientific topics: a discussion about the visual and auditory senses, from which he makes a digression, and discusses the inhabitants of the moon; v., discussions on esthetic problems, as love, friendship, justice, etc.; vi., a picturesque description of the universe; viii., discussions on various topics. The whole work is written in a highly ornate style; it does not bear the author's name; but a few hints in some of the poems leave no doubt as to who he was.
* "Imre Binah" (ib. 1784). (
* "Seliḥot," a newly arranged edition (ib. 1785).
* "Sefer ha-Shorashim," in three parts, a treatise on Hebrew roots (ib. 1787).
* "Mishle Asaf," a collection of gnomes, modeled after the Book of Proverbs (ib. 1788-91)
* "Moreh Nebukim," text together with commentary (ib. 1791-96).
* "Zemirot Asaf," with the commentary of Samuel ben Meïr (ib. 1793). This was the first attempt of the Slavonic school to build up a national lyric poetry, although the psalms have the form rather of philosophic reflections than of lyric expression. No references to national history or national lore, and no expressions of patriotism, are to be found in them. They form a simple doxology, and reflect a rational view of nature as opposed to mysticism.
* "Pirḳe Shirah," on the natural sciences.
www.virtualjudaica.com
Lexicon and thesaurus in two parts by Isaac Satanow for the purpose of instructing the Jewish people in the pure holy language from the German (Yiddish) in order to be able to understand the bible with the commentaries of Rashi, Ibn Ezra, and others. The title page is printed in both red and black, and has a sub-title, Hebraeisch-Deutsches Lexicon. There are introductions from Satanow, in which he elaborates on the benefits of this book, and from the printer. A list of subscribers is followed by the text, in two columns, organized alphabetically. Words are given in square letters followed by definitions in smaller type, with, as necessary, vocalization. In the margins are biblical references. At the bottom of the page are notes in Yiddish. The second part of the book has its own title page, here called Ha-Shorashim entitled Devorim Ahadim. There is another introduction and the text follows the same format. This section concludes with nine pages of sharoshim in six columns. Sefer ha-Shorashim is one of Satanow’s major works. In addition to its lexicographic value this is a physically attractive volume.
Isaac Satanow (1732–1804) was born in Satanov, Podolia, and settled in Berlin in 1771 or 1772, where he served as the director of Society for the Education of the Youth. Among the most prolific of the early Haskalah writers, he did not restrict himself to any particular literary field, but wrote in most of those genres used by the later Haskalah writers. Satanow demonstrated a wealth of knowledge of the Hebrew language, ranking as a model stylist throughout the Haskalah period. He ascribed several of his works to earlier writers, and consequently used fictitious names for the authors of the recommendations for his own books and of their forewords. He wrote a number of books of liturgy, Tefillah mi-Kol ha-Shanah al Pi Kelalei ha-Dikduk (1785), Haggadah shel Pesah (1785); and Selihot (1785); as well as Mishlei Asaf and Zemirot Asaf (4 vols., 1789–1802), collections of proverbs in imitation of the Book of Proverbs. (Satanow adopted the pseudonym Asaf from the acrostic for Itzik Satanow.) The work, attributed to the biblical Asaph son of Berechiah, is written in the style of Proverbs and Psalms. He may have been the first Hebrew writer who sought to break out of the strict framework of biblical style, although he himself was very adept in the biblical style called melizah. Hence he demanded that new words be coined; in Iggeret Beit Tefillah he complains that the vocabulary of biblical Hebrew had not preserved its great lexical range.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Isaac Satanow (born at Satanow, Poland, 1733; died in Berlin, Germany, 25 December 1805) was a Polish Jewish scholar and poet.
Life
In early manhood he left his native country and went to Berlin in search of learning. There he became the protégé of Isaac Daniel and David Friedländer, who found him employment as a teacher in some prominent families.
Satanow represents a peculiar type. Like Byron, he was, both physically and mentally, a conglomeration of contrasts. He dressed in the garb of the Polish Jew of the period, yet was a thorough German in his actions and habits. Though Orthodox in his beliefs, he nevertheless favored Reform in practise. He was one of the greatest authorities on Jewish tradition and lore, yet he was one of the most free-thinking of philosophers. He was a shrewd physicist and an inspired poet; a realist and an idealist.
[edit] Works
In his Mishle Asaf he so blended the style of the Bible with modern fine writing that the critics of his time were at a loss how to characterize the work. Some were inclined to revere it as a relic of antiquity, while others attacked the author as a literary charlatan who desired to palm off his own work as a production of the ancient writers. Rabbi Joseph of Frankfort gave a clever criticism :
"I do not really know to whom to ascribe these sayings [of the "Mishle Asaf"]; it may be the publisher himself has composed them; for I know him to be a plagiarist. He, however, differs from the rest of that class in this respect, that they plagiarize the works of others and pass them for their own, while he plagiarizes his own works and passes them for those of others."
While writing his Mishle Asaf, a work in which noble thoughts are expressed in the choicest diction, he did not disdain at the same time to write a treatise on how to drill holes through three hundred pearls in one day and how to mix successfully different kinds of liquors. Even in the most earnest and solemn of his writings there can always be detected an undercurrent of the most playful humor.
Satanow as a poet belongs to two distinctly different schools. In his earlier works he followed the theory of the old school, which considered plays on words, great flourish of diction, and variegated expressions as the essential requirements of good poetry; but in his later works he used the simple, forceful style of the Biblical writers, and he may be justly styled "the restorer of Biblical poetry." It is sufficient to compare his "Eder ha-Yeḳar" and "Sefer ha-Ḥizzayon" with his "Mishle Asaf" to see at a glance the difference in style.
Among Satanow's most important works are the following:
* "Sifte Renanot," a brief exposition of Hebrew grammar (Berlin, 1773).
* "Sefer ha-Ḥizzayon" (ib. 1775 [?]), in eight parts: part i., a treatise on criticism and knowledge; ii., on poetry; iii., a collection of proverbs; iv., treatises on different scientific topics: a discussion about the visual and auditory senses, from which he makes a digression, and discusses the inhabitants of the moon; v., discussions on esthetic problems, as love, friendship, justice, etc.; vi., a picturesque description of the universe; viii., discussions on various topics. The whole work is written in a highly ornate style; it does not bear the author's name; but a few hints in some of the poems leave no doubt as to who he was.
* "Imre Binah" (ib. 1784). (
* "Seliḥot," a newly arranged edition (ib. 1785).
* "Sefer ha-Shorashim," in three parts, a treatise on Hebrew roots (ib. 1787).
* "Mishle Asaf," a collection of gnomes, modeled after the Book of Proverbs (ib. 1788-91)
* "Moreh Nebukim," text together with commentary (ib. 1791-96).
* "Zemirot Asaf," with the commentary of Samuel ben Meïr (ib. 1793). This was the first attempt of the Slavonic school to build up a national lyric poetry, although the psalms have the form rather of philosophic reflections than of lyric expression. No references to national history or national lore, and no expressions of patriotism, are to be found in them. They form a simple doxology, and reflect a rational view of nature as opposed to mysticism.
* "Pirḳe Shirah," on the natural sciences.
www.virtualjudaica.com
Lexicon and thesaurus in two parts by Isaac Satanow for the purpose of instructing the Jewish people in the pure holy language from the German (Yiddish) in order to be able to understand the bible with the commentaries of Rashi, Ibn Ezra, and others. The title page is printed in both red and black, and has a sub-title, Hebraeisch-Deutsches Lexicon. There are introductions from Satanow, in which he elaborates on the benefits of this book, and from the printer. A list of subscribers is followed by the text, in two columns, organized alphabetically. Words are given in square letters followed by definitions in smaller type, with, as necessary, vocalization. In the margins are biblical references. At the bottom of the page are notes in Yiddish. The second part of the book has its own title page, here called Ha-Shorashim entitled Devorim Ahadim. There is another introduction and the text follows the same format. This section concludes with nine pages of sharoshim in six columns. Sefer ha-Shorashim is one of Satanow’s major works. In addition to its lexicographic value this is a physically attractive volume.
