*Animistic religious beliefs (Originating in Africa: 100,000 to 50,000 years ago): We die and go to the Sun/Heaven (by the Milky Way path), no life after Death. There is a sun spirit female and a moon spirit male. The new moon is favored for “sneaking hunting” (hunters are unseen) in the darkest night. All people are equal and dual-spirited, and animals also go to heaven, just like humans; they have a spirit while alive.
*Totemistic religious beliefs (Originating in Western Europe: 50,000 to 28,000 years ago): We die and go to the Stars/Heaven (by the Milky Way path), no life after Death. There is a sun spirit female and a moon spirit male. The new moon is favored for “sneaking hunting” (hunters are unseen) in the darkest night. The Third/First Quarter Moon was likely also favored as it related to the first ancestor clan, pseudo twin being that he-she/they were seen as duality: intersex, trans, bisexual, half-male and half-female, in “One Great” dual-spirit being.
*Shamanistic religious beliefs (Originating in Western Siberia: 34,000 to 9,000 years ago): We may die and go to the Stars/Heaven (by the Milky Way path) or have rebirth/reincarnation, Life after Death/afterlife (ancestors can interact to help or hurt). There is a sun spirit male and a moon spirit female. The new moon is favored for “sneaking hunting” (hunters are unseen) in the darkest night. Additionally, the Waning/Waxing Crescent Moon is favored in relation to the boy twins’ mythology, which explains why these twins can have different fathers. And these moons are the darkest nights after the new moon, thus also aiding in hiding in “ambush” hunting.
*Paganistic religious beliefs (Originating in Upper Mesopotamia (Turkey): 12,000/11,000 years ago): We may die and go to the Stars/Heaven (by the Milky Way path) or have rebirth/reincarnation, Life after Death/afterlife (ancestors can interact to help or hurt). There is a sun spirit male and a moon spirit female. The full moon is favored for “more safety for herders” (also: there is a higher number of births around the full moon for dairy cows) on the brightest night. Additionally, the Waning/Waxing Crescent Moon is favored in relation to the boy twins’ mythology, or the duality of bull horns and twin-peaked mountains, which explains why these twins can have different fathers. And these moons are associated with the Star of Venus, also known as the Morning Star or Dawn goddess.
Possible time of origin of Y-DNA BT is 150,000-145,000 years ago, and the Possible time of origin of B Y-DNA is 100,000 years ago. “B” Y-DNA was the ancestral haplogroup of not only modern Pygmies like the Baka and Mbuti, but also the Hadzabe from Tanzania, and the Khoisan people in East Africa.
“Basal BT* has not been documented in any living individuals or ancient remains. No definite examples of BT (xCF, DE) – i.e. members of BT outside the only two known branches of CT, namely haplogroups CF and DE – have been identified. In some cases, because testing is undertaken only for geographically and historically likely haplogroups, the data required to identify a precise subclade has not been collected and/or recorded. For instance, research published in 2013, regarding a sample of more than 2,000 men from different parts of Africa, included 7.5% belonging to haplogroup BT (xDE, K). These approximately 150 individuals may have included, for example: B*, unknown primary branches of haplogroups B, BT, CT or CF; haplogroup C, and/or; F (xK) (i.e. haplogroup F* plus its subclades G, H and IJ, but specifically excluding the broader haplogroup K and its subclades, such as haplogroups K*, LT, K2b*, MS, NO, P, Q and R).” ref
“Haplogroup CT is a human Y chromosome haplogroup. CT has two basal branches, CF and DE. DE is divided into a predominantly Asia-distributed haplogroup D-CTS3946 and a predominantly Africa-distributed haplogroup E-M96, while CF is divided into an East Asian, Native American, and Oceanian haplogroup C-M130 and haplogroup F-M89, which dominates most non-African populations. In keeping with the concept of “Y-chromosomal Adam” given to the patrilineal ancestor of all living humans, CT-M168 has therefore also been referred to in popularized accounts as being the lineage of “Eurasian Adam” or “Out of Africa Adam”; because, along with many African Y-lineages, all non-African Y-lineages descend from it.” ref
“Haplogroup DE is a human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup. One of the first Out of Africa migrations occurred over 100,000 years ago. Humans spread rapidly along the coast of Asia and reached Australia by around 65,000–50,000 years ago, it has suggested that these first settlers of Australia may represent an older wave before the more significant out of Africa migration and Europe was populated by an early offshoot which settled the Near East and Europe less than 55,000 years ago. A single coastal dispersal, with an early offshoot into Europe. An immediate subclade, haplogroup D (also known as D-CTS3946), is mainly found in East Asia, parts of Central Asia, and the Andaman Islands, but also sporadically in West Africa and West Asia. The other immediate subclade, haplogroup E, is common in Africa, and to a lesser extent, the Middle East and southern Europe.” ref, ref
“CT” Y-DNA is present in all modern human male lineages except A and B in Africa. The vast majority of living individuals carrying F-M89 belong to subclades of GHIJK. Y-DNA haplogroup LT is an old lineage widely distributed at low concentrations. It was established approximately 30,000-40,000 years ago, probably in South Asia or West Asia. L-M20 originated in the Eurasian K-M9 clan that migrated eastwards from the Middle East, and later southwards from the Pamir Knot into present-day Pakistan and India (India 7,500).” ref, ref, ref, ref, ref
Khoi-san and Hadza peoples of southern Africa: The Khoekhoen people have an “Indigenous nomadic pastoralist culture,” and the San people have an “Indigenous hunter-gatherer culture,” which is one of the oldest surviving cultures of the region. The Hadza people, who have an “indigenous hunter-gatherer culture,” were a pre-Bantu expansion culture not closely related to Khoisan speakers.
While we may want African hunter-gatherer religions to teach us about possible insights into the hunting cult of animists 100,000 years ago, we only get a blurred image smeared with ideas from later religious persuasions to some extent, such as totemism, shamanism, and later paganism. We can hear some lingering aspects, but no pure source is actually left, but we can do the best we can to trace back now long past ideas of the past. We just must remember to be discerning.
African Animistic Hunter-Gatherers
“By around 200,000 years ago, Middle Paleolithic stone tool manufacturing spawned a tool-making technique known as the prepared-core technique, which was more elaborate than previous Acheulean techniques. This technique increased efficiency by allowing the creation of more controlled and consistent flakes. It allowed Middle Paleolithic humans to create stone-tipped spears, which were the earliest composite tools, by hafting sharp pointy stone flakes onto wooden shafts. In addition to improving tool-making methods, the Middle Paleolithic also saw an improvement of the tools themselves that allowed access to a wider variety and amount of food sources. For example, microliths or small stone tools or points were invented around 70,000–65,000 years ago and were essential to the invention of bows and atlatls (spear throwers) in the following Upper Paleolithic.” ref
“Harpoons were invented and used for the first time during the late Middle Paleolithic (c. 90,000 years ago); the invention of these devices brought fish into the human diets, which provided a hedge against starvation and a more abundant food supply. Thanks to their technology and their advanced social structures, Paleolithic groups such as the Neanderthals—who had a Middle Paleolithic level of technology—appear to have hunted large game just as well as Upper Paleolithic modern humans, and the Neanderthals in particular may have likewise hunted with projectile weapons. Nonetheless, Neanderthal use of projectile weapons in hunting occurred very rarely (or perhaps never), and the Neanderthals hunted large game animals mostly by ambushing them and attacking them with handheld weapons such as thrusting spears rather than attacking them from a distance with projectiles.” ref
“Middle Paleolithic burials at sites such as Krapina in Croatia (dated to c. 130,000 years ago) and the Qafzeh and Es Skhul caves in Israel (c. 100,000 years ago) have led some anthropologists and archeologists (such as Philip Lieberman) to believe that Middle Paleolithic cultures may have possessed a developing religious ideology which included concepts such as an afterlife; other scholars suggest the bodies were buried for secular reasons. According to the theory of the recent African origin of modern humans, anatomically modern humans began migrating out of Africa during the Middle Stone Age/Middle Paleolithic around 125,000 years ago and began to replace other Homo species such as the Neanderthals and Homo erectus. The earliest undisputed evidence of artistic expression during the Paleolithic period comes from Middle Paleolithic/Middle Stone Age sites such as Blombos Cave in the form of bracelets, beads, art rock, ochre used as body paint and perhaps in ritual, though earlier examples of artistic expression such as the Venus of Tan-Tan and the patterns found on elephant bones from Bilzingsleben in Thuringia may have been produced by Acheulean tool-users such as Homo erectus prior to the start of the Middle Paleolithic period.” ref
“Activities such as catching large fish and hunting large game animals with specialized tools indicate increased group-wide cooperation and more elaborate social organization. In addition to developing advanced cultural traits, humans also first began to take part in long-distance trade between groups for rare commodities (such as ochre (which was often used for religious purposes such as ritual) and raw materials during the Middle Paleolithic as early as 120,000 years ago. Inter-group trade may have appeared during the Middle Paleolithic because trade between bands would have helped ensure their survival by allowing them to exchange resources and commodities such as raw materials during times of relative scarcity (i.e., famine or drought). Evidence from archeology and comparative ethnography indicates that Middle Paleolithic people lived in small, egalitarian band societies similar to those of Upper Paleolithic societies and some modern hunter-gatherers such as the ǃKung and Mbuti peoples.” ref
“It has usually been assumed that women gathered plants and firewood, and men hunted and scavenged dead animals through the Paleolithic. However, Steven L. Kuhn and Mary Stiner from the University of Arizona suggest that this sex-based division of labor did not exist prior to the Upper Paleolithic. The sexual division of labor may have evolved after 45,000 years ago to allow humans to acquire food and other resources more efficiently. Although gathering and hunting comprised most of the food supply during the Middle Paleolithic, people began to supplement their diet with seafood and began smoking and drying meat to preserve and store it. For instance the Middle Stone Age inhabitants of the region now occupied by the Democratic Republic of the Congo hunted large 1.8-metre (6 ft) long catfish with specialized barbed fishing points as early as 90,000 years ago, Middle Paleolithic Homo sapiens in Africa began to catch shellfish for food as revealed by shellfish cooking in Middle Paleolithic Homo sapiens sites at Pinnacle Point, in Africa.” ref
I estimate that animism emerged around 100,000 years ago, after our meeting with Neandertals in Israel. These people then traveled back and forth between North Africa, and as the climate cooled, all humanity headed south to southern Africa.
“The burial ground itself dates to a narrower range, around 100,000 years ago. This makes it contemporaneous to some two dozen hominins whose remains were unearthed at Qafzeh and Skhul, two caves in the Galilee that have long been hailed as the oldest intentional human burials. But there is more. The Qafzeh and Skhul hominins are generally identified as an early form of sapiens, although many scholars believe the ancestral traits they display are the result of interbreeding with local Neanderthals, says Hershkovitz. The anthropological analysis of the Tinshemet skeletons is still ongoing, he says. In any case, preliminary analysis of the Tinshemet remains suggest they too belong to the Qafzeh/Skhul group of early modern humans, Hershkovitz says.” ref
Paint it red (which has been mined for rituals 300,000 years and in burials at least 130,000 years ago with Neandertals showing pre-animism at least)
“This uniformity extends beyond the funerary sphere, and involves many aspects of the daily lives of hominins living across the Levant in this period, says Dr. Marion Prévost, a Hebrew University expert on prehistoric tools who has worked on multiple Middle Paleolithic digs in Israel. The people living at these caves shared the same hunting techniques and an increasing taste for large game, including deer, aurochs and wild horses. The lumps of red pigments found in abundance at Tinshemet, just like at Qafzeh/Skhul, also tell a story of long-distance contacts and shared resources, says Zaidner. Ochre would not have been readily available in the area surrounding Tinshemet. The closest available sources were in the Galilee, at least 60-80 kilometers to the north, or in the central Negev desert, more than 100 kilometers south.” ref
“The study of the finds from Tinshemet, in correlation to those from across Israel and beyond (there are sites in Lebanon and Arabia that display similar features), shows that the contacts between hominin groups was not limited to an occasional exchange of genes, Hershkovitz says. “The overlap of the two populations is now visible not only on the genetic level, but also on the social and cultural level,” he says. “When you look at sites where modern humans and Neanderthals lived you see similarities on all levels: technology, lifestyle, hunting techniques, symbolic behavior.” ref
Animism: Respecting the Living World by Graham Harvey
“How have human cultures engaged with and thought about animals, plants, rocks, clouds, and other elements in their natural surroundings? Do animals and other natural objects have a spirit or soul? What is their relationship to humans? In this new study, Graham Harvey explores current and past animistic beliefs and practices of Native Americans, Maori, Aboriginal Australians, and eco-pagans. He considers the varieties of animism found in these cultures as well as their shared desire to live respectfully within larger natural communities. Drawing on his extensive casework, Harvey also considers the linguistic, performative, ecological, and activist implications of these different animisms.” ref
We are like believing machines; we vacuum up ideas, like Velcro sticks to almost everything. We accumulate beliefs, that we allow to negatively influence our lives, often without realizing it. Our willingness must be to alter skewed beliefs that impede our balance or reason, which allows us to achieve new positive thinking and accurate outcomes.
To me, we get Totemism by 50,000 either in the Middle East or after we get to France and Germany 50,000 to 45,000 years ago. I see it stronger in Western Europe, so I think it was fully totemistic there. However, it is possible pre-totemism started in the Middle East 55,000 to 60,000 years ago, adding sacred horned animals like bulls to snake beliefs that started in Africa. They seem to have added the bear cult in Germany and France 45,000 years ago or so. I think the great Cosmic hunt is from Germany and France, 45,000 to 40,000 years ago or so. I think that some time after 40,000 years ago, they developed moon spirit beliefs connected to women. Around 38,000 years ago, it seems they added male spirits, if they hadn’t already emerged with female spirits at 40,000 years ago. 40,000 years ago is an interesting date as it is after 40,000 years ago that there is a large drop in incest in western Europe, pointing to totemism cultures with extreme aversion to incest and laws on who you can have sex with/marry.
To me, Animism starts in Southern Africa, then to West Europe, and becomes Totemism. Another split goes near the Russia and Siberia border becoming Shamanism, which heads into Central Europe meeting up with Totemism, which also had moved there, mixing the two which then heads to Lake Baikal in Siberia. From there this Shamanism-Totemism heads to Turkey where it becomes Paganism.
Hadza language
“Hadza is a language isolate spoken along the shores of Lake Eyasi in Tanzania, and the Hadza are the last full-time hunter-gatherers in Africa. It is one of only three languages in East Africa with click consonants. Hadza is believed to be a language isolate. It was once classified by many linguists as a Khoisan language, along with its neighbour Sandawe, primarily because they both have click consonants.” ref
Khoisan languages
“Genetically, the Hadza people are unrelated to the Khoisan peoples of Southern Africa, and their closest relatives may be among the Pygmies of Central Africa. However, Hadza is no longer considered a Khoisan language and appears to be unrelated to any other language (to me, the genetic connection, particularly through the click connection, seems to suggest some degree of connection). All but two Khoisan languages are indigenous to southern Africa; these are classified into three language families. The Khoe family appears to have migrated to southern Africa not long before the Bantu expansion. Ethnically, their speakers are the Khoekhoe and the San (Bushmen). Two languages of eastern Africa, those of the Sandawe and Hadza, were originally also classified as Khoisan, although their speakers are ethnically neither Khoekhoe nor San. Before the Bantu expansion, Khoisan languages, or languages like them, were likely spread throughout southern and eastern Africa. They are currently restricted to the Kalahari Desert, primarily in Namibia and Botswana, and to the Rift Valley in central Tanzania. Most of the languages are endangered, and several are moribund or extinct. Most have no written record. The only widespread Khoisan language is Khoekhoe (also known as Khoekhoegowab, Nàmá or Damara) of Namibia, Botswana and South Africa, with a quarter of a million speakers; Sandawe in Tanzania is second in number with some 40–80,000, some monolingual; and the ǃKung language of the northern Kalahari spoken by some 16,000 or so people. Language use is quite strong among the 20,000 speakers of Naro, half of whom speak it as a second language. Khoisan languages are best known for their use of click consonants as phonemes. Clicks are quite versatile as consonants, as they involve two articulations of the tongue which can operate partially independently. Consequently, the languages with the greatest numbers of consonants in the world are Khoisan. There is some indication that Sandawe may be related to the Khoe family, such as a congruent pronominal system and some good Swadesh-list matches, but not enough to establish regular sound correspondences. Sandawe is not related to Hadza, despite their proximity.” ref
Sandawe language
“It has been suggested, however, that Sandawe may be related to the Khoe family, regardless of the validity of Khoisan as a whole. Sandawe is a language spoken by Sandawe people in the Dodoma Region of Tanzania. Sandawe’s use of click consonants, a rare feature shared with only two other languages of East Africa, Hadza and Dahalo. Sandawe has two dialects, northwest and southeast. Differences include speaking speed, vowel dropping, some word taboo, and minor lexical and grammatical differences. Some Alagwa have shifted to Sandawe, and are considered a Sandawe clan.” ref
African religions: Hadza, Khoisan, and Sandawe
Hadza religion
“They offer prayers to Ishoko (the Sun: female) or to Haine (the moon: male) during hunts and believe they go to Ishoko when they die. They also hold rituals such as the monthly epeme dance for men at the new moon and the less frequent maitoko circumcision and coming-of-age ceremony for women. Ishoko and Haine are mythological figures who are believed to have arranged the world by rolling the sky and the earth like two sheets of leather and swapping their order to put the sky above us; in the past, the sky was under the earth. These figures are described as making crucial decisions about the animals and humans by choosing their food and environment, giving people access to fire, and creating the capability of sitting. These figures have celestial connotations: Ishoko is a solar figure, and Haine, her husband, is a lunar figure. Uttering Ishoko’s name can be a greeting or a good wish to someone for a successful hunt. The character “Ishoye” seems to be another name for Ishoko. She is depicted in some tales as creating animals, including people. Some of her creatures later turned out to be man-eating giants, disastrous for their fellow giants and people. Seeing the disaster, she killed these giants, saying, “You are not people any longer.” ref
“Distribution of belief in Haine (68% yes and 18% no) and Ishoko (60% yes and 27% no) among a Hadza sample.” ref
“A solar deity is a god or goddess who represents the Sun, or an aspect of it, usually by its perceived power and strength. Solar deities and Sun worship can be found throughout most of recorded history in various forms.” ref
African list of solar deities:
- Nzambi Mpungu, Kongo god of the Sun and creation
- Amun, creator deity sometimes identified as a Sun god
- Aten, god of the Sun, the visible disc of the Sun
- Atum, the “finisher of the world” who represents the Sun as it sets
- Bast, cat goddess associated with the Sun
- Hathor, mother of Horus and Ra and goddess of the Sun
- Horus, god of the sky whose right eye was considered to be the Sun and his left the Moon
- Khepri, god of the rising Sun, creation and renewal of life
- Ptah, god of craftsmanship, the arts, and fertility, sometimes said to represent the Sun at night
- Ra, god of the Sun
- Sekhmet, goddess of war and of the Sun, sometimes also plagues and creator of the desert
- Sopdu, god of war and the scorching heat of the summer Sun
- Magec, was god or goddess (actual gender is unknown) of the Sun
- Apedemak, the Meroitic god of war and sometimes depicted as the god the Sun
- uMvelinqangi, Xhosa and Zulu people‘s god of the Sun and sky
- iNyanga, Zulu people, goddess of the Moon
- Ukhulukhulwana, Zulu people‘s ancestor who came from the stars. He taught them to build huts and taught them the high laws of isiNtu” ref
Baltic mythology
“Those who practice Dievturība, beliefs of traditional Latvian culture, worship the Sun goddess Saule, known in traditional Lithuanian beliefs as Saulė. Saule is among the most important deities in Baltic mythology and traditions.” ref
Celtic mythology
“Celtic cultures seem to have been diverse, with the use of a Celtic language (by 3000 BCE?) being the main thing they had in common. The Celtic languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages. By the time the Celts are first mentioned in written records around 400 BCE, they were already split into several language groups, and spread over much of western mainland Europe, the Iberian Peninsula, Ireland, and Britain. The languages developed into Celtiberian, Goidelic, and Brittonic branches, among others. Celtic-related populations show genetics that, between 2400 and 2000 BCE, were involved in the over 90% of British DNA was overturned by European Steppe Herders (proto-Indo-European related) in a migration that brought large amounts of Steppe DNA (including the R1b haplogroup) to western Europe. Modern autosomal genetic clustering is testament to this fact, as both modern and Iron Age British and Irish samples cluster genetically very closely with other North Europeans, and less so with Galicians, Basques or those from the south of France.” ref
“Because the Hadza often have no belief in an afterlife, generally, it had the impact of limiting research on Hadza ritual and cosmology. Although this aspect of their lives did indeed come across as fragmented and partial, what may be encountered seems deep cosmological complexity, ritual rigor, and seemingly some kind of belief in an afterlife. Hadza cosmology examined through objects, rituals, and the Hadza concept of epeme. The objects are intimately linked to women and to aspects of the social and cosmological identity of the individual makers. One object is a materialization of the woman’s name, and it leads to an examination by interview of naming practices more generally. Naming a child gives it a spirit and places the child in a strong family matrix, and since it receives two names, the child has two spirits and two families. Calling a person’s name is thus calling out to one of the spirits within the person. This practice of calling a name occurs during the epeme night dance ritual. Dancers call the name of a relative and turn into the spirit-beings of the named. In this ritual, dancers, when calling the names of women, do so through the mediating power of objects.” ref
“Women provide the main staple foods of the camp. They dig for tubers and roots using a wooden digging stick, known as the ts’apale. Digging is hard and requires the removal of large rocks from the soil in order to reach the edible roots, and it demands skill to be successful. Berries and fruits are eaten instantly, and only in some cases is a surplus of tubers, meat, honey, and fruit carried back to camp. As the Hadza are semi-nomadic, settlements are dynamic, and people move in and out of the core camps. The types of dwellings are very diverse ranging from rocky caves, fully grass-thatched huts, elaborate assemblages of twigs and tree branches into see-through framework structures to subtle markings of homes, eg just the setting of a fireplace or the clearance of the ground by sweeping it and laying down cloths, hides or straw mats as beds. Sometimes they just lie down under the open sky. The caves are mostly used during the rainy season when the fully thatched huts fail to provide shelter from the heavy rainfall, while the more subtly structured ones are used during the dry season and as short-term dwellings.” ref
“Three objects used by women, the naricanda-stick, a’untenakwete-gourd, and olanakwete-doll. These objects are material artifacts that have proven excellent portals for the Hadza, as well as for my research, to enter the realms of their forefathers, night dance, and cosmology. My asking questions about these objects facilitated discussions that illuminate the cosmological constituents of being human. The stick, gourd, and doll, and the way they are related to, are not representative of the way Hadza relate to things or possessions as such. These are ritual objects, and they are considered to be objects of power by the Hadza. In anthropological theory, ‘power objects’ have come to be the cover term for artefacts that carry. Simple mud dolls – olanakwete (m. sg), olanakwiko (f. sg.) When a young woman starts to live with a man and the time for having a child is nearing, a close relative, such as her mother or an older sister, will make her an anthropomorphic doll from riverside mud or from clay taken from the center of termite mounds. The mud or clay is carried back to camp, where it is kneaded, and ash from the cooking fire is worked into the clay as a substance that gives power to the doll. Ashes, along with blood and soil, are powerful substances readily available to women and used on many occasions. The anthropomorphic doll is carefully modeled with a relatively small head and extremities compared to the body’s volume. A mouth will be pressed into the clay, and there might be inserted beads for eyes.” ref
“The olanakwiko (feminine) could have markers of breasts and be decorated with braided hair by straight lines drawn on the still-wet surface. The feeling of a newly ‘born’ doll is remarkably like handling a newborn child. It has the same weight, the dampness of the clay makes it transpire, and the structure and temperature of the surface are a notable emulation of the feeling of a human being’s skin. There are other types of dolls in use among the Hadza. First, there are toy dolls, made by little girls out of edible roots, pieces of wood, or other readily available materials, and transformed into dolls by wrapping pieces of cloth around them and carrying them around. The girls will hold these dolls, breastfeed, and sing to them. These are not used in ritual contexts, and there are no raised eyebrows when children, for instance, bite off the head of the edible root-doll. Second, there are dolls made out of gourd-like roots of certain plants. They are gendered and treated the same way as the mud dolls. Third, there are ha!anakwete/ha!anakwiko-dolls (litt. meaning small precious stone) that are kept very secretive. The stone dolls are made of cylindrical stones and they are dressed with pieces of cloth and strings of beads placed in ways on the ‘body’ that indicate their gender and retaining only the cylindrical form of the body to ensure the anthropomorphic resemblance.” ref
“The size is significantly smaller, and they do not share physical similitude to infants. Woodburn collected one ha!anakwete-doll (masculine) and two ha!anakwikodolls (feminine). In addition, a man posing with a ha!anakwete that Kohl-Larsen links to the epeme dance. He also documents egg-shaped dolls made of clay, both with and without decorative cuts. Dolls are used as tools for maternity education and are named after close kin, typically a parent or sibling. According to Hadza cosmology, the naming after kin is a process of spirit-sharing, and it is that which establishes the person, here in the form of a doll, as a significant, spirit-sharing, kinship-placed being. We will return to name- and spirit-sharing below. The doll will be carried on the back in a cloth (kanga) just as mothers carry their infants on their backs. It will be breastfed, laid in the shadow covered by a cloth to sleep, and it will be handled and passed on when sitting, talking, and preparing food, cooking, or making beadworks. The doll is cared for as an infant. If a doll breaks, the doll will need the same burial rituals as other beings with spirits. Beings that have spirits are human beings, as well as the powerful objects and eland.” ref
Thin, incision decorated sticks – naricanda
“The sticks measure roughly 1–1.5 cm in diameter and are about 1.1–1.5 metres long. They are straightened carefully using teeth as clamps and cautiously bending the stick with their hands. They are then decorated throughout with a head and tail end. The father of a newborn baby girl crafts the sticks in connection with the naming ritual, when she will receive a name from the father and a name from her mother. The father, uncle, an older brother, or a brother-in-law – the group of initiated epeme men who are ritually able to call the child’s name during the epeme rituals – might jointly decorate it. The sticks are decorated in the same manner as arrows, holding a knife firmly to the stick and twirling the stick while moving the knife up and down in order to produce the desired decorations. Ashes and clarified fat from an a’untenakwete are rubbed into the incisions to enhance the contrast of the decoration, and the stick is smeared with the clarified fat all over. Then the naricanda is inserted into the twigs of the hut above the fireplace in order for the stick to obtain a patina from the smoke and so appear old. Despite its intimate relation to women, the naricanda stick is a male object. Even though it is used during the monthly epeme night dances, it is most closely connected to initiation rituals into adulthood. This ritual is called the maito for men and the maitoko for girls. During a mait, a stick is chosen by the epeme, the collective of initiated men, to accompany the young neophyte, the maito, during his rite of passage.” ref
“In the rite’s separation phase, the neophyte leaves his friends, the cohort, and ritually dies, which makes him enter the liminal phase friendless. The epeme men choose a stick that spiritually matches the neophyte, and it will be the maito’s friend and companion during the weeks of initiation to epeme. The naricanda stick, however, is most strongly linked to the maitoko, the initiation rite of passage from girl to woman. The neophytes and the young initiated women wear beads as a signal of their initiation, and they run as a raiding cohort to visit other camps to spread the knowledge of their transition from girl to woman. When the word is spread that a maitoko is about to take place, young men come to join the ritual. During the initiation the women and young men flirt and a game of teasing and chase is performed with the threat of the women mercilessly using the sticks and whips (snapped off trees) during the rite of passage to whip and beat the young and mature men. When a woman dies, she might be buried with her naricanda stick, but it is also one of the few objects that can be passed on as inheritance, when the name of the deceased is passed on to a younger generation family member.” ref
“The objects singled out here are materialisations of what we usually leave as abstract aspects of women, namely, name, self, and future children. The name (naricanda) connects the woman to her forebearers in the past as she is being named after a woman in earlier generations, living or dead; present selves a’untenakwete) and future children (olanakwete). As such, the woman extends beyond the boundary of her skin with innate relations to both different times and family within her being, and she is ritually referenced through mediating external objects. However, the way that the objects are externalised and severed from her own body creates a dimension of reference, ie, stressing the discreteness between the woman and the object while retaining aspects of equivalence. To navigate this relationship, we need to touch upon cosmological organisation, through names and spirit-sharing, the multiplicity constituting a human being, and death.” ref
The a’untenakwete gourd
“The bead-decorated calabash gourds – a’untenakwete (m.sg.), a’untenakwiko (f. sg..): The gourds are made of decoratively incised calabashes with a wooden bung. Ashes are rubbed onto the incisions to make them conspicuous with a darker tone or by burning marks. A beaded string or band is attached to the gourds to provide a handle. The a’untenakwete is ceremonial and is only used to store clarified animal fat. In ceremonies, the naricanda stick (below) is used as a tool to extract the animal fat inside. Animal fat is a valued everyday ingredient used in cooking; however, the fat stored in the gourd is only used in ritual contexts. The fat is used by smearing it onto both female and male neophytes during initiation rites and as a medicine to relieve joint pains for elderly people, but is otherwise not used. The gourd itself is feminine (a’untenakwiko) or masculine (a’untenakwete) following its shape (round or oblong, respectively). In order to become invested with ritual power, the gourd should contain clarified animal fat. A woman might be buried with her a’untenakwete gourd, or it might be destroyed on her grave.” ref
Khoisan religion
“Many Khoisan peoples believe in a supreme being who presides over daily life and controls elements of the environment. In some Khoisan belief systems, this god is worshiped through rituals or small sacrifices. A second, evil deity brings illness and misfortune to earth. This dualism between good and evil pervades other areas of Khoisan thought about the nature of the universe. Some Khoisan belief systems maintain that a person should never attempt to communicate with the beneficent deity, for fear of provoking his evil counterpart, and some believe that spiritual beings simply ignore humanity most of the time. Traditional Khoisan religion also included numerous mythic tales of gods and ancestor-heroes, whose lives provided examples of ways to cope with social conflicts and personal problems. Also important was the use of dance and altered states of consciousness to gain knowledge for healing an individual or remedying a social evil. Healing dances are still among the most widely practiced religious rituals in South Africa, even in the 1990s, and are used in some African Independent churches to heal the sick or eradicate evil.” ref
“For many Khoisan peoples, the sun and the moon were gods, or aspects of a supreme deity. The cycle of religious observance was, therefore, carefully adjusted according to the cycles of the moon. Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century observers in the Cape Colony noted the importance of ritual dances and prayers during the full moon each month. Khoisan legends and myths also refer to a “trickster” god, who could transform himself into animal or human forms, and who could die and be reborn many times over. The praying mantis, a predatory insect with large eyes and other features characteristic of animal predators, figures in San myths and folktales in a role similar to the clever fox in European folktales. Khoisan herdboys still use mantises to “divine” the location of lost animals, and in Afrikaans, the mantis is referred to as “the Hottentot’s god.” Bantu-speaking peoples brought an array of new religious practices and beliefs when they arrived in the first millennium CE. Most believed in a supreme being, or high god, who could bestow blessings or bring misfortune to humans. More influential in their spiritual life, however, was a group of ancestral spirits–a different pantheon of spiritual beings in each community. These spirits could communicate with and influence the lives of the living, and they could sometimes be influenced by human entreaties. The male head of a homestead was usually the ritual leader, responsible for performing rituals, giving thanks, seeking a blessing, or healing the sick on behalf of his homestead. Rites of passage, or rituals marking major life-cycle changes such as birth, initiation, marriage, and death, were also important religious observances, and rituals were used for rainmaking, strengthening fertility, and enhancing military might.” ref
“Zulu and Xhosa religions generally sought to placate male ancestral spirits, often with libations of beer or offerings of meat, and to seek their guidance or intercession. Ancestral spirits were almost uniformly benevolent; evil was generally attributed to witches or sorcerers, who might overpower or bypass a spiritual protector or ancestor. Ancestral spirits occasionally caused minor illnesses, primarily as a warning against religious neglect or misdeeds. Most Bantu religious systems had no priesthood or officially recognized mediator between the material and the spiritual worlds. Rather, they believed that political leadership was accompanied by religious responsibility. For example, a chiefdom or kingdom relied on the chief or monarch for physical and spiritual survival. Particular importance was attached to the status of the diviner, or sangoma; however, the sangoma underwent rigorous training to acquire the extensive knowledge and skills necessary for divination and healing. Bantu religions usually avoided any claim that rituals performed by human beings could influence the actions of the supreme deity, or high god; rituals were normally intended to honor or placate lesser spiritual beings, and sometimes to ask for their intervention. The high god was a remote, transcendent being possessing the power to create the Earth, but beyond human comprehension or manipulation. Ancestors, in contrast, were once human and had kinship ties with those on earth, and they were sometimes amenable to human entreaties.” ref
“Many Bantu societies have historical accounts or myths that explain the presence of human society on earth. In many cases, these myths affirm that human beings first emerged from a hole in the ground, that they were plucked from a field or a bed of reeds, or that they were fashioned from elemental substances through the efforts of a supreme deity. Death originated in the failure of human beings or their messengers, such as a chameleon who was sent to relay a divine message of immortality, but who delayed and was overtaken by the message of death. Such widespread myths not only provide an account of the origins of the human condition, but they also describe appropriate behavior for coping with a complex world. For example, a Zulu myth tells of the creation of both black and white human beings, the assignment of the black people to the land and the white people to the sea, and the provision of spears for black people and guns for whites. Many of life’s conflicts arise, it is believed, when people defy the divine plan. Scholars have reported that during the rapid acculturation of the nineteenth century in southern Africa, new myths and legends arose, attributing greater and greater power to traditional gods. In this way, new events and displays of power were incorporated into existing belief systems. Others have suggested that the upheaval of the nineteenth century provided fertile ground for Christian and Muslim missionaries, whose teachings of a Supreme Being presiding over the entire world provided reassurance of a divine order in a changing environment. In this view, the new world religions drew converts based on their appeal as an explanation of changing circumstances.” ref
“The San religion is the traditional religion and mythology of the San people. To enter the spirit world, trance has to be initiated by a shaman through the hunting of a tutelary spirit or power animal. The eland often serves as power animal. The fat of the eland is used symbolically in many rituals including initiations and rites of passage. Other animals such as giraffe, kudu, and hartebeest can also serve this function. One of the most important rituals in the San religion is the great dance, or the trance dance. This dance typically takes a circular form, with women clapping and singing and men dancing rhythmically. Although there is no evidence that the Kalahari San use hallucinogens regularly, student shaman may use hallucinogens to go into trance for the first time.” ref
“Psychologists have investigated hallucinations and altered states of consciousness in neuropsychology. They found that entoptic phenomena can occur through rhythmic dancing, music, sensory deprivation, hyperventilation, prolonged and intense concentration, and migraines. The psychological approach explains rock art through three trance phases. In the first phase of trance an altered state of consciousness would come about. People would experience geometric shapes commonly known as entoptic phenomena. These would include zigzags, chevrons, dots, flecks, grids, vortices, and U-shapes. These shapes can be found especially in rock engravings of Southern Africa. During the second phase of tranc,e people try to make sense of the entoptic phenomena. They would elaborate the shape they had ‘seen’ until they had created something that looked familiar to them. Shamans experiencing the second phase of trance would incorporate the natural world into their entoptic phenomena, visualizing honeycombs or other familiar shapes.” ref
“In the third phase, a radical transformation occurs in mental imagery. The most noticeable change is that the shaman becomes part of the experience. Subjects under laboratory conditions have found that they experience sliding down a rotating tunnel, entering caves or holes in the ground. People in the third phase begin to lose their grip on reality and hallucinate monsters and animals of strong emotional content. In this phase, therianthropes in rock painting can be explained as heightened sensory awareness that gives one the feeling that they have undergone a physical transformation. Pictographs can be found across Southern Africa in places such as the cave sandstone of KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, and North-Eastern Cape, the granite and Waterberg sandstone of the Northern Transvaal, and the Table Mountain sandstone of the Southern and Western Cape. Images of conflict and war-making are not uncommon. There are also often images of therianthropic entities, which have both human and animal traits and are connected to the notion of trancing, but these represent only a fraction of all rock art representations. Most commonly portrayed are animals such as the eland, although grey rhebok and hartebeest are also in rock art in places such as Cederberg and Warm Bokkeveld. At uKhahlamba / Drakensberg Park there are paintings thought to be some 3,000 years old which depict humans and animals, and are thought to have religious significance.” ref
