Originally posted by Parta
yes. you are either a none sufferer or someone who gets to cheese it up again.

Ahhh...I see. Interesting.

Originally posted by Parta
you said a dairy diet and not getting fat and from the thesis the modern day example of milk fatteneing is the mauretanian girls who have to drink 14litres of milk a day to get huge. 14litres of milk is 2 lbs of cheese or the daily production of a cow in bad shape.

Milk is digested somewhat differently, and I don't know enough, but I am sure there must be some transformation of metabolites/compounds or whatever when milk becomes cheese. It is not merely an outward transformation...not to mention the fusion that takes place with airborne, and in situ, fungis. Just as dough and grape juice need yeast, to transmute, so does milk need it's funguses to become cheese. I can see that it would be possible to fatten up girls with a milk diet, but I do not necessarily see how that correlates with cheese making, other than as a by-product of the milk, the milk is still primary. Cheese as a means of 'treating' lactose intolerance though, that would have been a huge breakthrough...but then, also, an understanding that prolonged breast feeding can transmit antibodies from 'mother' to child building tolerance in stages, across generations would also have played a part. 14 litres of milk to make two lbs of cheese is resource expensive, if resources are scarce, I should imagine that great ceremony went into the earliest cheese making, and that as we still know, like wine, the ritual would be very location specific because of the local fungus/or whatever, (I need to learn more about this), that is integral to their transformation.

Originally posted by Parta
the two of us come down on different sides of the thesis argument [biography and the morther goddess or the dairy queen].

Well, no, I don't think so. It's simply a matter of changing perspective and looking at things from all angles. They knew that by doing something in a certain way, at a certain time, to a specific thing, X will happen. They did not know how, or why, just that it did. Deviate from the ritual, and it wouldn't work. Or it might do something new and wonderful which may take precedence and the ritual become adapted. So, while a dairy queen might be one manifestation of the human part in the process, they will probably have a ascribed the unknown element to another unseen source, whether it was a female or male god would depend on where they thought the 'magic' came from. I'm quite accepting of the idea of a dairy queen, but to what purpose does she serve? Is she an bridal offering? She must, at some point, have served a function...things like that, ideas, don't just happen.

Originally posted by Parta
its not to say boys didn't wear masks too.
middle danube [vinca et al] or volos are good places for the masked goddess [or god]. hungary has the best long necked masked goddesses i think.

That certainly should keep me busy for a while!

I have seen masked males all over the place. Quite common, culturally. So not me saying they didn't, they clearly did, and do. The female, as I said, I haven't seen at all...but thank you for the links, I've had a quick look and will go through them at a steadier pace when I have more time...there are hundreds in the first link alone.

Originally posted by Parta
well i guess i'm just happy that about a thousand new museums are available for us to catalog

Don't get me wrong, me too, but I fight a constant battle with impatience.