Isaac Satanow (1732–1804) was born in Satanov, Podolia, and settled in Berlin in 1771 or 1772, where he served as the director of Society for the Education of the Youth. Among the most prolific of the early Haskalah writers, he did not restrict himself to any particular literary field, but wrote in most of those genres used by the later Haskalah writers. Satanow demonstrated a wealth of knowledge of the Hebrew language, ranking as a model stylist throughout the Haskalah period. He ascribed several of his works to earlier writers, and consequently used fictitious names for the authors of the recommendations for his own books and of their forewords. He wrote a number of books of liturgy, Tefillah mi-Kol ha-Shanah al Pi Kelalei ha-Dikduk (1785), Haggadah shel Pesah (1785); and Selihot (1785); as well as Mishlei Asaf and Zemirot Asaf (4 vols., 1789–1802), collections of proverbs in imitation of the Book of Proverbs. (Satanow adopted the pseudonym Asaf from the acrostic for Itzik Satanow.) The work, attributed to the biblical Asaph son of Berechiah, is written in the style of Proverbs and Psalms. He may have been the first Hebrew writer who sought to break out of the strict framework of biblical style, although he himself was very adept in the biblical style called melizah. Hence he demanded that new words be coined; in Iggeret Beit Tefillah he complains that the vocabulary of biblical Hebrew had not preserved its great lexical range.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
All Nations
Isaiah 40:15
Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.
Isaiah 40:17
All nations before him [are] as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.
Daniel 4:35
All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: "What have you done?"
Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.
Isaiah 40:17
All nations before him [are] as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.
Daniel 4:35
All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: "What have you done?"
Friday, December 31, 2010
Psalm 151
Psalm 151
Superscription
This psalm was written by King David himself
(even though it's outside the accepted number of psalms)
after he fought against Goliath, and won {by the power of YHVH}.
YHVH Selection of David
I was the smallest among my brothers,
and the youngest in my father’s household.
I used to take care of my father’s sheep.
2 My hands constructed a musical instrument;
my fingers tuned a harp.
3 Who will announce this to my Father?
YHVH himself—he is listening.
4 He himself sent his messenger
and took me from my father’s sheep,
and anointed me with his anointing oil.
5 My brothers were handsome and big,
but YHVH did not approve of them.
David’s Victory over Goliath
6 I went out to meet the foreigner;
he called down curses on me by his idols.
7 But I pulled out his own sword;
I beheaded him and thereby removed reproach from the Yisraylites
Superscription
This psalm was written by King David himself
(even though it's outside the accepted number of psalms)
after he fought against Goliath, and won {by the power of YHVH}.
YHVH Selection of David
I was the smallest among my brothers,
and the youngest in my father’s household.
I used to take care of my father’s sheep.
2 My hands constructed a musical instrument;
my fingers tuned a harp.
3 Who will announce this to my Father?
YHVH himself—he is listening.
4 He himself sent his messenger
and took me from my father’s sheep,
and anointed me with his anointing oil.
5 My brothers were handsome and big,
but YHVH did not approve of them.
David’s Victory over Goliath
6 I went out to meet the foreigner;
he called down curses on me by his idols.
7 But I pulled out his own sword;
I beheaded him and thereby removed reproach from the Yisraylites
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Eurasia and thus the Etruscans
The origin of the Etruscans, one of the most ancient and enigmatic non-Indo-European civilizations.
"The finding has been interpreted as evidence in support of the classical theory that Etruscans may have come from the East through the Mediterranean Sea (Herodotus, Historiae, Vol I, p 94), which currently find little support by archaeologists and historians.2 In favor of the Eastern Mediterranean origin of the Etruscan civilization, the finding that the extent of mtDNA variation observed in Tuscan cattle breeds is similar to that observed in the Near East and much higher than that observed in the rest of Italy and Europe."
Dr. H. H. Otero C. -biochemist-
Argentina
The Etruscan Mystery - Their Origins - The Pelasgians
There were no voiced stops in Etruscan: no /b/, /d/, or /g/; when these occured in foreign words they were usually written P, T and K. Etruscan distinguished between aspirated and unaspirated unvoiced stops: /p/ from /ph/, /c/ from /ch/, /t/ from /th/,like some other languages of the time, including Greek.
The Etruscans: A Population-Genetic Study
Copyright © 2004 by The American Society of Human Genetics. All rights reserved.
In this study, we present the first extensive genetic data on a European population of the pre-classical period, the Etruscans.
The origins of the Etruscans, a non-Indo-European population of pre-classical (pre-Roman) Italy, are unclear. There is broad agreement that their culture developed locally, but the Etruscans’ evolutionary and migrational relationships are largely unknown. In this study, we determined mitochondrial DNA sequences in multiple clones derived from bone samples of 80 Etruscans who lived between the 7th and the 3rd centuries B.C. No significant heterogeneity emerged among archaeological sites or time periods, suggesting that different Etruscan communities shared not only a culture but also a mitochondrial gene pool. Genetic distances and sequence comparisons show closer evolutionary relationships with the eastern Mediterranean shores for the Etruscans than for modern Italian populations. (The ancient inhabitants of the eastern Mediterranean shores, were Canaanites, Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Egyptians, all of whom were Black people).
Various tests show that the Tuscans (see next study below) are the Etruscans’ closest neighbors in terms of genetic distances. Despite that broad similarity, however, Etruscans and Tuscans share only two haplotypes. This finding is difficult to interpret in the absence of data on any other European population of the pre-classical period. One possible interpretation is that all or most European populations of that time period were as different from their modern counterparts as the Etruscans appear to be. This would imply either extensive gene flow or a high rate of extinction of mitochondrial haplotypes, both processes causing a drastic change of the mitochondrial pool in the last 2,500 years. More importantly, a result of that kind would force us to reconsider the universally held assumption that patterns in the DNA of modern individuals reflect the evolutionary processes affecting their prehistoric ancestors. Alternatively, should other ancient populations prove similar to comparable modern ones, one should conclude that the Etruscans’ mitochondrial sequences underwent extinction at a particularly high rate and look for an explanation for that. Until more ancient DNA data become available, both scenarios will remain possible, although we favor the latter.
Etruscans show closer relationships both to North Africans and to Turks than any contemporary population. In particular, the Turkish component in their gene pool appears three times as large as in the other populations. The modern Turks of Turkey (ancient Anatolia), as well as a large portion of the populations of North Africa and the lands East of the Mediterranean Sea; are a hybrid people, derived from the original Black people of those lands and the invading Turks from Asia. The Turks were the last of the White invaders from Asia; they only began to arrive in the early centuries of the current era. Though the Turks of Turkey are a mixed-race people, other Turkish tribes, such as the Jews (Khazars), did not cross-breed with the Blacks of the lands that they invaded to a great extent - they still do not, Israeli and Palestinian people (also of Turkish linage), do not cross-breed to any appreciable degree.
Hattians
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Hatti", see Hatti (disambiguation).
The Hattians were an ancient people who inhabited the land of Hatti in present-day central part of Anatolia, Turkey, noted at least as early as the empire of Sargon of Akkad ca. 2300,[1] until they were gradually displaced and absorbed ca. 2000-1700 BC by Indo-European Hittites, who adopted their name for the "land of Hatti".
They lived in Asia Minor with their land bounded by Phrygia, Mysia and Caria The Lydians were known as the Luddu in Akkadian While the Egyptian monuments label them as the Luden, the Assyrians called them Ludbu and an ancient town in the area was known as Ludbi. Certainly a Ludbu is attested to on the upper reaches of the Tigris, in the cuneiform.