“The San prayed to the Sun and Moon. Many myths are associated with various stars. ǀKágge̥n (sometimes corrupted to “Cagn”) is Mantis, a demiurge and hero in ǀXam folklore. He is a trickster god who can shape-shift. He and his wife ǀHúnntuǃattǃatte̥n. ǀHúnntuǃattǃatte̥n (also known as or corrupted to “Coti”), the Dassie, adopted ǃXo, Porcupine, as their daughter. ǃXo, Porcupine, as their parents ǀKágge̥n and ǀHúnntuǃattǃatte̥n, married Ichneumon, son was the Ichneumon. /Kwammang-a, a dangerous stranger carnivore, married ǃXo, son was the Ichneumon. Ichneumon, a small, furry carnivore, mongoose. ǂKá̦gára and ǃHãunu are brothers-in-law who fought with lightning, causing massive storms in the east. ǃXu is the Khoikhoi word ǃKhub ‘rich man, master’, which was used by some Christian missionaries to translate “Lord” in the Bible, and repeated by San people in reporting what the Khoikhoi told them. It is used in Juǀʼhoan as the word for the Christian god. It has been misinterpreted as the “Bushman creator”. ǃXwe-/na-ssho-ǃke, girl who was one of the people of the early race.” ref
“Traditionally, the San were an egalitarian society. Although they had hereditary chiefs, their authority was limited. They made decisions among themselves by consensus, with women treated as equals. Women have a high status in San society, are greatly respected, and may be leaders of their own family groups. They make important family and group decisions and claim ownership of water holes and foraging areas. Women are mainly involved in the gathering of food, but may also take part in hunting. The San economy was a gift economy, based on giving each other gifts regularly rather than on trading or purchasing goods and services. ‘Khoisan religion’ is a term used to consider an overview of an indigenous Southern African spiritual belief. Strictly speaking, there is no Khoisan religion. Although this term is a unifying name, the Khoi and the San are entirely distinct peoples. There is a vast linguistic and cultural diversity within each group, and they do not share any of the principal mythological figures or ritual culture.” ref
“Cagn (also known as Kaang or Kaggen) is the supreme god of the koi-and-san of southern Africa. He is the first being and the creator of the world. He is a trickster god who can shape-shift, most often into the praying mantis, but also takes the form of a bull eland, a mouse, a snake, and a caterpillar. Cagn receives so much opposition in the world that he moves his abode from the earth to the top of the sky. The Khoi attach special significance to the moon. The new and full moons were important times for rainmaking rituals and dancing, and the moon was viewed as the physical manifestation of a supreme being associated with heaven, earth, and especially rain, which was of key significance to people in drier regions, whose existence was so dependent upon rainfall. The eland serves as a power animal. The fat of the eland is used symbolically in many rituals, including initiations and rites of passage, as does the giraffe, kudu, and hartebeest.” ref
The interrelatedness between the Nama Khoikhoi supreme being and celestial objects
“Khoisan were thought of as being without religion because the Europeans perceived a lack of ‘temples or formal places of worship’. And if the Khoikhoi were regarded as having any religious beliefs, it was assumed that the moon or the sun were objects of worship in the society. Contrary to this incorrect interpretation, this article uncovers the interrelatedness between these two celestial objects and the Supreme Being of the Khoikhoi, Tsũi-||goab, through systematic inquiry. As a result of conclusions drawn prematurely, the need to investigate the religious beliefs of the Khoikhoi seemed unnecessary because it was believed to be of little significance. This combination of assumptions, derogatory labels, and lack of in-depth research resulted in the Khoikhoi being designated as moon worshippers, as one of many examples. Fueling this inaccurate narrative was the lack of counterarguments by or in favor of the Khoikhoi possessing a notion of God or a religious belief system. The theory that the Khoikhoi were moon worshippers prevailed and was cemented in the minds of outsiders. The moon and sun as visible representations is an incorrect label, finding the religious assumptions of the moon, the sun, the Supreme Being, and finally the interrelatedness between these three elements. The relevance of the moon within the Khoikhoi religious belief system is that it is believed that prior to the occupation of the San and Khoikhoi, the moon and sun lived on earth.” ref
“The assumption that the Khoikhoi worshipped the moon was based on the perception that when the moon was visible, the men would: [P]lace themselves together in a circle and blow on a hollow pipe or similar instrument, whereupon the women begin to clap their hands, and dance around the men, continually crying out that the last moon had protected them and their cattle well, and they hoped the same from this new moon. The Khoikhoi women clapped and sang during new or full moon festivities while sitting in a circle. Furthermore, when the new or full moon appeared, Khoikhoi children were raised to the moon. This dancing that is described under the moon is the riel dance, which is practiced among the Nama. These religious dances are known asas /gein. There is a belief that the Khoikhoi’s festivities during the new moon are the community’s way of conducting their prayer through dance, that is, showing their thankfulness for protection. For if the moon is seen again, they crowd together, making merry the whole night, dancing, jumping, and singing; clasping their hands together, and also murmuring some words. At the new moon, they come together and make noise the whole night, dancing in a circle, and while dancing, they clasp their hands together.” ref
“Sometimes they are seen in dark caves, where they offer some prayers, which, however, a European does not understand. While doing this they have a very curious behaviour, they turn their eyes towards the sky and one makes to the other a cross on the forehead. And this is, perhaps, a kind of religious worship, perhaps, which is agreed upon based on the premise that it is directed at the Supreme Being, Tsũi-||goab. If the narratives, wherein the moon promises immortality, were to be taken up in a literal sense, it would be Tsũi-||goab promising humans immortality through the moon. The moon fulfilled the role of immortality in the Khoikhoi religious belief system. the moon plays in the Khoikhoi society states the following: Even if Khoisan [San and Khoikhoi] did not literally worship the moon, even if they only considered the moon and stars as cosmologically significant actors at the beginning of time for the purposes of children’s stories – even if we must remain wary of the earliest narrative recordings of these beliefs – we still can feel some security in the conclusion that the celestial environment staged many southern Africans’ hopes for their future.” ref
“And even if the Khoisan’s various Moon and Hare stories made no straightforward metaphysical claims about origins, the very telling and re-telling of the story gave the sky a kind of significance. The sun was so closely associated with Tsũi-||goab by outsiders in southern Africa, as well as providing explanations for this phenomenon. The interrelatedness between the sun and Tsũi-||goab can be seen in the confusion regarding the terminology of the term. The etymology of the term Tsũi-||goab: ||goa meaning ‘to approach (approaching day)’, ||goab meaning ‘the morning’ or ‘daybreak’, ||goara meaning ‘the dawn’, tsū meaning ‘wounded’ or ‘hurt’, Tsũ-tsũ meaning ‘making a wound’ and tsu meaning ‘red’ referring to a new or fresh wound. Therefore, it is concluded that the terminology of Tsũi-||goab refers to the ‘red morning, the dawn, the red daybreak [the approaching red morning/dawn]’. The east was a characteristic of the worship of Tsũi-||goab. It is significant to mention that in addition to Tsũi-||goab, Heitsi-eibib is also associated with the easterly direction, which has been referred to as a ‘sacred direction’. Heitsi-eibib is an ancestral figure in the Khoikhoi religious belief system who possesses many of the same positive characteristics as Tsũi-||goab.” ref
Tsui-Goab: Khoekhoe Supreme Being
“Tsui-Goab is the supreme being of Khoekhoe mythology and the god of the heavens, and at battle with Gaunab, the god of darkness. In addition to serving as the supreme being, Tsui-Goab is also the god of thunder and lightning; the Khoekhoen pray to him when they are in need of rain. Upon hearing a thunderstorm approaching, some Khoekhoe tribes gather to sing a praise hymn to the god. Because lightning disperses the darkness, this meteorological phenomenon is considered part of Tsui-Goab’s continual war with Gaunab, the god of darkness. Tsui-Goab is said to live in a “beautiful heaven,” whereas his archenemy, Gaunab, “lives in a dark heaven, quite separated from the heaven of Tsui-Goab.” As the god of light, Tsui-Goab fights off the god of darkness each night, bringing dawn to the earth each morning. Tsui-Goab was thrown to the ground several times, but finally succeeded in driving Gaunab from the earth and back to his gloomy home, known as the “Black Sky.” ref
“Gaunab is the personification of death in Khoekhoen mythology. In some myths, he is also known as the embodiment of evil. He is often associated with Tsui’goab, and in some versions, is known to be his nemesis. In Khoekhoe mythology, Gaunab is said to be the Spirit of Death. In one myth, Gaunab visited a village that had experienced a drought with the intention of taking dying villagers to the underworld. He was in disguise, and was visiting one of the village’s elders who is on his deathbed. One of the villagers, Tsui’goab, recognized him and challenged Gaunab to a wrestling match. If Tsui’goab won, Gaunab must stop the drought. If Gaunab won instead, he could claim the lives of all the villages, both living and dead, including Tsui’goab himself. Gaunab eventually agreed to the challenge, and they both wrestled with one another for days. Eventually, Tsui’goab won the challenge to Gaunab’s consternation. He was enraged at the result and ended up breaking Tsui’goab’s knees at the end of the fight. Nevertheless, Gaunab honored the deal though he was unable to directly stop the drought since it was not under his domain. Instead, he asked the other gods to make Tsui’goab a rain god instead. After Tsui’goab recovered from the injury he received from Gaunab, he discovered his newfound powers and was able to call upon rain to fall on his village.” ref
“The Supreme Being, Tsũi-||goab, as a separate entity from the two celestial objects. The term Tsũi-||goab being associated with the Supreme Being of the Khoikhoi society is supported by numerous scholars. Tsũi-||goab forms part of the three main entities in the Khoikhoi religious belief system. The other two entities include the evil Being, ||Gaunab, and the ancestral hero, Heitsi-eibib. In addition to the concepts of these three main entities, ≠Gama- ≠Gorib, the religious notions concerning the dead, spirits, myths and rituals among the Nama Khoikhoi in the 19th century. Therefore, if it is accepted that mythological elements transcend ethnic boundaries, it can be concluded that all Khoikhoi groups possessed religious beliefs.” ref
“The Khoikhoi possessed a deep devotion towards Tsũi-||goab. This devotion towards and the reciprocation from Tsũi-||goab took place in a collective frame of reference. This collective frame of influence is on the communal worship and engagement rather than on an individualistic level. The collective worship of Tsũi-||goab included animal sacrifices that were killed by Nama priests. Moreover, this worship took place at certain times of the year. The aim of such worship was to obtain favour from Tsũi-||goab, even though they were never sure of obtaining it. The Khoikhoi had a fear that Tsũi-||goab might bring misfortune. Both good and bad fortune are attributed to Tsũi-||goab, along with his protection offered to the community. Both Tsũi-||goab and ||Gaunab are portrayed as male figures. When Tsũi-||goab is addressed, the Nama refer to him as ao, meaning ‘father’.” ref
“The following prayer which illustrates this fatherly figure terminology: Thou, O Tsũi ||goa ! Thou Father of the Fathers, All Father! Thou our Father! Let stream, let rain – the thunder cloud! Let please live (our) flocks! Let us (also) live, please! I am so very weak indeed! From thirst! From hunger! That I may eat field fruits!
“Tsũi-||goab, as the Supreme Being, is a creator God that sustains creation. Tsũi-||goab sends rain to the earth to ensure that crops grow and flourish. Carstens regards Tsũi-||goab as the ‘High or Celestial God of the Khoikhoi’. The nourishment and protection of the Khoikhoi society by Tsũi-||goab possibly led to the attributes of the Supreme Being being regarded as good, as well as being a life-giver to the Khoikhoi. An important element, illustrating the communal aspect of the Khoikhoi as a whole, is that Tsũi-||goab is regarded as the ‘creator and protector of the community’. This active role shows that Tsũi-||goab has a presence both in the sky and on earth. The following statement by Carstens sheds light on the role that Tsũi-||goab played in the Khoikhoi society: Collective good fortune and successful social protection on the other hand were of a different order, and a sign that Tsũi-||goab was as active on earth as he was in his celestial abode.” ref
“Furthermore, Tsũi-||goab is also known as being a wealthy God who is in possession of cattle and sheep. Usually, the possession of cattle and sheep is synonymous to being the provider. Tsũi-||goab can even foresee the future. Barnard adds that Tsũi-||goab is omnipresent and can die and resurrect at various times. If all Tsũi-||goab’s attributes are considered, it comes as no shock that he is revered as a great hero and warrior among the Khoikhoi. Carstens writes the following regarding Tsũi-||goab: He [Tsũi-||goab] was a creator since he is believed to have made the rocks and stones from which the first Khoikhoi came; he was omnipresent, extremely wise, and said also to have once been a notable warrior of great physical strength, as well as a powerful magician. In conclusion, these known attributes of Tsũi-||goab show that the Khoikhoi did not lack religious beliefs concerning a Supreme Being, nor merely had a vague idea at best concerning one.” ref
The interrelatedness between these elements
“As a departure point, it is significant to state that the Supreme Being of the Khoikhoi is positioned within a complex religious belief system and has various attributes associated with him including the interrelatedness with the moon and sun. These religious notions as being a ‘highly structured system of beliefs about the deities and the interrelation between them’. This not only means that Tsũi-||goab is one of the many religious beliefs of the Khoikhoi, but also that interrelatedness between religious elements is present. This interrelatedness is discussed here in reference to Tsũi-||goab, the moon and sun. Within the diverse Khoikhoi religious belief system, natural elements are personified by the Supreme Being. These natural elements include rain, wind, clouds, thunderstorms, and in reference to the crux of this article, the moon and sun. These elements are seen as the personification of Tsũi-||goab. For example, the personification of a natural element is seen through the belief that Tsũi-||goab is a rain God. The difficulty to connect the Supreme Being, the moon and the sun stems from researchers not recognizing that elements within the religious belief system of the Khoikhoi are related to each other. In contrast to the San religious belief system, which emphasizes the relationship between the deity and humanity, the Khoikhoi religious belief system emphasizes the relationship between deity and deity.” ref
“The dancing and singing that took place under the full moon (discussed under ‘The religious assumptions of the moon’) are regarded as having spiritual associations. That dances with spiritual associations were held during the full moon; however, this does not infer that the Khoikhoi were moon worshippers. this dancing and singing has been regarded under the full moon as part of the ‘Khoi religious expression’, and therefore ought to be regarded as an expression of their devotion to Tsũi-||goab, not the moon. The thinking is that dancing as ritual dances and celebrations in that the moon and its visibility was also celebrated at certain times. The Khoikhoi dancing and singing under the new or full moon and was the way the Khoikhoi invoked Tsũi-||goab through the moon. Supporting the argument that the moon and sun is associated with the Supreme Being is the belief of the Nharo people of Botswana. The Supreme Being N!adiba can be translated as ‘sky’. In this instance, the Supreme Being is associated with the sky, where the moon and sun are situated.” ref
“A Nharo medicine man explained that he regarded the Supreme Being as ‘God the Sky’ and that this God is the ‘father of the Moon and the Sun’. When the Khoikhoi were asked if they were worshippers of the moon, they only stated that they worshipped a Great Chief. This Great Chief is in reference to Tsũi-||goab. An interaction that took place between himself and an old ||Habobe-Nama that referred to Tsũi-||goab as a powerful Khoikhoi chief. Seeing as Tsũi-||goab is regarded as the first Khoikhoi from which all the Khoikhoi tribes come from, it can be concluded that Tsũi-||goab is the chief of the Khoikhoi. This illustrates that the Khoikhoi regarded the moon as a visible representation of Tsũi-||goab. The relation between the station of a chief and the moon: As the Chief of a Hottentot Nation presides over the Captains of the Kraals, so the Hottentots call the Supreme Being the Great and Supreme Captain. They believe a Supreme Being, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, and of everything in time; the Arbiter of the World, through whole Omnipotence all things live and move and have their Being. And that He is endow’d with unsearchable Attributes and Perfections. The Hottentots call him Gounja, or Gounja Ticquoa; that is, the God of all Gods; and say He is a Good Man, who does no Body any Hurt; and from whom None need be apprehensive of any; and that he dwells far above the Moon.” ref
“The moon should be regarded as a visible manifestation of their God. The moon does not carry the same weight as Tsũi-||goab in the Khoikhoi religious belief system. The Khoikhoi agree that a physical manifestation of the Supreme Being is situated in the heavens, earth and rain. This physical manifestation includes the moon and sun, through which veneration or association is with Tsũi-||goab. ‘In fact, the Moon is not the Khoekhoe God himself; nor in this case is he regarded as a separate deity. He is the visible manifestation of God’. The confusion regarding the moon and the Supreme Being is explained: both the literature and the oral tradition provide additional data and show that there is some confusion regarding the so-called divinity of the moon and the association of the moon with the worship of Tsui //Goab, a personified God. Sacrifices were performed to the deity during certain phases of the moon. Moreover, it is not only the moon that is associated in this manner with the deity. For example, it has been noted ‘that a religious dance was held at the first rising of the Pleiades after sunset, when prayers are offered to Tsui //Goab for rain’. Further, there do not appear to have been any sacrifices offered to the moon itself, nor are there reports of priests officiating at any moon worship ceremony.” ref
“Based on the above quotation, this ‘giver of rain’ and ‘good fortune’ is because of the worship of Tsũi-||goab through the visible manifestation of the moon. The similarities between the attributes of Tsũi-||goab and the moon can possibly add to the confusion. These attributes include being able to change shape or disappear. The consideration of the moon as a god is drenched in controversy, and explains that the 17th-century colonists claimed that the ‘Hottentots’ were worshipping the moon. The moon is not the God of the Khoikhoi in any way and that the moon should not be categorized as a separate deity within the Khoikhoi religious belief system, moon is not worshipped by the Khoikhoi. The idea of moon-worship is ‘largely a fantasy of European ethnographers’; the moon is merely regarded as being a visible manifestation of God, seeing as the Creator made it, they feel close to the Creator through it.” ref
“The association between the moon and the Supreme Being is because of their similar characteristics which include both being recognised as protectors of the community and cattle, the ability to die and resurrect various times, attributed to the same devotion because, in essence, both refer to only the Supreme Being and the moon being the visible representation of Tsũi-||goab. The close association between the sun and the Supreme Being is owed to the confusion regarding the terminology of Tsũi-||goab and Khoikhoi individuals praying at dawn towards the easterly direction. The moon and sun ought to be regarded as personifications of the Supreme Being. Interrelatedness between the moon, sun and Tsũi-||goab can be seen through the eclipse of both the moon and sun being regarded as a bad omen because their God left them, all three elements being able to inflict sickness or death (the moon and sun through eclipse), all three elements being associated with the sacred direction of the east, prayers being directed towards or through all three elements, Tsũi-||goab being regarded as the father of the moon and sun, and all three elements having a presence in the sky. A Nharo medicine man expresses that the entities in the religious belief system are in ‘kinship relations to each other’.” ref
“The importance of land in the spirituality of the indigenous people in Africa with particular reference to the Central Kalagari Game Reserve (CKGR) in Botswana. In this paper, the author argues that the religion and spirituality of Botswana groups is closely associated with the environment in which they live. The environment is very important regarding their understanding of the nature of God, the ancestors, and other spiritual beings. Their spirituality finds meaning in so far as their religion is practised in their ancestral land which is, in all practical purposes, their spiritual home. To relocate them to other places outside of the CKGR, therefore, has a detrimental effect on their religion and spirituality. Much of their early history and culture is preserved in rock paintings (such as those found at Tsodilo Hills and the footprints at the site of the Matsieng creation story in Mochudi), folk tales, songs, and anthropological records. The San people argue that the term that suits their situation best is the “red people” since that is the way in which they would like to be identified. San people, are divided into many groups, who, originally, did not share a common identity, though they may have had a common ancestor. They maintained their separate languages and cultures and called themselves by the names of their individual groups, such as Ju/hoansi, Khwe, /lAni, G/wi, Naro, Hail/om, !Xoo, #Khomani, !Xun, IIGana, Tshua, //Xekgwi, lUi, and the like. In a number of cases, it is maintained, these names mean “real people”, “first people”, or just “people”. It is further noted that what these groups had in common were somewhat similar physical features and a hunter-gatherer way of Iife.” ref
“Social, economic, and political activities are, by and large, guided by their religion and spirituality in the context of their environment. In the KaJagari Desert, Basarwa live their social and religious life together. They do not make a clear distinction between the secular and the profane, the material and the spiritual, the earthly and the heavenly. The religious life of Basarwa is grounded in their belief in God, the ancestors, traditional healers, and a variety of other traditional beliefs and practices as informed by the “book of nature”. As far as belief in God is concerned, Megan Biesele has pointed out that most Basarwa groups in this area believe in a greater and lesser God. According to Biesele, the similar KaJagari Desert groups regard the Great God as a Supreme good being. The Kung, for example, claim that God created himself. He then created bush-food, water, the earth, and air. It is also believed that God taught people the skills they would need to live their lives, and also gave people medicines so that they could cure themselves. They also believe that he dwells in the eastern sky surrounded by his servants, the spirits of the dead. It is commonly believed that the Great God sends good and bad fortune to human beings through these servants and through the lesser God, who lives in the western sky. This lesser God is treacherous and vengeful. Biesele has further noted that among the Kung it is believed that God may be angered if a person is neglected or ill-treated by his kin.” ref
“To punish the group-God may take the sick person away from them by letting the sick person die. Biesele has intimated that among these similar groups , though God is in the sky, he is not remote from his people. He can be approached not only by shamans, but also by ordinary individuals through informal prayer. Another interesting view concerning belief in a High God is found among the Naro Bushmen of western Botswana. Alan Barnard, in his paper “Structure and fluidity in Khoisan Religious Ideas,” has observed that among the Naro, the concept of God is usually expressed as N!adiba, which means “Sky God”. Sometimes he is called Hiiseba, which is his unique divine name. At other times, he is called !xuba, which means “Lord” or “Master”. According to Barnard, the Nfadiba has several related meanings and can be taken in the masculine singular or in other grammatical forms. But there are times when God is also considered as a female, the wife of N!adiba in which case he is known as N!adisa. The San believe in a Supreme Being who is also known in Sesarwa as Khane. He is considered more powerful than his ancestors. He gives his people all they need, such as land, animals for hunting, food, water, good health, good luck, children, and many other things. This seems to indicate that the San perceive God as the ultimate provider of everything that they need in the context of the land in which they live in the Kalagari Desert.” ref
“The most important aspect of San religion and spirituality is the belief in ancestors, who are believed to interact with them on a daily basis. Among the San, the ancestors are called qdangwa. Bushmen believe that the ancestors are very active. They can help their descendants in a variety of ways, such as securing food, water, animals for hunting, and especially healing the sick. When a person is sick a traditional healer or diviner is consulted to find out the cause of the disease. If they discover that the ancestors are the cause of the disease, the relatives hold a healing ritual which takes different forms slJch as dancing around the patient during which God and the ancestors are asked to heal the sick person. It is important to note that traditional medicine and traditional healers are very common and very important among the Bushmen. Bushmen or Basarwa claim that their medicinal knowledge to heal all kinds of diseases was given to them by God through the ancestors. Their ancestral land -the Kgalagari Desert- is like a big hospital or medical theatre capable of handling all kinds of diseases. For example, among the San when someone is ill, the elders go into the bush to collect the roots of medicinal trees, which are used for healing sick people of all diseases imaginable. It is claimed that all Bushmen have a great deal of knowledge regarding the healing properties of such medicinal trees. They derive such knowledge from the “book of nature”, that is, from the environment around them. There are also diviners who diagnose other peoples’ diseases. They are caked xhokawa.” ref
“Traditional healers and diviners are paid for their services in kind. As regards the cause of sickness among the San, it is believed that if a person is sick and is not healed even by a qhoqhwe, it means he or she is a victim of bad magic or witchcraft. 36 It should be noted that it is widely acknowledged in Botswana that the Kgalagari Desert contains a great number of medicinal plants which are effective for the treatment of certain diseases. The claim is that the Kalagari region offers them the ideal environment not only for survival but also for practising their religion and spirituality. After all, the region is their cultural burial ground in which countless generations of Basarwa ancestors are buried. Thus, the Kalagari Desert constitutes an important element of Basarwa spirituality in that it links the living with their ancestors in the spirit world and the unborn in the ages to come and ultimately with God. In this context, Basarwa conceive the Kalagari region not only as their physical home but also their spiritual habitat, without which their spirituality is meaningless and devoid of any depth. A number of other World Religions’ spiritualities are, by and large, based on sacred space where a specific revelation or manifestation of their deity took place and where the numen is experienced in a special way.” ref
“Most Sandawe still practice their animistic faith which includes the reverence for the moon. The moon is seen as a symbol of life, fertility and good will. Their traditional beliefs emphasize living in harmony with nature, which is a common feature of the San people of southern Africa. The Sandawe religion gives a central place to cave spirits living in the hills, to ancestor worship and divination. They fear the cave spirits and no hunting, herding or wood-gathering is allowed near their caves. They make annual sacrifices to appease the hill spirits, shouting prayers loudly as they climb to the sacrificing area. They also sacrifice at the graves of their ancestors in public ceremonies. The San peoples practice their traditional tribal religious rituals and they are very closed to Christianity. They believe in a High God, called Warongwe, a distant spirit that is not active in their lives. They see certain animals (especially the praying mantis) and celestial bodies (sun, moon, morning star, and the southern cross) as symbols of divinity.” ref
“The moon is believed to be the source of rain and fertility. They also believe that dancing near a sacred fire will bring healing. Some reports indicate 10% of the people are Muslim. One source comments further on the nature-relationship of their traditional religion: “The gods of the Sandawe are activated by an erotic dance, phek’umo, in which the act of love is mimicked in embrace by the dancers. The Moon is seen to be part of the cycle of fertility; in the cycle of months and in the menses of women…so people dance by moonlight and adopt stances and postures in the dance which represent the phases of the moon. This dance embeds the necessity for human and earth fertility in the body, mind, and spirit of the dancers as they work the fields or the banana in Tanzania.” However, one of the few scholarly articles accessible on the Sandawe culture commented in 1969, “Nowadays the phek’umo is rarely performed….” ref
“The Sandawe language may share a common ancestor with the Khoe languages of southern Africa. It has clicks and is unrelated to the neighbouring Bantu languages, though it has been lightly influenced by neighbouring Cushitic languages. The Sandawe adopted agriculture from their Bantu neighbours, probably the Gogo, and scattered their homesteads wherever a suitable piece of land was found for their staple crops of millet, sorghum, and eventually, maize. They were uncomfortable with and had no use for denser village life, and remained a basically stateless people, showing little interest in ’empire-building’. The Sandawe did, however, have a tradition of mutual cooperation in such things as hoeing and threshing, homebuilding, and organising informal parties to hunt pigs and elephants. They built their very temporary huts away from water holes, and then went hunting in the surrounding country. They also likely did not practice polygamy until after adopting agriculture.” ref
“The Sandawe practice an insular and deeply spiritual culture with an emphasis on animism. Caves in the hills were believed to harbour spirits and were respected and even feared. So as not to disturb these spirits, the caves were avoided, no animals were herded there, and no wood was cut or twigs broken. Once a year, the Sandawe would go to the caves to perform rituals of sacrifice in order to make sure the spirits would not be spiteful and interfere with the community’s general well-being. People would go to the caves in the hills as a group, shouting prayers to the spirits, assuring them that no one had come to disturb them, but had come to pay their respects. These prayers were shouted as loudly as possible, to make sure that the spirits could hear no matter where they were. The Sandawe beliefs also centred on a veneration of the moon, the stars, the seasons, and the mantis insect. The moon was seen as a symbol of life and fertility; cool and beneficial, it brought rain and controlled the cycle of fertility in women. The mantis was a divine messenger with a special reason for appearing, and a medium was usually consulted to find the explanation.” ref
“There was a god, Warongwe, who was so abstract, distant, and unrelated to the well-being of normal life that it was rarely prayed to or given sacrifices. As in almost all African areas, religion consisted of a long line of ancestors and a strongly-knit extended family system that mediated between living beings and a very remote, all-powerful God. The Sandawe were and remain an outgoing people, fond of singing, dancing, making music, and drinking beer, and have an enormous store of songs. All ceremonials and rituals differed from one another, such as those of harvest and courtship, as did those of the curing rituals with their trances, the circumcision festivals, and the simba possession dances, in which dancers imitated lions in order to combat witchcraft. The Sandawe still retain a strong oral tradition, loving to recount stories, which embody the collective wisdom of the group.” ref
Cushitic languages
“The Cushitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken primarily in the Horn of Africa, with minorities speaking Cushitic languages to the north in Egypt and Sudan, and to the south in Kenya and Tanzania. As of 2012, the Cushitic languages with over one million speakers were Oromo, Somali, Beja, Afar, Hadiyya, Kambaata, and Sidama. Christopher Ehret argues for a unified Proto-Cushitic language in the Red Sea Hills as far back as the Early Holocene. The expansion of Cushitic languages of the Southern Cushitic branch into the Rift Valley is associated with the Savanna Pastoral Neolithic. It has been argued that Southern Cushitic belongs in the Eastern branch, with its divergence explained by contact with Hadza- and Sandawe-like languages. Some of the ancient peoples of Nubia are hypothesized to have spoken languages belonging to the Cushitic group, especially the people of the C-Group culture. It has been speculated that these people left a substratum of Cushitic words in the modern Nubian languages. Given the scarcity of data (all omomastic or toponymic), however, it remains unclear if the C-Group culture in fact spoke a Cushitic language.” ref
“According to Y chromosome studies, Somalis are paternally closely related to other Afro-Asiatic-speaking groups in Northeast Africa. Besides comprising the majority of the Y-DNA in Somalis, the E1b1b (formerly E3b) haplogroup also makes up a significant proportion of the paternal DNA of Ethiopians, Sudanese, Egyptians, Berbers, North African Arabs, as well as many Mediterranean populations. E-M78 subclade of E1b1b1a in about 70.6% of their Somali male samples. The presence of this sub-haplogroup in the Horn region may represent the traces of an ancient migration from Egypt/Libya. After haplogroup E1b1b, the second most frequently occurring Y-DNA haplogroup among Somalis is the West Asian haplogroup T (M184). The clade is observed in more than 10% of Somali males generally, with a peak frequency amongst the Somali Dir clan members in Djibouti (100%) and Somalis in Dire Dawa (82.4%), a city with a majority Dir population. Haplogroup T, like haplogroup E1b1b, is also typically found among other populations of Northeast Africa, the Maghreb, the Near East, and the Mediterranean.” ref
“In Somalis, the Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor was estimated to be 4,000–5,000 years (2,500 BCE) for the haplogroup E-M78 cluster γ and 2,100–2,200 years (150 BCE) for Somali T-M184 bearers. Deep subclade E-Y18629 is commonly found in Somalis and has a formation date of 3,700 years ago and a Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor of 3,300 years ago. According to mtDNA studies, a significant proportion of the maternal lineages of Somali females consists of sub-Saharan clades such as the L haplogroup. The most frequently observed haplogroups are L0a1d, L2a1h, and L3f.” ref
“African mitochondrial (mt) phylogeny is coarsely resolved, but the majority of population data generated so far is limited to the analysis of the first hypervariable segment (HVS-1) of the control region (CR). Therefore, this study aimed on the investigation of the entire CR of 190 unrelated Somali individuals to enrich the severely underrepresented African mtDNA pool. The majority (60.5 %) of the haplotypes were of sub-Saharan origin, with L0a1d, L2a1h, and L3f being the most frequently observed haplogroups. Our sub-Saharan samples consisted almost entirely of the L1 or L2 haplogroups only. In addition, there existed a significant amount of homogeneity within the M1 haplogroup. This sharp cline indicates a history of little admixture between these regions. This could imply a more recent ancestry for M1 in Africa, as older lineages are more diverse and widespread by nature, and may be an indication of a back-migration into Africa from the Middle East.” ref
“M1 haplogroup is also observed at a rate of over. This mitochondrial clade is common among Ethiopians and North Africans, particularly Egyptians and Algerians. M1 is believed to have originated in Asia, where its parent M clade represents the majority of mtDNA lineages. “We analysed mtDNA variation in ~250 persons from Libya, Somalia, and Congo/Zambia, as representatives of the three regions of interest. Our initial results indicate a sharp cline in M1 frequencies that generally does not extend into sub-Saharan Africa. While our North and especially East African samples contained frequencies of M1 over 20%.” ref
Hunting and Gathering Haza people of Tanzania, Africa
“Northern Tanzania is home to the Hadzabe, one of the last remaining hunter-gatherer tribes on Earth. The Hadza roam as needed to find game, tubers, and wild berries. The Hadza trace descent bilaterally (through both paternal and maternal lines), and almost all Hadza people can trace some kin tie to all other Hadza people. Furthermore, the Hadza are egalitarian, so there are no real status differences between individuals, which results in high levels of freedom and self-dependence. The Hadza do not follow a formal religion, and it has been claimed that they do not believe in an afterlife. Hadza offer prayers to Ishoko (the Sun) or to Haine (the moon) during hunts and believe they go to Ishoko when they die. They also hold rituals such as the monthly epeme dance for men at the new moon and the less frequent maitoko circumcision and coming-of-age ceremony for women.” ref, ref, ref
“Hadza arrows are of three types: wooden for hunting birds and rodents, metal for medium-sized animals, and with poisoned metal arrowheads for hunting big animals. Many arrows have just a sharp wooden tip, and others may have arrowheads added.” ref
Haza bow and arrow: “they pull plant fibres from the branch of a tree to make the bow string, though they would have preferred to use tendon from a Zebra. From a branch, they roast, skin, and straighten the arrows using their teeth as a vice. Feathers were gathered from a bird to fletch the arrow.” ref
“The bow and arrow, a successful and widespread projectile technology, is evident in the archaeological record of South Africa dating back 65,000 years. Hadza men traditionally string their bows using processed strips of the nuchal ligament from eland, buffalo, or zebra, or the sinew of giraffe. Bow and arrow mechanics in living hunter-gatherers are needed to inform experimental studies of Paleolithic archery. These Hadza have no crops, domesticated animals, firearms, or vehicles. Women were gathering wild plant foods on a daily basis, mainly berries and tubers. Men foraged for honey and hunted wild game with their bows and arrows. Hadza men grow up using a bow from a very young age; small bows and arrows are commonly made and given to boys as young as 3 or 4 years old to play and practice with. Men carry a bow during most of their adult life, even on forays from camp in which hunting is not their primary objective. Hadza men crafted and used traditional straight bows with considerable draw weights, consistent with previous reports. For recurve bows used in modern Olympic archery competitions, draw forces (i.e., draw weights) are measured at 66.7 cm draw length and typically fall within 180–250 N. By comparison, mean draw force among Hadza archers 311 ± 98 N (range: 141–545), ~ 47% greater than that of male Olympic archers.” ref
Here are a few of what I see as “Animist only” Cultures:
“Aka people”
“The Aka people are very warm and hospitable. Relationships between men and women are extremely egalitarian. Men and women contribute equally to a household’s diet, either a husband or wife can initiate divorce, and violence against women is very rare. No cases of rape have been reported. The Aka people are fiercely egalitarian and independent. No individual has the right to force or order another individual to perform an activity against his or her will. Aka people have a number of informal methods for maintaining their egalitarianism. First, they practice “prestige avoidance”; no one draws attention to his or her own abilities. Individuals play down their achievements.” ref
“Mbuti People”
“The Mbuti people are generally hunter-gatherers who commonly are in the Congo’s Ituri Forest have traditionally lived in stateless communities with gift economies and largely egalitarian gender relations. They were a people who had found in the forest something that made life more than just worth living, something that made it, with all its hardships and problems and tragedies, a wonderful thing full of joy and happiness and free of care. Pygmies, like the Inuit, minimize discrimination based upon sex and age differences. Adults of all genders make communal decisions at public assemblies. The Mbuti people do not have a state, or chiefs or councils.” ref
“Hadza people”
“The Hadza people of Tanzania in East Africa are egalitarian, meaning there are no real status differences between individuals. While the elderly receive slightly more respect, within groups of age and sex all individuals are equal, and compared to strictly stratified societies, women are considered fairly equal. This egalitarianism results in high levels of freedom and self-dependency. When conflict does arise, it may be resolved by one of the parties voluntarily moving to another camp. Ernst Fehr and Urs Fischbacher point out that the Hadza people “exhibit a considerable amount of altruistic punishment” to organize these tribes. The Hadza people live in a communal setting and engage in cooperative child-rearing, where many individuals (both related and unrelated) provide high-quality care for children. Having no tribal or governing hierarchy, the Hadza people trace descent bilaterally (through paternal and maternal lines), and almost all Hadza people can trace some kin tie to all other Hadza people.” ref
Cosmic hunt: hunters and animals on the Milky Way, sometimes an animal is killed while hunting, and in others, they are a sacrificed animal that bleeds down the Milky Way.
