Tuesday, January 21, 2014

American Gods

It has been a really long time since I read Neil Gaimen's "American Gods", I don't remember much about it now, but it still pops up now and again in my mind, and with it the question of "who are the American Gods"? Some (many?) are borrowed from our European ancestors, but others were a part of this land before we were, as unique as the earth they were born in. 
  Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyun, and even Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson  could all be candidates.  Deities such as the Corn Mother of Native Americans (who bears a strong archetypal connection with Demeter) should be brought up here, although many of these our current culture doesn't pay homage to outright.  Indirectly we worship the corn, because it provides our nation with just about everything right now.  People living in the midwest can attest to this, as we've watched the tiny tree-lines dozed to make way for yet more corn (and hopefully the occasional crop rotation of soy--Make way for the Goddess of Corn In Excess!!).
  What other God/desses do we have here? What do we worship both directly, and indirectly?
  Football, and thus, competition and aggression seems to be high on the list, as well, as acquiring physical goods, especially, technological goods.  A God (or Goddess?) of the internet cannot be denied, we have come so far from Hermes' (often a god of technology) original domain, I can only assume that a new god has had to wrestle the keyboard from his Father's shaky hands and say "no, Dad, that e-mail that says you won 5 million dollars will actually re-direct you to a phishing site."--"A fishing what?"
  We may not set up conscious alters to these Gods, but we worship them in indirect ways nontheless. Think of all the set-up that goes into Super-Bowl Sunday, with special foods to cook, special colors and items to wear, it kind of reminds me a bit of x-mas...
  I could elaborate, but I think it's time to get on to other things, you hopefully get the idea.
But tell me, what Gods do we worship that I didn't mention, and what things do we do for their worship, what kind of domain do they control?
Just something to ponder.

3 comments:

  1. Don't forget the god of excess.... we know that's an American favorite!

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  2. I feel like the God of excess is a category filled with lots of little specific gods. The top dude looks kinda like Hedonism-Bot from Futurama.

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  3. http://www.leemoyer.com/smallgods

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