They joined with the Etruscans who were a certain priestly class from Chaldea with their subjects. Scholars still argue as to whether the Etruscans originated in Asia Minor or south-east Europe, the former theory having gained the predominance. What happened was that the Etruscans, fleeing Chaldea after its fall, migrated to Lydia, where we find the Ludbu. Referring to the Luden, Baker's Bible Atlas notes that they migrated to Asia Minor after being displaced by the Assyrians. Together with the Etruscans they migrated into southern Europe to a district in northern Italy northwest of the Tiber River. Lempriere’s A Classical Dictionary asserts the following:
“Etruria, … The ruling class were immigrants from Lydia, and the Tarquins at Rome were probably an Etruscan family … its influence on Roman rites and ceremonials was very great. From Etruria came the curule chair, the fasces, augurs and haruspices, triumphs, trumpets, and the purple toga [these people were] famous for their superstitions and enchantments.”
RaceandHistory.com
"The date of the founding of Rome is uncertain, but archaeologists estimate its founding to around 753 B.C., although it existed as a village or group of villages long before then. As the Romans steadily developed their city, government and culture, they imitated the neighboring civilization to the north, the Etruscans (former Trojans). Romans are sometimes referred to as "Etruscanized Latins." Roman legend states that Aeneas, founder of the Roman race, was a prince of Troy who was forced to flee that city at the close of the Trojan war against Greece. Rome's founder, Romulus, had a latinized Etruscan name. The Etruscans dominated central Italy, and had already founded many cities, having arrived some 500 years earlier after leaving the city of Troy around 1260 B.C. The Etruscans were greatly influenced by the Greeks, and the Etruscans brought that influence to the city of Rome. The Romans called Etruscans the Tusci, and Tuscany still bears the name. The Etruscan language, once thought lost, is still spoken by the Basques, called Euskara. The first two centuries of Rome's growth was dominated by the Etruscans. The Romans were first a subject people of the Etruscans, but the Romans would later be their conquerors. After many battles with the Etruscans, the city of Rome identified itself as Latin, eventually integrating the Estruscans and remaining peoples in the region. Rome became a kingdom, then an empire.
7The Etruscans are controversial in history. Their language, culture, and apparent departure from history are debated amongst scholars. Descendants of Tiras, the Etruscans did not disappear entirely from history. Their language and people, though a remnant, are the Basques of today. Though the Basques mixed with local populations over the past few millennia, their language didn't die. A number of scholars consider Euskara (Basque language) the closest living relative to ancient Etruscan. Euskara is an isolate language, meaning it did not descend from an ancestor common to any other language family known today. The original Etruscan language (from ancient Etruscans in northwestern Italy) is thought to be an extinct isolate language, and there is agreement that the current Euskara language was already present in Western Europe before the arrival of other Indo-European languages. Another interesting connection is to Georgian (language of Georgians in southern Russia), each of which have linguistic commonalities, prompting scholars to hypothesize Euskara has a relationship to a lost Eurasian superfamily of languages. This further supports the suggestion that Etruscans were originally Trojans. After a succession of wars with the Greeks, around 1260 B.C. thousands of Trojans (speaking an ancient Thracian language) resettled abroad, which included Trojan warriors and families who sailed across the Black Sea to the Caucasus region in southern Russia, and also those who sailed to present-day northwest Italy. Their descendants, the Basques, would eventually migrate into what is present-day southeast France and northeast Spain.
DNA (R1b Y-DNA haplogroup) findings also support a connection between Basques and peoples of Georgia. Haplogroups (i.e., R1b) are used in DNA tests for markers that give a broad or regional picture; haplotypes are one person's results on various DNA tests. Y-DNA is the theoretical most recent common male-lineage. The greatest concentration of the R1b haplogroup maps found a heightened incidence in the Basque region of Spain and in the region east of the Black Sea in southern Russia (present-day Georgia). Both DNA research and language commonalities provide a link to the history of the Basques, and thus the Etruscans." -----From the research of Tim Osterholm
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Etruscan,member of an ancient people of Etruria, Italy, between the Tiber and Arno rivers west and south of the Apennines, whose urban civilization reached its height in the 6th century bce. Many features of Etruscan culture were adopted by the Romans, their successors to power in the peninsula.
Encyclopaedia Britannica
ancient Italic people, any of the peoples diverse in origin, language, traditions, stage of development, and territorial extension who inhabited pre-Roman Italy, a region heavily influenced by neighbouring Greece, with its well-defined national characteristics, expansive vigour, and aesthetic and intellectual maturity. Italy attained a unified ethnolinguistic, political, and cultural physiognomy only after the Roman conquest, yet its most ancient peoples remain anchored in the names of the regions of Roman Italy—Latium, Campania, Apulia, Bruttium, Lucania, Samnium, Picenum, Umbria, Etruria, Venetia, and Liguria
Eurasia - Definition
Wordiq.com
Eurasia is the combined land mass of Europe and Asia. Eurasia is alternatively considered to be a continent, or a supercontinent composed of the continents of Europe and Asia.
Due to the perceived cultural differences between Asia and Europe by Europeans, it was traditional to consider the two to be separate continents. This distinction then spread to the rest of the world. Obviously, the idea of "Asia" as a single cultural group is not shared by "Asians". Asia contains a number of distinct major cultural, religious, racial and/or geographical groups, Indian, Arab, as well as East Asians and Southeast Asian among others. In British English, "Asian" often refers to people from the Indian Subcontinent. This is in contrast to American English, where "Asian" tends to refer to East and South East Asians
People of mixed race whose parents are White and East Asian are called Eurasian, though this term was originally used for people of mixed Indian (South Asian) and European ancestry.
The New Encyclopedia Britannica, Volume 6, page 836 relates:
"Khazar, member of a confederation of Turkic-speaking tribes that in the late 6th century A.D. established a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia...but the most striking characteristic of the Khazars was the apparent adoption of Judaism by the Kagan and the greater part of the ruling class in about 740...The fact itself, however, is undisputed and unparalleled in the history of Central Eurasia. A few scholars have asserted that the Judaized Khazars were the remote ancestors of many of the Jews of Eastern Europe and Russia."
Eurasia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Eurasia is a supercontinent covering about 52,990,000 km2 (20,846,000 mi2) or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface (36.2% of the land area) located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. Geographically it is a single continent[1], comprising the traditional continents of Europe and Asia (with Eurasia being a portmanteau of the two); the concepts of Europe and Asia as distinct continents date back to antiquity and their borders are geologically arbitrary. Eurasia, in turn, is part of the yet larger landmass of Afro-Eurasia, whereby Eurasia is joined to Africa at the Isthmus of Suez.
Eurasia is inhabited by almost 4 billion people, more than 71% of the world's population.
Jared Diamond, in his book Guns, Germs and Steel, credits Eurasia's dominance in world history to the east-west extent of Eurasia and its climate zones, and the availability of Eurasian animals and plants suitable for domestication. He associated North Africa in his definition of Eurasia, due to it having a similar climate and peoples.
The Silk Road symbolizes trade and cultural exchange linking Eurasian cultures through history and has been an increasingly popular topic. Over recent decades the idea of a greater Eurasian history has developed with the aim of investigating the genetic, cultural and linguistic relationships between European and Asian cultures of antiquity. These had long been considered distinct.
It formed when Siberia (once an independent continent), Kazakhstania, and Baltica (which was joined to Laurentia, now North America, to form Euramerica) joined. Chinese cratons collided with Siberia's southern coast.
In ancient times, the Greeks classified Europe (derived from the mythological Phoeniciann princess Europa) and Asia (derived from Asia, a woman in Greek mythology) as separate "lands". Where to draw the dividing line between the two regions is still a matter of discussion. Especially whether the Kuma-Manych Depression or the Caucasus Mountains form the south-east boundary is disputed, since Mount Elbrus would be part of Europe in the latter case, making it (and not Mont Blanc) Europe's highest mountain. Most accepted is probably the boundary as defined by Philip Johan von Strahlenberg in the 18th century. He defined the dividing line along the Aegean Sea, Dardanelles, Sea of Marmara, Bosporus, Black Sea, Kuma-Manych Depression, Caspian Sea, Ural River, and Ural Mountains. This distinction between Europe and Asia has spread to the rest of the world, even though Asia contains multiple regions and cultures as large and populous as Europe, and as different and geographically separated from each other as they are from Europe.