“Cosmic Hunt stories have been recorded among the Inuit –Inupiaq branch of the Eskimo with no such a story in Alaskan Yupic folklore. Like many other tales, the Inuit-Inupiaq Cosmic Hunt myths find parallels not in Southwestern Alaska, but to the west of the Bering Strait. Among the Chukchi and the Koryak, the Orion (i.e. the hunter) pursues the reindeer associated with the Pleiades or Cassiopeia. Much further to the west, the Lapp version is the nearest parallel for the Chukchi one. According to it, the hunter is also Orion, and the elk or reindeer pursued by him is Cassiopeia. The Yukagir cosmology is poorly known. The Mestizos of Markovo (with a probable Yukagir substratum) describe the Big Dipper as an elk pursued by three brothers and three sisters, their story being somewhat similar to the Evenk ideas. In Yakut myths, Orion pursues the elk, but the Big Dipper is not mentioned. The Yakut tradition is heterogeneous. Some versions describe a lonely hunter whose ski path turned into the Milky Way, which is typical for some Western Siberian, Tungus, Negidal, and Ugedhe-Oroch stories. Other Yakut tales not relevant to the origin of the Milky Way, describe a group of hunters. In America, the interpretation of the Milky Way as a ski path is present across Alaska and British Columbia among the Tlingit, Central Yupic, Ingalik, and Tahltan, but only among the Tlingit is this image connected with the Cosmic Hunt tale. Among the Even (Lamut) three hunters who pursue mountain sheep are associated with the Pleiades.” ref
African origin of Paleolithic Venus figures?
These “olanakwete-doll” items will not last in the archaeological record as they are unfired… (Could the Paleolithic Venus figures of Europe have had a connection to/relate to, or stem from these “olanakwete-doll” figures? Likewise, could it be something transferred to them from one of the two cultures that interbred with them: 22% Niger-Congo and 6% Cushitic ancestry?)
“Many have interpreted symbolic material culture in the deep past as evidencing the origins of sophisticated, modern cognition. Scholars from across the behavioural and cognitive sciences, including linguists, psychologists, philosophers, neuroscientists, primatologists, archaeologists, and palaeoanthropologists, have used such artefacts to assess the capacities of extinct human species and to set benchmarks, milestones, or otherwise chart the course of human cognitive evolution. To better calibrate our expectations, the present paper instead explores the material culture of three contemporary African forager groups. Results show that, although these groups are unequivocally behaviorally modern, they would leave scant, long-lasting evidence of symbolic behavior. Artefact sets are typically small, possibly due to residential mobility. When traded materials are excluded, few artefacts have components with moderate–to–strong taphonomic signatures. The present analyses show that artefact function influences preservation probability, such that utilitarian tools for processing materials and preparing food are disproportionately likely to contain archaeologically traceable components. There are substantial differences in material use among populations, which create important population-level variation in preservation probability, independent of cognitive differences. Such as the factors – cultural, ecological, and practical – that influence material choice, highlighting the difficulties of using past material culture as an evolutionary or cognitive yardstick.” ref
“The Hadza, or Hadzabe, are a protected hunter-gatherer Tanzanian indigenous ethnic group. As descendants of Tanzania’s aboriginal, pre-Bantu expansion hunter-gatherer population, they have probably occupied their current territory for thousands of years with relatively little modification to their basic way of life until the last century. They have no known close genetic relatives, and their language is considered an isolate. The Hadza population is dominated by haplogroup B2-M112 (Y-DNA) ∼72% ancestry distantly related to Khoisan and Pygmy ancestries.” ref, ref
“Three objects used by women: the naricanda-stick, a’untenakwete-gourd, and olanakwete-doll. These objects are material objects that have proven excellent portals for Hadza, as well as for my research, to enter the realms of forefathers, night dance, and cosmology. Asking questions about these objects facilitated discussions that illuminate the cosmological constituents of being human. The stick, gourd, and doll, and the way they are related to, are not representative of the way Hadza relate to things or possessions as such. These are ritual objects, and they are considered to be objects of power by the Hadza. In anthropological theory, ‘power objects’ have come to be the cover term for artefacts that carry. Hadza cosmology examined through objects, rituals, and the Hadza concept of epeme. The objects are intimately linked to women and to aspects of the social and cosmological identity of the individual makers.” ref, ref
“A voodoo doll is an effigy that is typically used for the insertion of pins. Such practices are found in various forms in the magical traditions of many cultures around the world. Despite its name, the voodoo doll is not prominent in the African diaspora religions of Haitian Vodou nor Louisiana Voodoo. Members of the High Priesthood of Louisiana Voodoo have denounced the use of voodoo dolls as irrelevant to the religion. The association of the voodoo doll and the religion of Voodoo was established through the presentation of the latter in Western popular culture during the first half of the 20th century as part of the broader negative depictions of Black and Afro-Caribbean religious practices in the United States. By the early 21st century, the image of the voodoo doll had become particularly pervasive. In 2020, Louisiana Voodoo High Priest Robi Gilmore stated, “It blows my mind that people still believe [Voodoo dolls are relevant to Voodoo religion]. Hollywood really did us a number. We do not stab pins in dolls to hurt people; we don’t take your hair and make a doll, and worship the devil with it, and ask the devil to give us black magic to get our revenge on you. It is not done, it won’t be done, and it never will exist for us.” ref
Dancing Orixa Dolls/Dolls of Axé: Honoring the Artistry of Dona Detinha de Xango
“My dolls dance in the house at night. They bring the Axé with me from Bahia. They protect us. They are beautiful and educational. They have been one of my most important references in the creation of orixa costumes for the stage, they are a point of reference for the vast orixa stories. The importance of cloth, dressing your gods in their finest cloths. I have been dancing and dialoguing with these dolls since 1987.” -Linda Yudin. Dona Detinha, AKA Valdete Ribeiro da Silva, affectionately known as Detinha de Xangô, Oba Gesi, was an Orixa doll maker in Salvador Bahia, Brazil, starting in the 1970s. Her dolls represent the pantheon of Yoruba deities called Orixa, honored and celebrated by devotees and initiates of the Candomblé religion. The dolls are not ceremonial objects but, according to Dona Detinha, are amulets that carry the axé (pronounced ah-shé) of the house of Ilê Axé Opo Afonja. Axé, in Yoruba-descended spiritual traditions like Candomblé, is the power/life force (from the orixa) to create communal balance. Axé is the potential energy of life, and axé protects you. Dona Detinha’s artistry and craftsmanship have been singled out as exemplary of the black Bahian women who are central to the creative cultural and spiritual life of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Orixa symbology and iconography proliferate throughout Salvador. Dona Detinha’s unique dolls are another exquisite way that the Orixas are expressed in the life of Bahia.” ref
“Orishas (singular: orisha) are divine spirits that play a key role in the Yoruba religion of West Africa and several religions of the African diaspora that derive from it, such as Haitian Vaudou, Cuban Santería and Brazilian Candomblé. The preferred spelling varies depending on the language in question: òrìṣà is the spelling in the Yoruba language, orixá in Portuguese, and orisha, oricha, orichá or orixá in Spanish-speaking countries. According to the teachings of these religions, the orishas are spirits sent by the supreme creator, Olodumare, to assist humanity and to teach them to be successful on Ayé (Earth). Rooted in the native religion of the Yoruba people, most orishas are said to have previously existed in òrún—the spirit world—and then became Irúnmọlẹ̀—spirits or divine beings incarnated as human on Earth. Irunmole took upon a human identity and lived as ordinary humans in the physical world, but because they had their origin in the divine, they had great wisdom and power at the moment of their creation. The orishas found their way to most of the New World as a result of the Atlantic slave trade and are now expressed in practices as varied as Haitian Vodou, Santería, Candomblé, Trinidad Orisha, Umbanda, and Oyotunji, among others. The concept of òrìṣà is similar to those of deities in the traditional religions of the Bini people of Edo State in southern Nigeria, the Ewe people of Benin, Ghana, and Togo, and the Fon people of Benin. In diaspora communities, the worship of Orishas often incorporates drumming, dance, and spirit possession as central aspects of ritual life. These practices serve to strengthen communal bonds and foster direct spiritual experiences among practitioners.” ref
“Practitioners traditionally believe that daily life depends on proper alignment and knowledge of one’s Orí. Ori literally means the head, but in spiritual matters, it is taken to mean a portion of the soul that determines personal destiny. Offerings, prayers, and self-reflection are all means by which a devotee can align with their Orí, thereby ensuring balance, success, and fulfillment in life. Without proper alignment with one’s Orí, even the assistance of the orishas may prove ineffective. Some orishas are rooted in ancestor worship; warriors, kings, and founders of cities were celebrated after death and joined the pantheon of Yoruba deities. The ancestors did not die but were seen to have “disappeared” and become orishas. Some orishas based on historical figures are confined to worship in their families or towns of origin; others are venerated across wider geographic areas.” ref
“Ase is the life-force that runs through all things, living and inanimate, and is described as the power to make things happen. It is an affirmation that is used in greetings and prayers, as well as a concept of spiritual growth. Orìṣà devotees strive to obtain Ase through iwa-pele, gentle and good character, and in turn, they experience alignment with the ori, what others might call inner peace and satisfaction with life. Ase is divine energy that comes from Olodumare, the creator deity, and is manifested through Olorun, who rules the heavens and is associated with the Sun. Without the Sun, no life could exist, just as life cannot exist without some degree of Ashe. Ase is sometimes associated with Eshu, the messenger orisha. For practitioners, Ashe represents a link to the eternal presence of the supreme deity, the orishas, and the ancestors. Rituals, prayers, songs, and sacrifices are all ways to invoke or transfer ase. In this way, every action and word becomes potentially sacred, carrying spiritual weight and consequence.” ref
“The concept is regularly referenced in Brazilian capoeira. Axé in this context is used as a greeting or farewell, in songs and as a form of praise. Saying that someone “has axé” in capoeira is complimenting their energy, fighting spirit, and attitude. The orisa are grouped as those represented by the color white, who are characterized as tutu “cool, calm, gentle, and temperate”; and those represented by the colors red or black, who are characterized as gbigbona “bold, strong, assertive, and easily annoyed”. Like humans, orishas may have a preferred color, food, or object. The traits of the orishas are documented through oral tradition. Each orisha governs specific aspects of nature and human experience—for example, Ogun governs iron and war, Oshun rules over love and rivers, and Yemoja is associated with motherhood and the ocean. Their symbols, offerings, and ritual practices are carefully preserved and transmitted through generations of initiates.” ref
“The term “voodoo” has its roots in West Africa. It comes from the word for “spirit” in the Fon language. The French used the term “vaudoux” (which eventually morphed into the anglicized “voodoo”) to refer to a variety of African spiritual practices, which they typically regarded as superstitions and barbaric practices, in their colonies in the Americas. Despite the name, “voodoo dolls” are not actually derived from the religions of Haiti, Louisiana, or West Africa that have been labeled as “voodoo.” Instead, these dolls are based primarily on European concepts of witchcraft. In case it is not clear from the previous points, “voodoo” is an extremely racist term. For centuries, it has been used to denigrate the spiritual practices of people of African descent and to argue that Black people were too superstitious for independence and self-governance. The term, and all the stereotypes that come with it, continue to support harmful prejudices and violence against Haitian Vodou and other Africana religions.” ref
“Santería (Spanish pronunciation: [san.te.ˈɾi.a]), also known as Regla de Ocha, Regla Lucumí, or Lucumí, is an Afro-Caribbean religion that developed in Cuba during the late 19th century. It arose amid a process of syncretism between the traditional Yoruba religion of West Africa, Catholicism, and Spiritism. There is no central authority in control of Santería and much diversity exists among practitioners, who are known as creyentes (“believers”). Santería developed among Afro-Cuban communities following the Atlantic slave trade of the 16th to 19th centuries. It formed through the blending of the traditional religions brought to Cuba by enslaved West Africans, the majority of them Yoruba, and Roman Catholicism, the only religion legally permitted on the island by the Spanish colonial government. The late 20th century saw growing links between Santería and related traditions in West Africa and the Americas, such as Haitian Vodou and Brazilian Candomblé. Since the late 20th century, some practitioners have emphasized a “Yorubization” process to remove Roman Catholic influences and created forms of Santería closer to traditional Yoruba religion. Santería is an Afro-Caribbean religion, and more specifically, an Afro-Cuban religion. Santería also has commonalities with other West African and West African-derived traditions in the Americas which collectively form the “Orisha religion”, “Orisha Tradition”, or “Orisha worship.” These include Haitian Vodou and Brazilian Candomblé, sometimes characterized as “sister religions” of Santería due to their shared origins in Yoruba traditional religion. Santeria is polytheistic, revolving around deities called oricha, ocha, or santos (“saints”).” ref
“Some practitioners perceive the oricha as facets of Olodumare, and thus think that by venerating them they are ultimately worshipping the creator god. Certain oricha are female, others male. They are not regarded as wholly benevolent, being capable of both harming and helping humans, and displaying a mix of emotions, virtues, and vices. Origin myths and other stories about the oricha are called patakíes. Each oricha is understood to “rule over” a particular aspect of the universe, being identified with a different facet of the natural world or human existence. They live in a realm called orún, which is contrasted with ayé, the realm of humanity. Oricha each have their own caminos (“roads”), or manifestations, a concept akin to the Hindu concept of avatars. The number of caminos an oricha has varies, with some having several hundred. Practitioners believe that oricha can physically inhabit certain objects, among them stones and cowrie shells, which are deemed sacred. Each oricha is also associated with specific songs, rhythms, colors, numbers, animals, and foodstuffs.” ref
“Among the oricha are the four “warrior deities”, or guerrors: Eleguá, Ogun, Ochosi, and Osun. Eleguá is viewed as the guardian of the crossroads and thresholds; he is the messenger between humanity and the oricha, and most ceremonies start by requesting his permission to continue. He is depicted as being black on one side and red on the other, and practitioners will frequently place a cement head decorated with cowrie shells that represents Eleguá behind their front door, guarding the threshold to the street. The second guerro is Ogun, viewed as the oricha of weapons and war, and also of iron and blacksmiths. The third, Ochosi, is associated with woods and hunting, while the fourth, Osun, is a protector who warns practitioners when they are in danger.” ref
“Perhaps the most popular oricha, Changó or Shango is associated with lightning and fire. Another prominent oricha is Yemaja, the deity associated with maternity, fertility, and the sea. Ochún is the oricha of rivers and of romantic love, while Oyá is a warrior associated with wind, lightning, and death, and is viewed as the guardian of the cemetery. Obatalá is the oricha of truth and justice and is deemed responsible for helping to mould humanity. Babalú Ayé is the oricha associated with disease and its curing, while Osain is linked to herbs and healing. Orula is the oricha of divination, who in Santería’s mythology was present at the creation of humanity and thus is aware of everyone’s destiny. Ibeyi takes the form of twins who protect children. Olokún is the patron oricha of markets, while his wife Olosá is associated with lagoons. Agagyú is the oricha of volcanoes and the wasteland. Some oricha are deemed antagonistic to others; Changó and Ogun are for instance enemies.” ref
“Santería’s focus is on cultivating a reciprocal relationship with the oricha, with adherents believing that these deities can intercede in human affairs and help people if they are appeased. Practitioners argue that each person is “born to” a particular oricha, whether or not they devote themselves to that deity. This is a connection that, adherents believe, has been set before birth. Practitioners refer to this oricha as one that “rules the head” of an individual; it is their “owner of the head”. If the oricha is male then it is described as the individual’s “father”; if the oricha is female then it is the person’s “mother”. This oricha is deemed to influence the individual’s personality, and can be recognised through examining the person’s personality traits, or through divination.” ref
“To gain the protection of a particular oricha, practitioners are encouraged to make offerings to them, sponsor ceremonies in their honor, and live in accordance with their wishes, as determined through divination. Practitioners are concerned at the prospect of offending the oricha. Creyentes believe that the oricha can communicate with humans through divination, prayers, dreams, music, and dance. Many practitioners also describe how they “read” messages from the oricha in everyday interactions and events. For instance, a practitioner who meets a child at a traffic intersection may interpret this as a message from Eleguá, who is often depicted as a child and who is perceived as the “guardian” of the crossroads. At that point the practitioner may turn to divination to determine the precise meaning of the encounter. The information obtained from these messages may then help practitioners make decisions about their life.” ref
“The Yoruba people are a West African ethnic group who inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo, which are collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute more than 50 million people in Africa, are over a million outside the continent, and bear further representation among the African diaspora. The vast majority of Yoruba are within Nigeria, where they make up 20.7. Most Yoruba people speak the Yoruba language, which is the Niger-Congo language with the largest number of native or L1 speakers. The historical Yoruba developed in situ, out of earlier Mesolithic Volta-Niger populations, by the 1st millennium BCE. By the 8th century, a powerful city-state already existed in Ile-Ife, one of the earliest in Africa. This City, whose oral traditions link to figures like Oduduwa and Obatala, would later become the heart of the Ife Empire, the first empire in Yoruba History. The Ife Empire, flourishing between roughly 1200 and 1420 CE, extended its influence across a significant portion of what is now southwestern Nigeria and eastern Benin and to modern-day Togo. Outside Africa, the Yoruba diaspora consists of two main groupings; the first being that of the Yorubas taken as slaves to the New World between the 16th and 19th centuries, notably to the Caribbean (especially in Cuba) and Brazil, and the second consisting of a wave of relatively recent migrants, the majority of whom began to migrate to the United Kingdom and the United States following some of the major economic and political changes encountered in Africa in the 1960s till date.” ref
“Oral history recorded under the Oyo Empire derives the Yoruba as an ethnic group from the population of the City State of Ile-Ife. Ile-Ife, as the capital of the former empire, held a prominent position in Yoruba history. The Yoruba were the dominant cultural force in southwestern and west-central Nigeria as far back as the 11th century. The Yoruba people have a centuries-long tradition of living in large urban centres. They are a people who have a propensity for living in cities, and their settlement pattern usually tends towards concentric nucleation, making them one of the most historically urban ethnic groups on the African continent. Prior to the era of colonialism, the Yorubas existed as a series of well-structured large kingdoms and states with an urban capital core (Olú Ìlú) sharing filial relations with one another. These urban capitals were built to encapsulate the palace of the Oba (king) and most of the kingdom’s central institution,s such as the premier market (Ọjà Ọba) and several temples.” ref
“Many of these city-states had extensive defence structures such as moats and trenches (Iyàrà), such as those of the Ife Empire and the better-known Eredo Sungbo that completely circumferenced the nascent Ijebu Kingdom, while others had tall walls and ramparts such as Oyo ile, capital of the Oyo empire, reported to have ten gates in the outer wall, which was more than 20 feet high. These Yoruba urban centres were historically some of the most populated not only in West Africa, but also on the continent. Archaeological findings indicate that Òyó-Ilé or Katunga, capital of the Yoruba empire of Oyo (fl. between the 16th and 19th centuries CE), had more than 100,000 inhabitants. For a long time, another major Yoruba city, Ibadan, which expanded rapidly in the 1800s, took the title. Today, Lagos (Yoruba: Èkó) has become the largest urban centre of the Yoruba people and on the continent, displacing Ibadan to second place with a population of over twenty million.” ref
“Archaeologically, the settlement of Ile-Ife showed features of urbanism in the 12th–14th-century era. This period coincided with the peak of the Ife Empire, during which Ile-Ife grew into one of West Africa’s largest urban centers. In the period around 1300 CE, when glass bead production reached an Industrial scale, floors were paved with potsherds and stones. The artists at Ile-Ife developed a refined and naturalistic sculptural tradition in terracotta, stone, and copper alloy – copper, brass, and bronze many of which appear to have been created under the patronage of King Obalufon II, the man who today is identified as the Yoruba patron deity of brass casting, weaving and regalia. The dynasty of kings at Ile-Ife, which is regarded by the Yoruba as the place of origin of human civilization, remains intact to this day. The urban phase of Ile-Ife before the rise of Oyo, which represented a peak of political centralization in the 14th century, is commonly described as a “golden age” of Ife. The Oba or ruler of Ile-Ife is referred to as the Ooni of Ife. Ife continues to be seen as the “spiritual homeland” of the Yoruba. The city was surpassed by the Oyo Empire as the dominant Yoruba military and political power in the 11th century.” ref
“The Oyo Empire under its Oba, known as the Alaafin of Oyo, was active in the African slave trade during the 18th century. The Yoruba often demanded slaves as a form of tribute of subject populations, who in turn sometimes made war on other peoples to capture the required slaves. Part of the slaves sold by the Oyo Empire entered the Atlantic slave trade. Most of the city states were controlled by Obas (or royal sovereigns with various individual titles) and councils made up of Oloye, recognized leaders of royal, noble, and, often, even common descent, who joined them in ruling over the kingdoms through a series of guilds and cults. Different states saw differing ratios of power between the kingships and the chiefs’ councils. Some, such as Oyo, had powerful, autocratic monarchs with almost total control, while in others, such as the Ijebu city-states, the senatorial councils held more influence, and the power of the ruler or Ọba, referred to as the Awujale of Ijebuland, was more limited.” ref
“The Yoruboid languages are assumed to have developed out of an undifferentiated Volta-Niger group by the first millennium BCE. There are three major dialect areas: Northwest, Central, and Southeast. As the North-West Yoruba dialects show more linguistic innovation, combined with the fact that Southeast and Central Yoruba areas generally have older settlements, suggests a later date of immigration into Northwestern Yoruba territory. The area where North-West Yoruba (NWY) is spoken corresponds to the historical Oyo Empire. South-East Yoruba (SEY) was closely associated with the expansion of the Benin Empire after c. 1450. Central Yoruba forms a transitional area in that the lexicon has much in common with NWY, whereas it shares many ethnographical features with SEY. Yoruba people have a sense of group identity around a number of cultural concepts, beliefs, and practices recognizable by all members of the ethnic group. Prominent among these is the tracing of the entire Yoruba body through dynastic migrations to roots formed in Ile-Ife, an ancient city in the forested heart of central Yorubaland, and its acceptance as the spiritual nucleus of Yoruba existence. The monarchy of any city-state was usually limited to a number of royal lineages. A family could be excluded from kingship and chieftaincy if any family member, servant, or slave belonging to the family committed a crime, such as theft, fraud, murder or rape. In other city-states, the monarchy was open to the election of any free-born male citizen. Occupational guilds, social clubs, secret or initiatory societies, and religious units, commonly known as Ẹgbẹ in Yoruba, included the Parakoyi (or league of traders) and Ẹgbẹ Ọdẹ (hunter’s guild), and maintained an important role in commerce, social control, and vocational education in Yoruba polities.” ref
“The Yoruba religion comprises the traditional religious and spiritual concepts and practices of the Yoruba people. Yoruba religion is formed of diverse traditions and has no single founder. Yoruba religious beliefs are part of itan, the total complex of songs, histories, stories, mythologies, and other cultural concepts that make up the Yoruba society. Next to the Veneration of ancestors, one of the most common Yoruba traditional religious concepts has been the concept of Orisa. Orisa (also spelled Orisha) are various gods and spirits, which serve the ultimate creator force in the Yoruba religious system (Ase). Some widely known Orisa are Ogun, (a god of metal, war and victory), Shango or Jakuta (a god of thunder, lightning, fire and justice who manifests as a king and who always wields a double-edged axe that conveys his divine authority and power), Esu Elegbara (a trickster who serves as the sole messenger of the pantheon, and who conveys the wish of men to the gods. He understands every language spoken by humankind, and is also the guardian of the crossroads, Oríta méta in Yoruba) and Orunmila (a god of the Oracle). Eshu has two forms, which are manifestations of his dual nature – positive and negative energies; Eshu Laroye, a teacher instructor and leader, and Eshu Ebita, a jester, deceitful, suggestive and cunning. Orunmila, for his part, reveals the past, gives solutions to problems in the present, and influences the future through the Ifa divination system, which is practised by oracle priests called Babalawos.” ref
“Olorun is one of the principal manifestations of the Supreme God of the Yoruba pantheon, the owner of the heavens, and is associated with the Sun known as Oòrùn in the Yoruba language. The two other principal forms of the supreme God are Olodumare—the supreme creator—and Olofin, who is the conduit between Òrunn (Heaven) and Ayé (Earth). Oshumare is a god that manifests in the form of a rainbow, also known as Òsùmàrè in Yoruba, while Obatala is the god of clarity and creativity.These gods feature in the Yoruba religion, as well as in some aspects of Umbanda, Winti, Obeah, Vodun and a host of others. These varieties, or spiritual lineages as they are called, are practiced throughout areas of Nigeria, among others. As interest in African indigenous religions grows, Orisa communities and lineages can be found in parts of Europe and Asia as well. While estimates may vary, some scholars believe that there could be more than 100 million adherents of this spiritual tradition worldwide.” ref
“Oral history of the Oyo-Yoruba recounts Odùduwà to be the progenitor of the Yoruba and the reigning ancestor of their crowned kings. (Like the divine right of kings in Europe or the mandate of heaven in Asia) Yoruba cultural thought is a witness of two epochs. The first epoch is a history of cosmogony and cosmology. This is also an epoch-making history in the oral culture during which time Oduduwa was the king, the Bringer of Light, pioneer of Yoruba folk philosophy, and a prominent diviner. He pondered the visible and invisible worlds, reminiscing about cosmogony, cosmology, and the mythological creatures in the visible and invisible worlds. His time favored the artist-philosophers who produced magnificent naturalistic artworks of civilization during the pre-dynastic period in Yorubaland. The second epoch is the epoch of metaphysical discourse, and the birth of modern artist-philosophy. This commenced in the 19th century in terms of the academic prowess of Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther (1807–1891). Although religion is often first in Yoruba culture, nonetheless, it is the philosophy – the thought of man – that actually leads spiritual consciousness (ori) to the creation and the practice of religion. Thus, it is believed that thought (philosophy) is an antecedent to religion. Values such as respect, peaceful co-existence, loyalty and freedom of speech are both upheld and highly valued in Yoruba culture. Societies that are considered secret societies often strictly guard and encourage the observance of moral values.” ref
“The Yoruba present the highest dizygotic twinning rate in the world (4.4% of all maternities). They manifest at 45–50 twin sets (or 90–100 twins) per 1,000 live births, possibly because of high consumption of a specific type of yam containing a natural phytoestrogen that may stimulate the ovaries to release an egg from each side. Twins are very important for the Yoruba and they usually tend to give special names to each twin. The first of the twins to be born is traditionally named Taiyewo or Tayewo, which means ‘the first to taste the world’, or the ‘slave to the second twin’, this is often shortened to Taiwo, Taiye or Taye. Kehinde is the name of the last born twin. Kehinde is sometimes also referred to as Kehindegbegbon, which is short for; Omo kehin de gba egbon and means, ‘the child that came behind gets the rights of the elder’. Twins are perceived as having spiritual advantages or as possessing magical powers. This is different from some other cultures, which interpret twins as dangerous or unwanted.” ref
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I think these items likely relate to the Milky Way as a path to Heaven/Stars.
