Fwd: Georges Dum�zil and ' la tradition ' in academia today.

[Guest guest]

Indo-Eurasian_research , " STAAL, Frits "

<fritsstaal wrote:

 

I have a draft of some pages on Dumezil on the Vedas for a forthcoming

book that I am willing to

share with specially interested people. It will take some time for me

to send them as I have no

E-mail at the moment and am sitting occasionally in an internetcafe as

I am doing presently. So

please gime me the E-mail address of the one person to whom to send

this before long if there is

such a person.

 

On Sat, 16 Apr 2005 04:09:52 -0000

" esocialsciencenews2005 " <esocialsciencenews2005 wrote:

>

>

> [Moderator's note. We've said that on weekends we will free things

up a bit, if traffic is low,

>for off-topic posts. We get a large number of off-topic posts every

week, and to try to keep the

>discussion on track we often ask the senders via email to hold off

discussion until another time,

>since many of those topics cover issues that we expect that the List

will discuss in a focused

>way at a later date. Other of these posts are harder to classify.

Here is one example, which

>involves questions about Georges Dum & #65533;zil; Dum & #65533;zil's name may in

fact

be raised by someone when we

>discuss Eurasian comparative mythology -- at least one List member

(Nick Allen) has a deep

>interest in Dum & #65533;zil's work. I'm not sure what reaction if any this

post will raise, but it is

>Sunday, and here it is. -- saf]

>

>

> Today the tripartite ideas of Georges Dum & #65533;zil's are often identified

> with the `New Right'in France (which is neither right nor left of

> course),Jean-Marie-le Pen ,Alain de Benoist , Synergies Europ & #65533;ennes,

> and so on.

>

> Does anybody on this list knows how sound some of the other ideas of

> Georges Dum & #65533;zil (mentioned under the heading " Nordic Orientalism " in a

> soon to be released book by )are from an academic point of view ?

>

> And who are some of the academics today, that follow in the footsteps

> of the traditionalism (sometimes called perenialism )of Mirceau Eliade

> (I use `traditionalism' here in the sense Mark Sedgwick's " Against

> the Modern World " ) and Georges Dum & #65533;zil ?

>

>For example perennialist,traditionalist, positions sometimes divide,

> for example mystical experiences, into a few basic categories that

> transcend cultural boundaries but are described in culturally bound

> language. Thus Traditionalists often do not refer to the customary

> rites and practices which anthropologists study today (April 2005) nor

> do they accept the utilitarian approach of Edmund Burke and Russell

> Kirk, who treat it as the accumulated wisdom of former ages; rather

> they view it as a transhistorical body of principles under girding the

> world's religions. Tradition in his view is that which is immutable

> and perpetually reborn in a people's experience of its history, for it

> is rooted in a people's primordial substratum (hence the term

> 'traditionalism'which ofcourse ever since Alfred Rosenberg has been

> also p'oliticised').

>

> John Hopkins

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

 

[Guest guest]

Indo-Eurasian_research , Michael Witzel

<witzel wrote:

 

[Mod.'s note: Many thanks, Wolfgang, for the biblio! Let members read

these papers and postpone further discussion until later. (I like

Brough's indicating a tripartite Hebrew Bible!).

 

Rather, we should now begin with Shamanism/Soma, as George Thompson has

done.]

MW

 

On Apr 18, 2005, at 10:15 PM, root wrote:

 

>

> You're probably aware of these critical discussions on the political

> role(s) of Dumezil (a) and the value of his tripartite model from an

> Indo-Europeanist (b) and a classicist/history of religions ©

> perspective, but just in case ...

>

> (a)

> Didier ERIBON, Faut-il bruler Dumezil. Mythologie, science et

> politique,

> Paris: Flammarion 1992.

>

> (b)

> F.B.J. KUIPER, " SOme observations on Dumezil's Theory " , NUmen 8 (1961)

> J. GONDA, " Some observations on Dumezil's vie of Indo-European

> mythology " , Mnemosyne IV (1960).

> J. BROUGH, " The tripartite ideology of the Indo-Europeans: an

> experiment

> in method " , Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 22

> (1959).

> E. POLOME, " Views on the developments in Indo-European religion during

> the last decade " , in: Miscellanea Indo-Europea (JIES monographs; 33),

> Washington: INstitute for the Study of man, 1999.

>

> ©

> Wouter BELIER, Decayed gods: The origin and development of Georges

> Dumezil's 'ideologie tripartite' (Studies in Greek and Roman religion;

> 7), eiden : EJ Brill, 1991

>

> Cheers,

> Wolfgang

>

>

Michael Witzel

Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Harvard University

1 Bow Street , Cambridge MA 02138

1-617-495 3295 Fax: 496 8571

direct line: 496 2990

http://witzel/~witzel/mwpage.htm