dis2@houxm.UUCP (A.NESTOR) (01/13/84)
Since the sources of the Pentateuch are mostly monotheistic, social history events are always personified as people. The Cain Abel story is a personification of two events: 1. The archetypal conflict between argricultural and pastoral peoples. 2. The Israelites' conflicts with their neighbours. 1: Of course the nomad diety Yahweh would prefer the animal holocaust of Abel, spurning the vegetable offering of Cain. However, the agricultural peoples were eventually dominant in spite of Yahweh's preferences. Accordingly, Cain slays Abel ( 'hapel' meaning 'breath' i.e evanescent or short-lived), but he is marked so that he is preserved. (Why mark him for protection if there are only three other people?) Cain reverts temporarily to becoming a nomad ( "in the land of Nod") but eventually becomes a city dweller, even a city builder; thus reflecting the development of cities from settled agriculture. It is interesting to note the odd reversal of this conflict during the range wars in this country. The Christian churches were predominantly pro-agricultural, even though Scripture clearly portrays Jesus as using both agricultural and pastoral metaphors. It was from sermons stressing God's disapproval of the pastoral and hence those involved with it, that the cowboy first acquired an unsavoury reputation - his "mark of Cain". 2: As a newer migration with need for land for both pastoral and agricultural uses, the Israelites were in frequent and prolonged conflict with their neighbours. Not only the Pentateuch, but much of the Old Testament is filled with imprecations aginst the Israelites' neighbours and explanations of why they are excluded from Jahweh's favour and promise of the land. Cain's descendants are , in additon to the development of cities, credited with: a. The development of domestication of herds (as against nomad herding). b. The developement of musical instruments ("Jubal's lyre"). c. The development of metal working. One entymology of Cain is 'qaiyn' meaning 'smith'. Cain is protrayed as untrustworthy even before his oblation is rejected. Thus while Israel's neighbours might be more "advanced" and "clever", they are not pleasing to Jahweh springing as they do from the accursed criminal Cain. Such "sour grapes" xenophobic rat- ionalisations are still a commonplace! Creighton Clarke