[Buddha-l] {Theravada, Pali, Cambodia} the embryo in the canon (and in current ritual traditions)

[Eisel Mazard]

Three very different articles dealing with the intersecting issues
alluded to in the subject line:

(1)
Steven PRIGENT : Un fœtus humain pour amulette, la règle de filiation
khmère à l'aune d'une rumeur cambodgienne
Péninsule 62, 2011
http://peninsule.free.fr/pages/peninsule_62pag.html

(2)
Mathieu Boisvert, "Conception and intrauterine life in the Pāli canon",
Sciences religieuses / Studies in Religion, vol. 29, no 3, 2000, p. 301-311.
http://www.wlu.ca/press/Journals/sr/issues/29_3/boisvert.shtml

(3)
Eisel Mazard (i.e., me)
http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2011/01/27/unpopular-facts-about-one-of-buddhist-philosophys-most-popular-doctrines/

I mention my own work here to provide a comparative reference as to
the specific issue of the gandhabba in the process of incarnation (in
§2 of the essay) --i.e., an interesting contrast to Boisvert's
treatment of the same issue(s).  I read both (1) and (2) subsequent to
authoring (3); although I was familiar with the sources Boisvert
discusses within the /suttapitaka/, I had not read the passages he
takes from other (Pali) sources (Mil., etc.).

As discussed throughout my (long) essay "Canon and Reason", the
phenomena of contemporary Cambodian religion are discussed by
anthropologists without recourse to canonical comparisons.  And that's
a shame.

E.M.