Wow, beth, fascinating ... it hadn't even occurred to me to analyze the
pastoral themes in literature ...
actually, i was referring to actual goat, sheep, and cow shepherds, either
living transhumantly or nomadically.
For example, Marija Gimbutas seems to subscribe to a view that Ancient Europe
was a Matriarchal, Peaceful Agricultural Society that was Invaded by
Patriarchal Pastoral Warriors who wrecked everything. This seems a little
simplistic to me. While it is theoretically possible to have a sustainable
agriculture (here we would want to look rather to the native america's),
agriculture has a pretty poor ecological and even social picture, so frankly,
I'm more apt to be suspicious about the assumptions of the agricultural
society. Were they acting in full justice with their pastoral neighbors?
I think I've seen a lot of projection onto the historical field in terms of a
need to discover evil and point fingers, rather than really trying to
understand context and how things emerged (which is more important, because
that understanding can help us deconstruct what we don't want).
I'm not sure how much an analysis of pastoral literature will reflect on true
pastoral cultures, given -- and here i'm a little sketchy because literature
is not my forte -- that to my knowledge, the "pastoral movement" in
literature was an idealization coming from people who had never really lived
that lifestyle ... Still, analyzing themes might be useful, i'm not sure ...
(un)leash
