An "argot" is an insider language. They can range in complexity from a simple (often unwritten) list of vocabulary words to fully developed grammars. The present project takes place at the boundary of the academic study of religion, and the increasingly academic study of videogames, and several overlapping dork-cultures, each of which have their own trade argots. There will be n00bs, Culturally Posited Superhuman agents [CPS agents], and ergodic texts here. Like any trade (or criminal, for that matter) argot, these languages serve the dual purpose of keeping outsiders out and facilitating speedy communication between insiders on the complex topics around which they are organized. I am particularly fond of the Yiddish term, "Lehavdil loshen," language for keeping things separate.
This lexicon is an always and necessarily partial list of terms that I find very useful for my own work. I will keep the list "soft," revising and adding as I go, but I wanted to create a place to start for my students and a place for me to return.
Crystal Dragon Jesus: "Any fictional religion, such as those found in a Medieval European Fantasy, which possesses attributes stereotypically associated with Christianity (especially Roman Catholicism) — such as priestly vestments, nuns and their habits, confessionals, the designs of houses of worship, and crosses — but which centers on a deity other than the Christian God, like an animistic spirit or pagan-flavored god. Often there will be a Yahweh analog but not a Jesus one" (accessed 8/26/2010)
Culturally Posited Superhuman agents [CPS agents]: Adopted from McCauley and Lawson's psychological theories of ritual action, later adopted by Harvey Whitehouse. These are the agents with "counter-intuitive qualities" by which they separate religion from other cultural phenomena. The most common "counter-intuitive quality" may be CPS agents' frequent violation of the rule that an agent "(normally)" is a "physical object" and bounded by the constraints of that situation. Other relative frequent surprises include being "eternal, parentless, or capable of recovering from death" (25).
Kobayashi Maru: "A no-win situation caused by a set of rules that can only be won by changing the rules, in effect, cheating. This term comes from the name of a small ship in distress in a scenario shown in a Star Trek movie. According to the film, the scenario is featured in a training simulator for students attempting to become ship's captains. They receive a distress signal from the Kobayashi Maru and can either attempt to rescue it and be destroyed by enemy forces or leave it and let it be destroyed. James T. Kirk, according to the film, is the only person to have won the scenario--by reprogramming the simulator. Kobayashi Maru, loosely translated, means "Little wooden ship." (Urban Dictionary entry, accessed 8/26/2010)
Bibliography:
McCauley, Robert N, and E T. Lawson. Bringing Ritual to Mind: Psychological Foundations of Cultural Forms. Cambridge: Cambridge University press, 2002.
Whitehouse, Harvey. Modes of Religiosity: A Cognitive Theory of Religious Transmission. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2004.
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