Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Another Book
This is not a recommendation so much, but rather an explanation. I mentioned the movie, "The Thirteenth Warrior" in an earlier post. The movie was nothing spectacular or revealing to me of the Viking culture. But the book that the movie was based on revealed a lot to me. The book is by Micheal Crighton (Jurassic Park) and thoroughly researched and based on the writings of an actual person, a Muslim from Baghdad and his journeys up into northern Europe. Though some of the Viking customs were flat out revolting, especially when explained by the Arab courtier from a far more sophisticated and cushy culture, some of the thinking processes were strangely similar to the thinking processes my ancestors handed down to me. It was a very interesting look at the different cultures, Eastern Muslim verses pre-Christian Western, or should I say, Northern culture. http://www.amazon.com/Eaters-Dead-Michael-Crichton/dp/0061782637 Note: I know I promised actual scriptures concerning freedom and I haven't forgotten. It's just that this structure/chaos(or freedom) thing and cultural constructs has me thinking down many roads that all seem to meet up somehow.
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One of the things that stood out to me in this book was their respect and treatment of women. Even slave women were respected and had power over their own sexuality and who they wanted to sleep with. And as far as married women were concerned, the men didn't expect their women to be faithful while they were gone on long voyages. One of the warriors surprised the Muslim by saying that he did not expect his wife to abstain from sex anymore than she expected him to abstain from it while he was gone. He told the Muslim, why should she? She's not dead.
They didn't expect their women to follow rules they didn't follow themselves, unlike the Greeks, Romans, and Muslims who expected their women to be faithful while they could run and do whatever they wanted.
While their lust for sex was somewhat off-putting, their "What's good for the goose is good for the gander" attitude was refreshing and redeeming in the ancient world rife with blatant injustice and gender bias and double standards.
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