Monday, December 13, 2010

Fascinating paper on the history of Santa

Check out this fascinating and detailed paper by David Kyle Johnson. You won't be sorry.

8 comments:

  1. Which is not to say that every conjecture in the paper is correct. But it's fascinating reading.

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  2. A very interesting read. Thank you for posting!

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  3. I'm dubious on the Greek mythology part, for example. Equating "Pan" with the Greek word for "all" (as in Pangaea) is folk etymology, and Zeus-worship is pretty darn old (the name goes back to Proto-Indo-European, after all, and was probably syncretized with storm-related deities worshipped in that area before).

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  4. It reminded me of this nice little movie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_Exports

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  5. Should be taught in primary schools, if only for the hilarious indignation that's bound to follow.

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  6. Yeah, the conjecturing about Pan was one area that didn't seem right.

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