Post Goes Pagan: Odin Retires, Puzzled

Sherwood, Harrison hsherwood at btg.com
Wed Sep 10 15:07:55 CDT 1997


Today's Washington Post had a front-pager that had a decided Masonic &
Dixonian bent. See it at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-09/10/082l-091097-idx.h
tml. (_Real_ slow news day--above the fold: Love Conquers What Ails
Teens, Study Finds.)

     HEAD: Pagans, Tribes, Scientists Battle Over Ancient Bones: Court
to Decide 
     Who Holds Claim to Kennewick Man

     KENNEWICK, Wash.-Dressed in cloak and buckled tunic, his voice
rumbling with 
     conviction, the leader of a pre-Christian pagan sect summons
ancient Norse 
     gods to a site where a wounded man died 90 centuries ago. "O-thin!
O-thin!" 
     booms Asatru Folk Assembly leader Stephen McNallen, using the old 
     pronunciation to address Odin, one-eyed god of war, poetry, wisdom
and death.     McNallen's altar, in a park overlooking the mighty
Columbia River, is only a 
     few hundred yards from where the 9,300-year-old skeleton known as
Kennewick 
     Man was discovered last summer.     Since his discovery, the
Kennewick Man has become embroiled in a bitter 
     dispute involving scientists who want to study him, Native
Americans who want 
     him laid to rest and McNallen's group, which claims him as their
forefather.     All those involved say the stakes are enormous.

It's a pity that the web edition of the Post doesn't show the print
edition's  photographs of the hirsute Mr. McNallen, resplendent in robes
and chunky Runic jewelry, brandishing Thor's hammer aloft and declaiming
no doubt impeccably authentic Norse incantations (voice rumbling with
conviction, or, or...something) while surrounded by excruciatingly
earnest-looking acolytes. Makes a fella sorta rethink his perhaps too
hasty and youthful dismissal of religion, organized or not.

Another exerpt:

     What scientists can learn from Kennewick Man could very well
shatter 
     conventional wisdom, said [local anthropological consultant] Jim
Chatters, one 
     of only three scientists to examine the skeleton before it was
boxed up.     He describes the man he calls "The Ultimate Elder" as a
tall, thin man of 
     about 45 to 50 years, with a long, narrow face, a slight overbite,
a prominent 
     Kirk Douglas chin and a square jaw. "He could slip into most major
cities of 
     the modern world and not appear unusual."

(Presumably Dr. Chatters is employing the present historical tense here.
The thought that a 9,300-year-old moldered skeleton could wander the
streets of Rome or Riyadh without exciting comment is simply more than
even my jaded imagination can encompass--extravagantly dimpled chin
notwithstanding. And perhaps someone can enlighten me: How does one
become an "anthropological consultant"? Register with ManPower?)
Other tidbits:

1) The division head for physical anthropology of the Smithsonian
Institution's National Museum of Natural History is named Douglas
Owsley.

2) The Asatru Folk Assembly has a lawyer.

Harrison

P.S. I know we're not supposed to encourage him or anything, but the
RealDoll FAQ is nothing shy of a major bladder-strainer.



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