Miscellany

[ikhet_sekhmet]

• An ABC Radio National podcast, The Religion Report, describes the first complete Bible translation in an indigenous language. One of the translators remarks on the similarities between traditional Aboriginal life and the nomadic Hebrews, but what caught my attention was this remark: "Some have taken quite a bit of talking around, just to try and find an appropriate way of translating certain concepts. Perhaps one of the most interesting I think is the word we've used for idols and false gods, and that's 'dreamin' or 'dreamin shape'." (I think the Kriol word is more correctly spelled drimin.) That approach, IIUC equating traditional Indigenous beliefs with the forbidden and disreputable foreign gods of the Old Testament (ie the very subject of this blog :) contrasts sharply with efforts to meld Christian and traditional Dreaming concepts, as in Rainbow Spirit Theology.
  
  
• Yantras!
  
  
• 108 Names of Durga
  
  
• The Neolithic Village of Ain Ghazal
  
  
• New news: New Kingdom Temple Discovered in the Sinai (April 2009)
  
  
• Old news: "Beyond Babylon" at the Met (2008); The dangerous life of a devadasi (2008) - the historical context starts on page 4; 'Forgotten' head-dresses shed light on Mesopotamian death rites (2004); Divided goddess to become whole again (1998)