“The Lebombo bone is a bone tool made of a baboon fibula with incised markings discovered in Border Cave in the Lebombo Mountains located between South Africa and Eswatini. Changes in the section of the notches indicate the use of different cutting edges, which the bone’s discoverer, Peter Beaumont, views as evidence for their having been made, like other markings found all over the world, during participation in rituals. The bone is between 43,000 and 42,000 years old, according to 24 radiocarbon datings. This is far older than the Ishango bone with which it is sometimes confused. Other notched bones are 80,000 years old, but it is unclear if the notches are merely decorative or if they bear a functional meaning. The bone has been conjectured to be a tally stick.” ref
Ishango bone
“Dolní Věstonice (archaeological site) noched bone dating to 20,000 years before present, it has been described as “the oldest mathematical tool of humankind”, though older engraved bones are also known, such as the approximately 26,000-year-old “Wolf Bone” from Dolni Vestonice in the Czech Republic, and the approximately 40,000-year-old Lebombo bone from southern Africa.” ref
Mythological formation of the Milky Way
“Black God has a crescent moon on his forehead, a fullmoon for a mouth, the Pleiades on his temple and he wears a buckskin mask covered in sacred charcoal with white paint. According to one version of the Navajo creation story, Black God is first encountered by First Man and First Woman on the Yellow (third) world. Black God is, first and foremost, a fire god. He is the inventor of the fire drill and was the first being to discover the means by which to generate fire. He is also attributed to the practice of witchcraft. In one story, Black God is set about the cosmic work of meticulously assembling constellations in an otherwise empty sky. One by one, he pulls each star from a pouch strung around his waist, sets it ablaze, and affixes it to the firmament.” ref
“When Coyote sees this he becomes impatient. Snatching Black God’s pouch away from him, Coyote scatters the remaining stars into the sky, forming the Milky Way. As Black God did not have the chance to light the stars Coyote scattered, this story explains why some stars are dimmer than others. In another version of the story, Black God made the Milky Way on purpose. There is a conflict between Black God, as the God of Fire, and Begochidi, the creator of birds and animals. This tension originates from the destruction that Black God’s fire has wrought on Begochidi’s creations. Strangely enough, this rivalry persists despite Black God becoming the protector of said creations in another story. In the story of Deer Raiser, humans have begun to hunt in ways other than those that the gods had ordained. Seeing this, Black God hides game animals inside his home, Black Mountain, and surrounds it with poisonous plants to further ward against intruders.” ref
“Huracán (/ˈhʊrəkən, ˈhʊrəkɑːn/; Spanish: Huracán; Mayan languages: Hunraqan, “one legged”), often referred to as U Kʼux Kaj, the “Heart of Sky”, is a Kʼicheʼ Maya god of wind, storm, fire and one of the creator deities who participated in all three attempts at creating humanity. He also caused the Great Flood after the second generation of humans angered the gods. He supposedly lived in the windy mists above the floodwaters and repeatedly invoked “earth” until land came up from the seas. His name, understood as ‘One-Leg’, suggests god K of Postclassic and Classic Maya iconography, a deity of lightning with one human leg, and one leg shaped like a serpent. God K is commonly referred to as Bolon Tzacab or Kʼawiil and was a god associated with power, creation, and lightning. The name may ultimately derive from huracan, a Carib word, and the source of the words hurricane and orcan (European windstorm). Related deities are Tohil in Kʼiche mythology, Bolon Tzacab in Yucatec mythology, Cocijo in Zapotec mythology, and Tezcatlipoca in Aztec mythology.” ref
“Jacawitz (also spelt Jakawitz, Jakawits, Qʼaqʼawits and Hacavitz) was a mountain god of the Postclassic Kʼicheʼ Maya of highland Guatemala. He was the patron of the Ajaw Kʼicheʼ lineage and was a companion of the sun god Tohil. It is likely that he received human sacrifice. The word jacawitz means “mountain” in the lowland Maya language, and the word qʼaqʼawitz of the highland Maya means “fire mountain”, which suggests that Jacawitz was mainly a fire deity, much like Tohil. In the Mam language, the similar word xqʼaqwitz means “yellow wasp” and the wasp was an important symbol of the deity and its associated lineage. In the Cholan languages, jacawitz means “first mountain”, linking the god with the first mountain of creation. Jacawitz was one of a triad of Kʼicheʼ deities, the other two being Tohil and the goddess Awilix, all three were sometimes collectively referred to as Tohil, the principal member of the triad. The concept of a trinity of deities was an ancient one in Maya culture, dating back to the Preclassic period.” ref
Milky Way Mythology: Often a Path to the Afterlife, Souls of the Dead on the Milky Way
Cosmic Hunt: Variants of Siberian-North American Myth
“The mythological motif of the Cosmic Hunt is peculiar to Northern and Central Eurasia and for the Americas but seems to be absent in other parts of the globe. Two distinct Eurasian versions demonstrate North-American parallels at the level of minor details which could be explained only by particular historical links between corresponding traditions. The first version (three stars of the handle of the Big Dipper are hunters and the dipper itself is an animal; Alcor is a dog or a cooking pot) connects Siberian (especially Western Siberian) traditions with the North-American West (Salish, Chinook) and East (especially with the Iroquois). The second version (the Orion’s Belt represents three deer, antelopes, mountain sheep or buffaloes; the hunter is Rigel or other star below the Orion’s Belt; his arrow has pierced the game and is seen either as Betelgeuze or as the stars of Orion’s Head) connects the South-Siberian – Central-Eurasian mythologies with traditions of North-American West – Southwest. Both variants unknown in Northeast Asia and in Alaska probably date to the time of initial settling of the New World. The circum-Arctic variant(s) (hunter or game are associated with Orion or thePleiades) are represented by neighbouring traditions which form an almost continuous chain from the Lapps to the Polar Inuit. This version could be brought across the American Arctic with the spread of Tule Eskimo.” ref
Milky Way as tracks of Cosmic Hunt
Many cultures see the Milky Way as related to the Cosmic hunt.
“The Cosmic Hunt is an ancient and widely distributed family of cognate myths. The story involves a large animal pursued by hunters; the animal is wounded and transformed into a constellation. Variants of the Cosmic Hunt are common in cultures of Northern Eurasia and the Americas, and include the story of Callisto in classical sources. The prey animal is either a bear or an ungulate, and the associated constellation involves the four stars of the bowl in the Big Dipper asterism of Ursa Major. In some variants blood or grease may fall from the wounded animal; in an Iroquois version the blood causes leaves to change color in autumn. Sometimes the hunters are also placed in the firmament, represented by the stars of the Big Dipper’s handle. The original prototype of the myth likely originated over 15,000 years ago, and diffused across the Bering land bridge. It has been suggested to provide evidence for punctuated equilibrium as a system for myth evolution.” ref
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“Hunting Cult” (Cosmic Hunt) becomes “Herding Cult” Paganism
“Herding societies are nearly always that of a true hierarchical chiefdom rather than of an egalitarian society. Horticulture mixed with the domestication of animals seems to have predominated until even the least cultivable zones were filled. Sometimes, a complete symbiosis between a tribe/clan of herders and an adjacent tribe/clan of horticulturalists occurs to the point that they resemble a single society composed of two specialized castes, the herders occupying the superior position. Fully committed pastoralists manifest a considerable degree of cultural uniformity in economics, social organization, political order, and even in religion. Full pastoralism, with its powerful equestrian warriors, seems to have developed around 1500 to 1000 BCE, or around 3,500 to 3,000 years ago, in Inner Asia. Herders are likely to raid settled villages and frequently raid other herders as well.” ref
“To the extent that pastoral nomadic societies achieve wealth and success in herding and in war, they tend to solidify and extend their chiefdom structure. They also add to their religious organization a hierarchical principle, together with the content known as ancestor worship. Much of the mythology by which a primitive people explains itself and its customs comes in this way to have an ingredient familiar to readers of the Old Testament. Sometimes the significance of herding leads not only to the glorification of herds and herding, but even to a religious taboo against planting. Taboos, such as a belief that plowing and planting may defile the earth spirit. Or herders, in time of need, may engage in horticulture, but it is considered degrading to toil in farming, whereas herding is a very prideful occupation.” ref
Cult, herding, and ‘pilgrimage’
1. Körtiktepe (12,000 years ago) link & link
2. Göbekli Tepe (11,500 years ago) link
3. Balıklıgöl statue “Urfa man” (11,000 years ago) link
4. Karahan Tepe (11,000 years ago) link
5. Sayburç (11,000 years ago) link
6. Nevalı Çori (10,400) link & link
7. Tell Fekheriye (11,000 years ago) link
Ganj Dareh link
Goat, Sheep, and Cattle Domestication link & link
Cosmic Hunt link
Master of Animals link
New Grasp of the Evolution of Religion
I see the big snake in the Master of Animals at “Kortik Tepe” as a representation of the Milky Way/Rainbow, and the shaman’s body with lines (like lines on tally sticks) is also a reference to the Milky Way/Rainbow, which is also the same as the snake in his hand, showing he has power over/uses the Milky Way/Rainbow, as well as the snake on his forehead, a snake symbol of his power over the Milky Way/Rainbow.
I see the Milky Way and Rainbows (duality: like yin-yang, is the concept of opposite cosmic principles or forces) as a similar connected theme in the duality of day and night, like the sun and the moon mythology.
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“The Galactic Center is the barycenter of the Milky Way and a corresponding point on the rotational axis of the galaxy. The Galactic Center is approximately 8 kiloparsecs (26,000 ly) away from Earth in the direction of the constellations Sagittarius, Ophiuchus, and Scorpius, where the Milky Way appears brightest, visually close to the Butterfly Cluster (M6) or the star Shaula, south to the Pipe Nebula.” ref
“The sun or other source of light is usually behind the person seeing the rainbow. In fact, the center of a primary rainbow is the antisolar point, the imaginary point exactly opposite the sun. Rainbows are actually full circles. The antisolar point is the center of the circle. Because each person’s horizon is a little different, no one actually sees a full rainbow from the ground. In fact, no one sees the same rainbow—each person has a different antisolar point, each person has a different horizon. A fogbow is formed in much the same way as a primary rainbow. A moonbow, also called a lunar rainbow, is a rainbow produced by light reflected by the moon. Rainbows are part of the myths of many cultures around the world. Rainbows are often portrayed as bridges between people and supernatural beings. In the ancient beliefs of Japan and Gabon, rainbows were the bridges that human ancestors took to descend to the planet. The shape of a rainbow also resembles the bow of an archer. Hindu culture teaches that the god Indra uses his rainbow bow to shoot arrows of lightning. Rainbows are usually positive symbols in myths and legends. In the Epic of Gilgamesh and, later, the Christian Bible, the rainbow is a symbol from a deity (the goddess Ishtar and the Hebrew God) to never again destroy Earth with floods. Sometimes, however, rainbows are negative symbols. In parts of Burma, for instance, rainbows are considered demons that threaten children. Tribes throughout the Amazon Basin associate rainbows with disease.” ref
Milky Way is related to Dogs/dog-like: Wolf
“A Cherokee folktale tells of a dog who stole some cornmeal and was chased away. He ran away to the north, spilling the cornmeal along the way. The Milky Way is thus called ᎩᎵ ᎤᎵᏒᏍᏓᏅᏱ (Gili Ulisvsdanvyi) “Where the dog ran.” ref
“Most American Indian tribes used the stars as indicators of the time for seasonal ceremonies and their position when they were traveling across the land, but only one tribe was called the Star People. These were the Pawnee, they became part of the Caddoan tribes, who called them ‘Awahi,’ the Star People. The term ‘Caddo’ meant ‘true chiefs,’ and these people were descendents of the Mound Builders, who worshipped the Serpent and the Star. The Star that fell to earth was represented by a secret fire. The Caddo, as well as the early Pawnee, may have been influenced in their stellar cosmology by the more southern tribes, including the Maya. The Skiri (Wolf band) became so dominant among the Pawnee that other tribes called the Pawnee the Wolf People and the sign for ‘wolf’ came to mean ‘Pawnee.’ The Pawnee differ from other tribes in not following the positions of the Sun or the phases of the Moon; instead, they follow the Stars. Next to the Great Chief Star (Polaris, the North Star), three stars form an arc, representing the Medicine Man, his wife and their errand man. Pawnee Chiefs use the smoke hole in their lodges to sight the Stars known as the Council of Chiefs (Corona Borealis) passing overhead at dawn. The Stars announce the cycle of rebirth and renewal. Festivals are held at night, when the people can see the Stars, and planting ceremonies are held around midnight, when the seven stars of the Chaka (the Women) or Pleiades are directly overhead. The most important Stars are called the Swimming Ducks. These are the two bright Stars in the tail and stinger of the constellation of Scorpio, Lambda Scorpii and Upsilon Scorpii. When they are seen in the twilight of the southeastern sky before sunrise, the Pawnee know it is time to begin the ceremonies of spring, as soon as the first rolling thunder of spring is heard. The Milky Way is the ghost pathway of departed spirits. Just above the Milky Way is a spot devoid of any stars, and this is where the spirits of the dead return to the place beyond the Stars. The Milky Way is divided into two parts, one for those who died of natural causes and the other for people who died prematurely, as in battle. The Stars of the east are male Stars, and the greatest among them is a red Star known as Morning Star. Stars considered to be stationed in the west are female, and the most important one is a bright white Star called the Evening Star. The Morning Star is the planet Mars, and the Evening Star is the planet Venus. The appearance of the Wolf Star (Sirius) signifies the Wolf coming and going from the spirit world, running down the bright white trail of the Milky Way, which is also called the Wolf Road.” ref
“Canis Major is a constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere. In the second century, it was included in Ptolemy‘s 48 constellations, and is counted among the 88 modern constellations. Its name is Latin for “greater dog” in contrast to Canis Minor, the “lesser dog”; both figures are commonly represented as following the constellation of Orion the hunter through the sky. The Milky Way passes through Canis Major and several open clusters lie within its borders, most notably M41. Canis Major contains Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, known as the “dog star”. It is bright because of its proximity to the Solar System and its intrinsic brightness. In ancient Mesopotamia, Sirius, named KAK.SI.SA2 by the Babylonians, was seen as an arrow aiming towards Orion, while the southern stars of Canis Major and a part of Puppis were viewed as a bow, named BAN in the Three Stars Each tablets, dating to around 1100 BCE. In the later compendium of Babylonian astronomy and astrology titled MUL.APIN, the arrow, Sirius, was also linked with the warrior Ninurta, and the bow with Ishtar, daughter of Enlil. Ninurta was linked to the later deity Marduk, who was said to have slain the ocean goddess Tiamat (whose severed tail was the Milky way) with a great bow, and worshipped as the principal deity in Babylon. The Ancient Greeks replaced the bow and arrow depiction with that of a dog.” ref, ref
“The mischievous deity Coyote grew annoyed with the slowness of their process and exasperatedly threw the bag of unplaced stars up over his head and into the sky. This scattering formed the Milky Way, the stars of which cannot be named because they were not properly placed.” ref
“One day Black God was busy making the constellations by carefully ordering the stars in the sky when Coyote became impatient and tossed the remaining stars from a bag, or occasionally a blanket, into the sky, forming the Milky Way. This story explains the reason some stars are dimmer than others, because Black God did not light the ones Coyote blew into the sky on fire. In another version of the story, Black God made the Milky Way on purpose. The Navajo believe it provides a pathway for the spirits traveling between heaven and earth, each little star being one footprint. The general view of Coyote in folk belief is generally negative and related to witchcraft. Witches called skin-walkers are believed to be able to adopt the form of a coyote.” ref
Rainbow related to Dogs/dog-like: Silver Gray Fox/Coyote
“An Achomawi Myth, of the First Rainbow, indigenous tribal people from northeastern California. The animals held a great feast to honor the rainbow, Silver Gray Fox, Spider Woman, the Spider Twins, Coyote, and the hard work everyone had done together.” ref
“There is an old legend in Japan that states when the sun is shining through the rain, the kitsune (foxes) have their weddings. In this first dream, a boy defies the wish of a woman, possibly his mother, to remain at home during a day with such weather. From behind a large tree in the nearby forest, he witnesses the slow wedding procession of the kitsune. Unfortunately, he is spotted by the foxes and runs. When he tries to return home, the same woman says that a fox had come by the house, leaving behind a tantō knife. The woman gives the knife to the boy, implying that he must commit suicide. The woman asks the boy to go and beg forgiveness from the foxes, although they are known to be unforgiving, refusing to let him in unless he does so. The boy sets off into the mountains, towards the place under the rainbow in search for the kitsune’s home.” ref
Milky Way as a Path
“Birds’ Path” is used in several Uralic and Turkic languages and in the Baltic languages. Northern peoples observed that migratory birds follow the course of the galaxy while migrating at the Northern Hemisphere. The name “Birds’ Path” (in Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Bashkir and Kazakh) has some variations in other languages, e.g. “Way of the grey (wild) goose” in Chuvash, Mari and Tatar and “Way of the Crane” in Erzya and Moksha.” ref
“Among the Finns, Estonians and related peoples, the Milky Way was and is called “The Pathway of the Birds” (Finnish: Linnunrata, Estonian: Linnutee). The Finns observed that migratory birds used the galaxy as a guideline to travel south, where they believed Lintukoto (bird home) was. The name in the Indo-European Baltic languages has the same meaning (Lithuanian: Paukščių Takas, Latvian: Putnu Ceļš).” ref
“In Estonian folklore it is believed that the birds are led by a white bird with the head of a maiden who chases birds of prey away. The maiden, the goddess Lindu, was the Queen of the Birds and the daughter of Ukko, the King of the Sky. After refusing the suits of the Sun and Moon for being too predictable in their routes and the Pole Star for being fixed, she fell in love with the Light of North for its beauty. They became engaged, but the inconstant Light of North left her soon afterward. The tears of the broken-hearted Lindu fell on her wedding veil, which became the Milky Way when her father brought her to heaven so she could reign by his side and guide the migrating birds, who followed the trail of stars in her veil. Only later did scientists indeed confirm this observation; the migratory birds use the Milky Way as a guide to travel to warmer, southern lands during the winter.” ref
“Polaris is a star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Minor. It is designated α Ursae Minoris (Latinized to Alpha Ursae Minoris) and is commonly called the North Star or Pole Star. The position of the star lies less than 1° away from the north celestial pole, making it the current northern pole star. The stable position of the star in the Northern Sky makes it useful for navigation. The ancient name of the constellation Ursa Minor, Cynosura (from the Greek κυνόσουρα “the dog’s tail”), became associated with the pole star in particular by the early modern period. Its name in traditional pre-Islamic Arab astronomy was al-Judayy الجدي (“the kid”, in the sense of a juvenile goat [“le Chevreau”] in Description des Etoiles fixes), and that name was used in medieval Islamic astronomy as well. In traditional Lakota star knowledge, Polaris is named “Wičháȟpi Owáŋžila”. This translates to “The Star that Sits Still”. This name comes from a Lakota story in which he married Tȟapȟúŋ Šá Wíŋ, “Red Cheeked Woman”. However, she fell from the heavens, and in his grief Wičháȟpi Owáŋžila stared down from “waŋkátu” (the above land) forever. In the ancient Finnish worldview, the North Star has also been called taivaannapa and naulatähti (“the nailstar”) because it seems to be attached to the firmament or even to act as a fastener for the sky when other stars orbit it. Since the starry sky seemed to rotate around it, the firmament is thought of as a wheel, with the star as the pivot on its axis. The names derived from it were sky pin and world pin.” ref
“The celestial pole also marked the place where the heavens were upheld by the world tree which had its branches in the sky, and its roots in the underworld below the land where people lived, and up which the shaman could climb to intervene with the gods. the pole star has been called the Nail Star, or northern nail. The celestial pole also marked the place where the heavens were upheld by the world tree which had its branches in the sky, and its roots in the underworld below the land where people lived, and up which the shaman could climb to intervene with the gods. This central axis of the world, about which the rest appears to revolve, has also been visualized as a mountain or a pillar. The celestial pole is not always marked by a star, or by the same star, for the Earth’s poles swing round in a circle during called precession. Polaris (in the tail of the Little Bear) which is nearly at the North Pole today was 3.5 degrees away in the 16th century, seven degrees away at the time of the Vikings. Four to five thousand years ago α-Draconis was the pole star. 8,000 years ago, it was τ-Hercules. 13,000 years ago, the nearest star to the pole was bright Vega, and this will be the Pole Star in thirteen thousand years’ time.” ref
“In a Khanti story from Western Siberia: “There is a mill which grinds by itself, swings of itself, and scatters the dust a hundred versts away. And there is a golden pole with a golden eagle on top which is also the Nail of the North. And there is a very wise tomcat which climbs up and down this pole. When he climbs down, he sings songs, and when he climbs up, he tells tales.” Before it was known that the Earth was spherical, in the Chinese Kai Tian (Heavenly Cover) theory of the universe, the heavens were like a bowl covering a square Earth (the Chinese Earth was symbolically square) which was domed in the center. The Great Bear constellation was in the middle of the heavens, people lived on the middle of the Earth. Rain filled a great ditch around the square Earth. The heavens were round and “rotated like a mill” from right to left, carrying with them the Sun and Moon which also had their own separate slower motions in the opposite direction. The Sun was seen as travelling round the celestial pole lighting first one then another part of the Earth’s surface, its distance from the pole varying according to the season. The changing seasons were also explained by the heavens sliding up and down the celestial pole as they rotated round so the North pole was further from the Earth in summer than in winter.” ref
Rainbow as a Path
“In Greek mythology, the goddess Iris personifies the rainbow. In many stories, such as the Iliad, she carries messages from the gods to the human world, thus forming a link between heaven and earth. Iris’s messages often concerned war and retribution. In some myths, the rainbow merely represents the path made by Iris as she flies.” In Navajo tradition, the rainbow is the path of the holy spirits, and is frequently depicted in sacred sandpaintings.” ref
Milky Way is related to a bridge
“Before the invention of the telescope, the Milky Way was observed only as a hazy band of light in which no individual stars could be distinguished. This mythical band is the source of many myths around the world, and different in various cultures.” ref
“There are many myths and legends about the origin of the Milky Way, the crowd of stars that makes a distinctive bright streak across the night sky. Milky Way (mythology) in Eastern Asian and Chinese mythology, the hazy band of stars of the Milky Way was referred to as the “River of Heaven” or the “Silvery River”. The Silvery River of Heaven is part of a Chinese folk tale, The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, of the romance between Zhinü, the weaver girl, symbolizing the star Vega, and Niulang, the cowherd, symbolizing the star Altair. Their love was not allowed, and they were banished to opposite sides of the heavenly river. Once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, a flock of crows and magpies would form a bridge over the heavenly river to reunite the lovers for a single day. That day is celebrated as Qixi, literally meaning ‘Seventh.” ref
“In Hungarian mythology, Csaba, the mythical son of Attila the Hun and ancestor of the Hungarians, is supposed to ride down the Milky Way when the Székelys (ethnic Hungarians living in Transylvania) are threatened. Thus the Milky Way is called “The Road of the Warriors” (lit. “Road of Armies”) Hungarian: Hadak Útja. The stars are sparks from their horseshoes.” ref
Rainbow is related to a bridge
“Bifröst, a burning rainbow bridge that reaches between Midgard (Earth) and Asgard (the realm of the gods) is described in 13th century Norse mythology in both the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda. Scholars have proposed that the bridge may have originally represented the Milky Way.” ref
“Shamans among Siberia‘s Buryats speak of ascending to the sky-spirit world by way of the rainbow.” ref
“Among the Chachi or Cayapa of Ecuador the rainbow is said by some to be a bridge used by cave and hill spirits, as well as river spirits (Neil Wiebe, p.c. from Alfredo Salazar, 1982). Here the rainbow itself is not said to live in a cave, but it connects with caves to allow nature spirits that live there to travel to other locations.” ref
Milky Way is related to a river
“The Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains in South Australia see the band of the Milky Way as a river in the sky world. They called it Wodliparri (wodli = hut, house, parri = river) and believe that positioned along the river are a number of campfires. In addition, the dark patches mark the dwelling place of a dangerous creature known as a yura; the Kaurna call these patches Yurakauwe, which literally means “monster water.” The Aranda or Arrernte people, who come from Central Australia, see the band of the Milky Way as a river or creek in the sky world. This stellar river separates the two great camps of the Aranda and Luritja people. The stars to the east of this river represent the camps of the Aranda and the stars to the west represent Luritja encampments and some stars closer to the band represent a mixture of both. A group of Yolngu people from the Ramingining area in central Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory have a Dreaming story known as “Milky Way Dreaming”. In this story, which relates to the land, two spirit beings in the form of female quolls attacked their husband. The husband becomes a glider possum, gathers his warriors, and returns to kill them with spears. The spirits of the quolls transform into a type of freshwater fish, but they are caught in the creek nearby by the husband’s tribesmen and eaten. Their bones are collected by their brother, Wäk, aka the crow man, and put into a hollow log coffin. The Badurru Ceremony is performed and the coffin carried into the sky by the crow and his kin. The bones are then dispersed and form the Milky Way.” ref
“In Eastern Asian and Chinese mythology, the hazy band of stars of the Milky Way was referred to as the “River of Heaven” or the “Silvery River” (simplified Chinese: 银河; traditional Chinese: 銀河; pinyin: yínhé; Korean: 은하; RR: eunha; Vietnamese: ngân hà; Japanese: 銀河, romanized: ginga). In the Hindu collection of stories called Bhagavata Purana, all the visible stars and planets moving through space are likened to a dolphin that swims through the water, and the heavens are called śiśumãra cakra, the dolphin disc. The Milky Way forms the abdomen of the dolphin and is called Akasaganga which means “The Ganges River of the Sky.” ref
“In Irish mythology, the main name of the Milky Way was Bealach na Bó Finne — Way of the White Cow. It was regarded as a heavenly reflection of the sacred River Boyne, which is described as “the Great Silver Yoke” and the “White Marrow of Fedlimid,” names which could equally apply to the Milky Way. (Mór-Chuing Argait, Smir Find Fedlimthi).” ref
“To the Māori the Milky Way is the waka (canoe) of Tama-rereti. The front and back of the canoe are Orion and Scorpius, while the Southern Cross and the Pointers are the anchor and rope. According to legend, when Tama-rereti took his canoe out onto a lake, he found himself far from home as night was falling. There were no stars at this time and in the darkness the Taniwha would attack and eat people. So Tama-rereti sailed his canoe along the river that emptied into the heavens (to cause rain) and scattered shiny pebbles from the lakeshore into the sky. The sky god, Ranginui, was pleased by this action and placed the canoe into the sky as well as a reminder of how the stars were made.” ref
“In the Babylonian epic poem Enûma Eliš, the Milky Way is created from the severed tail of the primeval salt water dragoness Tiamat, set in the sky by Marduk, the Babylonian national god, after slaying her. This story was once thought to have been based on an older Sumerian version in which Tiamat is instead slain by Enlil of Nippur, but is now thought to be purely an invention of Babylonian propagandists with the intention to show Marduk as superior to the Sumerian deities. Another myth about Labbu is similarly interpreted.” ref
Rainbow related to a river
“The Mayans similarly saw rainbows as a sign that the gods were no longer angry with them, after their world was destroyed by fire-rain. Other myths talk of rainbows drinking water from streams and rivers (along with occasional sheep or people), then redistributing the water as rain.” ref
“In Latvian legends it was believed that the rainbow drank from river or lake like a living creature and thus released rain from its body. It was forbidden to approach the water source if there was a rainbow, or they would risk being accidentally swallowed by the rainbow, and later fall down during rainfall as nothing but bones.” ref
“In Nepal, one traditional view of the rainbow is that “it has come to bring the river to the land, to water it, and more rain will come.” The Tolowa of northwest California consider the rainbow a sign of coming rain. The Panare of Venezuela believe that the rainbow causes it to rain. Insular Southeast Asia: Some speakers of Tagalog say that “when a rainbow appears it means rain is coming. The Bare’e of central Sulawesi in Indonesia say the rainbow calls up rain. The Kwamera people of Tanna Island in southern Vanuatu say that the rainbow is a sign that it will rain.” ref
“The Sabaot or Mt. Elgon Maasai say that “A rainbow ends in a river, and then it is very dangerous to come near the river. If you do, you will be eaten by the rainbow, or become sick. One person said he tried it once, but the rainbow moved away. The direction of the moving rainbow is significant—it follows the direction of the rain.” ref
Milky Way is related to a Snake/Serpent/Dragon
“The most well-known version of this is the Aegyptian-Greek ourobouros. It is believed to have been inspired by the Milky Way, as some ancient texts refer to a serpent of light residing in the heavens. The Ancient Egyptians associated it with Wadjet, one of their oldest deities, as well as another aspect, Hathor. In pre-Columbian Central America Quetzalcoatl was sometimes depicted as biting its own tail. The mother of Quetzalcoatl was the Aztec goddess Coatlicue (“the one with the skirt of serpents”), also known as Cihuacoatl (“The Lady of the serpent”). Quetzalcoatl’s father was Mixcoatl (“Cloud Serpent”). He was identified with the Milky Way, the stars, and the heavens in several Mesoamerican cultures.” ref
“A Serpent’s Tale: the Milky Way, Before light pollution robbed us of its celestial glow, the Milky Way was the backbone of the night and became part of ancient people’s myths and beliefs based on their perception of it as a serpent. In North America, whether as a giant form on the ground or pictured on a rock, the snake has a story to tell of the road for souls, one which goes back well over 4000 years and can be found in caves, on hilltops or as a pathway for the living to traverse, all reflections of the serpent stretching overhead.” ref
“Samal NagaA gigantic, trapped dragon in the milky way. It is said that it will be freed and devour all those not faithful to their respective deities in Samal mythology.” ref
Rainbow related to a Snake/Worm/Chameleon/Serpent/Dragon/Demon
“Rainbows and Serpents: Sacred cows are kept by many tribes for supplying milk to giant snakes.” ref
“From attested words for the rainbow in modern Japonic (Japanese-Ryukyuan) languages Martin (1987:498) reconstructed Proto-Japonic *ni-m(u)si ‘red/beautiful snake’. However, Alexander Vovin points out that –musi is ‘insect’, not ‘snake’. This may be similar to the ‘worm’ or ‘insect’ radical in the Chinese character for ‘rainbow’. In any case, the color ‘red’ appears to be unambiguous in this word. Among the Arecuna of northeast South America, dragon and rainbow cannot easily be separated. However, in describing the rainbow in its serpent form, we are told that “Keyeme, the rainbow, when it appears is thought of as a large multi-colored snake that lives in the high waterfalls. Among the Maumere of the island of Flores in eastern Indonesia, the rainbow is a spirit snake that lives in the earth and comes out in heavy rains; it is said to be “striped yellow/green/blue, but its basic color is red. Given its identity with the rainbow, the Rainbow Serpent of Australia must be a multi-colored creature. This is indicated explicitly in some cases, as where Mountford states that in the western deserts of central Australia “The snake (wonambi) is a huge, many-colored creature with a mane and beard.” ref
“The Rainbow Serpent or Rainbow Snake is a common deity often seen as the creator God, known by numerous names in different Australian Aboriginal languages by the many different Aboriginal peoples. It is a common motif in the art and religion of many Aboriginal Australian peoples. Much like the archetypal mother goddess, the Rainbow Serpent creates land and diversity for the Aboriginal people, but when disturbed can bring great chaos. There are many names and stories associated with the serpent, all of which communicate the significance and power of this being within Aboriginal mythology, which includes the worldview commonly referred to as The Dreaming. The serpent is viewed as a giver of life through its association with water, but can be a destructive force if angry. The Rainbow Serpent is one of the most common and well-known Aboriginal stories and is of great importance to Aboriginal society. Not all of the myths in this family describe the ancestral being as a snake. Of those that do, not all of them draw a connection with a rainbow. However, a link with water or rain is typical. When the rainbow is seen in the sky, it is said to be the Rainbow Serpent moving from one waterhole to another, and this divine concept explained why some waterholes never dried up when drought struck. The Rainbow Serpent is known by different names by the many different Aboriginal cultures. Yurlunggur is the name of the “rainbow serpent” according to the Murngin (Yolngu) in north-eastern Arnhemland, also styled Yurlungur, Yulunggur, Jurlungur, Julunggur, or Julunggul. The Yurlunggur was considered “the great father”. The serpent is called Witij/Wititj by the Galpu clan of the Dhangu people, one of Yolngu peoples. Kanmare is the name of the great water serpent in Queensland among the Pitapita people of the Boulia District; it is apparently a giant carpet snake, and recorded under the name Cunmurra further south. The same snake is called Tulloun among the Mitakoodi (Maithakari).” ref
