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From: trudel@caip.rutgers.EDU (Jonathan D. Trudel)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: Sex and gender of Sun and Moon
Message-ID: <18353@paris.ics.uci.edu>
Date: 21 Jun 89 01:02:12 GMT
References: <25390@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <2746@ski.cs.vu.nl> <SHELMREI.89Jun13101937@hades.nmsu.edu> <18183@paris.ics.uci.edu>
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>>A friend of mine did a small study of various mythologies and reported
>>to me that overwhelmingly the deity of the sun was male and that of
>>the moon was female.  

True, but did you ever know why?  If observed from an anthropological
perspective, the relation does make sense.

Consider the moon.  It waxes and wanes on a monthly basis.  Women go
through a similar "monthly" event - menstruation.  It is believed (and
from what I've heard, generally accepted) that the Female/Moon link
was made in many cultures because of this synchronicity, and of
course, the Sun/Male relation followed.

Pretty wild stuff, eh?  

						Jon