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To: billorites
Do they transliterate from russian? They're actually referring to an esoteric philosophy called "Anthroposphy" in english. Similar in some senses to Theosophy and Rosicrucianism.
18 posted on 03/24/2004 7:54:29 PM PST by Katya
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To: Katya; vannrox; blam
Do they transliterate from russian? They're actually referring to an esoteric philosophy called "Anthroposphy" in english. Similar in some senses to Theosophy and Rosicrucianism.

Yes--they're referring to the Anthroposophists' Theosophical interpretation of history and their related practice of "psychic archaeology". I think Anthroposophy and its approach to archaeology are misguided, but what interests me about this article is the fact that Pravda considers this newsworthy would seem to imply Anthroposophy has achieved some degree of "intellectual" respectability (at least among journalists) in Russia. I've suspected that was the case in Germany, where Anthroposophy was once a rival for "intellectual" popularity with Nazism (which was also descended from Theosophy and borrowed from the Theosophical view of history) and where Anthroposophy has recently regained popularity through alliance with the Green Party's New Age element; but I'm surprised to find that the case in Russia. It makes me wonder to what extent such movements are influencing historiography in Europe. My guess--based on this and other things I've seen--would be that the European environmentalist movement may be incorporating Theosophy's version of "Atlantis" into its concept of prehistory to promote an idea of Atlantis as a "prehistoric environmental utopia where humans were still in touch with Mother Earth" or something to that effect (similar to how feminist archaeologists have recently been promoting the idea that prehistoric religion reflects a matriarchal society that preceded Indo-European influence). At this point in time such ideas of course seem absurd to most mainstream archaeologists, but during the Weimar and Nazi era such ideas were very common among German intellectuals, and given the Green Party's rising influence in Europe, I can see how that trend may be gaining ground again. Not a good sign for the future of the discipline of history, IMO.

19 posted on 03/24/2004 11:05:34 PM PST by Fedora
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