SV: SV: Origins of the "double-truth"

[Lars Martin Fosse]

Arun Gupta [SMTP:suvidya at OPTONLINE.NET] skrev 26. desember 2000 03:15:
> Vidyasankar Sundaresan wrote :
>
> >Still, re: transmigration/metempsychosis/reincarnation, it
> >remains to be proved that it is a uniquely Indian religious idea
> >that went west.
>
> Ian Stevenson, M.D., in "20 Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation" tells us
that
> the Tinglit Indians of Southeaster Alaska, the Haidas who live to the
south
> of the Tinglits, the Tsimyans living on the coast of British Columbia,
the
> Athapaskans, some Eskimos and Aleuts, all believe in reincarnation.

The belief is also found in Africa (check out "reincarnation" in
Encyclopedia Britannica). In other words, claiming that the idea spread
from India is difficult unless we can show that there are specific
similarities between transmigration beliefs in India and elsewhere. Bjarte
Kaldhol may be right about the Celtic contact with Mediterranean culture,
but Celtic culture also differed in some respects. We must remember that
Druidism contained elements that the Romans saw as specifically barbaric
(such as human sacrifice), one of the reasons why the Romans suppressed
Druidism (there may of course have been others as well). The fact that
cultures are in contact does not necessarily mean that they imitate or
influence each other. There is still a case to be made for an independent
tradition of transmigration among the Celts. After all, transmigration was
not a *universal* Mediterranean belief, so there was no "selective
pressure" on the Celts to adopt the idea.

Nevertheless, Bjarte Kaldhol's data on the Celts show how complex this sort
of discussion can get. The spread of cultural elements, just like the
spread of linguistic features and vocabulary, does not operate according to
iron-clad laws. Contact sometimes means a free flow of ideas from one group
to another, sometimes not. The description of Druidisms that I have seen
makes it in my opinion likely that we are dealing with a tradition not
unlike the Brahminic tradition of India, and I think there is a
probabilistic argument to be made for an independent tradition for
transmigration. But without adequate historical data, we cannot be entirely
certain of anything.

Lars Martin Fosse

Dr. art. Lars Martin Fosse
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