Main article: Eurasian (mixed ancestry)
In modern usage, the term Eurasian usually means "of or relating to Eurasia", or "a native or inhabitant of Eurasia".[2] However, it may also refer to a person of both Asian and European parentage, especially in 'New World' countries such as Australia, Canada, and the United States.[citation needed]
West or western Eurasia is a loose geographic definition used in some disciplines, such as genetics or anthropology, to refer to the region inhabited by the relatively homogeneous population of West Asia, South Jersey, Europe and related areas, especially North Africa. The peoples of this region are often described collectively as West or Western Eurasians.
The word "Eurasia" is often used in Kazakhstan as the name of the continent or region in which that country is located.The civilizations in China, India, and Mediterranean, connected by the silk road, became the principal civilizations in Eurasia in early CE times. Later development of Eurasian history of mankind is told in other articles.
Mountain Jews - History and Cultural Relations
The influx of Jews from Iran and the eastern Caucasus into Daghestan took place throughout the entire period of the Achaemenid dynasty (seventh to fourth centuries B.C. ) and Sasanid Persia (third century B.C. to the sixth century A.D. ). The migration of the Jewish population from the southern pre-Caspian area north into the mountains of Daghestan became particularly heavy during the time of Arab and Turk conquests of the eastern Caucasus and the spread of Islam. Religious and political persecution were the basic reasons for the migration of the Mountain Jews from the Transcaucasus into Daghestan and Khazaria, where they found religious tolerance and propitious conditions. A literate, monotheistic people, well versed in Eastern agricultural skills, trade, and crafts, who existed as a distinct community and actively supported the mountain peoples and the Khazars in their wars with the Persian (and later Arab) conquerors, the Mountain Jews were active in the economic and cultural development of the region. Their aristocracy influenced internal and external trade and their rabbis influenced the spiritual life of the pagan mountaineers and the Khazars. Judaism evidently became the state religion in the first half of the eighth century, the formative period of feudalism in Daghestan and the northern Caucasus. There is a legend that has entered the scholarly literature regarding disputations about faith that allegedly took place between the Khazar khans and merchant-missionaries who had entered the country from Persia and Byzantium for the purposes of trade.
The choice of Judaism as the state religion in pagan Khazaria can be explained by the presence in the country of a large local Khazar-Jewish population, of Jewish proselytes among the mountaineers and the Khazars, and by the desire of the Khazar khans themselves to show, by their acceptance of Judaism, that they were politically independent of hostile neighboring states, of the Muslim Arab caliphate, and of Christian Byzantium. Another important factor in the acceptance of Judaism by the Khazar khans was the influence of the Jewish aristocracy: merchants, magnates, and rabbis serving at the courts of the Khazar khans as businessmen and advisers. The acceptance of Judaism by the Khazars led to an inevitable mixture, primarily of the Mountain Jewish aristocracy with the khans who were of the same faith, which in turn contributed to the emergence of a Jewish-Khazar kinship entity. It is therefore not surprising that the rulers of the new dynasty of the Khazar khans, after the reign of the Turk Bulan (who accepted Judaism and underwent the ritual of circumcision), were known under the names Avnil, Izro, Manashir, Obadiya, and Iosif. These names have been preserved unaltered among those Mountain Jews who consider themselves to be Jewish Khazars. There is a tendency in the scholarly literature to evaluate the Khazar state as an ephemeral formation. If that had been the case, the Khazar Khanate would not have been able to defend a wide territory in southern Russia against the incursions of powerful military-feudal states such as the Arab caliphate and Byzantium. Many Muslim Arab and Jewish Khazar historians and geographers—and medieval chroniclers (Persians, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Georgians, and Daghestanis) — testify to the significance of the Khazar Khanate in the regional events of the time, to its widespread trade with the countries of the East and with Russia, and to the role of Judaism in its life.
After the fall of the Khazar Khanate to the Arabs from the south and the Russians from the north toward the end of the tenth century, some Khazars migrated to the Volga and the Crimea, and many Khazar Jews withdrew into the depths of mountainous Daghestan; those who remained in their old haunts found themselves in an oppressive feudal dependency on the Arab rulers of the Caucasus and their local agents. They were forced to bring tribute and other payments, and, to preserve their Jewish faith, to pay a special tax ( j'dzh ); many of them, particularly the converts from among the mountaineers and the Khazars, turned to Islam. The long struggle of the peoples of the Caucasus, the mountaineers and the Khazars, led to the disintegration of the Arab caliphate and the defeat of their agents. They were replaced by new conquerors (the Seljuk Turks, the Persian shahs, and Turkish sultans) and a series of Azerbaijani and Daghestani khanates and overlords. In conditions of feudal disintegration, the Mountain Jews found themselves under the control of local rulers with the legal status of dependent peasants. With the unification of Azerbaijan and Daghestan with Russia in 1813, the Mountain Jews accepted Russian citizenship, the status of "Jew" was imposed on them, and they began to be called into military service. The development of capitalism in Russia and the drawing of the Caucasus and Daghestan into the mainstream of trade and financial relations contributed to the intensive stratification of Mountain Jewish society. The majority, not having their own land, became laborers in the food-processing industries, the vineyards, the wine and liquor factories, and the fishing industries that developed in the region. From among the businessmen and entrepreneurs of the Mountain Jews there emerged merchants and a bourgeoisie.
The social oppression of czarism, to which were added the pogroms (especially in 1905-1907), weighed heavily on the Mountain Jews, and they found themselves particularly impoverished during the years of the civil war and the military intervention in the Caucasus. The White Guard bands of Bicherakov and Denikin, invaded the area in 1918-1920 and were responsible for pogroms and the destruction and looting of a series of Mountain Jewish villages in southern Daghestan: Mamrach, Orog, Garchok, Nyugdi, and others. Consequently, many Mountain Jewish families emigrated to Palestine, then under British mandate. In the period of the October Revolution and the years of the military intervention in the Caucasus, working-class Mountain Jews took an active part in the victory of the Soviets. With the establishment of Soviet power, and in accordance with Leninist nationalities policy, especially regarding the nationalities of the Caucasus and Daghestan, measures were undertaken to revitalize Mountain Jewish culture. Mountain Jewish refugees who had come down from the mountains received economic assistance; new villages were constructed; and new workmen's cooperatives, collective farms, and national (i.e., Mountain Jewish) village councils were created. To achieve these objectives, a special set of measures for economic and cultural transformation was developed. Within this context, subgroups were designated as working class, collective farmers, and intelligentsia. These transformations were attained in the 1920s and 1930s. The plan also considered the interests of the small number of European Jews (Ashkenazim) living among them.
http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2010/08/analysis-of-ashkenazi-jewish-genomes.html
Researchers looked for close to one million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs): common alternative spellings in the genome, analogous to American and British spellings of words such as organize/organise. One measure of genetic diversity in a population is heterozygosity, or how many of the SNPs inherited from the mother and father are different; a more inbred population has less heterozygosity.
"We were surprised to find evidence that Ashkenazi Jews have higher heterozygosity than Europeans, contradicting the widely-held presumption that they have been a largely isolated group," says first author Steven Bray, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in Warren's laboratory.
High linkage disequilibrium can come either from an isolated population (for example, an island whose residents are all descendents of shipwreck survivors) or the relatively recent mixture of separate populations. Bray and his colleagues did find evidence of elevated linkage disequilibrium in the Ashkenazi Jewish population, but were able to show that this matches signs of interbreeding or "admixture" between Middle Eastern and European populations.
