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In a message dated 12/18/2004 9:09:47 AM Eastern Standard Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
Why should an anthropology of angles and saxons rely upon developments of neolithic cultures in the pacific rim? And what of the cultures that survived because they adopted the no killing us, no stealing from us, versions of these rules. Oh, because often the claim
that American law is based on religion is offered as an explanation and
justification of religion's salience in American society. In other words, the
claim is that were it not for religion, society would consist of a war of all
against all. Consequently, if anthropology reveals that those pre-religious
societies or those pre-Judeo-Christian societies also had laws against
murder, theft, and forth, or if anthropology shows that only societies that have
such rules survive, then some of the importance of religion as the groundwork of
morality in American society is undercut. The claim that morality derives from
and is justified by the Ten Commandments, or some other
Judeo-Christian text cannot be sustained if anthropology reveals that prior
secular societies or prior non-Judeo-Christian societies had the same or
similar rules for governing social life.
Bobby
Robert Justin
Lipkin
Professor of Law Widener University School of Law Delaware |
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