Oh, I'm glad it makes sense! (I'm from the other side of the coin: I was raised around that particular tradition in Christianity, and--- I love your phrasing of this--- fear invoking the specter of appropriation when I use other religions'/cultures' terms, but by damn do I have the right to make heretical comparisons about the religion of my upbringing! LOL.)
...and I've kept putting off replying to this because I keep circling this idea about how the same idea (totems/patron saints/polytheism) finds similar-yet-distinct expressions in different cultures and how some of what you're noting in fandom is maybe one more version of that, but I can't quite nail the exact words for the idea, so I'm throwing it out there a few days late and a few dollars short anyway for the sake of possible discussion? Like, this is a thing people do, in subtly different forms across cultural groups?
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2013-03-21 02:01 am (UTC)...and I've kept putting off replying to this because I keep circling this idea about how the same idea (totems/patron saints/polytheism) finds similar-yet-distinct expressions in different cultures and how some of what you're noting in fandom is maybe one more version of that, but I can't quite nail the exact words for the idea, so I'm throwing it out there a few days late and a few dollars short anyway for the sake of possible discussion? Like, this is a thing people do, in subtly different forms across cultural groups?