The researchers were able to estimate that between 35 and 55 percent of the modern Ashkenazi genome comes from European descent. Although the proximity of the AJ and Italian populations could be explained by their admixture prior to the Ashkenazi settlement in Central Europe (13), it should be noted that different demographic models may potentially yield similar principal component projections (33); thus, it is also consistent that the projection of the AJ populations is primarily the outcome of admixture with Central and Eastern European hosts that coincidentally shift them closer to Italians along principle component axes relative to Middle Easterners. Taken as a whole, our results, along with those from previous studies, support the model of a Middle Eastern origin of the AJ population followed by subsequent admixture with host Europeans or populations more similar to Europeans. Our data further imply that modern Ashkenazi Jews are perhaps even more similar with Europeans than Middle Easterners.Jews are basically Italians and Greeks, the descendants of converts with a little Middle Eastern admix.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1542903/Genes-prove-Herodotus-right-about-Etruscans.html
Genes prove Herodotus right about Etruscans
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor 12:01AM GMT 17 Feb 2007
One of the roots of Roman civilisation has been traced by scientists to western Turkey, confirming an account given more than 2,000 years ago.
Genetics has settled a long- running debate on the origins of the Etruscans, a civilisation that emerged three millennia ago in Italy and profoundly influenced the foundation of the Roman empire.
The study of DNA confirms an account in the 5th century BC by the Greek historian Herodotus that the Etruscan civilisation was founded by seafarers from Turkey.
The Etruscan culture prospered after the 9th century BC in central Italy, and triggered debate for thousands of years among historians and archaeologists.
Now scientists have tracked the DNA passed down from mothers to children in cellular power packs called mitochondria. They confirm a recent and direct genetic input from the near East.
The findings are published in The American Journal of Human Genetics by a global team led by Prof Antonio Torroni, a geneticist at the University of Pavia, Italy.
The team studied mitochondrial DNAs of 322 subjects from three places in Tuscany — Murlo, a town of Etruscan origin in the Siena province; Volterra, a former Etruscan city in the province of Pisa; and the Casentino Valley in the province of Arezzo. The DNA was compared with that of 15,000 subjects from 55 western Eurasian populations.
The study showed that the mitochondrial DNA of modern Tuscans — but not that of surrounding Italian and European populations — retained traces of a relatively recent arrival from the near East. The finding complements one on Italian cattle by the same group, published in The Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
"The Eastern origin of Etruscans, first claimed by the classic historians Herodotus and Thucydides, receives strong independent support," said Prof Torroni.
"The finding has been interpreted as evidence in support of the classical theory that Etruscans may have come from the East through the Mediterranean Sea (Herodotus, Historiae, Vol I, p 94), which currently find little support by archaeologists and historians.2 In favor of the Eastern Mediterranean origin of the Etruscan civilization, the finding that the extent of mtDNA variation observed in Tuscan cattle breeds is similar to that observed in the Near East and much higher than that observed in the rest of Italy and Europe."
Dr. H. H. Otero C. -biochemist-
Argentina
The Etruscan Mystery - Their Origins - The Pelasgians
There were no voiced stops in Etruscan: no /b/, /d/, or /g/; when these occured in foreign words they were usually written P, T and K. Etruscan distinguished between aspirated and unaspirated unvoiced stops: /p/ from /ph/, /c/ from /ch/, /t/ from /th/,like some other languages of the time, including Greek.
The Etruscans: A Population-Genetic Study
Copyright © 2004 by The American Society of Human Genetics. All rights reserved.
In this study, we present the first extensive genetic data on a European population of the pre-classical period, the Etruscans.
The origins of the Etruscans, a non-Indo-European population of pre-classical (pre-Roman) Italy, are unclear. There is broad agreement that their culture developed locally, but the Etruscans’ evolutionary and migrational relationships are largely unknown. In this study, we determined mitochondrial DNA sequences in multiple clones derived from bone samples of 80 Etruscans who lived between the 7th and the 3rd centuries B.C. No significant heterogeneity emerged among archaeological sites or time periods, suggesting that different Etruscan communities shared not only a culture but also a mitochondrial gene pool. Genetic distances and sequence comparisons show closer evolutionary relationships with the eastern Mediterranean shores for the Etruscans than for modern Italian populations. (The ancient inhabitants of the eastern Mediterranean shores, were Canaanites, Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Egyptians, all of whom were Black people).
Various tests show that the Tuscans (see next study below) are the Etruscans’ closest neighbors in terms of genetic distances. Despite that broad similarity, however, Etruscans and Tuscans share only two haplotypes. This finding is difficult to interpret in the absence of data on any other European population of the pre-classical period. One possible interpretation is that all or most European populations of that time period were as different from their modern counterparts as the Etruscans appear to be. This would imply either extensive gene flow or a high rate of extinction of mitochondrial haplotypes, both processes causing a drastic change of the mitochondrial pool in the last 2,500 years. More importantly, a result of that kind would force us to reconsider the universally held assumption that patterns in the DNA of modern individuals reflect the evolutionary processes affecting their prehistoric ancestors. Alternatively, should other ancient populations prove similar to comparable modern ones, one should conclude that the Etruscans’ mitochondrial sequences underwent extinction at a particularly high rate and look for an explanation for that. Until more ancient DNA data become available, both scenarios will remain possible, although we favor the latter.
Etruscans show closer relationships both to North Africans and to Turks than any contemporary population. In particular, the Turkish component in their gene pool appears three times as large as in the other populations. The modern Turks of Turkey (ancient Anatolia), as well as a large portion of the populations of North Africa and the lands East of the Mediterranean Sea; are a hybrid people, derived from the original Black people of those lands and the invading Turks from Asia. The Turks were the last of the White invaders from Asia; they only began to arrive in the early centuries of the current era. Though the Turks of Turkey are a mixed-race people, other Turkish tribes, such as the Jews (Khazars), did not cross-breed with the Blacks of the lands that they invaded to a great extent - they still do not, Israeli and Palestinian people (also of Turkish linage), do not cross-breed to any appreciable degree.
Hattians
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Hatti", see Hatti (disambiguation).
The Hattians were an ancient people who inhabited the land of Hatti in present-day central part of Anatolia, Turkey, noted at least as early as the empire of Sargon of Akkad ca. 2300,[1] until they were gradually displaced and absorbed ca. 2000-1700 BC by Indo-European Hittites, who adopted their name for the "land of Hatti".
They lived in Asia Minor with their land bounded by Phrygia, Mysia and Caria The Lydians were known as the Luddu in Akkadian While the Egyptian monuments label them as the Luden, the Assyrians called them Ludbu and an ancient town in the area was known as Ludbi. Certainly a Ludbu is attested to on the upper reaches of the Tigris, in the cuneiform.
They joined with the Etruscans who were a certain priestly class from Chaldea with their subjects. Scholars still argue as to whether the Etruscans originated in Asia Minor or south-east Europe, the former theory having gained the predominance. What happened was that the Etruscans, fleeing Chaldea after its fall, migrated to Lydia, where we find the Ludbu. Referring to the Luden, Baker's Bible Atlas notes that they migrated to Asia Minor after being displaced by the Assyrians. Together with the Etruscans they migrated into southern Europe to a district in northern Italy northwest of the Tiber River. Lempriere’s A Classical Dictionary asserts the following:
“Etruria, … The ruling class were immigrants from Lydia, and the Tarquins at Rome were probably an Etruscan family … its influence on Roman rites and ceremonials was very great. From Etruria came the curule chair, the fasces, augurs and haruspices, triumphs, trumpets, and the purple toga [these people were] famous for their superstitions and enchantments.”