“Two mythical Kooremah of the Mycoolon (Maikulan) tribe of Queensland, are cosmic carpet snakes 40 miles long, residing in watery realm of the dead, or on the pathway leading to it; this is probably equivalent to the rainbow snake also. In some cultures, the Rainbow Serpent is male; in others, female; in yet others, the gender is ambiguous or the Rainbow Serpent is hermaphroditic or bigender, thus an androgynous entity. Some commentators have suggested that the Rainbow Serpent is a phallic symbol, which fits its connection with fertility myths and rituals. When the Serpent is characterized as female or bigender, it is sometimes depicted with breasts, as in the case of the Kunmanggur serpent. Other times, the Serpent has no particular gender. The serpent is sometimes ascribed with a having crest or a mane or on its head, or being bearded as well. While it is single-headed, the Yurlunggur of Arnhem land may possess a double-body. In some stories, the Serpent is associated with a large fruit bat, sometimes called a “flying fox” in Australian English, engaged in a rivalry over a woman. Some scholars have identified other creatures, such as a bird, crocodile, dingo (dog), or lizard, as taking the role of the Serpent in stories. In all cases, these animals are also associated with water. The Rainbow Serpent has also been identified with, or considered to be related to, the bunyip, a fearful, water-hole dwelling creature in Australian mythology. Unlike many other deities, the Rainbow Serpent does not have a human form and remains in the form of animal. While each culture has a different interpretation on gender and which animal the deity is, it is nonetheless, always an animal.” ref
“Globally distributed beliefs about the rainbow that closely parallel similarly distributed beliefs about the dragon. Among many Bantu-speaking groups across central and west Africa the rainbow is thought to be formed from male and female intertwining snakes which “stop rain from falling; according to others they cause rain to fall. The Nyabwa of the Ivory Coast explicitly say of the rainbow that “when it disappears the rain comes (so it precedes the rain). Among several names given to the rainbow, the Galla or Oromo of Ethiopia call it ‘a sign of rain’. In some ways this interpretation is hard to process, since rain clearly is needed before a rainbow can appear, which makes it difficult to see it as a sign that rain will come, unless it is a sign that more rain will come. Nonetheless, this view is reported for a number of indigenous peoples. The dragon is conceived as bisexual in at least European alchemy, Taoist metaphysics in China, and classic and contemporary Mesoamerica. The Karen of peninsular Burma and Thailand regard Hkü Te as the lord of the region of death. He is occasionally to be seen as a rainbow in the west, and his wife Teu Kweh as a rainbow in the east. “When two rainbows appear in the east, the upper and larger one is her husband, who is visiting with her. Among the people of Palau in western Micronesia “the clear arc in a double rainbow is female; the indistinct one is male. To the Mortlockese of Pakin atoll in the eastern Caroline islands, Micronesia, a double rainbow consists of a female inner band and a male outer band.” ref
“While this is startling enough for those who have not examined the ethnology of the dragon in detail, initially it seems absurd to consider the possibility that the rainbow could also have a double-gendered identity. In Chinese folk belief a double rainbow is both male and female, the more colorful inner arc being male, and the fainter outer arc female. The Totonac Indians of the Mexican states of Vera Cruz and Puebla describe the rainbow as simultaneously male and female. The Chontal Indians of Oaxaca, Mexico say that “The full rainbow is a man, whereas a half rainbow is a woman, and very evil. If you show a red cloth to this female rainbow, as to a bull, she comes close to you. To the Cuna Indians of the San Blas islands off the east coast of Panama, “When there are two rainbows the brighter one is looked upon as a man and the other one as a woman. Among the Inga of southwest Colombia, the two bows of a double rainbow are called the male bow and the female bow. In Malay a single rainbow is called pelangi, but a double rainbow is pelangi sekelamin, where se– is a prefix meaning ‘one’ and kelamin is ‘family’ (etymologically meaning husband, wife and any children residing in a single house). To traditional Malays, then, the double rainbow was a married pair, male and female.” ref
“The Muria of Andhra Pradesh state in eastern India, say that “The rainbow is the great snake, Bhumtaras, that rises from its ant-hill to stop the rain.” In Okinawa the rainbow was traditionally believed to be a snake or dragon, and because this snake drank water in the sky, there was no rain. To the Muskogee or Creek Indians, who were located at the time of first European contact in what is now Georgia, the rainbow “was believed … to be a great snake called Oskin-tatcå (“the cutter off of the rain”), The Tzotzil of southern Mexico say the rainbow is “a cold Chamula female devil that steals corn’s soul … prevents rain from passing by it, and causes stomach ache. To prevent the rainbow from following a person it is considered effective to spread chewing tobacco around, urinate or exhibit oneself to it. The Kikuyu of East Africa say the rainbow “is a ‘wicked animal’ which lives in the water, comes out at night, eats goats and cattle, and has even been known to eat people.” ref
“According to the Piapoco on tributaries of the upper Orinoco River along the Colombia-Venezuela border, “A jungle demon makes the rainbow from smoke; it moves unseen, as the wind moves. The rainbow can take the rain prisoner so that it won’t rain, and in some cases this activity can be initiated by the intervention of a shaman.” The Eastern Timbira in east-central Brazil say that “The rainbow (‘person of the rain’) has its two ends resting in the open mouths of sucuriju snakes, which themselves yield rain. It appears as a sign that the rain has ceased. As already noted, to the Kakadu/Gaagudju of Arnhem Land in northern Australia, “The rainbow is supposed … to be the Iwaiyu (spirit) of a Numereji snake. When the latter spits he makes rain and says … “up above, Iwaiyu, go spittle, my Iwaiyu.” It does so in the form of a rainbow which is supposed to stop the rain.” ref
“The natives of the Pennefeather River, North Queensland, regard the rainbow as a very brightly coloured snake that comes up to stop the rain that has been wilfully made by their enemies; the name both of the rainbow and the snake is Andrénjinyi. To the Yoruba of southern Nigeria “the ‘great snake of the underneath’ is the rainbow god. It comes up at times to drink water from the sky. A variety of the python is the messenger of this god.” Among the Kulere of the northern Nigerian plateau it is said that “the rainbow is the tongue of a great serpent; when the serpent puts out its tongue the rain stops.” Among the Uduk of the Sudan, the python is “associated ambivalently with the Rainbow; the python is an earth-creature in its movement and its normal habit, until in the guise of a Rainbow it leaps into the air, or sleeps like a swamp-snake in the watery pools.” ref
“Among the Zande of Zaire: Ngambue is a big snake. Its skin is covered with white powdery substance, and it possesses a beard. This creature, which has a poisonous bite, may live in any waters. The well at Yambio is said to harbor such a snake. The rainbow wangu lives in bogs, or in cracks and holes near to streams. It is like a snake. In the hills near Lake Victoria the local (presumably Bantu-speaking) people believed there were “snakes guarding the wells. Human beings might approach only after making offerings to these guardian snakes.” Similarly, the Bagesu of Uganda “say that there is a snake living in springs where he will attack anyone who goes to draw water.” Among the Murle of the Sudan “The rainbow is a large dragon-like snake which sleeps in a cave when not flying in the sky.” Among the Mang’anja of southern Malawi, a mythical animal called ‘Mbona’ appears to be a water serpent, but one of a special character that links it to a mythic cycle found over much of Bantu-speaking central Africa: “What makes Mbona different from other Bantu deities symbolized by a water serpent? This mythical animal forms one of the great themes of Bantu mythology, namely the eternal conflict of the lightning and the rainbow.” ref
“The Mündü of the southern Sudan, say that the rainbow is “a giant snake which lives in a hole in the ground, and comes out to chase heavy rain away (drink the rain?).” The Kusaasi of Ghana connect the rainbow with a chameleon, and “believe that the chameleon is driving the rain away, and it will not rain.” These parallels between attributes of the dragon and attributes of the rainbow can hardly be accidental. Various sources report that the dragon is a giver of rain in India, East Asia, North America, and Central America, while the same trait is attributed to the rainbow in Europe, Mexico, Insular Southeast Asia and Africa. Likewise, various reports state that the dragon withholds rain in Europe, the ancient Near East, East Asia and Central America, while the same trait is attributed to the rainbow in India, Okinawa, North America and Mexico, South America, insular Southeast Asia, New Guinea, and Africa. In both cases there is a marked ambivalence, some societies seeing the dragon/rainbow as producing rain, while others believe that it obstructs rainfall. Occasionally, closely-related peoples differ in whether they adopt one of these perspectives or the other, where the rain-giver is generally seen as positive and the rain-blocker as negative. Attitudes toward the rainbow are thus inescapably contradictory, since either position regarding its role in rainfall can be adopted with equally persuasive arguments.” ref
“In parts of the world where the dragon and rainbow are clearly separated, as Europe, India, China, or North America, water sources such as springs or wells are guarded by a dragon. In parts of the world where this separation is more tenuous, statements in the literature are relatively indifferent as to whether a spring is said to be guarded by a water snake or a rainbow, as these are regarded as different expressions of the same thing. In each of the above cases a water source is said to be guarded by a snake which is the rainbow, so it seems best to treat them as part of the ethnology of the rainbow. The important point in this survey, of course, is that springs and other water sources are guarded by both dragons and rainbows in different cultural traditions, and that this would be absurd if the rainbow were not conceived as an animate being capable of harming humans. This takes us back to the logic of an animistic view of nature. The rainbow is a transient thing, which may remain for seconds, minutes, or sometimes longer as a visible arc in the sky, but it is not a permanent fixture of the heavens. Preliterate peoples may not have understood the physical basis for the appearance of rainbows, but once they conceived of them as spirit snakes it became necessary to explain where they were when not in the sky, and the most straightforward explanation is that they reside in the pools, lakes or rivers from which they drink water to create the rain. There they stay during the dry season, and for much of their time during the wet season, and while there they guard the precious water from human intruders.” ref
Milky Way is related to Milk
“In Egyptian mythology, the Milky Way was considered a pool of cow’s milk. The Milky Way was deified as a fertility cow-goddess by the name of Bat (later on syncretized with the sky goddess Hathor). The astronomer Or Graur has suggested that the Egyptians may have seen the Milky Way as a celestial depiction of the sky goddess Nut.” ref
“The Greek name for the Milky Way (Γαλαξίας Galaxias) is derived from the Greek word for milk (γάλα, gala). One legend explains how the Milky Way was created by Heracles (Roman Hercules) when he was a baby. His father, Zeus, was fond of his son, who was born of the mortal woman Alcmene. He decided to let the infant Heracles suckle on his divine wife Hera‘s milk when she was asleep, an act which would endow the baby with godlike qualities. When Hera woke and realized that she was breastfeeding an unknown infant, she pushed him away and the spurting milk became the Milky Way. Another version of the myth is that Heracles was abandoned in the woods by his mortal parents, Amphitryon and Alcmene. Heracles, son of Zeus and Alcmene, was naturally favored by his father, who sent Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom, to retrieve him. Athena, not being so motherly, decided to take him to Hera to suckle. Hera agreed to suckle Heracles. As Heracles drinks the milk, he bites down, and Hera pushes him away in pain. The milk that squirts out forms the Milky Way.” ref
“A story told by the Roman Hyginus in the Poeticon astronomicon (ultimately based on Greek myth) says that the milk came from the goddess Ops (Greek Rhea), the wife of Saturn (Greek Cronus). Saturn swallowed his children to ensure his position as head of the Pantheon and sky god, and so Ops conceived a plan to save her newborn son Jupiter (Greek Zeus): She wrapped a stone in infant’s clothes and gave it to Saturn to swallow. Saturn asked her to nurse the child once more before he swallowed it, and the milk that spurted when she pressed her nipple against the rock eventually became the Milky Way. According to Hindu mythology, Vishnu lies meditating on Shesha with his consort Lakshmi, in the Kshira Sagara (Sea of Milk), which is a representation of Milky Way. This “Sea of Milk” is also the (cosmic) ocean referenced in the Samudra Manthana episode of Vishnu Purana, a major text in Indian mythology. The Samudra Manthana explains the origin of the elixir of eternal life, amrita.” ref
Rainbow is related to Milk
“Latvian Lauma or Lithuanian Laumė, or Yotvingian Łauma is a fairy-like woodland spirit, and guardian spirit of orphans in Eastern Baltic mythology or Yotvingian mythology. Originally a sky spirit, her compassion for human suffering brought her to earth to share our fate. Laumės are the very oldest goddesses of Lithuanian mythology. The image of these goddesses may have formed during the historical Mesolithic period, just after the Ice Age. Laumės could appear in the form of animals, as mares or as female goats, bears and dogs. Later, Laumės had an anthropomorphic appearance: they usually had birds’ claws for feet and appeared as women with the head or lower body of a female goat. Other forms included half-human/half dog or half mare, similar to centaurs. Like cyclops, Laumės often had only one eye. They also had large breasts with stone nipples; pieces of belemnitida found on the ground were called “Laumės nipples.” ref
“Laumės were dangerous, especially to men. They could tickle or tweak them to death and then eat their bodies, and in this way, they were similar to Lamia of Greek mythology. The Lithuanian myth also claimed Laumės kept huge cows which could be milked by all people. However, after very cold weathers, the cows died; pieces of belemnitida were considered to be the remains of their udders. Laumės were afraid of tools made from iron. Laumės can be considered as atmospheric goddesses. It is said that Laumė was a beautiful goddess, who lived in clouds and had a diamond throne. Some myths claimed Laumė was a bride of thunder god Perkūnas; however, they did not marry because Laumė fell in love with the Moon, who was considered a male god in Lithuania. In other stories, the bride was stolen by the devil Velnias, named Tuolius. That’s why Laumė liked moonshine. In other myth, the bride of Perkūnas was a Laumė called Vaiva. The rainbow was called the ribbon of Vaiva. Despite her marriage, she had a beloved singer named Straublys. Straublys had stolen the ribbon of Vaiva. During the rain, Straublys stretches the ribbon of Vaiva across the sky, while Perkūnas is angry and shouts in thunder. It was believed it is the rainbow that causes the rain, while Lithuanian shepherds had a prayer or curse by which the rainbow had to turn to pieces and make the rain go away. The other myth claimed Laumė fell in love with a beautiful young man down to earth. They had a son named Meilius (name derived from word ‘Meilė’ – love). Laumė descended to the sky to breastfeed her son from time to time. However, the highest God found out about the son of sacrilegious love, smashed him into the highest place of the sky and gave him a place between stars. After that he cut Laumės breasts, and so, stone pieces of it can be found on Earth.” ref
“Laumės descended from the sky to Earth. They lived nearby lakes, abandoned bath-houses, in islands of lakes or dense forests. Many names of water pools in Lithuania are named after the word Laumė. Laumės liked to gather near rivers, lakes, swamps, in meadows, there dew fell in the night in New Moon or Full Moon. They danced and enjoyed themselves, leaving circles (like Fairy Ring) in the grass. Usually, Laumės were most powerful at Friday of New Moon, at the rainiest days of the month in Lithuania. Laumės could cause hail, storm or rain by singing, dancing or by curses. Laumės song was traditionally performed during weddings up until the 19th century. The song was performed by girls dancing in a circle, with one in the middle. The dance and song was also said to cause rain. The Rainbow was often called a ribbon lost by Laumės. That’s how they were associated with weaving. Laumės usually appeared in groups of three. They were able to do women’s work perfectly, as are especially skilled in weaving and spinning. They love children, respect industriousness and help those in need. They punish those who ridicule them, and those who are lazy.” ref
“The fair Rainbow-maiden, Louhi’s daughter, sat upon a rainbow in the heavens, and was clad in the most splendid dress of gold and silver. She was busy weaving golden webs of wonderful beauty, using a shuttle of gold and a silver weaving-comb. As Wainamoinen came swiftly along the way which led from the dark and dismal Northland to the plains of Kalevala, before he had gone far on his way he heard in the sky above him the humming of the Rainbow-maiden’s loom. Without thinking of old Louhi’s warning, he looked up and beheld the maiden seated on the gorgeous rainbow weaving beauteous cloths. No sooner had he seen the lovely maiden than he stopped, and calling to her asked her to come to his sledge. Then the Rainbow-maiden promised to be his wife if he would split a golden hair with a knife that had no edge, and take a bird’s egg from the nest with a snare that no one could see. Wainamoinen did both these things, and then begged her to come to his sledge, for he had done what she asked. Wainamoinen related the following story of how iron was first made: Long ago after there were air and water, fire was born, and after the fire came iron. Ukko (Finnish for ‘male grandparent’, ‘grandfather’, ‘old man’), parallel to Uku in Estonian mythology, is the god of the sky, weather, harvest, and thunder), the creator, rubbed his hands upon his left knee, and there arose thence three lovely maidens, who were the mothers of iron and steel. These three maidens walked forth on the clouds, and from their bosoms ran the milk of iron, down unto the clouds and thence down upon the earth. Ukko’s eldest daughter cast black milk over the river-beds, and the second cast white milk over the hills and mountains, and the third red milk over the lakes and oceans; and from the black milk grew the soft black iron-ore; from the white milk the lighter-colored ore; and from the red milk the brittle red iron-ore.” ref, ref
“Neolithic stone carvings have been found in Russian Karelia which have features of both snakes and lightning. It is, however, uncertain whether these are directly connected to the figure of Ukko. Evidence for worship of snakes is found among different cultures around the Baltic, including the Estonians and Finns. There is evidence that the rowan tree was held sacred to Ukko. Rauni, a vaguely defined being has been hypothesised to be cognate to Germanic words for the rowan tree through Old Norse: *raunir. The ladybird was also considered sacred to Ukko and called ukonlehmä (Ukko’s cow). The Finnish name of the great mullein (Verbascum thapsus) is ukontulikukka (Ukko’s fire flower), also linked to worship of Ukko.” ref
Mythological Symbolism
“Of course, our ancestors have noticed that the stars are revolving. That is, except from the point in the heaven where no movement seems to take place. The seemingly rotating figure on the northern hemisphere symbolizes the Greatest male deity in the Mythological Story from all over the World. This figure symbolizes, for instance, Chronos, Zeus, Odin, Saturn (not the planet), and several other names. One of the most important holy figures for our ancestors was that of the white Milky Way, especially when symbolized as the great white God or spirit in the sky. Ancestors all over the World have had their story of creation connected to this white God-figure in the sky. But the figures are also symbolized with several other phenomenon’s, of which the Heavenly Ship and a White Horse or Bull are the most common.” ref
If the World Tree resembles the Earth celestial axis, (and the Earth magnetic field as well) one must conclude that some kind of celestial imagery depicts such a story. The Norse Worlds have Midgaard as the home of the humans, the Earth and Asgaard belongs to the celestial day- and nighttime realms with the Sun at day and Moon; the wandering stars = planets; stars and star constellations at nighttime. Lastly the Norse Udgaard belongs to the Giants and first creators in the Norse story of creation, which specifically is connected to the Milky Way whitish contours. On the northern hemisphere a great male-like Milky Way figure (Odin) can be observed at night on a favorable season. This figure seemingly revolves around the Earth celestial pole = the World Tree, and it is said in the myth that “Odin is hanging in the Tree” for “nine days and nights.” ref
“When interpreting such a myth, it is of course very important to recognize which mythical figure/archetype belongs to which cosmological observation and when not having discovered the connection, all kind of false interpretations and distorted explanations can occur. “Odin hanging on a tree” shall be “Odin hanging besides the tree” which resembles the Earth celestial pole. And “Odin hanging for nine days and nights” should be “being observed besides and connected to the Tree in about 9 month of the year” simply because this Milky Way figure cannot be observed in the lightest season of the year, a mytho-cosmological fact which also is described with the myth of “the deity in the Sky who disappears and the promise of his return”. OK, there he is: Odin hanging in the northern hemisphere night Sky, seemingly revolving around the celestial pole, thus being omnipresent and omnipotent and overlooking the whole Midgaard and the humans below. A male figure all made in the human imagination and still a part of the creation of humans because we all are made in the imageries of the deities above and below. The descent to the underworld is a mytheme of comparative mythology found in the religions of the Ancient Near East up to and including Christianity. The myth involves the death of a youthful god (or goddess: Persephone, Inanna, for instance) who is a life-death-rebirth deity, mourned and then recovered from the underworld by his or her consort, lover or mother.” ref
“The most simple marking of the northern Milky Way figure and the celestial north pole with the White Milky Way God seemingly revolving around the pole center. Navajo sand painting of the Great God revolving around the Earth celestial north pole. The different positions around the cross center gives origin to the cultural mytheme of the dying and rising god. The Star Atlas contours and the celestial north pole of the northern Milky Way. The most simple marking of the northern Milky Way figure and the celestial north pole. In the other horizontal position he might observe and carve a so called ship. Mythological the figure therefore become a mixed story with a great God who can change between human and animal shapes an as a God sailing away on his ship. When first one have discovered our ancestors way of symbolizing and mythologizing the Milky Way figure, it is easy to understand the old stories from almost every indigenous people all over the world. Then you also are able to understand the remarkable symbol- and mythological resemblance all over the World. Simply because all people have noticed the same colossal figure in the night sky. The theme of mythical deities and Heroes “descending to The Underworld” is of course very global since it deals with the the Southern Earth Hemisphere – and NOT with something down under the soil – and especially with the southern Milky Way contours and the Great Mother Goddess and the archetype of the Milky Way center.” ref
African Hadza Hunting Cult
“The Hadzabe’s spiritual beliefs are deeply intertwined with their way of life, particularly their hunting and gathering practices. As an animistic society, the Hadzabe believe that the natural world is populated by spirits that inhabit animals, plants, and even geographical features like rocks and trees. The Hadzabe view themselves as part of a larger spiritual ecosystem, where human survival depends on maintaining a respectful relationship with the natural world. The act of hunting is not seen merely as a means of procuring food but as a spiritual ritual. Before embarking on a hunt, the tribe’s men pray to the spirits of the animals, asking for permission and guidance. This prayer is an acknowledgment that the animals, like humans, have souls, and that their lives are sacred. The hunt is not considered successful unless it is conducted with the approval of these spirits. Similarly, after a successful hunt, the meat is often offered to the spirits as a form of gratitude, further reinforcing the tribe’s reverence for the natural world. The Hadza’s relationship with nature extends to their views on the afterlife. Ancestors are believed to watch over the tribe, offering protection and guidance. Shamans and spiritual leaders, often individuals who possess a deep connection to both the spiritual and natural realms, help mediate between the living and the spirits. They perform rituals, interpret dreams, and offer counsel to ensure the tribe remains in harmony with the world around them.” ref
- “Animistic Beliefs: The Hadza are an animistic society, believing that the natural world, including animals, plants, rocks, and trees, is imbued with spirits. They view themselves as part of this larger spiritual ecosystem, emphasizing a need for respectful relations with nature for their survival.
- Pre-hunt Prayers and Offerings: Before embarking on a hunt, Hadza men pray to the spirits of the animals, seeking permission and guidance. This acknowledges the animals’ sacredness and the hunters’ role in the cycle of life. A hunt is not considered successful without the spirits’ approval.
- Gratitude and Post-hunt Rituals: After a successful hunt, a portion of the meat is offered to the spirits as a form of gratitude, further reinforcing their reverence for the natural world.
- Epeme Ceremony: The Hadza observe the Epeme ceremony, a monthly ritual for men at the new moon. It’s a time for communal feasting and celebration, where offerings of meat are made to ancestral spirits, strengthening social bonds and ensuring the continued favor of the earth deities. “True” adult men, known as epeme, gain this status by successfully hunting large game. They are then allowed to consume certain parts of these animals not accessible to others, a practice that highlights the significance of the hunt in their cultural identity.
- Supernatural Influences: While the Hadza do not follow a formal religion, they offer prayers to Ishoko (the Sun) or Haine (the moon) during hunts and hold rituals, highlighting their connection to celestial figures in their cosmology.
- Guardians of the Environment: Earth spirits are thought to be guardians of the environment and are invoked for blessings and protection during various rituals. In essence, the Hadza’s beliefs about earth spirits underscore their profound reverence for the natural world and their deep understanding of the interconnectedness of all life within their environment.
- Isoka and Hunting: The Hadza believe in “isoka,” a concept akin to luck or fortune, crucial for successful hunting. They believe that isoka can be gained or lost based on one’s actions, leading hunters to follow strict taboos and rituals to maintain it, ensuring a harmonious relationship with the environment and the earth deities. Hadza believe that spirits are all around them, like in trees, rocks, and animals. They have ceremonies and rituals to connect with these spirits and ask for good things, like rain for plants or luck in hunting.” ref, ref, ref, ref
“The Hadza’s mythology includes several heroes and creatures who play pivotal roles in their stories. One of the most prominent heroes is Mbuti, a legendary hunter who represents the ideal Hadza man. Mbuti is said to possess extraordinary hunting skills and a deep connection with the natural world. His exploits often serve as moral lessons for the Hadza people, emphasizing the importance of respecting the environment and maintaining a balance with nature. The Hadza also have several mythological creatures that feature prominently in their stories. One example is the Nguvati, a fearsome snake-like creature believed to guard water sources and punish those who disrespect or waste water. This creature serves as a reminder to the Hadza of the importance of water conservation in their arid environment.” ref
“The Upper Paleolithic has the earliest known evidence of organized settlements, in the form of campsites, some with storage pits. Artistic work blossomed, with cave painting, petroglyphs, carvings, and engravings on bone or ivory. The first evidence of human fishing is also found in 125,000-year-old artefacts in Buya, Eritrea, and in other places such as Blombos cave in South Africa. More complex social groupings emerged, supported by more varied and reliable food sources and specialized tool types. This probably contributed to increasing group identification or ethnicity. The peopling of Australia most likely took place before c. 60,000 years ago. Europe was peopled after c. 45,000 years ago. Anatomically modern humans are known to have expanded northward into Siberia as far as the 58th parallel by about 45,000 years ago (Ust’-Ishim man).” ref
“Both Homo erectus and Neanderthals used the same crude stone tools. Archaeologist Richard G. Klein, who has worked extensively on ancient stone tools, describes the stone tool kit of archaic hominids as impossible to categorize. He argues that almost everywhere, whether in Asia, Africa, or Europe, before 50,000 years ago, all the stone tools were much alike and unsophisticated. Firstly, among the artefacts of Africa, archaeologists found they could differentiate and classify those of less than 50,000 years into many different categories, such as projectile points, engraving tools, knife blades, and drilling and piercing tools. These new stone-tool types have been described as being distinctly differentiated from each other; each tool had a specific purpose. The early modern humans who expanded into Europe, commonly referred to as the Cro-Magnons, left many sophisticated stone tools, carved and engraved pieces on bone, ivory, and antler, cave paintings, and Venus figurines.” ref
“Settlements were often located in narrow valley bottoms, possibly associated with hunting of passing herds of animals. Some of them may have been occupied year-round, though more commonly they appear to have been used seasonally; people moved between the sites to exploit different food sources at different times of the year. Hunting was important, and caribou/wild reindeer “may well be the species of single greatest importance in the entire anthropological literature on hunting”. Technological advances included significant developments in flint tool manufacturing, with industries based on fine blades rather than simpler and shorter flakes. Burins and racloirs were used to work bone, antlers, and hides. Advanced darts and harpoons also appear in this period, along with the fish hook, the oil lamp, rope, and the eyed needle. Fishing of pelagic fish species and navigating the open ocean is evidenced by sites from Timor and Buka (Solomon Islands).” ref
“The changes in human behavior have been attributed to changes in climate, encompassing a number of global temperature drops. These led to a worsening of the already bitter cold of the last glacial period (popularly but incorrectly called the last ice age). Such changes may have reduced the supply of usable timber and forced people to look at other materials. In addition, flint becomes brittle at low temperatures and may not have functioned as a tool. Some notational signs, used next to images of animals, may have appeared as early as the Upper Palaeolithic in Europe circa 35,000 BCE, and may be the earliest proto-writing: several symbols were used in combination as a way to convey seasonal behavioural information about hunted animals. Lines (|) and dots (•) were apparently used interchangeably to denote lunar months, while the (Y) sign apparently signified “To give birth”. These characters were seemingly combined to convey the breeding period of hunted animals.” ref
50,000 years ago
- “Numerous Aboriginal stone tools were found in gravel sediments in Castlereagh, Sydney, Australia. At first, when these results were new, they were controversial; more recently, dating of the same strata has revised and corroborated these dates.
- Start of the Mousterian Pluvial in North Africa.
- Occupants of the Fa-Hien Lena cave, Sri Lanka had developed bow and arrow technology 48,000 years ago (though the earliest known bow and arrow technology dates to about 65,000 years ago from Sibudu Cave, South Africa.” ref
45,000–43,000 years ago
- “The earliest evidence of modern humans was found in Europe, in Southern Italy. These are indirectly dated.
- Earliest mathematical artifact, the notched Lebombo bone, a possible tally stick or lunar calendar, dated to 44,000–43,000 years ago in Eswatini (Swaziland), southern Africa.
- The oldest-known mining in the archaeological record is the Ngwenya Mine in Swaziland, dating back about 43,000 years, where humans mined hematite to make the red pigment ochre.
- Earliest directly dated figurative cave art of mankind at Leang Bulu’ Sipong in Sulawesi, Indonesia.” ref
43,000–41,000 years ago
- “Microlithic artefacts have been excavated from Kana, West Bengal, India.
- Ornaments and skeletal remains of modern humans, at Ksar Akil in Lebanon. These are directly dated.” ref
40,000–35,000 years ago
- “The first human inhabitants in Perth, Australia, as evidenced by archaeological findings on the Upper Swan River.
- During this time period, Melbourne, Australia, was occupied by hunter-gatherers.
- Early cultural centre in the Swabian Alps, oldest depiction of a human being (Venus of Hohle Fels), beginning of the Aurignacian.
- Löwenmensch figure created in Hohlenstein-Stadel, one of the earliest figurative art.
- The first flutes appeared in Germany.
- Notational signs in caves, apparently conveying calendaric meaning about the behaviour of animal species drawn next to them, are the first known (proto-)writing in history.
- Most of the giant vertebrates and megafauna in Australia became extinct.
- Fishing of pelagic fish species at Jerimalai shelter, Timor.
- Examples of cave art in Spain are dated from around 40,000 years ago, making them the oldest examples of cave art yet discovered in Europe (see: Caves of Nerja). Scientists theorise that the paintings may have been made by Neanderthals, rather than by modern humans.
- Wall painting with horses, rhinoceroses, and aurochs is made at Chauvet Cave, Vallon-Pont-d’Arc, Ardéche gorge, France.
- Evidence for continued Neanderthal presence in the Iberian Peninsula at 37,000 years ago.
- Archaeological studies support human presence in the Chek Lap Kok area (now Hong Kong International Airport) from 35,000 to 39,000 years ago.
- Zar, Yataghyeri, Damjili, and Taghlar caves in Azerbaijan.
- First evidence of people inhabiting Japan.
- 40,000 years ago, Whadjuk and Noongar culture (Perth, Australia)
- 35,000 years ago, Wurundjeri, Boonwurrung and Wathaurong culture (Melbourne, Australia)
- 30,000 years ago, Eora and Darug culture (Sydney, Australia)
- 30,000 years ago, Arrernte culture (Alice Springs, Central Australia).” ref
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This is my thoughts/speculations on the origins of Totemism
Totemism as seen in Europe: 50,000 years ago, mainly the Aurignacian culture
- Pre-Aurignacian “Châtelperronian” (Western Europe, mainly Spain and France, possible transitional/cultural diffusion between Neanderthals and humans around 50,000-40,000 years ago)
- Archaic–Aurignacian/Proto-Aurignacian (Europe around 46,000-35,000)
- Aurignacian “classical/early to late” (Europe and other areas around 38,000 – 26,000 years ago)
“In the realm of culture, the archeological evidence also supports a Neandertal contribution to Europe’s earliest modern human societies, which feature personal ornaments completely unknown before immigration and are characteristic of such Neandertal-associated archeological entities as the Chatelperronian and the Uluzzian.” – (PDF) Neandertals and Moderns Mixed, and It Matters: Link
Totemism as seen in Europe: 50,000 years ago, mainly the Aurignacian culture
There is no direct way to assess European Totemism, so we are left with trying to find a totemism that seems possibly close to the original source thinking, as is available, which leaves us looking to cultures in Australia. This is not the ideal way to assess 50,000 to 40,000 years ago in France and Germany, but we must use what is available and has changed as little as we can hope for. But we sould also know we are only getting a lose copy likely changed a lot before we see it now.
