Ancestors and Descendants

I heard an interesting podcast recently about ancestor worship and how it is expressed in Western culture.

Genealogy is a popular hobby and is pretty much the closest thing we have to modern-day ancestor worship. But, in reality, genealogy is more about the searcher than the subjects. People who scour the branches of their family tree do so to find out more about themselves, to bask in whatever glory they find radiating from illustrious progenitors. It's not really worshipping anyone but yourself.

The podcaster, David Bouchier, put forth a theory that ancestor worship has been pretty much discarded in our culture for the sake of descendent worship or worship of our children. People once hung pictures of their great ancestors in their homes. Now it's all kid pictures.

I think it all boils down to whether we exalt the past or the future. But that's just my two cents. Check out the podcast by clicking this link.

Listening To: Dear Science by TV on the Radio