RaceandHistory.com
"The date of the founding of Rome is uncertain, but archaeologists estimate its founding to around 753 B.C., although it existed as a village or group of villages long before then. As the Romans steadily developed their city, government and culture, they imitated the neighboring civilization to the north, the Etruscans (former Trojans). Romans are sometimes referred to as "Etruscanized Latins." Roman legend states that Aeneas, founder of the Roman race, was a prince of Troy who was forced to flee that city at the close of the Trojan war against Greece. Rome's founder, Romulus, had a latinized Etruscan name. The Etruscans dominated central Italy, and had already founded many cities, having arrived some 500 years earlier after leaving the city of Troy around 1260 B.C. The Etruscans were greatly influenced by the Greeks, and the Etruscans brought that influence to the city of Rome. The Romans called Etruscans the Tusci, and Tuscany still bears the name. The Etruscan language, once thought lost, is still spoken by the Basques, called Euskara. The first two centuries of Rome's growth was dominated by the Etruscans. The Romans were first a subject people of the Etruscans, but the Romans would later be their conquerors. After many battles with the Etruscans, the city of Rome identified itself as Latin, eventually integrating the Estruscans and remaining peoples in the region. Rome became a kingdom, then an empire.
7The Etruscans are controversial in history. Their language, culture, and apparent departure from history are debated amongst scholars. Descendants of Tiras, the Etruscans did not disappear entirely from history. Their language and people, though a remnant, are the Basques of today. Though the Basques mixed with local populations over the past few millennia, their language didn't die. A number of scholars consider Euskara (Basque language) the closest living relative to ancient Etruscan. Euskara is an isolate language, meaning it did not descend from an ancestor common to any other language family known today. The original Etruscan language (from ancient Etruscans in northwestern Italy) is thought to be an extinct isolate language, and there is agreement that the current Euskara language was already present in Western Europe before the arrival of other Indo-European languages. Another interesting connection is to Georgian (language of Georgians in southern Russia), each of which have linguistic commonalities, prompting scholars to hypothesize Euskara has a relationship to a lost Eurasian superfamily of languages. This further supports the suggestion that Etruscans were originally Trojans. After a succession of wars with the Greeks, around 1260 B.C. thousands of Trojans (speaking an ancient Thracian language) resettled abroad, which included Trojan warriors and families who sailed across the Black Sea to the Caucasus region in southern Russia, and also those who sailed to present-day northwest Italy. Their descendants, the Basques, would eventually migrate into what is present-day southeast France and northeast Spain.
DNA (R1b Y-DNA haplogroup) findings also support a connection between Basques and peoples of Georgia. Haplogroups (i.e., R1b) are used in DNA tests for markers that give a broad or regional picture; haplotypes are one person's results on various DNA tests. Y-DNA is the theoretical most recent common male-lineage. The greatest concentration of the R1b haplogroup maps found a heightened incidence in the Basque region of Spain and in the region east of the Black Sea in southern Russia (present-day Georgia). Both DNA research and language commonalities provide a link to the history of the Basques, and thus the Etruscans." -----From the research of Tim Osterholm
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Etruscan,member of an ancient people of Etruria, Italy, between the Tiber and Arno rivers west and south of the Apennines, whose urban civilization reached its height in the 6th century bce. Many features of Etruscan culture were adopted by the Romans, their successors to power in the peninsula.
Encyclopaedia Britannica
ancient Italic people, any of the peoples diverse in origin, language, traditions, stage of development, and territorial extension who inhabited pre-Roman Italy, a region heavily influenced by neighbouring Greece, with its well-defined national characteristics, expansive vigour, and aesthetic and intellectual maturity. Italy attained a unified ethnolinguistic, political, and cultural physiognomy only after the Roman conquest, yet its most ancient peoples remain anchored in the names of the regions of Roman Italy—Latium, Campania, Apulia, Bruttium, Lucania, Samnium, Picenum, Umbria, Etruria, Venetia, and Liguria
Eurasia - Definition
Wordiq.com
Eurasia is the combined land mass of Europe and Asia. Eurasia is alternatively considered to be a continent, or a supercontinent composed of the continents of Europe and Asia.
Due to the perceived cultural differences between Asia and Europe by Europeans, it was traditional to consider the two to be separate continents. This distinction then spread to the rest of the world. Obviously, the idea of "Asia" as a single cultural group is not shared by "Asians". Asia contains a number of distinct major cultural, religious, racial and/or geographical groups, Indian, Arab, as well as East Asians and Southeast Asian among others. In British English, "Asian" often refers to people from the Indian Subcontinent. This is in contrast to American English, where "Asian" tends to refer to East and South East Asians
People of mixed race whose parents are White and East Asian are called Eurasian, though this term was originally used for people of mixed Indian (South Asian) and European ancestry.
The New Encyclopedia Britannica, Volume 6, page 836 relates:
"Khazar, member of a confederation of Turkic-speaking tribes that in the late 6th century A.D. established a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia...but the most striking characteristic of the Khazars was the apparent adoption of Judaism by the Kagan and the greater part of the ruling class in about 740...The fact itself, however, is undisputed and unparalleled in the history of Central Eurasia. A few scholars have asserted that the Judaized Khazars were the remote ancestors of many of the Jews of Eastern Europe and Russia."
Eurasia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Eurasia is a supercontinent covering about 52,990,000 km2 (20,846,000 mi2) or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface (36.2% of the land area) located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. Geographically it is a single continent[1], comprising the traditional continents of Europe and Asia (with Eurasia being a portmanteau of the two); the concepts of Europe and Asia as distinct continents date back to antiquity and their borders are geologically arbitrary. Eurasia, in turn, is part of the yet larger landmass of Afro-Eurasia, whereby Eurasia is joined to Africa at the Isthmus of Suez.
Eurasia is inhabited by almost 4 billion people, more than 71% of the world's population.
Jared Diamond, in his book Guns, Germs and Steel, credits Eurasia's dominance in world history to the east-west extent of Eurasia and its climate zones, and the availability of Eurasian animals and plants suitable for domestication. He associated North Africa in his definition of Eurasia, due to it having a similar climate and peoples.
The Silk Road symbolizes trade and cultural exchange linking Eurasian cultures through history and has been an increasingly popular topic. Over recent decades the idea of a greater Eurasian history has developed with the aim of investigating the genetic, cultural and linguistic relationships between European and Asian cultures of antiquity. These had long been considered distinct.
It formed when Siberia (once an independent continent), Kazakhstania, and Baltica (which was joined to Laurentia, now North America, to form Euramerica) joined. Chinese cratons collided with Siberia's southern coast.
In ancient times, the Greeks classified Europe (derived from the mythological Phoeniciann princess Europa) and Asia (derived from Asia, a woman in Greek mythology) as separate "lands". Where to draw the dividing line between the two regions is still a matter of discussion. Especially whether the Kuma-Manych Depression or the Caucasus Mountains form the south-east boundary is disputed, since Mount Elbrus would be part of Europe in the latter case, making it (and not Mont Blanc) Europe's highest mountain. Most accepted is probably the boundary as defined by Philip Johan von Strahlenberg in the 18th century. He defined the dividing line along the Aegean Sea, Dardanelles, Sea of Marmara, Bosporus, Black Sea, Kuma-Manych Depression, Caspian Sea, Ural River, and Ural Mountains. This distinction between Europe and Asia has spread to the rest of the world, even though Asia contains multiple regions and cultures as large and populous as Europe, and as different and geographically separated from each other as they are from Europe.
Main article: Eurasian (mixed ancestry)
In modern usage, the term Eurasian usually means "of or relating to Eurasia", or "a native or inhabitant of Eurasia".[2] However, it may also refer to a person of both Asian and European parentage, especially in 'New World' countries such as Australia, Canada, and the United States.[citation needed]
West or western Eurasia is a loose geographic definition used in some disciplines, such as genetics or anthropology, to refer to the region inhabited by the relatively homogeneous population of West Asia, South Jersey, Europe and related areas, especially North Africa. The peoples of this region are often described collectively as West or Western Eurasians.
The word "Eurasia" is often used in Kazakhstan as the name of the continent or region in which that country is located.The civilizations in China, India, and Mediterranean, connected by the silk road, became the principal civilizations in Eurasia in early CE times. Later development of Eurasian history of mankind is told in other articles.
