Social Classes in Ancient India

Before the arrival of the Aryans sometime in 1500 B.C.E., India consisted of agricultural communities that lacked true social class. Around the 3^rd millennium B.C.E , the Harappan civilization rose up around what today is Pakistan and northwest India, perhaps indicating the manifestation of the ruling elite; however, even then social class was not attached to individuals, but functioned under the jati system. Ancient Indians gathered up in towns and villages that eventually became kingships, each ruled by its own council of members – an elite group composed of hereditary bloodlines based on power and wealth. Each kingship or jati was composed of hundreds or thousands of nuclear families that performed similar functions for society; off course occupations varied within a single jati in order to sustain its population, but in general, each jati had a specific economic role within its system, perhaps under the control of larger kingships, like the cities of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa. Each jati belonged to a form of unwritten social class dictated by their function in society; this meant that if a whole community changed its occupation to one that ranked higher (or lower) in the social scale, then the whole jati transitioned social levels.

Fairy Folklore and Mythology in "A Midsummer’s Night Dream"

Oberlin Opera Theater's  "A Midsummer Night's Dream".  2007

Thought to be written in 1594 or 1595, “A midsummer’s Night Dream” is one of the most well-known plays of the literary world, perhaps due to celebrated fame of its author – William Shakespeare. Born in the mid 16th century, today Shakespeare is regarded as the greatest writer of the English language, with a repertoire of poems and plays that has achieved worldly prestige and has made him a literary figure.  “A Midsummer’s Night Dream” tells the story of Lysander and Hermia’s unpermitted love, along with Demetrius’ struggle to woo her despite him being the subject of Helena’s amorous obsession (Wells and Taylor XV, 401); however, the plot’s entertainment is attributed to a different set of juxtaposing characters that intervene in the affairs of these young lovers – the fairies. Drawn from European legend and folklore, Shakespeare took inspiration from a variety of fairy lore and mythology that makes itself present throughout the play.

Deconstructing Seid: A Form of Magic in Norse Paganism

Völva  from Fredrik Sander's 1893 Swedish 

edition of the Poetic Edda

Seid, or seiðr in Old Norse, or seidhr, seidh, seidr, seithr, or seithis in its anglicized versions, is a type witchcraft associated with women belonging to the pagan culture of the Norse in pre-Christian times. Mythologically, in the Ynglinga saga, written in 1225, it is stated that Freyja – the goddess of love, beauty, fertility, and war – is the one who introduces seid to the Æsir (the first gods), when she and the Vanir (the second gods) join pantheons. An example of seid magic appears in Völuspá, the first poem of the Poetic Edda, written sometime in the 10th or early 11th century; it depicts a vision of the creation of the world, and its approaching end as narrated by a völva addressing Odin – the ruler god.[1] Mainly known by its Icelandic term, a völva, or vǫlva in Old Norse, or vala in English, was a type of female prophet/shaman throughout Norse paganism.[2] Alternatively, the term spákona or spækona were also used to describe a practitioner of spá (prophecy).[3] Völvas were workers of various forms of indigenous magic and divination; most importantly, völvas were famous for being seiðkonas – practitioners of seid.[4] By analyzing the the mythology, archeology, and sociology of the North, one can try to conceptualize what this mysterious form of witchcraft known as seid was all about. 

Drakes: The Fairy Dragons of Europe

Salamander, early 16th C.

Also known as kratchens in Belgium and Holland, or krats in Scandinavia, or drachens in Germany, or feu draks in France and Switzerland, drakes are a Eurpean supernatural entity that mixes the characteristics of a dragon, and the fairy folk. When it comes to the depiction of drakes, they’re extremely heterogeneous  and vary according to the local folklore. In the gypsy folklore from the Balkan states of South Eastern Europe, they are described as enormous humans with the heads and feet of a dragon; it said that they live in fantastic places with their human wives and be can be seen riding a giant horses. This description, however, changes further up north, where the term drake became synonymous with the myth of the legendary salamanders, but most importantly, with the fire-drakes, a type of dragon in Norse, Teutonic, and Celtic mythology who are said to guard treasures, such as the creature that kills Beowulf  in the 8^th/11^th century English epic poem of the same name. Most recently, in an early 19^th century account, Sven Magnus Johansson was wondering around Lake Sodreg in Sweden, and stepped onto a log only to see it move and slither away into the lake. Even though the creature resembles the Swedish lindorm (linworm in Britain), a type of sea serpent or wingless bipedal dragon, the local people told him it was a drake. 

Exploring The Qoyllur Rit’i Festival of the Peruvian Andes

Qoyllur Rit’i procession

Originating in the 18^th century, Qoyllur Rit’i (Snow Star in Quechua) is an annual Peruvian festival that takes place on the Sinakara valley southeast of the Cusco region, near the Ocongate province at 4,800 meters above sea level. Being a melting pot of Catholicism and Andean beliefs, the festival attracts large numbers of Amerindian farmers, peasants and workers from different clans, mainly from the Paucartambo  Quechuas from the agricultural regions to the northwest of the Qoyllur Rit'I shrine, and Quispicanchis Aymaras from the pastoral regions to the southeast.

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