Post by gadreel on Oct 9, 2017 22:04:00 GMT
These and other prohibitions were designed to forbid the Israelites to engage in fertility cult practices of the Canaanites. The Canaanites believed in sympathetic magic, the idea that symbolic actions can influence the gods and nature…. Mixing animal breeds, seeds, or materials was thought to “marry” them” so as magically to produce “offspring,” that is, agricultural bounty in the future.
EDIT:
It's not about seperating them from other tribes it is about avoiding pagan practices.
The mixing of fabrics being one could be tied to that but it was not in and of itself paganism since true worship included it too.