Celtic misrepresentation...

[THOaken]

I'm tired of seeing all these historical inaccuracies about the horribly misrepresented Celts. You type in Celtic art and you get fairies and angels. You type in Celtic music in Youtube and what do you get? Spiritual pagan music with candles and people dancing in the woods. It's not surprising because I don't believe we have any information on "Celtic" music. There's almost no accurate representation of the Celts in modern society though. The layman thinks of Celts as something a historian would laugh at. Instead of Celtic Polytheistic reconstructionism which is at least scientific and tries to understand the history of the people or their shared cultural identity the accepted view is what I call the "fluffy syncretic movement" which is literally just a patchwork world view of nonsense. Tarot cards, angels, animal spirits... I've spoken to people who think those things are all Celtic. No. Celts were an ethnolinguistic group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Medieval Europe who spoke Celtic languages and had a similar culture. Honestly, there's nothing worse than seeing images of Celts mixed in with random stars and Wiccan symbols. There is music on Youtube called ""Dark Celtic Music - Spirit Rituals And Beautiful Spiritual Mix". Ugh. It just screams idiocy and a complete disregard for scientific progress and historical understanding.

At least we have the scholars who know what they're talking about, though they are rare...

 

[Ecoman]

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Its a media representation that needs an image or sound to portray in its medium. Its like seeing Viking helmets with horns on, Pagan's slaughtering goats in sex fuelled rituals and warty witches dressed in black with pointy hats and cackling around cauldrons. We know that in real life they are nothing like that but the media needs some sort of artistic representation.

Here is a prime example, William Wallace pictures and figures used to be of a huge burly bear of a man with shocking red hair and a big bushy beard. These days the images strike an uncanny resemblance to Mel Gibson, I wonder why?! lol

Artistic licence has meant that the boundaries between different cultures, religions and races has been smudged and there are many cross overs and misinterpretations/ representations. History, fairy stories and folklore can be interwoven and moulded to paint the desired picture of effect. No its not accurate but, most of the time, neither is art. The true image of the Celt is written in history and passed on by the interested and learned.

 

[THOaken]

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Its a media representation that needs an image or sound to portray in its medium. Its like seeing Viking helmets with horns on, Pagan's slaughtering goats in sex fuelled rituals and warty witches dressed in black with pointy hats and cackling around cauldrons. We know that in real life they are nothing like that but the media needs some sort of artistic representation.

Here is a prime example, William Wallace pictures and figures used to be of a huge burly bear of a man with shocking red hair and a big bushy beard. These days the images strike an uncanny resemblance to Mel Gibson, I wonder why?! lol

Artistic licence has meant that the boundaries between different cultures, religions and races has been smudged and there are many cross overs and misinterpretations/ representations. History, fairy stories and folklore can be interwoven and moulded to paint the desired picture of effect. No its not accurate but, most of the time, neither is art. The true image of the Celt is written in history and passed on by the interested and learned.

You are indeed correct. I shouldn't worry about it, but I feel that preserving our history accurately is what should prevail over the media influenced nonsense, but it doesn't.

I shouldn't have attacked spiritual or religious people, that was wrong of me... Live and let live.

 

[Toddy]

I'm an academic....I have come to loathe the word celtic because it has become so ubiquitious that it is both a false, and a useless, designation

Celtic was a pan European culture that embraced many different peoples. In some ways it's better used as a 'time' than a designation.

In the UK, the 'Celtic Fringe' is as much a muddle as anything else too. The Western Isles and much of the North and East of Ireland became so Scandanavian influenced that they're not celtic

It's adoption as a kind of validation by neopagans is another travesty of egotism.

M

 

[THOaken]

I'm an academic....I have come to loathe the word celtic because it has become so ubiquitious that it is both a false, and a useless, designation

Celtic was a pan European culture that embraced many different peoples. In some ways it's better used as a 'time' than a designation.

In the UK, the 'Celtic Fringe' is as much a muddle as anything else too. The Western Isles and much of the North and East of Ireland became so Scandanavian influenced that they're not celtic

It's adoption as a kind of validation by neopagans is another travesty of egotism.

M

I'm not quite sure what to say other than I respect and agree with what you've written. Thanks for the contribution to the thread.

If you look at polytheist reconstructionists, it's clear they care for accuracy and take a more academic approach, and they command my respect despite the fact I'm not religious at all.

From the wikipedia page of Polytheist Reconstructionism: "A multi-disciplinary approach is utilized capitalizing on results from various fields as historical literary research, anthropology, religious history, political history, archaeology, forensic anthropology, historical sociology, etc. with an overt attempt to avoid pseudo-sciences."

 

[Toddy]

Define pseudo sciences ?.....and who defines them ? who decided what 'evidence' is true and what is false ? Then throw in a handful of bright sparkly magic fairy dust (with appropriate coloured candle! ) and scream religious persecution when ridiculed.

Sorry THOaken, but this is an impossible thread to discuss without bringing in religion.

M

 

[Tony]

Just a thought

THOaken, you're more than welcome to post things on bcuk, some of it though would be much more appropriate and much better received on other forums that are orientated around discussions such as this, there's loads out there to choose from, I think the key is to look at where you see the conversations going and preempting us by not starting some of them when we're going to have to come along and close them down.

I hope that makes sense