Mountain Jews - History and Cultural Relations
The influx of Jews from Iran and the eastern Caucasus into Daghestan took place throughout the entire period of the Achaemenid dynasty (seventh to fourth centuries B.C. ) and Sasanid Persia (third century B.C. to the sixth century A.D. ). The migration of the Jewish population from the southern pre-Caspian area north into the mountains of Daghestan became particularly heavy during the time of Arab and Turk conquests of the eastern Caucasus and the spread of Islam. Religious and political persecution were the basic reasons for the migration of the Mountain Jews from the Transcaucasus into Daghestan and Khazaria, where they found religious tolerance and propitious conditions. A literate, monotheistic people, well versed in Eastern agricultural skills, trade, and crafts, who existed as a distinct community and actively supported the mountain peoples and the Khazars in their wars with the Persian (and later Arab) conquerors, the Mountain Jews were active in the economic and cultural development of the region. Their aristocracy influenced internal and external trade and their rabbis influenced the spiritual life of the pagan mountaineers and the Khazars. Judaism evidently became the state religion in the first half of the eighth century, the formative period of feudalism in Daghestan and the northern Caucasus. There is a legend that has entered the scholarly literature regarding disputations about faith that allegedly took place between the Khazar khans and merchant-missionaries who had entered the country from Persia and Byzantium for the purposes of trade.
The choice of Judaism as the state religion in pagan Khazaria can be explained by the presence in the country of a large local Khazar-Jewish population, of Jewish proselytes among the mountaineers and the Khazars, and by the desire of the Khazar khans themselves to show, by their acceptance of Judaism, that they were politically independent of hostile neighboring states, of the Muslim Arab caliphate, and of Christian Byzantium. Another important factor in the acceptance of Judaism by the Khazar khans was the influence of the Jewish aristocracy: merchants, magnates, and rabbis serving at the courts of the Khazar khans as businessmen and advisers. The acceptance of Judaism by the Khazars led to an inevitable mixture, primarily of the Mountain Jewish aristocracy with the khans who were of the same faith, which in turn contributed to the emergence of a Jewish-Khazar kinship entity. It is therefore not surprising that the rulers of the new dynasty of the Khazar khans, after the reign of the Turk Bulan (who accepted Judaism and underwent the ritual of circumcision), were known under the names Avnil, Izro, Manashir, Obadiya, and Iosif. These names have been preserved unaltered among those Mountain Jews who consider themselves to be Jewish Khazars. There is a tendency in the scholarly literature to evaluate the Khazar state as an ephemeral formation. If that had been the case, the Khazar Khanate would not have been able to defend a wide territory in southern Russia against the incursions of powerful military-feudal states such as the Arab caliphate and Byzantium. Many Muslim Arab and Jewish Khazar historians and geographers—and medieval chroniclers (Persians, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Georgians, and Daghestanis) — testify to the significance of the Khazar Khanate in the regional events of the time, to its widespread trade with the countries of the East and with Russia, and to the role of Judaism in its life.
After the fall of the Khazar Khanate to the Arabs from the south and the Russians from the north toward the end of the tenth century, some Khazars migrated to the Volga and the Crimea, and many Khazar Jews withdrew into the depths of mountainous Daghestan; those who remained in their old haunts found themselves in an oppressive feudal dependency on the Arab rulers of the Caucasus and their local agents. They were forced to bring tribute and other payments, and, to preserve their Jewish faith, to pay a special tax ( j'dzh ); many of them, particularly the converts from among the mountaineers and the Khazars, turned to Islam. The long struggle of the peoples of the Caucasus, the mountaineers and the Khazars, led to the disintegration of the Arab caliphate and the defeat of their agents. They were replaced by new conquerors (the Seljuk Turks, the Persian shahs, and Turkish sultans) and a series of Azerbaijani and Daghestani khanates and overlords. In conditions of feudal disintegration, the Mountain Jews found themselves under the control of local rulers with the legal status of dependent peasants. With the unification of Azerbaijan and Daghestan with Russia in 1813, the Mountain Jews accepted Russian citizenship, the status of "Jew" was imposed on them, and they began to be called into military service. The development of capitalism in Russia and the drawing of the Caucasus and Daghestan into the mainstream of trade and financial relations contributed to the intensive stratification of Mountain Jewish society. The majority, not having their own land, became laborers in the food-processing industries, the vineyards, the wine and liquor factories, and the fishing industries that developed in the region. From among the businessmen and entrepreneurs of the Mountain Jews there emerged merchants and a bourgeoisie.
The social oppression of czarism, to which were added the pogroms (especially in 1905-1907), weighed heavily on the Mountain Jews, and they found themselves particularly impoverished during the years of the civil war and the military intervention in the Caucasus. The White Guard bands of Bicherakov and Denikin, invaded the area in 1918-1920 and were responsible for pogroms and the destruction and looting of a series of Mountain Jewish villages in southern Daghestan: Mamrach, Orog, Garchok, Nyugdi, and others. Consequently, many Mountain Jewish families emigrated to Palestine, then under British mandate. In the period of the October Revolution and the years of the military intervention in the Caucasus, working-class Mountain Jews took an active part in the victory of the Soviets. With the establishment of Soviet power, and in accordance with Leninist nationalities policy, especially regarding the nationalities of the Caucasus and Daghestan, measures were undertaken to revitalize Mountain Jewish culture. Mountain Jewish refugees who had come down from the mountains received economic assistance; new villages were constructed; and new workmen's cooperatives, collective farms, and national (i.e., Mountain Jewish) village councils were created. To achieve these objectives, a special set of measures for economic and cultural transformation was developed. Within this context, subgroups were designated as working class, collective farmers, and intelligentsia. These transformations were attained in the 1920s and 1930s. The plan also considered the interests of the small number of European Jews (Ashkenazim) living among them.
http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2010/08/analysis-of-ashkenazi-jewish-genomes.html
Researchers looked for close to one million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs): common alternative spellings in the genome, analogous to American and British spellings of words such as organize/organise. One measure of genetic diversity in a population is heterozygosity, or how many of the SNPs inherited from the mother and father are different; a more inbred population has less heterozygosity.
"We were surprised to find evidence that Ashkenazi Jews have higher heterozygosity than Europeans, contradicting the widely-held presumption that they have been a largely isolated group," says first author Steven Bray, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in Warren's laboratory.
High linkage disequilibrium can come either from an isolated population (for example, an island whose residents are all descendents of shipwreck survivors) or the relatively recent mixture of separate populations. Bray and his colleagues did find evidence of elevated linkage disequilibrium in the Ashkenazi Jewish population, but were able to show that this matches signs of interbreeding or "admixture" between Middle Eastern and European populations.
The researchers were able to estimate that between 35 and 55 percent of the modern Ashkenazi genome comes from European descent. Although the proximity of the AJ and Italian populations could be explained by their admixture prior to the Ashkenazi settlement in Central Europe (13), it should be noted that different demographic models may potentially yield similar principal component projections (33); thus, it is also consistent that the projection of the AJ populations is primarily the outcome of admixture with Central and Eastern European hosts that coincidentally shift them closer to Italians along principle component axes relative to Middle Easterners. Taken as a whole, our results, along with those from previous studies, support the model of a Middle Eastern origin of the AJ population followed by subsequent admixture with host Europeans or populations more similar to Europeans. Our data further imply that modern Ashkenazi Jews are perhaps even more similar with Europeans than Middle Easterners.Jews are basically Italians and Greeks, the descendants of converts with a little Middle Eastern admix.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1542903/Genes-prove-Herodotus-right-about-Etruscans.html
Genes prove Herodotus right about Etruscans
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor 12:01AM GMT 17 Feb 2007
One of the roots of Roman civilisation has been traced by scientists to western Turkey, confirming an account given more than 2,000 years ago.
Genetics has settled a long- running debate on the origins of the Etruscans, a civilisation that emerged three millennia ago in Italy and profoundly influenced the foundation of the Roman empire.
The study of DNA confirms an account in the 5th century BC by the Greek historian Herodotus that the Etruscan civilisation was founded by seafarers from Turkey.