Aurignacian Totemistic Hunter-Gatherers
“The Aurignacian is an archaeological industry of the Upper Paleolithic associated with Early European modern humans (EEMH) lasting from 43,000 to 26,000 years ago. The Upper Paleolithic developed in Europe some time after the Levant, where the Emiran period and the Ahmarian period form the first periods of the Upper Paleolithic, corresponding to the first stages of the expansion of Homo sapiens out of Africa. They then migrated to Europe and created the first European culture of modern humans, the Aurignacian. The Proto-Aurignacian and the Early Aurignacian stages are dated between about 43,000 and 37,000 years ago. The Aurignacian proper lasted from about 37,000 to 33,000 years ago. A Late Aurignacian phase transitional with the Gravettian dates to about 33,000 to 26,000 years ago. The type site is the Cave of Aurignac, Haute-Garonne, south-west France. The main preceding period is the Mousterian of the Neanderthals.” ref
“One of the oldest examples of figurative art, the Venus of Hohle Fels, comes from the Aurignacian or Proto-Gravettian and is dated to between 40,000 and 35,000 years ago (though earlier figurative art may now be known, such as at the Lubang Jeriji Saléh site in Indonesia). It was discovered in September 2008 in a cave at Schelklingen in Baden-Württemberg in western Germany. The German Lion-man figure is given a similar date range. A Levantine Aurignacian culture is known from the Levant, with a type of blade technology very similar tothe European Aurignacian, following chronologically the Emiran and Early Ahmarian in the same area of the Near East, and also closely related to them. The Levantine Aurignacian may have preceded European Aurignacian, but there is a possibility that the Levantine Aurignacian was rather the result of reverse influence from the European Aurignacian; this remains unsettled. The Aurignacians are part of the wave of anatomically modern humans thought to have spread from Africa through the Near East into Paleolithic Europe, and became known as European early modern humans, or Cro-Magnons.” ref
“This wave of anatomically modern humans includes fossils of the Ahmarian, Bohunician, Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean, and Magdalenian cultures, extending throughout the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), covering the period of roughly 48,000 to 15,000 years ago. In terms of population, the Aurignacian cultural complex is chronologically associated with the human remains of Goyet Q116-1, while the subsequent eastern Gravettian is associated with the Vestonice cluster. The Aurignacian tool industry is characterized by worked bone or antler points with grooves cut in the bottom. Their flint tools include fine blades and bladelets struck from prepared cores rather than using crude flakes. The people of this culture also produced some of the earliest known cave art, such as the animal engravings at Trois Freres and the paintings at Chauvet cave in southern France. They also made pendants, bracelets, and ivory beads, as well as three-dimensional figurines. Perforated rods, thought to be spear throwers or shaft wrenches, also are found at their sites.” ref
“Aurignacian figurines have been found depicting faunal representations of the time period associated with now-extinct mammals, including mammoths, rhinoceros, and tarpan, along with anthropomorphized depictions that may be interpreted as some of the earliest evidence of religion. Many 35,000-year-old animal figurines were discovered in the Vogelherd Cave in Germany. One of the horses, amongst six tiny mammoth and horse ivory figures found previously at Vogelherd, was sculpted as skillfully as any piece found throughout the Upper Paleolithic. The production of ivory beads for body ornamentation was also important during the Aurignacian. The famous paintings in Chauvet cave date from this period. Typical statuettes consist of women who are called Venus figurines.” ref
“They emphasize the hips, breasts, and other body parts associated with fertility. Feet and arms are lacking or minimized. One of the most ancient figurines is the Venus of Hohle Fels, discovered in 2008 in the Hohle Fels cave in Germany. The figurine has been dated to 35,000 years ago and is the earliest known, undisputed example of a depiction of a human being in prehistoric art. The Lion-man of Hohlenstein-Stadel, found in the Hohlenstein-Stadel cave of Germany’s Swabian Alb and dated to 40,000 years ago, is the oldest known anthropomorphic animal figurine in the world. Aurignacian finds include bone flutes. The oldest undisputed musical instrument was the Hohle Fels Flute discovered in the Hohle Fels cave in Germany’s Swabian Alb in 2008. The flute is made from a vulture’s wing bone perforated with five finger holes, and dates to approximately 35,000-40,000 years ago. A flute was also found at the Abri Blanchard in southwestern France.” ref
“Stone tools from the Aurignacian culture are known as Mode 4, characterized by blades (rather than flakes, typical of mode 2 Acheulean and mode 3 Mousterian) from prepared cores. Also seen throughout the Upper Paleolithic is a greater degree of tool standardization and the use of bone and antler for tools. Based on the research of scraper reduction and paleoenvironment, the early Aurignacian group moved seasonally over greater distances to procure reindeer herds within cold and open environments than those of the earlier tool cultures. A 2019 demographic analysis estimated a mean population of 1,500 persons (upper limit: 3,300; lower limit: 800) for western and central Europe during the Aurignacian period (~42,000 to 33,000 years ago). A 2005 study estimated the population of Upper Palaeolithic Europe from 40 to 30 thousand years ago was 1,738–28,359 (average 4,424).” ref
“In a genetic study published in Nature in May 2016, the remains of an early Aurignacian individual, Goyet Q116-1 from modern-day Belgium, were examined. He belonged to the paternal haplogroup C1a and the maternal haplogroup M. Haplogroups identified in other Aurignacian samples are the paternal haplogroups C1b and K2a; and mt-DNA haplogroup N, R, and U. The Aurignacian material culture is associated with the expansion of “early West Eurasians” during the Upper Paleolithic (UP), replacing or merging with previous Initial Upper Paleolithic (IUP) cultures to which possibly relates the European Châtelperronian. Evidence for at least some IUP legacy among later UP Europeans is the presence of Ancient East Eurasian ancestry (c. 17–23%) among the GoyetQ116-1 specimen, possibly represented by the preceding Bacho Kiro cave specimen, who, together with the Oase specimens, are closer to ancient and modern East Eurasian populations. The 38,000 years ago Kostenki-14 specimen from eastern Europe did not display evidence for IUP-affiliated admixture.” ref
A 2023 study found that the Aurignacians are closely related to the Gravettians, Solutreans, and later Magdalenians. Gravettian-producing peoples belonged to two genetically distinct clusters. Fournol in the west (France and Spain) and Věstonice in the east (Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, and Italy), both tracing their descent from producers of the earlier Aurignacian culture. The Aurignacian, Gravettian, and Solutrean cultures would merge and give rise to the Magdalenian culture. The genes of seven Magdalenians, the El Miron Cluster in Iberia, showed a close relationship to the Aurignacian population that lived in northern Europe some 20,000 years earlier. The analyses suggested that 70-80% of the ancestry of these individuals was from the population represented by Goyet Q116-1, associated with the Aurignacian culture. The Upper Paleolithic Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean, and Magdalenian cultures, became subsequently absorbed by the Epigravettian wave from Western Asia (Anatolia). In a genetic study published in Nature in March 2023, the authors found that the ancestors of the Western Hunter-Gatherers (WHGs) were populations associated with the Epigravettian culture, which largely replaced populations associated with the Magdalenian culture about 14,000 years ago, and which were more closely related to ancient and modern peoples in the Middle East and the Caucasus than earlier European Cro-Magnons.” ref
“In Australia, totemism is a central part of Aboriginal culture, deeply intertwined with the Dreamtime (the time of creation) and kinship systems. Totems, which can be natural objects, plants, or animals, serve as spiritual emblems representing individuals’, families’, or clans’ connection to ancestral beings and the land. An Aboriginal totem, or Dreaming, is a spiritual emblem taken from nature in the form of a natural object, plant, or animal. It’s inherited by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as a symbol of their roles and responsibilities to each other and their connection with the earth. Like Aboriginal skin names, Aboriginal totems are a key part of the Aboriginal kinship as they relate people back to their cultural lineage. Totems are linked to The Dreaming; they’re believed to be descendants of the heroes from those stories, so they carry a lot of meaning and significance concerning the spiritual histories of First Nations cultures.”
Dreamtime Connection:
“Totems are linked to the Dreamtime stories, which recount the actions of ancestral beings who shaped the landscape and established the laws and customs of Aboriginal societies.”
“Totems play a vital role in Aboriginal kinship systems, defining relationships, responsibilities, and obligations within the community.”
“Individuals, families, and clans may have their own totems, which can be inherited or acquired through spiritual experiences.”
“Totems are not just symbols but are believed to be imbued with spiritual power and are treated with respect and reverence.”
“Aboriginal people participate in ceremonies and rituals honoring their totems, often involving singing, dancing, and storytelling.”
Responsibilities and Protection:
“Individuals and groups have responsibilities to protect and care for their totems and the environments associated with them.”
“Totems can include a wide range of natural entities, such as animals (e.g., kangaroo, emu, snake), plants (e.g., certain trees, flowers), and geographical features (e.g., rivers, mountains).”
Moiety System:
“Some Aboriginal groups organize their totems within a moiety system, where society is divided into two halves, each with its own set of totems, ensuring balance and interconnectedness.”
“There’s a wide range of totems that can be given to members of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community. These depend on the natural features and wildlife relevant to the Nation. Some examples of Aboriginal totems include a hawk, a kangaroo, a koala, an emu, and an owl, to name a few. Each First Nations person has at least four totems, including inherited ones for each national, clan, and family group, plus an assigned or personal totem. Totems are split between moieties. Aboriginal moieties are the first level of kinship in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander society. They split everything in two, mirroring halves, creating a balance. In the case of Aboriginal totems, the split ensures the long-term conservation of that totem as one emphasises sustainability while the other permits proper use. For example, the kangaroo may be protected by members of one moiety, while individuals from the other may eat it.”
“Aboriginal totems aren’t just symbols or family emblems–they represent and entail a sense of responsibility and ownership over nature in the form of conservatism and stewardship. Generally, an individual’s totem signifies a natural object, plant, or animal that they must be responsible for. It’s important to note that Aboriginal totems are not ‘owned’ but accounted for. They don’t attach a certain authority to a person; instead, they signify an obligation. This means that First Nations members must ensure that their totem is properly cared for; they must protect their totem and pass it on from one generation to the next.”
“This entails looking after natural resources in their area to make sure that they’re used properly and are available to their totem animal. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people must also never kill their totem animal. Aboriginal totems also represent a responsibility that First Nations members have towards their communities. They define an individual’s role within the family, along with their relationships with others. Aboriginal totems, specifically those that relate to one’s nation, clan, and family group are given at birth.”
“This means that children already have an identity as soon as they enter the world, and they are given their stewardship responsibilities very early on–though these are further taught as they grow up. Personal or assigned totems may be given later on. These totems recognise an individual’s strengths and weaknesses and link them to the land, air, and other geographical characteristics. According to moiety, everything is split into halves that mirror each other, including an individual and their environment. To understand the whole universe, these two halves must come together and form a whole.”
“Classical Australian anthropologists, described Aboriginal spirituality as totemic. Totemism, in Australia, is often characterized by reference to mythological ancestral beings that emerged from the earth at the beginning of time. These ancestors moved across the earth and brought shape to the continent and animated the landscape. Every individual […] is born into some totem—that is, he or she belongs to a group of persons each one of whom bears the name of, and is especially associated with, some natural object. The latter is usually an animal or plant; but in addition to those of living things, there are also such totem names as wind, sun, water, or cloud—in fact there is scarcely an object, animate or inanimate, to be found in the country occupied by the natives which does not gives its name to some totemic group of individuals.” ref
“There is a diversity of astronomical traditions in Australia, each with its own particular expression of cosmology. However, there appear to be common themes and systems between the groups. Due to the long history of Australian Aboriginal astronomy, the Aboriginal peoples have been described as “the world’s first astronomers” on several occasions. Many of the constellations were given names based on their shapes, just as traditional western astronomy does, such as the Pleiades, Orion, and the Milky Way, with others, such as Emu in the Sky, describe the dark patches rather than the points lit by the stars. Contemporary Indigenous Australian art often references astronomical subjects and their related lore, such as the Seven Sisters. The Yolŋu people believe that when they die, they are taken by a mystical canoe, Larrpan, to the spirit-island Baralku in the sky, where their campfires can be seen burning along the edge of the great river of the Milky Way. The canoe is sent back to Earth as a shooting star, letting their family on Earth know that they have arrived safely in the spirit-land. Aboriginals also thought that god was the canoe.” ref
“Many traditions have stories of a female Sun and a male Moon. The Yolŋu say that Walu, the Sun-woman, lights a small fire each morning, which we see as the dawn.] She paints herself with red ochre, some of which spills onto the clouds, creating the sunrise. She then lights a torch and carries it across the sky from east to west, creating daylight. At the end of her journey, as she descends from the sky, some of her ochre paints again rubs off onto the clouds, creating the sunset. She then puts out her torch and, throughout the night, travels underground back to her starting camp in the east. Other Aboriginal peoples of the Northern Territory call her Wuriupranili. Other stories about the Sun involve Wala, Yhi, and Gnowee.” ref
“The Yolŋu tell that Ngalindi, the Moon-man, was once young and slim (the waxing Moon), but grew fat and lazy (the full Moon). His wives chopped bits off him with their axes (the waning Moon); to escape them he climbed a tall tree towards the Sun, but died from the wounds (the new Moon). After remaining dead for three days, he rose again to repeat the cycle, and continues doing so till this day. The Kuwema people in the Northern Territory say that he grows fat at each full Moon by devouring the spirits of those who disobey the tribal laws. Another story by the Aboriginals of Cape York involves the making of a giant boomerang that is thrown into the sky and becomes the Moon. A story from Southern Victoria concerns a beautiful woman who is forced to live by herself in the sky after a number of scandalous affairs. The Yolŋu also associated the Moon with the tides.” ref
“In many Australian Aboriginal cultures, the moon is personified as a male figure, often associated with fertility, death, and initiation ceremonies. The Moon’s phases are frequently linked to the female menstrual cycle, and stories explaining the origin of death are also connected to the moon. Dreamtime stories often feature the moon in various roles, such as a man who travels across the sky, or a figure involved in the creation of the landscape. The Yolngu people call the Moon Ngalindi and he too travels across the sky. Originally, he was a fat lazy man (corresponding to the full Moon) for which he was punished by his wives, who chopped bits off him with their axes, producing the waning Moon. He managed to escape by climbing a tall tree to follow the Sun, but was mortally wounded, and died (the new Moon). After remaining dead for 3 days, he rose again, growing round and fat (the waxing Moon), until, after two weeks, his wives attacked him again. The cycle continues to repeat every month. Until Ngalindi first died, everyone on Earth was immortal, but he cursed humans and animals so that only he could return to life. For everyone else, death would thereafter be final.” ref, ref, ref
“Australian Aboriginal moon mythology: The Moon is often depicted as a man, though some stories feature a Moon woman. The waxing and waning of the moon are frequently linked to the female menstrual cycle and human fertility. The Moon and its phases feature in many Dreaming stories across Australia, describing the intangible relationship between the Moon, Sun and Earth. The Nuenonne traditions of the Moon woman are an example of astronomical observations embedded within culture. For many other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, the Moon is a powerful man, often associated with fertility. This association links the Moon’s monthly waxing and waning to the female fertility cycle. In some nations, looking at a full Moon was thought to cause a woman to fall pregnant. In others, people warned that it could lead to infertility or even death. Many Dreamtime stories feature the Moon, explaining its origins, its connection to the tides, and its role in the creation of the world and its creatures. In their stories, Ngalindi is initially a young, slim man (waxing moon) who grows fat and lazy (full moon).”
“His wives then chop bits off him with axes (waning moon). He eventually dies from his wounds (new moon) after trying to escape his wives by climbing a tall tree. He is then reborn, restarting the cycle. The story also explains the connection between the moon and tides, as the moon is said to fill with water and empty out again. He managed to escape by climbing a tall tree to follow the sun, but was badly wounded and died (the new Moon). After remaining dead for three days, he rose again, growing round and fat (the waxing Moon), until, after two weeks his wives attacked him again. The cycle continues to repeat every month. Until Ngalindi first died, everyone on Earth was immortal, but he cursed humans and animals so that only he could return to life. For everyone else, death would be final.”
“The Yolngu people also tell how Walu, the Sun-woman, lights a small fire each morning, which we see as the dawn. She decorates herself with red ochre*, some of which spills onto the clouds, creating the red sunrise. She then lights her torch, made from a stringy-bark tree, and travels across the sky from east to west, carrying her blazing torch, creating daylight. As she descends at the end of her journey, again, some of the red ochre dusts the clouds to give the red sunset. On reaching the western horizon, she puts out her torch, and starts the long journey underground back to the morning camp in the east. Thus, the Yolngu people explained the daily motion of the sun across the sky and back again under the ground.”
“The Yolngu or Yolŋu are an aggregation of Aboriginal Australian people inhabiting north-eastern Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. Yolngu means “person” in the Yolŋu languages. Yolngu comprise several distinct groups, differentiated by the languages and dialects they speak, but generally sharing overall similarities in the ritual life and hunter-gathering economic and cultural lifestyles in the territory of eastern Arnhem land. Yolŋu groups are connected by a complex kinship system (gurruṯu). This system governs fundamental aspects of Yolŋu life, including responsibilities for ceremony and marriage rules.” ref
“Two Moieties Yirritja as well as Dhuwa and several sub clans in each. A Yirritja person is from one of the 13 sub clans. A Yirritja person must always marry a Dhuwa person (and vice versa). A Dhuwa person is from one of the 10 sub clans. Children take their father’s moiety, meaning that if a man or woman is Dhuwa, their mother will be Yirritja (and vice versa). The moiety-based kinship of the Yolngu does not map in a straightforward way to the notion of the nuclear family, which makes accurate standardised reporting of households and relationships difficult, for example in the census. Polygamy is a normal part of Yolngu life: one man was known to have 29 wives, a record exceed only by polygamous arrangements among the Tiwi.” ref
“Tiwi, the most polysynthetic of all Australian languages, is a language isolate with no apparent genetic link to the contiguous languages of Arnhem Land on the Australian mainland. Bestowal is often used in the Tiwi culture, which is the main way of receiving young wives. Successful men, usually older men often had many wives, even up to 20 for very promising husbands. Men younger than 30 often had fewer or no wives. In traditional Tiwi culture, ages 30–40 were the most likely to be married to widows. Dancing, or yoi as they call it, is a part of everyday life. Tiwi inherit their totemic dance, evocative of the dreamtime, and which defines their spiritual identity from their father.”
- “Hunting, alongside fishing and foraging, has historically been the primary source of food for the Tiwi people. Tiwi men traditionally hunt animals like wallabies, possums, and bandicoots, while women gather seafood along the shoreline.
- Cultural Significance: Hunting is more than just obtaining food; it’s a practice that involves deep knowledge of the land, animal behavior, and respect for nature. Tiwi hunters demonstrate their respect by not taking mothers or baby animals.
- Spiritual Connection: The Tiwi believe in ancestral spirits and the importance of ceremony. Their spiritual connection extends beyond formal ceremonies and can be observed during hunting trips through songs sung in moments of grief or reflection.”
“Each Tiwi inherits a Dreaming or totem from their father, which represents a significant relationship with a particular animal or natural element. Tiwi are forbidden from killing or eating their own totem. Each Dreaming has a specific dance associated with it, which is used for identification during ceremonies. Some of the totems are: Crocodile, Buffalo, Horse, Turtle, Shark & Jungle Fowl. Continuity with the Spirit World: Tiwi beliefs suggest that the spirits of the deceased reside in the country where they are buried and continue to hunt, fish, and hold ceremonies in the spirit world, mirroring the life of the living. In essence, Tiwi hunting practices are a fundamental aspect of their cultural identity, reflecting their connection to the land, their spiritual beliefs, and their respect for the natural world.”
“Kinship relations are also mapped onto the lands owned by the Yolŋu through their hereditary estates – so almost everything is either Yirritja or Dhuwa – every fish, stone, river, etc., belongs to one or the other moiety. For example, Yirritja yiḏaki (didgeridoos) are shorter and higher-pitched than Dhuwa yiḏaki. A few items are wakinŋu (without moiety). The word for “selfish” or “self-centred” in the Yolŋu languages is gurrutumiriw, literally “kin lacking” or “acting as if one has no kin”. The concept of Wangarr (also spelt Wanja or Waŋa) is complex. Attempts to translate the term into English have called the Wangarr beings variously “spirit man/woman”, “ancestor”, “totem“, or various combinations.” ref
“The Yolngu believe that the Wangarr ancestor-beings not only hunted, gathered food, and held ceremonies as the Yolngu do today, but also that they created plants and geographical features such as rivers, rocks, sandhills, and islands, and these features now incorporate the essence of the Wangarr. They also named species of plants and animals, and made these sacred to the local clan; some Wangarr took on the characteristics of a species, which then became the totem of the clan. Sacred objects and certain designs are also associated with certain Wangarr, who also gave that clan their language, law, paintings, songs, dances, ceremonies, and creation stories. In Yolŋu culture, hunting is deeply intertwined with spirituality, including rituals and beliefs connected to ancestral beings, the land, and the continuity of life.” ref
“Harvesting is often closely tied to spiritual practices and rituals, which in turn influence management. Some spiritual practices around hunting involve ritual cleansing, fasting without food and water for days, and an array of offerings. Different communities have different protocols, specifics and laws around these practices. In essence, it is about incorporating mindfulness, sacrifice and a cosmic reciprocity/gratefulness for what we humans need for survival. These practices influence traditional law, which in turn influence individual actions.” ref
The Yolngu believe that the world was sung into existence. They believe that the Ancestors, supernatural beings sleeping beneath the crust of the earth, awoke and gave life to all the animals, plants, birds, fish, mountains, trees, waterholes…by calling out their names, and singing their names into songs. They believe that the Ancestors wandered all over the world, “singing” it as they went; and they call their trails, still echoing with music, the “songlines”. These Ancestral songlines are made up of songs, which in turn consist of verses. Each of these verses refers directly to the particular patch of land which their singing brought into existence. In this way, the intimate link between song and land is established; the land is of the song, and the song is of the land. When a Yolngu child is born, he/she is entrusted with verses, and accordingly, the custodianship of the particular patch of land to which they are connected.” ref
“The Yolngu peoples regard the Creation – and hence, the world as it is – as completely perfect. Thus, their only goal is its preservation and continuity as is. They believe that the re-enactment of their Ancestors’ journeys strengthens the fabric of existence, and therefore re-create them regularly in order to maintain the Creation. Crucial to these rituals is the singing of the songlines, exactly as they were originally sung; the importance of this within Yolngu philosophy is inestimable. It is reflected in the severity of the penalty for singing verses in the wrong order: death. The Yolngu do not speak; they sing…they have no artistic tradition which employs only the spoken word, for example, the declaiming of poetry; instead, their linguistic artistry is aligned with music, and channelled into their songs. Yolngu myth and the resulting Yolngu cultural practice, song, is absolutely central to Yolngu belief systems.” ref
“It is fundamental to their cosmology and religion; it is their primary method of personal, interpersonal, and spiritual mediation; and it is an absolutely vital part of their ontology. The incredibly intimate relationship between the musical and spiritual lives of the Yolngu peoples results in a complex twining, where Yolngu music and spirituality influence each other in a symbiotic, reflexive cycle. The “spirit-conception” of the songs obviously confers inestimable importance upon them amongst the Yolngu; this is undoubtedly one of the main reasons their oeuvre is simultaneously so well-preserved and substantial. The way in which Yolngu spirituality has shaped and informed Yolngu musical culture is obvious.” ref
“The spiritual beliefs of the Yolngu are remarkable for their eco-systemic nature. The celebrated anthropologist Roy Rappaport, in “Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity,” wrote: “The moral responsibilities of humanity’s unique place are nowhere more profoundly realized than in the religions of aboriginal Australians.” The wakening of the Ancestors and their singing of the world took place in a mythical realm called the “Dreamtime” or, preferably, the “Dreaming”. In simplistic and popular readings of Yolngu myth, this is often interpreted as a time, a temporal space pre-creation. However, this is a wholly inaccurate rendering of the concept, resulting from the bastardised translation of the Yolngu language and the superimposition of Western spatial and temporal constructs upon the Yolngu. A more precise definition is the Dreaming as both a place and an energy source, a symbol which gives shape to Yolngu experience of the Ancestral realm.” ref
“The distinction between these two definitions of the Dreaming is vital, since it is only with the second, accurate interpretation of the Dreaming that an outsider can approach a proper understanding of the Yolngu world-view; the centrality of spatiality to their ontology, and how their mythology holds the potential for them to actually enter into their myths. This possibility exists due to the “oneness” of song and land within their belief systems: “The essence of the Aboriginal Hero is song, and the essence of song is place.” The intimate connection of Yolgnu song to the land – their ultimate source, their “everything” – means that it gains power by association, which in turn rebounds upon their spirituality. When Yolngu tribespeople are re-creating the journey of their ancestors and re-singing the Creation, they are not mere caretakers, guardians, or actors. They are not just treading the existing landscape. They are not merely re-performing a piece that has been sung thousands of times before… They are the Ancestors, singing the First Song, walking in the Dreaming.” ref
“Yolngu mythology is a complex and intricate system of beliefs and stories deeply interwoven with the natural world. Their mythology, known as the “Songlines,” is a vast network of sacred paths that traverse the continent, connecting people, places, and the spirit world. At the heart of Yolngu mythology lies the concept of the Ancestral Beings, powerful spirits who shaped the land and its inhabitants during the Dreamtime. These beings, often represented in intricate rock art and ceremonial performances, are believed to have traveled across the land, creating sacred sites, bodies of water, and plant and animal life. Yolngu mythology encompasses a holistic worldview that encompasses the spiritual, physical, and social realms. The land, sea, and sky are all considered sacred and interconnected. Through their stories, the Yolngu people impart knowledge about kinship systems, law, morality, and environmental stewardship.” ref
“Yolŋu hunting and its relationship with the spiritual realm. The combination of Ancestral Beings, Wangarr and Totems, Relationship with Animals and Nature, Sacred Sites, Ritual and Ceremony elements forms a holistic worldview where hunting is not merely a means of survival but a spiritual practice that reflects the Yolŋu people’s deep connection to their land, ancestors, and the intricate web of life. Everything in the Yolŋu universe – Spirit Beings, plant and animal species, clan groups, areas of land and water are either Dhuwa or Yirritja. The Djang’kawu Sisters, the morning star, the water goanna, the stringybark tree, and the land in and around Yirrkala are Dhuwa, while such things as the evening star, stingray, cycad palm, and members of the Mangalili clan are all Yirritja. Clan members own areas of land and waters in common. The relationship is, however, much more complex than just ‘owning’, or even ‘caring for’, the land. Yolŋu often say that they ‘come from’ the land, or that they ‘are the land’ – a difficult concept for non-Aboriginal people to grasp.”
“The land and waters of each clan were bestowed on the forebears of living clan members long ago in Wangarr Time, which Yolŋu may refer to in English as ‘Creation Time’; or sometimes they just say long ago. Some follow the common Australian English practice of using the terms ‘Dreamtime’ or ‘Dreaming’. One person explained it as ‘sacred time shining, long time ago’. A clan’s land and waters were bestowed on it by one or a particular set of the many sacred and powerful Wangarr Beings who travelled across the landscape during this time of creation. ‘Spirit man’, or ‘Spirit woman’, ‘ancestor’, ‘totem’, or various combinations of these, are some of the English terms used by both Yolngu and non-Yolngu speakers attempting to explain the complex concept of Wangarr. The Wangarr beings hunted animals, gathered a variety of vegetable foods, held ceremonies, and generally behaved in the same way as Yolŋu people did at the time of the establishment of a mission at Yirrkala in 1935. There were important differences, however.”
“For one thing, the Wangarr created through their activities the present features of the landscape and seascape, such as rivers, rocks, sandhills, trees, and islands, and left the land and waters imbued with their spiritual essence. They also ‘sang’ the names of everything they created or interacted with, making certain species sacred to the clan on whose land or in whose waters the naming took place. Additionally, although the Wangarr were manifested in human form during their creative travels and activities, many, though not all, are also considered to have had the attributes of a particular species, such as crocodile or shark. Eventually, the Wangarr was transformed into that species. Subsequently, this species became a major ‘totem’ of the clan associated with the site of such events. Indeed, members of that clan may think of themselves as being, for example, water goanna, while another clan’s members may think of themselves as being shark.”
“As well as the landscape they had created, the Wangarr also left behind for the clan sacred objects, designs, and names that were manifestations of themselves, imbued like the land and water with their spiritual essence and power. They passed on, too, to the founding members of each clan their language, law, paintings, songs, dances, ceremonies, and creation stories, all emanating from the Wangarr presence and activities in clan land and waters. Together, the land and waters and this sacred clan property, both tangible and intangible, form a clan member’s djalkiri, his or her ‘foundation’, as Yolŋu translate this important concept. The Yolŋu word for land (or place or camp) is ngirrima. In everyday speech, djalkiri may be used in its literal sense of ‘foot’ or ‘footprint’.”
“In its metaphorical sense it represents the ‘footprints’ of the Wangarr as they travelled across the clan’s land and waters, all the signs and traces they left in their tracks: the evidence of their presence and land-shaping activities and transformations in the land itself and in the sacred designs, paintings, songs and ceremonial objects. It is the djalkiri, this foundation, that provides each individual with meaning and identity. Yolŋu individuals belong as much to the djalkiri as it does to them. Spiritually, they are part of it. Within every clan’s land and waters, there are one or more areas where ‘spirit children’, formed of the Wangarr essence, await their time to be born into the world of the living. When that time comes, a ‘spirit child’ enters its mother’s womb to animate the foetus.”
“During life, people may continue to absorb Wangarr power through ritual contact with other manifestations of the Wangarr; for example, through sacred clan designs painted ceremonially on the body. After death, the individual’s spirit returns, with ritual help, to his or her clan land. There, it becomes one again with the spirits of the dead and the Wangarr essence, to be drawn upon by future generations of spirit children and clan members. The phrase djalkiri wanga applies to a particularly important and sacred area of a clan’s land or waters that is associated with crucial Wangarr events and spirituality. This is the home or homeland from which clan spirits emanate and to which they return. It is this land and these waters which form the basis of an individual’s djalkiri and that provide the solid foundation on which his or her identity is built.”
“Yolŋu’s relationship to the land and waters does not end here, however. Just as individuals can think of themselves as being a totemic species or say that they are the land, so too can their nandi (mothers), and mari (grandmothers), and other kin. An individual, therefore, calls his or her mother’s Wangarr species nandi and refers to her country as nandi wanga; in the case of a grandmother’s Wangarr and wanga, the kin term mari is used, and so on. The extreme importance of the widespread network of kinship in Yolŋu society means that most people would know their relationship to a wide number of places in terms of their relationship to the people who own them.”
- “Ancestral Beings and Creation: The Yolŋu believe that ancestral beings, known as Wangarr (or Wanja/Waŋa), created the world and everything in it, including plants, animals, and geographical features. These ancestors are believed to have hunted and gathered as the Yolŋu do today, and their essence is infused into the land.
- Wangarr and Totems: Wangarr ancestor-beings are associated with sacred objects, designs, and totems – species of plants or animals that are sacred to specific clans and represent the characteristics of the associated Wangarr.
- Relationship with Animals and Nature: Animals are considered powerful and capable of creating and communicating meaning. This connection fosters a deep respect for the prey and the environment.
- Sacred Sites: The land, including sacred sites, embodies the essence and power of the Wangarr ancestors. Hunting practices and ceremonies often connect to specific sites related to these ancestral beings and events.
- Ritual and Ceremony: Yolŋu ceremonies, involving songs, dances, paintings, and objects, re-enact the actions and events of ancestral beings, reaffirming the laws established by them. These rituals strengthen the fabric of existence and demonstrate gratitude for the sustenance provided by the land and its creatures.
- Importance of Knowledge and Learning: Yolŋu culture emphasizes the importance of passing on knowledge about the land, its resources, and the associated songs and stories through generations, ensuring harmony with the environment.
