On The Sacred Importance of the Wagon

“Wheeled vehicles might have entered the steppes through Maikop, revolutionizing steppe economies and making Yamnaya pastoral nomadism possible after 3300 BC.”

[Anthony, David. “Archaeology, Genetics, and Language in the Steppes: A Comment on Bomhard,” Journal of Indo-European Studies, 2019.]

“Historical linguists have established that the speakers of PIE were familiar with wheeled vehicles, reconstructing at least six PIE terms that refer to them: three terms for wheel (perhaps an indication of the importance of wheels in PIE life), one for axle, one for 'thill' (the draft pole to which the yoke is attached) and a verbal root meaning 'to go or convey in a vehicle.' Cognates for these terms exist in all branches of Indo-European, from Celtic in the west to Sanskrit and Tocharian in the east, and from Baltic in the north to Hittite and Greek in the south…The PIE terms probably referred to the earliest form of wheeled vehicle - the solid-wheeled wagon or cart, pulled (slowly) by cattle.

[Anthony, David. “Horse, wagon & chariot: Indo-European languages and archaeology.” Antiquity, 1995.]

Chicks and ducks and geese better scurry
When I take you out in the surrey,
When I take you out in the surrey with the fringe on top!

[Oklahoma!, Rodgers and Hammerstein, 1943.]

On Farming vs. Pastoralism

“Using linguistic reconstruction from old Indo-European languages such as Latin and Sanskrit, hypothetical features of the Proto-Indo-European language are deduced. Assuming that these linguistic features reflect culture and environment of the Proto-Indo-Europeans, the following cultural and environmental traits are widely proposed:

pastoralism, including domesticated cattle, horses, and dogs (“When we hit that road, hell fer leather,
Cats and dogs'll dance in the heather,
Birds and frogs'll sing all together and the toads will hop!”)
agriculture and cereal cultivation, including technology commonly ascribed to late-Neolithic farming communities, e.g., the plow (“Oh, the farmer and the cowman should be friends.
One man likes to push a plough,
The other likes to chase a cow,”)
transportation by or across water
the solid wheel, used for wagons, but not yet chariots with spoked wheels
worship of a sky god, *Dyḗus Ph2tḗr (lit. "sky father"; > Vedic Sanskrit Dyáuṣ Pitṛ́, Ancient Greek Ζεύς (πατήρ) / Zeus (dyeus)), vocative *dyeu ph2ter (> Latin Iūpiter, Illyrian Deipaturos) (“There's a bright, golden haze on the meadow
There's a bright, golden haze on the meadow
The corn is as high as an elephant's eye
And it looks like it's climbing clear up to the sky”)
a patrilineal kinship-system based on relationships between men (“Folks, we are gathered here to moan
And groan over our brother Jud Fry, There beat a heart as big as all outdoors
As big as all outdoors.
Jud Fry loved his feller man
He loved his feller man”)

“The vocabulary and conceptual language contained within Proto-Indo-European points to a deeply hierarchical and patriarchal society bound together by oaths of submission to a superior, rooted in systematized inequality. This was a society of warriors, mounted on horseback, who accumulated wealth from stock-breeding, rustling, and warfare. They cared deeply about glory obtained in war, and sang praise poems at their elaborate funerals.”

[Wyman, Patrick. “Who were the Proto-Indo-Europeans?: Language, Archaeology, and the Deep Past,” 2020.]

“If you make one mistake when the moon is bright/Then they tie you to a contract so you make it every night.”

[“It’s A Scandal! It’s An Outrage!,” Oklahoma!]

On the Anatolian vs. Kurgan Hypotheses

“We test two theories of Indo-European origin: the 'Kurgan expansion' and the 'Anatolian farming' hypotheses. The Kurgan theory centres on possible archaeological evidence for an expansion into Europe and the Near East by Kurgan horsemen beginning in the sixth millennium BP. In contrast, the Anatolian theory claims that Indo-European languages expanded with the spread of agriculture from Anatolia around 8,000-9,500 years bp.”

[Russell D Gray, Quentin D. Atkinson, “Language-tree divergence times support the Anatolian theory of Indo-European origin,” Nature, 2003.]

“The farmer should be sociable with the cowboy if he rides by and asks for food and water. Don't treat him like a louse, make him welcome in your house.”

[“The Farmer and the Cowman Should Be Friends,” Oklahoma!]

Curly is an obvious stand-in for first-man, first-priest Manu, and Jud his sacrificial twin Yemo, Ado Annie is the Sun Maiden, Will and Ali the Divine Twins, the dream-ballet the journey to the Underworld, I guess that makes Kansas City the pastureland of the Blessed Isles. Let’s say Laurey is Dʰéǵʰōm, the broad and dark genius of the earth (dankuiš dagan-zipaš). It all checks out.

The Chatner

The Musical Oklahoma! Pretty Effectively…