We decided to use the term “Hot Spots” after reading the article In Comparison a Magic Dwells by Jonathan Z. Smith. In this article Smith talks about the ways in which it is problematic to compare religions and traditions just because they seem similar to those who are doing the comparing. In other words Smith wants us to not see patterns happening all over the world and call it all the same, because then we run into the problem of generalizing the ways in which people learn, practice, and understand the world they know that is culturally specific. When looking at the topic of mermaids it is very easy to say that everytime there is a “mermaid citing” or story that arises from experience it is a particularly hard to not call everything we see mermaids. Smith is also not telling us to say that mermaids are a universal truth or because they are one place they are everywhere. He is urging us to see that these things can exist all over the world but that does not mean they all exist together. And, if they do we need to highlight that there are differences and details that make them all different and unique.
So, when reading these accounts of mermaids around the world be careful not to create truths that are not there, and check your own lenses when addressing the “reality” of these creatures. Because, for us, our understanding of the world is influenced by so many different things that other places and it is not fair to put that on to all of the amazing phenomenons that have made the world what it is on the small scale and the large scale.
Smith, Jonathan Z. A Magic Still Dwells: Comparative Religion in the Post Modern Age. Edited by Kimberly C. Patton and Benjamin C. Ray. Berkely and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2000.In Comparison a Magic Dwells: Prolouge by J.Z. Smith, pgs. 23-44
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