“When a Yolŋu person dies, their spirit is believed to leave the body and travel a sacred path to its final resting place in the ancestral lands. Funeral ceremonies, including specific songs, dances, and rituals, are performed to guide the spirit safely on this journey. For some Yolŋu clans, Mäna the Ancestral Shark is a spiritual force that helps release the soul at death and guides it through Saltwater Country to the land of the dead. Some Yolŋu traditions speak of Baralku, a spirit island in the sky, where the spirits of the deceased arrive after their journey. The ultimate goal of a Yolŋu spirit’s journey is to return to the ancestral lands and be reunited with the ancestors. The land and its features hold a spiritual connection to the ancestral beings and the deceased’s clan.”
“Mokuy are spirit beings in Yolŋu culture considered guardians of tradition and lore. They act as intermediaries between the human and spirit realms and play a vital role in shaping cultural practices, from birth to death. While some Mokuy are feared for causing harm, they also serve to remind people of the importance of adhering to traditional laws. The Yolŋu people of East Arnhem Land inhabit a landscape that was formed by the actions of Ancestral Beings, who can take both human and animal form. For instance, water now flows where these creatures walked, and hills have formed where they died. During the time of the ancestors, the Ancestral Shark Mäna travelled across the Saltwater Country connecting the Dhuwa clans of the Djapu, Dhudi-Djapu, Marrakulu, and the Wanapuynu, Dhukayana, and Wawilak. The path he took through the Saltwater Country of Lutumba is the traditional route that the souls of deceased clan members now travel to reach their final resting place. The Yolngu people today re-enact Mäna’s journey in rituals and song.”
“This Djapu clan outstation and spiritual residence for Ancestral Beings, Mäna the shark and Bol’ŋu the Thunder Man, is surrounded by permanent freshwater. Rains inspired by the actions of Bol’ŋu fed the rivers and filled the billabongs. The waters also made a home for Mäna. The grid (cross-hatching design) refers to the landscape of Wandawuy – a network of billabongs surrounded by ridges and high banks. Ancestral Hunters once set a trap here to snare Mäna, but to no avail. These Yolŋu people were called Barngbarng and Monu`a, and they came to cut the Dhuwa trees called Gu`uwu, Gathurrmakarr, Nyenyi, Rulwirra, and Gananyarra. They used straight young trees and cut them with their axes called Gayma`arri and Bitjutju. Areas of the river are still staked by the Yolŋu; branches are interwoven through them, and an anaesthetic (made from a particular pulped bark) is added. Using nets constructed similarly to the beak of Galumay the pelican, the Yolngu wade through the waters, scooping up the catfish. In the days before the first morning, Mäna the Ancestral Shark came through this way on its epic travels. Yolŋu ancestors tried to trap Mäna in the freshwater by means of these fish traps.”
“But they failed. The powers and physical strength of Mäna were of no match to the folly of mere mortals. Mäna’s ire and thrashing tail smashed the trap and muddied the water as he escaped. But the ancestors did witness the strength of Mäna and sing about it. The black lines on the logs refer to the trap, the coloured verticals to the differing states of the freshwater (clear or muddy) – the source of Djapu soul. In ceremonies still practiced today, appropriate participants for mortuary rites enter a shelter (woven like a fish trap) where the deceased has been lying in state. Sacred spears tipped with stingray barbs – manifestations of Mäna’s teeth – stand up alongside the shelter. The sacred song cycles of Mäna at Wandawuy are intoned with music from the Yidaki (didjeridu) and Bilma (clapsticks). At the conclusion of the ceremony, the dancers crash through the shelter, imitating the actions of Mäna escaping the trap. The action has reference to the release of the deceased’s soul back to the sacred waters of Wandawuy to be reunited with its ancestors.Log coffins and the story of Mäna the Ancestral Shark are integral to the funerary rituals of the Yolŋu people in east Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.”
“This coffin represents the people belonging to the Dhuwa moiety of the Djapu clan in the homeland of Wandawuy. These poles were made as works of art for public display, moving the works beyond their traditional use in funeral rituals to become aesthetic objects in contemporary Indigenous art. Yolŋu people believe it’s important to be buried in their traditional lands to ensure the spirit can return to its place of origin. They emphasize the importance of respect for their burial practices and traditions. The Yolŋu believe the connection between the living and the deceased remains strong, and the spirits of ancestors can continue to influence the lives of the living. Ceremonies and “talking to country” can facilitate this connection. In Yolŋu culture, the Mokuy stand as guardians of tradition and lore, weaving together the spiritual fabric of the indigenous peoples of North East Arnhem Land in Australia. These enigmatic beings, often depicted as ancestral spirits, hold a revered place in the hearts and minds of the Yolŋu community.”
“Each spirit has its own unique characteristics and significance. From mischievous tricksters to benevolent protectors, Mokuy inhabit the rich landscape of Yolŋu mythology, embodying the essence of the natural world and its mysteries. Among the various manifestations of Mokuy, the most prominent are the Mokuy dancers, whose spirited performances animate ceremonial gatherings and rituals. With their striking masks and intricate costumes, these dancers channel the energy of the ancestors, invoking blessings and guidance for the community. Central to Yolŋu cosmology is the belief that Mokuy serve as intermediaries between the human realm and the spirit world. Through song, dance, and ritual, the Yolŋu seek to honor and appease these ancestral spirits, fostering harmony and balance in the universe. The significance of Mokuy extends beyond the realm of myth and legend, permeating every aspect of Yolŋu life. From birth to death, these spirit beings play a vital role in shaping cultural practices and social customs, serving as custodians of tradition and wisdom.”
“Yolŋu custom forbids speaking the name of the deceased for a period of mourning. When a death occurs in northeast Arnhem Land, word goes out about a bäpurru, in this case meaning “a death.” Bäpurru is also the main word for “clan” in Yolŋu languages. In short, if a Yolŋu person tells you, “_______ is my bäpurru,” they’re telling you their clan affiliation and therefore, in many respects, their very identity. If someone says something like, “did you hear about the bäpurru?” they’re alluding to news of a recent death. Yolŋu do not go around telling everyone, “hey, John just died.” No one utters the name and no one is told in such a matter-of-fact manner. Families gather and are sung the news. Leaders bang the biḻma, or clapsticks, with particular patterns and sing songs that indicate the person’s lineage (including their own bäpurru). Upon hearing the news of a death, women begin to wail and sing milkarri – crying songs. They improvise words to clan melodies to mourn and celebrate their connection to the deceased.” ref
“Why do they not say the name? On a simple level, to avoid upsetting surviving relatives. On deeper levels, there are two main reasons corresponding to two different Yolŋu concepts of the soul. Birrimbirr refers to a good spirit that leaves the body of the deceased to journey back to its home. For some clans, this is a water hole on sacred land. For others, it is said to be an island of spirits to the northeast. Others speak of the stars in the Milky Way as the souls of departed clansmen. From this reservoir of souls, this birrimbirr may leap into the body of a pregnant woman later on. Calling out the deceased person’s name may distract the birrimbirr from its journey and break the cycle of spirits coming into humans to keep the clan alive. A darker, perhaps trickster part of the soul is referred to by the general word for spirits, mokuy. This spirit lingers after death. It haunts the deceased’s home, workplace, and possessions. Calling out the name of the deceased might get the attention of this mokuy and bring “spiritual pollution” to close relatives, causing injury, illness, or even another death.” ref
“Shortly after the death and the ensuing funeral ceremony, Yolŋu perform cleansing ceremonies with water or smoke to wash away this spiritual pollution. If you visit a Yolŋu community, you may see houses or vehicles with traces of red bands painted around them. This indicates that they were cleansed following ceremonial business. Yolŋu also avoid words that sound like names of the deceased. Didjeridu players may remember a few years ago when the word yiḏaki was not to be spoken because it is one letter away from the name of a deceased man. The alternate word mandapul became prominent at that time in the area around Yirrkala, but yiḏaki is clear for use again. The mourning period varies widely from a few years to a decade, and may vary between different people across the region. Close family avoid a name or word for longer than other Yolŋu will. Yolŋu from the west of the region, at Milingimbi, for instance, most likely continued using the word yiḏaki as they were not close to the man with a similar name who passed away in Yirrkala, on the eastern edge of Yolŋu country. When death is near, families gather and sing songs to prepare and soothe the dying person. Yolŋu painted the deceased body with sacred designs of the person’s lineage while song and dance continued. After this first round of ceremony, bodies were left in shallow graves or tree platforms to decay.” ref
“Later, the family returned to collect the bones and paint them. Key parts such as thigh bones and skulls were bundled in paperbark and carried for a time, perhaps a year. Then, in a final round of ceremony, hollow log coffins known by various names such as ḻarrakitj, ḏupun, or dhakandjali were painted with sacred designs of the deceased’s lineage. Yolŋu placed the bones in these coffins for final disposal and left them in the bush to decay. Funeral ceremony lasts anywhere from a few days to a few months, depending on the person’s significance and the amount of family involved in the ceremony. The deceased’s own clan, mother’s clan, mother’s mother’s clan, and djuŋgaya take primary roles, but more distant relations may also be involved. Other ceremonies, such as boys’ initiation, often piggyback on funerals to take advantage of the large gathering. Every funeral is different. Leaders of the concerned clans gather and decide the needed series of events. Each day brings new cycles of ritual song and dance that aim to guide the spirit to its resting place. Related clans take turns doing their part. Intensity builds until the climax of the burial. Designs once painted on hollow log coffins now adorn coffin lids and grave markers. In the days following the burial, ritual cleanses the mourners, particularly those who handled the body, of any spiritual pollution.” ref
“A number of cave bears are depicted in Chauvet. Cave bears are identifiable by the steep incline of their foreheads. These three bears of #1 are found near the prehistoric entrance [not the present entrance] to the cave, on a panel in a small recess. The bears are painted in red. The central bear has been painted using the natural relief in the cave wall, with the shoulder following the line of the rock surface. This is a common artistic technique employed in prehistoric parietal art, suggesting that the cave wall topography whilst seen by torch light inspired the subject matter. The central bear is a complete figure, whilst to the left of it is an isolated bear head, and to the right of it a near complete bear. This may depict a sleuth of bears. The artist used a technique known as ‘stump-drawing’ – the use of fingers or a piece of hide to paint the muzzle and to emphasize the outlines of the head and forequarters; a form of perspective.” ref
“Another example of human activity within the cave can be found in the Skull Chamber, #2. In this space it is possible to see prints and bones on the floor, and on the walls, claw marks, engravings, paintings, hand prints and torch wipes. But in the very center a cave bear skull was moved and placed on the rock. This would have been done either 32,000 to 30,000 or 27,000 to 26,000 years ago. Ten drawings are arranged over the area of #3. The animal figures include 3 bears, 2 felines – including a panther – 2 ibex, 3 unidentifiable animals and 1 red dot, made with the palm of the hand.” ref
“Ursa Major, also known as the Great Bear, is a constellation in the Northern Sky, whose associated mythology likely dates back into prehistory. Its Latin name means “greater (or larger) bear”, referring to and contrasting it with nearby Ursa Minor, the lesser bear. In antiquity, it was one of the original 48 constellations listed by Ptolemy in the 2nd century CE, drawing on earlier works by Greek, Egyptian, Babylonian, and Assyrian astronomers. Today it is the third largest of the 88 modern constellations. Ursa Major has been reconstructed as an Indo-European constellation. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century CE astronomer Ptolemy in his Almagest, who called it Arktos Megale. It is mentioned by such poets as Homer, Spenser, Shakespeare, Tennyson, and also by Federico Garcia Lorca, in “Song for the Moon”. Ancient Finnish poetry also refers to the constellation, and it features in the painting Starry Night Over the Rhône by Vincent van Gogh. It may be mentioned in the biblical book of Job, dated between the 7th and 4th centuries BCE, although this is often disputed.” ref
“The Cosmic Hunt is an ancient and widely distributed family of cognate myths. The story involves a large animal pursued by hunters; the animal is wounded and transformed into a constellation. Variants of the Cosmic Hunt are common in cultures of Northern Eurasia and the Americas, and include the story of Callisto in classical sources. The prey animal is either a bear or an ungulate, and the associated constellation involves the four stars of the bowl in the Big Dipper asterism of Ursa Major. In some variants, blood or grease may fall from the wounded animal; in an Iroquois version, the blood causes leaves to change color in autumn. Sometimes the hunters are also placed in the firmament, represented by the stars of the Big Dipper’s handle.” ref
Bear Cults, Bear Worship, Bear Sacrifice, and the Cosmic Hunt
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Bear Worship and the Cosmic Hunt
“The Aurignacian is an archaeological industry of the Upper Paleolithic associated with Early European modern humans (EEMH) lasting from 43,000 to 26,000 years ago. The Upper Paleolithic developed in Europe some time after the Levant, where the Emiran period and the Ahmarian period form the first periods of the Upper Paleolithic, corresponding to the first stages of the expansion of Homo sapiens out of Africa. They then migrated to Europe and created the first European culture of modern humans, the Aurignacian. The Proto-Aurignacian and the Early Aurignacian stages are dated between about 43,000 and 37,000 years ago. The Aurignacian proper lasted from about 37,000 to 33,000 years ago. A Late Aurignacian phase transitional with the Gravettian dates to about 33,000 to 26,000 years ago. The type site is the Cave of Aurignac, Haute-Garonne, south-west France. The main preceding period is the Mousterian of the Neanderthals. One of the oldest examples of figurative art, the Venus of Hohle Fels, comes from the Aurignacian or Proto-Gravettian and is dated to between 40,000 and 35,000 years ago (though earlier figurative art may now be known, such as at the Lubang Jeriji Saléh site in Indonesia). It was discovered in September 2008 in a cave at Schelklingen in Baden-Württemberg in western Germany. The German Lion-man (Bear-man?) figure is given a similar date range.” ref
The Great Bear and the Cosmic Hunt
“In Siberia, bears were still held in special respect. Bears were believed to be representative of justice on Earth. Oaths were taken on a bear’s paw. They would kiss the paw and say, “May I be mauled by a bear, should what I say be a lie?”. The bear was not mentioned directly by its name but referred to by a title such as “Master of the Forest”. When hunters killed a bear, they would embrace it (Vladillen Tugolukov: Pathfinders on Reindeer Back, 1969)– even have sex with it – after it was dead, presumably. That was a custom taken into North America. It may be how syphilis got into the human population when it was not endemic in Siberia, only in America, and in bears. The idea was to keep the bear’s spirit amicably disposed to its killers.” ref
“They still hold Bear Feasts. (I did not enquire too closely about the other, except to observe the word was not in my dictionary). All the neighbours and guests would gather for the Bear Festival. When the bear is brought back to the village, women and girls throw snowballs (or water) at the hunters carrying the bear. Women were not allowed to attend the feast on the first day of the festival, which may last up to five days. The bear skin was stuffed and sat at the feast. The bear’s meat was eaten at the feast. Everyone dressed in their best clothes and performed masked plays, danced, and sang songs. Afterward,s the bear’s bones were laid out in a special way to enable its resurrection. More on Western Siberian, Mansi, bear festival.” ref
“In the far east of Siberia and northern Japan, a bear cub was hand-raised as a special pet, then sacrificed. Stories survive in western Siberia, in which the Bear is the son of God (that is, the Supreme Being or Sky God – as in many cosmological systems. His Father lowered him to Earth in a golden cradle (identified as the “Great Bear” constellation), and taught him how to make a fire and to hunt with weapons so he would never be cold and hungry. At the same time, he was told never to attack a human. In fact, the Bear was on a mission to see that honesty and justice reigned among mankind. But he forgot this and attacked people. So men killed him and took possession of fire and weapons.” ref
“The Bear is a culture hero who brings benefits to mankind and is also associated with the cycle of the seasons throughout the year, as well as life, death, and rebirth. Surviving ritual New Year festivities in some parts of Eastern Europe still enact this association of the Bear being killed, then brought back to life by a shaman-like figure. This association of the Bear, the Great Bear constellation, and the changing seasons is found in North American legends. They show how the Plough or Great Bear constellation goes around the sky, through the year, and through the night, acting as a nighttime clock and calendar. This story (abbreviated here) about the Great Bear constellation follows her progress and changing position right through the year. It shows the changing position in the night sky and the seasons, as well as the association of the bear with life – killed in the autumn, she is reborn in the spring.” ref
“Late in the spring, every year, the bear wakes from her long sleep, leaves her den, and goes in search of food. Chickadee catches sight of her and calls other hunters to assist him. With Chickadee and his pot (the double star) between Robin and Moose Bird, they chase the bear across the northern sky throughout the summer. About the middle of autumn, they overtake the bear who rears up on her hind legs. But Robin shoots her with his arro,w and she falls over on her back. Robin is splattered with blood, which splashes on the leaves of the trees below. Chickadee cooks the bear in his pot. Throughout the winter, the skeleton of the bear lies on its back in the sky. But her life spirit has entered another bear that lies upon her back in her den, invisible, hibernating. When spring comes round again, this bear will again leave her den and will be pursued by the hunters. She, in turn, will be slain but will send her life spirit to her den, from which she will come forth again when the sun once more awakens the sleeping earth.” ref
“In legends from Europe and Siberia, an elk steals the Sun in her antlers and is chased by the three hunters, one carrying a pot all night until they kill the elk and restore the Sun to rise again next morning. The next evening, her daughter begins the hunt all over again. These legends are pictured in rock drawings in places in Europe and Siberia. In Italy and Spain, too far south for elk, there is a deer. In Siberia, there were places where the spring hunting ritual was carried out or commemorated and sacrifices made for a successful hunting season, because many of these places are still sacred and have been in use for centuries. Female elk do not have antlers, and surviving Siberian legends, in which the part of female elk or female bear is played by the Great Mammoth Mother, gives a clue to the origins of both elk and bear stories with the mammoth hunters across the steppe tundra of Europe and Siberia, from 55,000 years ago to about 12,000 years ago. (The last mammoths died out about 4,000 years ago).” ref
“Another clue to the ancient origins of this legend is that the mammoth dips into the sea and becomes half fish, symbolically between the upper and lower worlds. The myth must date from a time and latitude when Ursa Major dipped below the horizon for part of the year, as Cygnus does now. When mammoths had become an ancient myth, the memory of a shaggy beast became the bear, and the memory of the tusks catching the sun became the antlers of a female elk. In Europe and Siberia, this constellation was seen as a mother elk with antlers. Amongst recorded legends are several in which the Cosmic Elk steals the Sun and is chased through the night by a hero/god, or twin heroes, or three hunters, the middle one carrying a cooking pot (the double star). They kill the Elk, and the sun rises again. Although the Elk is dead, her daughter (Ursa Minor) survives, and the hunt begins again.” ref
“The Cosmic Hunt is illustrated in rock drawings. The skies were mapped not as actually observed but with the mythical beings and events associated with the patterns of stars. Rock drawings of this type in Spain and in Yakutia have been dated to about 6,000 years ago. Excavations by a rock drawing of this kind, constantly redrawn and maintained as a sacred site, in Yakutia, found offerings dating from the late Neolithic to the 19th century. In Siberia, hunters always carried out a spring hunting ritual symbolizing the killing of the Cosmic Elk. In March, this constellation is overhead. It has not always been the same, as the Earth wobbles and the north pole moves, in a 26,000-year cycle. Although it is never exactly back to the same place, this is predictable enough to be useful in dating ancient star charts, and even rock drawings and stories about the constellations.” ref
“In Canadian myths, the Ursa Major constellation is a female bear. She is chased throughout the year by three hunters – the middle one with the pot, and in autumn she is killed, her blood stains the leaves. She lies on her back all winter, then in spring her daughter rises and the hunt begins again. The American continent became populated by people from Eastern Asia from at least 30,000 years ago, when they would have travelled mainly by boat along the coastlines, since the North Pacific was warmer as the Bering Straits were continuous land, which blocked the Arctic Currents. New people continued to travel across the North Pacific and the Bering Straits, after the ice age, so there are cultural similarities.” ref
“To the ice-age mammoth-hunters who used Mammoth bones and hides to build their homes, the constellation appeared a little different to the way we see it today. That is because our Sun, with its planets, is moving at 43,400 miles per hour. It travels 380 million miles each year, and is presently passing through a cluster of stars which includes five of the stars in the Plough and the star Sirius, which can be seen twinkling bright pale blue near the horizon in the Southern sky in winter. Two of the stars in the Plough have nothing to do with the other five; they just appear by chance to us to be part of the pattern of the constellation. So as we are moving the position, we see these stars change relative to the others.” ref
“In China, Tao magicians put the Plough constellation in the centre of their divining boards, which had the significant directions all around. They made a spoon-shaped model of lodestone, and the handle always pointed south. It was the first compass. The idea had come from the spoon-shaped carved antler sticks representing the Plough used by Siberian shamans to beat their tambourines and also for divining by observing the direction they pointed when thrown down. What happens to the Great Bear/Cosmic Elk is seen further south, nearer the equator, so it dips over the horizon for part of the year. It becomes a crocodile!” ref
Cosmic Hunt: Variants of Siberian-North American Myth
“The mythological motif of the Cosmic Hunt is peculiar to Northern and Central Eurasia and for the Americas but seems to be absent in other parts of the globe. Two distinct Eurasian versions demonstrate North-American parallels at the level of minor details which could be explained only by particular historical links between corresponding traditions. The first version (three stars of the handle of the Big Dipper are hunters and the dipper itself is an animal; Alcor is a dog or a cooking pot) connects Siberian (especially Western Siberian) traditions with the North-American West (Salish, Chinook) and East (especially with the Iroquois). The second version (the Orion’s Belt represents three deer, antelopes, mountain sheep or buffaloes; the hunter is Rigel or other star below the Orion’s Belt; his arrow has pierced the game and is seen either as Betelgeuze or as the stars of Orion’s Head) connects the South-Siberian – Central-Eurasian mythologies with traditions of North-American West – Southwest. Both variants unknown in Northeast Asia and in Alaska probably date to the time of initial settling of the New World. The circum-Arctic variant(s) (hunter or game are associated with Orion or thePleiades) are represented by neighbouring traditions which form an almost continuous chain from the Lapps to the Polar Inuit. This version could be brought across the American Arctic with the spread of Tule Eskimo.” ref
“(First Bear Picture) Engraving from Les Combarelles, in Dordogne, France, possibly showing a cave bear (Ursus spelaeus). (Second Bear Picture) Another engraving, probably of the brown bear (Ursus arctos), from Trois Freres cave, in Ariege, France. It has been regarded as a bear wounded by spears and vomiting blood.” ref
“Similar characters are seen in various other bear pictures, such as a painting in black pigment from a cave by Santimamifie near Santander in northern Spain; two profile heads, one from Lascaux and one from La Madeleine, Dordogne; and a figurine from the Isturits Cave in the Pyrenees. There is no reason to regard any of these as anything else than brown bear. Two loose slabs from the cave La Colombiere in Ain, France, have engravings showing bears. One of them shows only the head, which has a rounded profile and an almost piglike snout. This may be a cave bear, as Abel suggests, but the evidence is hardly conclusive. The other slab shows the entire animal; the head is rather similar, but the limbs are fairly long and slender. Another creature of about the same type was depicted on a rock slab from Massat in Ariege. The chances are that all of these, too, are brown bears. Head of a bear, engraved on a slab found in the cave La Colombiere, in Ain, France. The shape of the muzzle and forehead suggested to Abel that it might be a cave bear. After Abel.” ref
“The Les Combarelles bear is shown moving slowly ahead, or possibly lying dead on its right side. There are curving lines over the body which may, or may not, represent spears. The cave paintings were long interpreted as works of so-called sympathetic magic: by drawing an animal, especially one with a spear in it, a hunter gained influence over the real animal and ensured a successful hunt. It is still being done. You take a photograph of some one you hate, stick needles in it, and expect the victim to die. But, as has been pointed out by Peter J. Ucko and André Rosenfeld, for example, this is only one of numerous possible interpretations of cave art, and there is little reason to prefer it, especially since very few animals are actually’ shown- wounded or in association with spears and the like. Alexander Marshack has found that many of the cave engravings were remade numerous times, apparently by different people. A ritual is indeed suggested, but its meaning is still unknown.” ref
“Probably the most remarkable art object in this connection is a headless clay sculpture of a bear found in 1923 by the intrepid speleologist Norbert Casteret in the cave of Montespan in the French Pyrenees. This is a life-size model, some two feet high (0.6 meters) and almost four feet long (1.2 meters) representing a massively proportioned bear, lying down on its belly. It is thought to have been originally covered by the skin of a bear, with the head fixed in its proper place by a wooden stick. The sculpture is riddled by spear marks, so it presumably was used for a ritual, perhaps of the sympathetic-magic type. M. Casteret and his assistant Henri Godin found the skull of a young bear between the forepaws of the sculpture. They knew that examination of the skull by a specialist would reveal which species was the object of this ritual.” ref
“The baculum, also known as the penis bone, penile bone, os penis, os genitale, or os priapi, is a bone in the penis of many placental mammals. It is not present in humans, but is present in the penises of some primates, such as the gorilla and the chimpanzee. The baculum arises from primordial cells in soft tissues of the penis, and its formation is largely influenced by androgens. The bone lies above the urethra, and it aids sexual reproduction by maintaining stiffness during sexual penetration. The homologue to the baculum in female mammals is the baubellum (os clitoridis), a bone in the clitoris.” ref
“It has been argued that the “rib” (Hebrew צֵלׇע ṣēlāʿ, also translated “flank” or “side”) in the story of Adam and Eve is actually a mistranslation of a Biblical Hebrew euphemism for baculum, and that its removal from Adam in the Book of Genesis is a creation story to explain this absence (as well as the presence of the perineal raphe – as a resultant “scar”) in humans. In Hoodoo, the folk magic of the American South, the raccoon baculum is sometimes worn as an amulet for love or luck. Oosik (Iñupiaq: usuk or uzuk) is a term used in Alaska Native cultures to describe the bacula of walruses, seals, sea lions and polar bears. Sometimes as long as 60 cm (24 in), fossilized bacula are often polished and used as a handle for knives and other tools. The oosik is a polished and sometimes carved baculum of these large northern carnivores.” ref
Of Penis Bones and Shamans
“How could the originators of the biblical story of Eve’s creation have known that humans are exceptional in lacking a penis bone? In addition to the exceptions among primates, numerous other placental mammal species lack a baculum. This is true, for instance, of rabbits, treeshrews, elephants, sea cows, all hoofed mammals (both odd-toed and even-toed), dolphins, and whales. As far as domestic beasts in biblical times are concerned, many are hoofed mammals that consistently lack a penis bone. Although potentially relevant carnivores do have one, it is quite small in cats and conspicuous only in dogs. I concluded that the notion that a bone had been lost from the human penis could only have come from knowledge of the anatomy of dogs. Yet it was difficult to see how that connection might have been made.” ref
“Two factors recently prompted me to reconsider my skepticism regarding loss of the human penis bone and the biblical tale of Eve’s creation. The first impetus came from reading a very interesting blog posting on the topic of serendipity, defined as “the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way”. In fact, I am currently benefiting from a Fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study (Wissenschaftskolleg) in Berlin, with plenty of freedom to probe more deeply into diverse aspects of human reproductive biology. The second, more direct, stimulus came serendipitously from a now-completed translation project with my son Oliver. Over the summer, we joined forces to translate Jean Clottes’ book Pourquoi l’art paleolithique from French into English. In this fascinating text, Clottes presents a case for his controversial hypothesis linking Paleolithic cave art to shamanic rites. Regardless of whether the reader is convinced by his carefully marshalled arguments, the book is an enthralling compendium of information from Clottes’ on-site investigations on five continents of surviving connections between shamanism and rock art. In the chapter reporting information from his extensive travels, Clottes mentions in passing that for a Siberian shaman the bear was the most important animal and that its penis bone was a symbol of power. Bears are widely regarded as rather special because of a tendency to walk around on their hindlimbs. Yet I had never considered bears as a possible source of ancient knowledge about penis bones in the Middle East.” ref
“The present paper attempts at understanding the background to and possible use of bear bacula in Stone Age contexts. Particular focus is given to the baculum from the Late Palaeolithic site of Bonn-Oberkassel. In order to allow for a more general interpretation of such finds, their meaning and symbolism, we compare the Palaeolithic evidence with ethnographic contexts.” ref
“Other taphonomic approaches concerning the ‘cave bear bone industry’ postulated by Bächler argued for the presence of pseudo-tools as the result of natural sediment rounding (charriage à sec), and excluded anthropogenic modification. Gradually, a general scepticism against cave bear hunting and cave bear bones as a resource for bone tools arose amongst scientists, however, brown bear hunting was never questioned. More recently, zooarchaeological research has documented both hunting and exploitation of cave bears. But even symbolic or ritual behaviour seemed to occasionally involve bear remains in the Palaeolithic, as highlighted by the clay sculpture of a bear in Montespan cave or the skull deposition in Grotte Chauvet, both in France, or the ochre-stained cave bear bones in Goyet and Trou de Chaleux in Belgium. Another indication of the important role bears played in the life of Palaeolithic hunters are their depictions in Palaeolithic parietal art, such as in Grotte Chauvet, in Grotte du Péchialet, in Les Trois-Frères, all in France, and in mobile art as the ivory sculptured bear from Geißenklösterle cave in SW-Germany. Overall, 55 depictions in 23 caves (parietal art) and nearly 80 depictions on objects (mobile art) are known from Europe. Aside these, the close ties between humans and bears are also documented in personal ornaments, such as bear tooth pendants (of canines or incisors), probably worn as amulets, which have been found at several Palaeolithic cave sites, or in Mesolithic burial contexts. All these examples attest to a special relationship between humans and bears. In the following, our contribution focuses on a rather rare ursine bone, the penis bone or baculum. The possible use and/or symbolism of the baculum provides some peculiarities in ethnological as well as archaeological contexts.” ref
“The Tuva people from southern Siberia also see penis bones of bears as a symbol of power and strength. The Ket people, who settle along the Yenisei river in Siberia are known to deposit the bear skull, skin, snout, lips, gallbladder, eyes and penis in a box, together with an image of a bear sketched on birch bark, upon killing a bear. Together with a cedar-twig, braided into a ring, which symbolically joins the different body parts, this deposition makes it possible for the bear to be reborn in the forest. Several authors relate to the Saami of northern Scandinavia, who understood penis bones of bears to be particularly powerful and strong, therefore kept them and attached them to sacred drums. Some sources mention that amongst the Finnish Saami, anyone killing a bear received its skin, head and baculum. The baculum-tradition is part of a fundamental sexual key aspect of typical bear stories in which the mythical bear of the North tends to be male. Other sources state that Saami men would greet bears in the manner of an approaching groom, whilst Saami women would avoid bear penises and penis bones and instinctively protect their abdomens. In native cultures of Alaska, in which bacula of other carnivores are frequently used, the fossilised bacula of polar bears were often polished and used as hilts for knives and other tools. In indigenous people from the northern American continent the successful bear hunter received a dog whip with a handle made from a bear’s penis bone. The Inuit, on the other hand, associate the bone with male initiation rites to adulthood. Shamans use Polar Bear penis bones in traditional Inuit ceremonies. Here, the penis bone is believed to aid communication with the spirit world. By holding the bone in his hand, the Shaman is able to receive the thoughts and will of the spirits (oral communication of Shaman Hivshu). The contexts in which bacula are used in indigenous societies are distinguished very clearly by their bringing power and strength to the owner, independently of their use as a tool, such as handles, or for Shamanistic ceremonies. Noteworthy is their ubiquitous significance in protecting women against infertility. As with tools, this might be related to their assumed property of giving the owner the power and strength to ease potency. Moreover, male or he-bears are not only seen as the forbear, but also as grooms replacing the human husband.” ref
“In addition, there are longitudinal cut-marks probably caused by defleshing. We suggest the marked polish to be use wear originating from leather working similar to the polish seen on smoothers. Another baculum of Ursus spelaeus comes from the cave site Vindija in northwestern Croatia. The stratigraphic provenience is heavily debated. Karavanić argues that the organic tools, mainly bone points, but also the decorated baculum, from layer G1 are of Upper Palaeolithic character, but produced or traded by Neanderthals. The cave bear penis bone is exceptionally decorated with multiple circumferential scorings – a pattern that we only know from Upper Palaeolithic contexts. It obviously provides no traces of use as a tool, but closer study of the object is needed. Manipulated or decorated ursine penis bones in archaeological context are firstly recognized at Vindija cave. Its potential Middle Palaeolithic age, however, is contradictory and not securely established. Furthermore, the kind of decoration found on this specimen hints at symbolic communication, which is interpreted as an essential feature of modern human behavior and which is thought to first appear with the Upper Palaeolithic. Other specimens from Upper Palaeolithic contexts display different anthropogenic modifications, like longitudinal striations or cuts, as described from Hohle Fels, Teufelsküche, and Bonn-Oberkassel, which most probably relate to skinning of the penis bone or removal of the periost. In a second step, some of these items were used as tools, most probably as awls, as shown by old-fractures and respectively removed tips (distal end), such as in the case of Brillenhöhle, Teufelsküche, and Bonn-Oberkassel. The intensively polished baculum from Hohle Fels is likely linked to leather working. In all these cases, the bacula reflect a chaîne operatoire that informs us on technological choices and sequences of production. In Shamanka II, several modifications are reported, but unfortunately, these are not documented in further detail. Seemingly, at Shamanka II, bacula were used as tools, and a gender related association with male graves appears apparent.” ref
“To date, no farming society has been documented in which bear remains and, in particular, bear bacula are of considerable interest. The burial place of Shamanka II provides obvious similarities concerning the use of bacula in present-day indigenous Siberian people, where bacula are gender-related and refer to males. Such gender-related back-ground is also possible for the double burial of Bonn-Oberkassel, although it is not clear, whether the baculum as a grave good and tool covered with hematite was given to either (or both) the male or the female. One may conclude that the use of bear bacula by humans developed from their use as tools towards symbolically charged objects. Most intriguingly, this may be expressed through their integration into human burial contexts, as seen at the Late Palaeolithic site of Bonn-Oberkassel, and also in the extraordinary grave goods of the Siberian burial place of Shamanka II. While at Shamanka II the os penis was mainly used as a grave good for adult males, indigenous Siberian hunter-gatherer groups tend to see it as a symbol to enhance female fertility. However, it also reflects the fear of impotency in men, which may therefore place the object in a ‘complementary’ female context. Nonetheless, it is possible to conclude that the baculum is generally seen as a symbol for the strength and power of the bear: by wearing or using it, men and women hope for the transmission of their strength and power to themselves.” ref
Bear Worship
“Bear worship is the religious practice of the worshipping of bears found in many North Eurasian ethnic religions such as among the Sami, Nivkh, Ainu, Basques, Germanic peoples, Slavs, and Finns. There are also a number of deities from Celtic Gaul and Britain associated with the bear. The Dacians, Thracians, and Getians in the Eastern Balkans were noted to worship bears and annually celebrate the bear dance festival. The bear is featured on many totems throughout northern cultures that carve them. In an article in Enzyklopädie des Märchens, American folklorist Donald J. Ward noted that a story about a bear mating with a human woman, and producing a male heir, functions as an ancestor myth to peoples of the northern hemisphere, namely, from North America, Japan, China, Siberia and Northern Europe.” ref
“The existence of an ancient bear cult among Neanderthals in Western Eurasia in the Middle Paleolithic has been a subject of conjecture due to contentious archaeological findings. Evidence suggests that Neanderthals could have worshipped the cave bear (Ursus spelaeus), and bear bones have been discovered in several cave sites across Western Eurasia. It was not just the presence of these bones, but their peculiar arrangement that intrigued archaeologists. During the excavation, on-site archaeologists determined that the bones were arranged in such a way that could only have resulted from hominin intervention rather than natural deposition processes. Emil Bächler, a proponent of the bear-cult hypothesis, found bear remains in Switzerland and at Morn Cave (Mornova zijalka) in Slovenia. Along with Bächler’s discovery, bear skulls were found by André Leroi-Gourhan arranged in a perfect circle in Saône-et-Loire. The discovery of patterns such as those found by Leroi-Gourhan suggests that these bear remains were placed in this arrangement intentionally, an act which can only be attributed to Neandertals due to the dating of the site and is interpreted as ritual.” ref
“While these findings have been taken to indicate an ancient bear-cult, other interpretations of remains have led others to conclude that the bear bones’ presence in these contexts are a natural phenomenon. Ina Wunn, based on the information archaeologists have about early hominins, contends that if Neandertals did worship bears there would be evidence of it in their settlements and camps. However, most bear remains have been found in caves. Many archaeologists now theorise that, since most bear species hibernate in caves during the winter, the presence of bear remains is not unusual in this context Bears which lived inside these caves perished from natural causes such as illness or starvation. Wunn argues that the placement of these remains is due to natural, post-deposition events such as wind, sediment, or water. Therefore, the assortment of bear remains in caves did not result from human activities Certain archaeologists, such as Emil Bächler, continue to use their excavations to support that an ancient bear cult did exist.” ref
Bear Worship: Spain and France
There are annual bear festivals that take place in various towns and communes in the Pyrenees region of Spain and France. In Prats de Molló, the Festa de l’ós (‘festival of the bear’; also known as dia dels óssos, ‘day of the bears’) held on Candlemas (February 2) is a ritual in which men dressed up as bears brandishing sticks terrorize people in the streets. Formerly, the festival centered on the “bears” mock-attacking the women and trying to blacken their breasts (with soot), which seemed scandalous to outside first-time observers. But according to the testimony of someone who remembered the olden days before that, the festival that at Prats de Molló involved elaborate staging, much like the version in Arles. The Arles version (Festa de l’os d’Arles) involves a female character named Rosetta (Roseta) who gets abducted by the “bear”. Rosetta was traditionally played by a man or a boy dressed up as a girl. The “bear” would bring the Rosetta to a hut raised on the center square of town (where the victim would be fed sausages, cake, and white wine). The event finished with the “bear” being shaved and “killed”. There is also a similar festival in the town of Sant Llorenç de Cerdans: Festa de l’ós de Sant Llorenç de Cerdans. These three well-known festivals take place in towns located in Vallespir, and are known as «Festes de l’os al Vallespir» or «El dia de l’os/dels ossos». Andorra, in an entirely different Pyrenean valley, has some festivals dedicated to the she-bear, known collectively as Festes de l’ossa. These include the Ball de l’ossa (‘she-bear’s dance’) in Encamp, and Última ossa (‘the last she-bear’) in Ordino. There is also a bear related festival in the Valencian town of La Mata, named Festa de l’Onso de la Mata.” ref
“The reverence for bears is a prevalent practice in Siberia. This spiritual engagement, often termed as “bear ceremony,” “bear festival,” or “bear dance,” reflects a shared connection to the natural world and the significance of bears within these societies. Some scholars argue that bear worship not only holds significant cultural and spiritual value but also played a foundational role in shaping subsequent religious practices among Siberian peoples. They suggest that the reverence for bears served as a precursor or perhaps even a catalyst for the development of more formalized rituals centered around reindeer. Some of the most notable Siberian indigenous peoples who practice bear worship include the following:
- Ob-Ugrians: Khanty and Mansi peoples in the Western Siberian taiga. Their present-day territory lies to the east of the Urals along the Ob River and its tributaries, from the Urals and a narrow belt of foothills to a vast central lowland that slopes gently to the Gulf of Ob.