The Etruscan culture prospered after the 9th century BC in central Italy, and triggered debate for thousands of years among historians and archaeologists.
Now scientists have tracked the DNA passed down from mothers to children in cellular power packs called mitochondria. They confirm a recent and direct genetic input from the near East.
The findings are published in The American Journal of Human Genetics by a global team led by Prof Antonio Torroni, a geneticist at the University of Pavia, Italy.
The team studied mitochondrial DNAs of 322 subjects from three places in Tuscany — Murlo, a town of Etruscan origin in the Siena province; Volterra, a former Etruscan city in the province of Pisa; and the Casentino Valley in the province of Arezzo. The DNA was compared with that of 15,000 subjects from 55 western Eurasian populations.
The study showed that the mitochondrial DNA of modern Tuscans — but not that of surrounding Italian and European populations — retained traces of a relatively recent arrival from the near East. The finding complements one on Italian cattle by the same group, published in The Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
"The Eastern origin of Etruscans, first claimed by the classic historians Herodotus and Thucydides, receives strong independent support," said Prof Torroni.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Pagan Festival on 25 Dec
The first recorded date of Christmas being celebrated on December 25th was in 336AD in the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine (he was the first Christian Roman Emperor). A few years later Pope Julius I officially declared that the birth of The Messiah would be celebrated on the 25th December. The following Sun-deities were all born on 25 December, according to their legends: Crishna (Vishnu), Mithra (Mithras), Osiris, Horus, Hercules, Dionysus (Bacchus), Tammuz, Indra, Buddha. Therein we also read of the Scandinavian goddess Frigga in whose honor a "Mother-night" festival was held at the winter solstice 25 December, as well as a similar great feast of Yule, where a boar was offered at the winter solstice in honor of Frey .
Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the church ... the first evidence of the feast is from Egypt." (Catholic Encyclopaedia 1911 edition)
There is no authoritative tradition as to the day or month of Christ's birth ... The winter solstice was regarded as the birthday of the sun and at Rome a pagan festival of the nativity of 'sol invictus' was introduced by the Emperor Aurelian on 25th December (Chambers Encyclopaedia 1970)
The Christmas card represented a convenient and sophisticated evolution of the ancient custom of giving blessings or good wishes for the New Year.
"The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain"
Prof. R. Hutton
Sol Invictus
From Wikipedia,
Sol Invictus was the official sun god of the later Roman empire. The cult was created by Aurelian in 274, who made it an official cult alongside the traditional Roman cults. Scholars disagree whether the new deity was a refoundation of the ancient Latin cult of Sol[1], a revival of the cult of Elagabalus[2] or completely new[3]. The god was favoured by emperors after Aurelian and appeared on their coins until Constantine.[4] The last inscription referring to Sol Invictus dates to 387 AD.[5] and there were enough devotees in the 5th century that Augustine found it necessary to preach against them.[6] A festival on 25 Dec. is sometimes thought to be responsible for the date of Christmas
How Did Christmas Come to Be Celebrated on December 25?
Increase Mather, A Testimony against Several Prophane and Superstitious Customs, Now Practiced by Some in New England (London, 1687), p. 35. See also Stephen Nissenbaum, The Battle for Christmas: A Cultural History of America’s Most Cherished Holiday, New York: Vintage Books, 1997, p. 4.
A. Roman pagans first introduced the holiday of Saturnalia, a week long period of lawlessness celebrated between December 17-25. During this period, Roman courts were closed, and Roman law dictated that no one could be punished for damaging property or injuring people during the weeklong celebration. The festival began when Roman authorities chose “an enemy of the Roman people” to represent the “Lord of Misrule.” Each Roman community selected a victim whom they forced to indulge in food and other physical pleasures throughout the week. At the festival’s conclusion, December 25th, Roman authorities believed they were destroying the forces of darkness by brutally murdering this innocent man or woman.
B. The ancient Greek writer poet and historian Lucian (in his dialogue entitled Saturnalia) describes the festival’s observance in his time. In addition to human sacrifice, he mentions these customs: widespread intoxication; going from house to house while singing naked; rape and other sexual license; and consuming human-shaped biscuits (still produced in some English and most German bakeries during the Christmas season).
C. In the 4th century CE, Christianity imported the Saturnalia festival hoping to take the pagan masses in with it. Christian leaders succeeded in converting to Christianity large numbers of pagans by promising them that they could continue to celebrate the Saturnalia as Christians.[2]
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Volume 11 ; page 390.
"During the later periods of Roman history, sun worship gained in importance and ultimately led to what has been called a 'solar monotheism.' Nearly all the gods of the period were possessed of Solar qualities. The feast of Sol and Victus (open unconquered Sun) on December 25th was celebrated with great joy, and eventually this date was taken over by the Christians as Christmas, the birthday of Christ."
Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the church ... the first evidence of the feast is from Egypt." (Catholic Encyclopaedia 1911 edition)
There is no authoritative tradition as to the day or month of Christ's birth ... The winter solstice was regarded as the birthday of the sun and at Rome a pagan festival of the nativity of 'sol invictus' was introduced by the Emperor Aurelian on 25th December (Chambers Encyclopaedia 1970)
The Christmas card represented a convenient and sophisticated evolution of the ancient custom of giving blessings or good wishes for the New Year.
"The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain"
Prof. R. Hutton
Sol Invictus
From Wikipedia,
Sol Invictus was the official sun god of the later Roman empire. The cult was created by Aurelian in 274, who made it an official cult alongside the traditional Roman cults. Scholars disagree whether the new deity was a refoundation of the ancient Latin cult of Sol[1], a revival of the cult of Elagabalus[2] or completely new[3]. The god was favoured by emperors after Aurelian and appeared on their coins until Constantine.[4] The last inscription referring to Sol Invictus dates to 387 AD.[5] and there were enough devotees in the 5th century that Augustine found it necessary to preach against them.[6] A festival on 25 Dec. is sometimes thought to be responsible for the date of Christmas
How Did Christmas Come to Be Celebrated on December 25?
Increase Mather, A Testimony against Several Prophane and Superstitious Customs, Now Practiced by Some in New England (London, 1687), p. 35. See also Stephen Nissenbaum, The Battle for Christmas: A Cultural History of America’s Most Cherished Holiday, New York: Vintage Books, 1997, p. 4.
A. Roman pagans first introduced the holiday of Saturnalia, a week long period of lawlessness celebrated between December 17-25. During this period, Roman courts were closed, and Roman law dictated that no one could be punished for damaging property or injuring people during the weeklong celebration. The festival began when Roman authorities chose “an enemy of the Roman people” to represent the “Lord of Misrule.” Each Roman community selected a victim whom they forced to indulge in food and other physical pleasures throughout the week. At the festival’s conclusion, December 25th, Roman authorities believed they were destroying the forces of darkness by brutally murdering this innocent man or woman.
B. The ancient Greek writer poet and historian Lucian (in his dialogue entitled Saturnalia) describes the festival’s observance in his time. In addition to human sacrifice, he mentions these customs: widespread intoxication; going from house to house while singing naked; rape and other sexual license; and consuming human-shaped biscuits (still produced in some English and most German bakeries during the Christmas season).
C. In the 4th century CE, Christianity imported the Saturnalia festival hoping to take the pagan masses in with it. Christian leaders succeeded in converting to Christianity large numbers of pagans by promising them that they could continue to celebrate the Saturnalia as Christians.[2]
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Volume 11 ; page 390.
"During the later periods of Roman history, sun worship gained in importance and ultimately led to what has been called a 'solar monotheism.' Nearly all the gods of the period were possessed of Solar qualities. The feast of Sol and Victus (open unconquered Sun) on December 25th was celebrated with great joy, and eventually this date was taken over by the Christians as Christmas, the birthday of Christ."
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
garment of divers sorts
Deuteronomy 22:11
Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, [as] of woollen and linen together.
Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, [as] of woollen and linen together.
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