"Hate," is, perhaps, too strong a word, but:

[capri0mni]

I hate it when the narration scripts for educational/science programs on T.V. use gratuitously provocative vocabulary.

On last night's Nova episode (The Perfect Corpse), the narration continuously referred to how the two the men discovered in two Irish bogs were "murdered" (and/or "brutally murdered"), while the scientists and historians working on the case were consistantly pointing out the evidence that showed that they were probably killed as part of a ritual human sacrifice, or maybe executed as a form of criminal punishment (but that idea is presented as the minority viewpoint).

That's not "murder." Murder is a private act, carried out beyond the bounds of society. Human sacrifice and lethal corporal punishiment are both public acts, carried out to support society.

Were the ways in which these men both died violent? Most definitely. Is the level of violence shocking? Oh, yes -- especially if you prefer to see the Iron Age druids as noble poets and judges. Was it "muder?"

No. So stop using the word, Mr. Ross*!

Other than that, though, a fascinating show -- if you have a strong stomach, and don't mind having your White-Light-and-Cystal views of Paganism challenged.

*(Narrator -- can't find the script writer in the credits)

Comments

[spiralsheep.livejournal.com]

::applause::

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

::Bows::

Thank you.

Do you know of the bog bodies of which I speak (Oldcraghan Man and Clonycavan Man)? Apparently, this episode was based on a programme first aired by the Beeb...

[spiralsheep.livejournal.com]

Not those two specifially but I studied Tollund man at school and I've seen Lindow man in person as well as reading about one or two other similar cases (including a woman).

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

They mentioned a bog woman in this episode, but it was more of a conventional burial -- no signs of violence, and she was wrapped in a woolen cloaked. And, I think, she was from about 1570, CE.

These two fellows were dismembered, and dated from about 300, BCE. I think they were discovered in 2005, or somewhere therabouts.

[spiralsheep.livejournal.com]

The woman I read about was drowned under a hurdle in iron age (?) Germania (?), I think.

I'd not heard about dismembered bog bodies. Tollund man was in one piece.

[pedanther]

I wonder if it's an implicit value judgement/viewpoint problem? ie. "It doesn't matter that their society supported acts like that, it's outside the bounds of our society (and our society's values are the correct ones), so it's murder."


A while ago there was a nature documentary on TV here about the wildlife of China. In one episode there was a bit about the critically endangered Chinese alligator, with footage of alligator eggs hatching intercut with footage of people approaching in a boat, and dramatic narration about how very few alligators are born in the wild, and the problem is made even more serious by alligator poachers, and if these people find the nest...
and then the people do reach the nest, and it turns out that they're not poachers at all but alligator conservation workers who have come to check on the new baby alligators; and if I didn't say something loud and uncomplimentary about stupid unnecessary melodramatics, I should have.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

I wonder if it's an implicit value judgement/viewpoint problem?

No need to wonder -- that's exactly what it was/is. And that's why it annoys me. The explicit tone of the episode was all about how the scientists from many different disciplines are using these new finds to understand something about this ancient and powerful civilization that we never could before,* but the implicit tone was sensationalist and alienating, and sounded like it was borrowed directly from a tabloid "reality" show.

The thing that gets me, though, is that the people who tend to make the anti-relativist arguments like the one you outlined above also tend to be the same people who support the death penalty for murderers, so they're perfectly willing to distinguish between murder and state sanctioned killing for themselves (and they complain about PC-ness when anyone raises the issue of how future generations will look back on us).

*(for example, we now have the technology to test these men's hair and fingernails to find out what they were eating right before they were killed, and thus, what time of year the rituals were.