If you’d bothered to take religion “back to the egg”, as it were, you’d realize the so-called “feminists” have it right.
In the beginning, all paleo-religions were gynocentric.
Later, androcentric religion replaced the ~original~ pagan religions.
The very beginning of all pagan religion revolves around fertility, menstruation and their connection [in male minds] to “magic”.
For every ancient ithyphallic deity carving you find, there will be a hundred gravid, “earth mother” statues.
[check out Malta for some of the oldest “new” ones]
The cults of Hera and Diana predate the cults of male Greek and roman gods by millenia.
Until the way of the warrior ousted the way of matrifocal relgion [ie...EIREland], goddesses were above all gods.
The triple goddess was eternal and unchanging.
The “god” lasted only til he was ritually killed and replaced.
In the Nordic religion, the sun was *female* and the moon was *male*, unlike the gender reversal of today.
Unlike you, I am not satisfied to read a few books by one guy who chooses to ignore reality.
I backtracked historically until I found the seed of all ancient paganism, which, at its core, revolves around the agricultural seasons.
If you [and Hutton] are unnerved by that, that’s your problem.
“I suspect that instead of archeological reports/monographs you have warmed-over rehashes of 19th century diffusionist and mystical “scholarship.”
Quite the opposite, actually and I was fortunate enough to have bought them decades ago when they were not commanding the prices they do now.
None of them are “mystical” by any definition of the word.
*Most* of them are dryly mathematical and agonizingly full of scientific minutiae.
And to answer a question that should not need asking, you read FOLK LORE because ~within it~ are contained the ancient and core truths of a culture.
As you ~should~ know, the Celts had no written records.
ALL knowledge was passed down through the generations via stories [aka “folk lore”] so that those who followed would never forget whence they came.
The “CARMINA GADELICA” is a history book, “written” by the people who lived it.
Sheesh.
Not "feminist." Feminist. You posted a link to the Max Dashu website, whose first response to Hutton's book was to exclaim "I was staggered by the intense anti-feminism of this book..." Feminist "scholarship" at its (cough cough) finest.
And, BTW, in regards to religion and prehistory the feminists have it WRONG. This isn't taking religion "back to the egg." It's taking it back to the comparativist/evolutionist nonsense of Bachofen and Frazer and Co., writings that haven't been taken seriously in archaeological and anthropological circles in over 70 years. I very much doubt that any of your "recent" archaeological monographs use such stuff as a theoretical basis for any conclusion.
In the beginning, all paleo-religions were gynocentric.
Later, androcentric religion replaced the ~original~ pagan religions.
(Etc., etc. etc. that strays far afield from your original point about Halloween).
More stuff and nonsense. Airy 19th century speculations that were refuted for incoherencies and lack of evidence almost a century ago. For North America, read Kroeber's and Lowie's knock-down refutation of this approach -- from almost 90 years ago. In general, read Motz's _The Faces of the Goddess_.
There's no simple (or even complex) gyno- to andro- transition, the "earth mother" statues' religious significance is highly debatable (unless you're an acolyte of Gimbutas), and if you haven't read and agreed with Frazer directly, it's obvious you've swallowed his ideas hook, line, and sinker through secondary sources and "interpreters" of his.
I backtracked historically until I found the seed of all ancient paganism, which, at its core, revolves around the agricultural seasons.
If you [and Hutton] are unnerved by that, that’s your problem.
Not unnerved, saddened. You've backtracked and landed in a bog of Victorian scholarly blather from some English and German armchair anthropologists. I do so hope you manage to extricate yourself from it.
As you ~should~ know, the Celts had no written records.
None? I though you were arguing that the Coligny calendar counted as a written record. Please make up your mind.
The “CARMINA GADELICA” is a history book, “written” by the people who lived it.
According to the 1900 edition I'm looking at as I type, it is a collection of "hymns and incantations" collected by Alexander Carmichael. It's not a history book, it's a folklore collection collected and edited by Mr. Carmichael. Looks interesting, but I see no indication that it provides any proof that would support your blunt thesis that "Halloween is the Celtic “New Year’s Eve” celebration. Nothing more, nothing less"
Still waiting for your defense of your thesis.