[Oe List ...] Helpful books on White and Tan Urs

[W. J.]

Maybe JWM was referencing the Sumerian City of Ur, but I think it more likely that we used "UR-" accurately as the Old High German prefix that has the following definition:

ur- (sometimes initial capital letter)
a combining form meaning “earliest, original,” used in words denoting the primal stage of a historical or cultural entity or phenomenon: ur-civilization; urtext. 

Example of usage:
"Some stories reach deeper, into the most primal and profound truths. They mirror, in new and original ways, the Ur-myth, the act of creation itself."
John Adcox, 'Can Fantasy be Myth? Mythopoeia and The Lord of the Rings', The Newsletter of the Mythic Imagination Institute, 2003

So the UR-Images are those primitive, primordial images that shape human consciousness, and within which we live as culturally distinctive (and largely not conscious) ways of being in the world.

Marshall

This message was brought to you out of the gift of living in rationality, which is an UR-Image that I still treasure!




________________________________
From: Charles or Doris Hahn <cdhahn at flash.net>
To: Order Ecumenical Community <oe at wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 11:18:12 AM
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Helpful books on White and Tan Urs


Hi Mark,
I can't help you much with book titles right now.  However, I am quite certain that Joe Mathews, when we working on this area, picked the word "Ur" from the phrase Ur of the Chaldees, the home of Abraham.  Ur was on the Euphrates in southern Mesopotamia in what is now Iraq as I recall.  I just looked it up in the Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible, and this is correct.   I think Joe picked the word because it in his mind pointed to the primordial origins. 
 
Doris and I along with Joe and Carol Pierce did the research trip to Continent Seapac in the Fall Quarter of 1966.  We went to every Arab nation plus Israel and Iran in our twelve week journey. Doris has remembered that the most helpful book we found on the Arab world was one done by Aramco (the Arabian-American Oil Company).  Neither of us can remember the title.  I think Aramco was a consortium of American oil companies who had joined to develop the huge oil fields of Saudia Arabia.  It was headquartered in Daharan, Saudi Arabia.  Perhaps the Saudis have taken over control of all oil production today.  I do not know.  Perhaps there is enough information here for you to track down this book.
It is great to see your name on the OE listserve.   Are you still in Ohio?  /we now live in Bloomington, IN.
We might see you some time if you are close.
Charles Hahn


________________________________
 From: "MJDOVE at aol.com" <MJDOVE at aol.com>
To: OE at wedgeblade.net
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 9:21:45 AM
Subject: [Oe List ...] Helpful books on White and Tan Urs

I need some recommended books that deal with the deeps of cultural understanding for both the Tan and White Urs.  Where did the word "ur" come from.  Any help would be appreciated.  Mark Dove 


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