- Tungusic peoples in Lower Amur region: Oroqen (Ulta), Ulch, and Oroch in the Russian Far Eastern regions of Sakhalin, Lower Amur, and the Maritime coast respectively.
- Other practitioners of bear worship in Siberia include the following indigenous peoples: Nivkh, Udege, Ainu.” ref
“Bear ceremonialism in Siberia varies by group, but central to these practices is the recognition of bear ceremonialism as a sacred undertaking, demanding adherence to established protocols and etiquette. In indigenous Siberian cultures, a fundamental tenet governing the relationship between humans and bears is the prohibition against hunting bears, except under specific circumstances. Bears are only pursued if they pose a direct threat to human life or property, such as in cases where they have caused harm or invaded dwellings. The traditional ceremony begins a few years before the sacrifice of the bear itself. The bear ceremony starts with a capture, whereby male hunters enter a forest to find a bear den, kill the mother bear and catch the bear cub to bring back to the indigenous encampment.” ref
“The people in the region then raise the bear cub as if the bear cub is one of the tribes’ own children. The duration of raising the bear varies between different cultures, but the process can take anywhere from one to five years, depending on the age at which the bear reaches sexual maturity, as well as the sex of the bear. In most cultures, female bears are raised for a shorter amount of time compared to the male bears that are captured by the indigenous peoples. (A note on the duration of raising the bear cub: As mentioned before, the duration by which villages would choose to raise the bear cub also varies culture by culture. For example, the people of Gvasyugi choose to raise the bear for one to two years. Similarly, the Ulch people of the Amur region opt for a longer period, typically three to four years, before they perform the ritual sacrifice. These differences in duration reflect the diverse traditions and customs found across different communities, shaping their respective approaches to this practice.)” ref
“The bear is raised in captivity in the encampment alongside the people’s animals and children. Usually, a family would raise the bear cub before sacrificing it, either within the confines of the family abode until the bear grew too big to be kept inside. According to one account of the Ulchi bear ceremony, “[the] bear slept with the dogs and came out to play and to be hand fed by the woman of the house”. There have also been records of the bear cubs sucking on female human milk, and indigenous families’ children are reprimanded when they express jealousy toward how bears are treated in the encampment. Once the bear becomes too large to be kept inside a cage with the family pets, it would be transferred to a special hut until it reached sexual maturity, or was considered ready to be sacrificed — the standards for this decision vary region by region, and, even within regions, culture by culture.” ref
“To prepare the bear for its sacrifice to the masters of the taiga, the people of the village may take different approaches depending on the culture. Importantly, bear ceremonialism is one of the few practices in indigenous cultures in Siberia that discourage and subvert the central role that shamans generally play in pagan societies in the northern hemisphere. This is particularly noted in bear ceremonialism practiced in the Amur region. Regarded as spiritual mediators between humans and spirits in Siberian cultures, the bear ceremony prohibits seances performed by shamans as this worship represents one of the few practices where humans are able to communicate directly with spirits without necessitating aid from a third party agent.” ref
“Before the sacrificial ritual, the people of the village generally invest a lot of effort into traditions that serve the purpose of “amusing” the bear. For example, some people would pour water on each other, or the men would wrestle one another in a show of strength in order to make the soon-to-be-sacrificed bear happy. Other means of entertaining the bear also include dog races and games. The purpose of amusing the bear is to ensure that the bear’s sendoff is pleasant, guaranteeing good fortune from the spirits following the bear’s later sacrifice.” ref
“In some societies, the bear is then taken from home to home of the village in order to say final goodbyes before the bear is guided to a location in the forest that is not too far away from the encampment (generally the location of the sacrifice is situated within a mile of the village encampment itself). During the sacrifice, it is crucial that the bear is shown respect. Some means of disrespecting the bear would include, for example, being barefoot or using a gun to shoot the bear. As such, the bear has to be killed with a bow and arrow, knife, or spear. Also equally important is the vocabulary used to describe the act of sacrificing the bear. It is common for indigenous peoples to use euphemisms such as “I obtained a child” to convey killing a bear, as using direct language can offend the sacred animal, as well as the gods and spirits presiding over the environment.” ref
“The bear is sacrificed with an injury to its heart, after which the people at the ceremony follow a ritual of skinning the animal, cooking it, and feasting on the bear meat. As a celebration following the sacrifice, many activities can take place. Children put on plays, women play musical instruments, and specific dances, myths, and songs are performed as part of the bear ceremony. Some scholarly records additionally indicate that the bear head is often separated from the rest of the body and used as a protective ornament in the home of the family hosting the celebratory feast. Meanwhile, the tongue is gifted to the eldest male of the village as a sign of respect in the culture.” ref
“Although most indigenous peoples generally follow the same rituals and practices in executing ceremonies for bear worship, some populations also adopt unique versions of the practice with different spiritual, cultural, and social implications across various regions.
- Ob-Ugrians: The Khanty and Mansi believe that the bear is a descendant from the supreme god Torum (also known as Num-Torum), whose children are sent to the earth as a means of surveilling and communicating with people inhabiting it. Importantly, Ob-Ugrians also believe that they have also descended from the god Torum, a belief that forms the basis of these peoples’ social relationship with bears, which is that of a patrilineal kinship. That is, the bear acts as a genetic ancestor to the Ob-Ugrians.
- Tungusic peoples of the Amur: On the other hand, indigenous peoples of the Amur seek to worship the bear not as an act of kinship, but as a means of reverence to their natural environment. When sacrificing the bear, the Tungusic peoples generally do it with the purpose of returning the bear to the masters of the taiga in order to ensure a plentiful and fruitful hunting season. Also importantly, the Evenkis, Nivkhs, and Orochon all believe that all other animals have descended from the bear. For example, when any other game is hunted and killed in the forest, this game would then be considered children of the bear. In this way, by honoring and sacrificing the bear through bear ceremonialism, these indigenous peoples then pay reverence to all animals inhabiting the forest and nature, ensuring fruitful seasons in all kinds of game to come.
- Evenkis: The Evenkis, by contrast, do not raise the bear before sacrificing it. Like the Ob-Ugrians, these indigenous people see the bear as an ancestor. When they hunt and kill the bear in its den, they must show it respect as well, by “addressing it in kinship terms and asking its forgiveness before preparing its carcass and portioning out the meat for the [bear] feast.” ref
“In 1925–1927, Nadezhda Petrovna Dyrenkova made field observations of bear worship among Altaic peoples: the Altai, Tubalar (Tuba-Kiji), Telengit, and Shortsi of the Kuznetskaja Taiga as well as among the Sagai tribes in the regions of Minusinsk, near the Kuznetskaja Taiga. In Finnish paganism, the bear was considered a taboo animal, and the word for ‘bear’ (oksi) was a taboo word. Euphemisms such as mesikämmen ‘honey-palm’ were used instead. The modern Finnish word karhu (from karhea, ‘coarse, rough’, referring to its coarse fur) is also such a euphemism. In the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, the bear is called Otso, which is the sacred king of animals and leader of the forest, deeply feared and respected by old Finnish tribes. Calling a bear by its true name was believed to summon the bear. A successful bear hunt was followed by a ritual feast called peijaiset with a ceremony as the bear as an “honoured guest”, with songs convincing the bear that its death was “accidental”, in order to appease its spirit. The skull of the bear was raised high into a pine tree so its spirit could climb back into its home in the heavens, and this tree was venerated afterwards.” ref
“According to legend, Ungnyeo (Korean: 웅녀; Hanja: 熊女, literally ‘bear woman’) was a bear who turned into a woman, and gave birth to Dangun, the founder of the first Korean kingdom, Gojoseon. Bears were revered as motherly figures and symbolized patience. The bear festival is a religious festival celebrated by the indigenous Nivkh in the Russian Far East. A Nivkh shaman (чам, ch’am) would preside over the Bear Festival, which was celebrated in the winter between January and February, depending on the clan. A bear was captured and raised in a corral for several years by local women, who treated the bear like a child. The bear is considered a sacred earthly manifestation of Nivkh ancestors and the gods in bear form. During the Festival, the bear is dressed in a specially made ceremonial costume and offered a banquet to take back to the realm of gods to show benevolence upon the clans. After the banquet, the bear is killed and eaten in an elaborate religious ceremony. The festival was arranged by relatives to honour the death of a kinsman. The bear’s spirit returns to the gods of the mountain ‘happy’ and rewards the Nivkh with bountiful forests. Generally, the Bear Festival was an inter-clan ceremony where a clan of wife-takers restored ties with a clan of wife-givers upon the broken link of the kinsman’s death. The Bear Festival was suppressed in the Soviet period; since then the festival has had a modest revival, albeit as a cultural rather than a religious ceremony.” ref
“The Ainu people, who live on select islands in the Japanese archipelago, call the bear “kamuy” in the Ainu language, which translates to mean “god”. Many other animals are considered to be gods in the Ainu culture, but the bear is the head of the gods. For the Ainu, when the gods visit the world of man, they don fur and claws and take on the physical appearance of an animal. Usually, however, when the term “kamuy” is used, it essentially means a bear. The Ainu people willingly and thankfully ate the bear as they believed that the disguise (the flesh and fur) of any god was a gift to the home that the god chose to visit. The Ainu believed that the gods on Earth, the world of man, appeared in the form of animals. The gods had the capability of taking human form but only in their home, the country of the gods, which is outside the world of man. To return a god to his country, the people would sacrifice and eat the animal sending the god’s spirit away with civility. The ritual was called Omante and usually involved a deer or adult bear.” ref
“Omante occurred when the people sacrificed an adult bear, but when they caught a bear cub, they performed a different ritual which is called Iomante, in the Ainu language, or Kumamatsuri in Japanese. Kumamatsuri translates to “bear festival,” and Iomante means “sending off.” The event of Kumamatsuri began with the capture of a young bear cub. As if he were a child given by the gods, the cub was fed human food from a carved wooden platter and was treated better than Ainu children for they thought of him as a god. If the cub was too young and lacked the teeth to properly chew food, a nursing mother would let him suckle from her own breast. When the cub reached 2–3 years of age, the cub was taken to the altar and then sacrificed. Usually, Kumamatsuri occurred in midwinter, when the bear meat is the best from the added fat. The villagers would shoot it with both normal and ceremonial arrows, make offerings, dance, and pour wine on top of the cub corpse. The words of sending off for the bear god were then recited. The festival lasted for three days and three nights to properly return the bear god to his home.” ref
“Indigenous Sámi religion is a type of polytheism. (See Sámi deities.) There is some diversity due to the wide area that is Sápmi, allowing for the evolution of variations in beliefs and practices between tribes. The beliefs are closely connected to the land, animism, and the supernatural. Sámi spirituality is often characterized by pantheism, a strong emphasis on the importance of personal spirituality and its interconnectivity with one’s own daily life, and a deep connection between the natural and spiritual “worlds”. Among other roles, the Noaidi, or Sámi shaman, enables ritual communication with the supernatural through the use of tools such as drums, Joik, Fadno, chants, sacred objects, and fly agaric. Some practices within the Sámi religion include natural sacred sites such as mountains, springs, land formations, Sieidi, as well as human-made ones such as petroglyphs and labyrinths. Sámi cosmology divides the universe into three worlds. The upper world is related to the South, warmth, life, and the color white. It is also the dwelling of the gods.” ref
“The middle world is like the Norse Midgard, it is the dwelling of humans and it is associated with the color red. The third world is the underworld and it is associated with the color black, it represents the north, the cold and it is inhabited by otters, loons, and seals and mythical animals. Sámi religion shares some elements with Norse mythology, possibly from early contacts with trading Vikings (or vice versa). They were the last worshippers of Thor, as late as the 18th century according to contemporary ethnographers. Through a mainly French initiative from Joseph Paul Gaimard as part of his La Recherche Expedition, Lars Levi Læstadius began research on Sámi mythology. His work resulted in Fragments of Lappish Mythology, since by his own admission, they contained only a small percentage of what had existed. The fragments were termed Theory of Gods, Theory of Sacrifice, Theory of Prophecy, or short reports about rumorous Sami magic and Sami sagas. Generally, he claims to have filtered out the Norse influence and derived common elements between the South, North, and Eastern Sámi groups. The mythology has common elements with other Indigenous religions as well—such as those of Indigenous peoples in Siberia and North America.” ref
“Bears were the most worshipped animals of Ancient Slavs. During pagan times, it was associated with the god Volos, the patron of domestic animals. Eastern Slavic folklore describes the bear as a totem personifying a male: father, husband, or a fiancé. Legends about turnskin bears appeared, and it was believed that humans could be turned into bears for misbehavior. As a pagan practice, tsarist Christianizing efforts often sought to suppress bear ceremonialism in Siberia due to it undermining Russian Orthodox hegemony at the time. Until the early 18th century, the Russian tsardom did not necessarily seek to propagate Christian Orthodoxy among indigenous Siberian populations. Native Siberian paganism was not perceived as a faith altogether up until this spiritual worldview began to be perceived as a threat to the legitimacy of the Russian Orthodox Church.” ref
“Similarly, Soviet control of the Russian state also led to repressive attitudes toward bear worship among indigenous Siberian peoples. Although religion was tolerated in theory, the socialist state sought to limit paganism as this practice was antithetical to the ideal of Marxist-Leninist atheism adopted as the official attitude toward religion and spiritualism more widely in the Soviet Union. Bear worship, and paganism more generally, was also perceived as a threat to Marxist-Leninist ideology with regards to humans’ relationship with their surrounding natural environment. According to Stephen Dudeck, an anthropologist specializing in indigenous Siberian cultures, “The opposition between the ideological place of nature as a force to be conquered according to Soviet ideology, and the complex and negotiated social relationship with the environment reflected in Indigenous rituals, should not have gone unnoticed (even if people like Steinitz might have ignored this). On a practical level feasting was blamed for distracting workers in the newly created state-controlled enterprises from disciplined work.” ref
“Indigenous Siberian populations have had a contentious relationship with the Russian state since the beginning of the colonial era. However, in the modern day, the sources of cultural contention have had economic implications as well. The act of raising a bear cub in a village is now deeply costly for the participants of the ceremony, for example. Meanwhile, bear hunting has led to conflicts between indigenous Siberian cultures and the Russian law as well. For instance, the Khanty have subsistence hunting rights in their traditional region, but the Russian legal framework imposes a heavy financial burden on this indigenous Siberian culture by mandating “expensive and difficult to procure individual species licenses for non-food hunting and trapping.” According to reports by Wiget and Balalaeva, recently, there have been records of Ob-Ugrians being arrested for hunting bears that have previously posed a dangerous threat to people in the village, which is a central pillar of “revenge on the bear.” The “revenge on the bear” constitutes one of the beliefs in bear worship, whereby bears are never to be hunted unless they harm the humans first. This practice is particularly characteristic of societies living in the Amur region of Siberia.” ref
“The financial burden on indigenous populations by the Russian Federation is additionally exacerbated by ecological deterioration. The ecological deterioration has been caused by the state’s exploitation of natural resources in Siberia, especially recently. Notably, the Russian oil and gas extraction industry has greatly undermined the state of bears’ natural habitats in the Siberian taiga, leading to the animals’ increased wandering into human villages and potentially attacking the inhabitants. Due to longstanding and deeply rooted custom, these inhabitants must then hunt and kill the trespassing bears. As a result, attacked inhabitants sometimes illegally practice acts of bear hunting due to the legal framework underlying this act within the borders of the Russian Federation. One member of the Khanty indigenous Siberian group remarks: “We protest the destruction of the natural environment in our area, which is turning into our own destruction. We understand that the country needs oil, but not at the expense of our lives! All local industrial works operate as if we weren’t here, as if our ancestors weren’t here, as if our existence were over. Where are the principles of government policy toward Native peoples?” ref
“Centuries-long state repression of cultural traditions and spiritualism has led to an overall decline in bear worship among indigenous populations in Siberia. Throughout the 20th century, bear ceremonialism in Siberia became a rarely observed phenomenon. The Ob-Ugrian intelligentsia began the revival process for bear worship in the 1980s and 1990s, when state repression measures of indigenous cultures had been relieved. Since then, the participation of tourists in Khanty bear ceremonies has also increased in the modern day. Bear ceremonialism has thus taken on an economic significance for indigenous subsistence in modern times as well as tourists would pay to see bear worship in action. Revival activities often come about through state support, as well as being televised through state-sponsored media channels. As a result of governmental support, bear worship across various cultures in the northern hemisphere has seemed to “account for both some convergence of forms and some variations…. especially okrugwide festival programs in Khanty-Mansiĭsk, probably accounts for the convergent use throughout the northern regions of festival shirts, decorated with rickrack, and felt hats, decorated with traditional symbols.” ref
Bear Worship: Cultural Significance
Bear ceremonialism practiced among indigenous Siberian peoples holds a spiritual significance as this tradition is a manifestation of paganism in Russia. Believing that everything has a soul, bear worship thus represents a spiritual worldview, wherein humans are meant to live in harmony with the natural environment around them, rather than attempt to conquer it. Paganism promotes a relatively more egalitarian structure of existence, compared to the hierarchical one that lays the foundation for the modern extractive economy of the Russian Federation, which is based on oil and gas extraction, and previously, the politico-economic ideology of the Soviet Union. Although each culture has different myths associated with the origins of the practice. The Khanty, for example, believe that the bear represents some form of ancestral kinship with the indigenous peoples. Dudeck observes that: “The relationship between the Khanty and the bear is based on their likeness, and on how both are related in a hierarchical relationship with the heavenly father and are linked with each other in a relationship of respect and reciprocity.” ref
Bear Worship: Social Significance
“The bear ceremony is a heavily and strictly gendered practice, as men and women play distinct roles throughout the entire process. Only men are allowed to hunt and ultimately kill the bear, while women play a caretaker role for the bear cub, allowing it to suckle on the human female milk and raise the bear as if it is one of the village’s own children, entertaining it with music and dance. One account of a bear ceremony performed by the Ulch people describes the following established gender roles on the day of the bear sacrifice: “Two men would guide the bear on two chains around an ice hole in the river. It is a good omen if the bear takes a drink. Then they went along a corridor of poles with wood streamers on them, about one kilometre to the place called arachu, prepared for the killing. Women played special rhythms on a musical instrument made of a hollow log. The women dance the part of the bear.” Additionally, the bear ceremony holds a special significance for men, who are the designated hunters of the village, as the practice is a means of ensuring future success in hunting. After sacrificing the bear in the forest, each male hunter in the Ulch culture must touch the skin of the dead animal in order to obtain the taiga’s blessing for a fruitful hunting season.” ref
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I believe the father/grandfather, Sky Sun Spirit, and the mother/grandmother, Sky Moon Spirit, became the Sky Deities, Sky Father God, and Sky Mother Goddess in the Middle East around 13,000 to 11,000 years ago after the invention of beer and herding, respectively. The Bull or horned animals are generally related to females from at least 35,000 to 7,000 years ago, or so. What I am less sure of is when the Spirit versions arose. I could say the Middle East, as it is where they became gods, but this would deny all the older art that seems to express not only male and female spirit beliefs, but also astrological beliefs beyond just the moon and sun. It appears to have originated in the Totemic Aurignacian, then seemingly transferred to the shamanistic Gravettian culture, which subsequently shared it with the Kostyonki culture, and from there, it was passed on to the Ancient North Eurasians. The Ancient North Eurasian culture then shared it with the Middle East’s Kebaran culture.
“About 50,000 years ago, a marked increase in the diversity of artifacts occurred. In Africa, bone artifacts and the first art appear in the archaeological record. The first evidence of human fishing is also noted, from artifacts in places such as Blombos Cave in South Africa. Archaeologists classify artifacts of the last 50,000 years into many different categories, such as projectile points, engraving tools, sharp knife blades, and drilling and piercing tools. Humankind gradually evolved from early members of the genus Homo—such as Homo habilis, who used simple stone tools—into anatomically modern humans as well as behaviourally modern humans by the Upper Paleolithic. At the end of the Paleolithic Age, specifically the Middle or Upper Paleolithic Age, humans began to produce the earliest works of art and to engage in religious or spiritual behavior such as burial and ritual. Conditions during the Paleolithic Age went through a set of glacial and interglacial periods in which the climate periodically fluctuated between warm and cool temperatures.” ref
“By c. 50,000 – c. 40,000 years ago, the first humans set foot in Australia. By c. 45,000 years ago, humans lived at 61°N latitude in Europe. By c. 30,000 years ago, Japan was reached, and by c. 27,000 years ago humans were present in Siberia, above the Arctic Circle. By the end of the Upper Paleolithic Age humans had crossed Beringia and expanded throughout the Americas continents. Nearly all of our knowledge of Paleolithic people and way of life comes from archaeology and ethnographic comparisons to modern hunter-gatherer cultures such as the !Kung San who live similarly to their Paleolithic predecessors. The economy of a typical Paleolithic society was a hunter-gatherer economy. Humans hunted wild animals for meat and gathered food, firewood, and materials for their tools, clothes, or shelters.” ref
“The population density was very low, around only 0.4 inhabitants per square kilometre (1/sq mi). This was most likely due to low body fat, infanticide, high levels of physical activity among women, late weaning of infants, and a nomadic lifestyle. In addition, even a large area of land could not support many people without being actively farmed – food was difficult to come by, and so groups were prevented from growing too large by the amount of food they could gather. Like contemporary hunter-gatherers, Paleolithic humans enjoyed an abundance of leisure time unparalleled in both Neolithic farming societies and modern industrial societies. At the end of the Paleolithic, specifically the Middle or Upper Paleolithic, people began to produce works of art such as cave paintings, rock art, and jewellery, and began to engage in religious behavior such as burials and rituals.” ref
“For the duration of the Paleolithic, human populations remained low, especially outside the equatorial region. The entire population of Europe between 16,000 and 11,000 years ago likely averaged some 30,000 individuals, and between 40,000 and 16,000 years ago, it was even lower at 4,000–6,000 individuals. However, remains of thousands of butchered animals and tools made by Palaeolithic humans were found in Lapa do Picareiro, a cave in Portugal, dating back between 41,000 and 38,000 years ago. Early dogs were domesticated sometime between 30,000 and 14,000 years ago, presumably to aid in hunting. However, the earliest instances of successful domestication of dogs may be much more ancient than this. Evidence from canine DNA collected by Robert K. Wayne suggests that dogs may have been first domesticated in the late Middle Paleolithic around 100,000 BP or perhaps even earlier.” ref
“Archaeological evidence from the Dordogne region of France demonstrates that members of the European early Upper Paleolithic culture known as the Aurignacian used calendars (c. 30,000 years ago). This was a lunar calendar that was used to document the phases of the moon. Genuine solar calendars did not appear until the Neolithic. Upper Paleolithic cultures were probably able to time the migration of game animals such as wild horses and deer. This ability allowed humans to become efficient hunters and to exploit a wide variety of game animals. Recent research indicates that the Neanderthals timed their hunts and the migrations of game animals long before the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic. Paleolithic peoples suffered less famine and malnutrition than the Neolithic farming tribes that followed them. This was partly because Paleolithic hunter-gatherers accessed a wider variety of natural foods, which allowed them a more nutritious diet and a decreased risk of famine.” ref
“Many of the famines experienced by Neolithic (and some modern) farmers were caused or amplified by their dependence on a small number of crops. It is thought that wild foods can have a significantly different nutritional profile than cultivated foods. The greater amount of meat obtained by hunting big game animals in Paleolithic diets than Neolithic diets may have also allowed Paleolithic hunter-gatherers to enjoy a more nutritious diet than Neolithic agriculturalists. It has been argued that the shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture resulted in an increasing focus on a limited variety of foods, with meat likely taking a back seat to plants. It is also unlikely that Paleolithic hunter-gatherers were affected by modern diseases of affluence such as type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, and cerebrovascular disease, because they ate mostly lean meats and plants and frequently engaged in intense physical activity, and because the average lifespan was shorter than the age of common onset of these conditions.” ref
“Large-seeded legumes were part of the human diet long before the Neolithic Revolution, as evident from archaeobotanical finds from the Mousterian layers of Kebara Cave, in Israel. There is evidence suggesting that Paleolithic societies were gathering wild cereals for food use at least as early as 30,000 years ago. However, seeds—such as grains and beans—were rarely eaten and never in large quantities on a daily basis. Recent archaeological evidence also indicates that winemaking may have originated in the Paleolithic, when early humans drank the juice of naturally fermented wild grapes from animal-skin pouches. Paleolithic humans consumed animal organ meats, including the livers, kidneys, and brains. Upper Paleolithic cultures appear to have had significant knowledge about plants and herbs and may have sometimes practiced rudimentary forms of horticulture. In particular, bananas and tubers may have been cultivated as early as 25,000 years ago in southeast Asia. In the Paleolithic Levant, 23,000 years ago, cereals cultivation of emmer, barley, and oats has been observed near the Sea of Galilee.” ref
“Late Upper Paleolithic societies also appear to have occasionally practiced pastoralism and animal husbandry, presumably for dietary reasons. For instance, some European late Upper Paleolithic cultures domesticated and raised reindeer, presumably for their meat or milk, as early as 14,000 years ago. Humans also probably consumed hallucinogenic plants during the Paleolithic. Traces of 13,000-year-old beer found at ancient burial site in Israel. Humans might have started to enjoy a cold one some 13,000 years ago, according to new evidence discovered by an international team of archaeologists at a cave burial site near Haifa, Israel. Looking for clues into what plant foods the Natufian people, who lived between the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods, were eating, and during the search, they discovered the traces of a wheat-and-barley-based alcohol. The traces analysed were found in stone mortars – up to 60cm (24in) deep – carved into the cave floor, used for storing, pounding and cooking different species of plants, including oats, legumes and bast fibres, such as flax. The ancient brew, which was more porridge or gruel-like, is thought to have looked quite unlike what we know as beer today.” ref, ref
“Human societies from the Paleolithic to the early Neolithic farming tribes lived without states and organized governments. For most of the Lower Paleolithic, human societies were possibly more hierarchical than their Middle and Upper Paleolithic descendants, and probably were not grouped into bands, though during the end of the Lower Paleolithic, the latest populations of the hominin Homo erectus may have begun living in small-scale (possibly egalitarian) bands similar to both Middle and Upper Paleolithic societies and modern hunter-gatherers. Middle Paleolithic societies, unlike Lower Paleolithic and early Neolithic ones, consisted of bands that ranged from 20–30 or 25–100 members and were usually nomadic. These bands were formed by several families. Bands sometimes joined together into larger “macrobands” for activities such as acquiring mates and celebrations or where resources were abundant.” ref
“By the end of the Paleolithic era (c. 10,000 years ago), people began to settle down into permanent locations, and began to rely on agriculture for sustenance in many locations. Much evidence exists that humans took part in long-distance trade between bands for rare commodities (such as ochre, which was often used for religious purposes such as ritual) and raw materials, as early as 120,000 years ago in Middle Paleolithic. Inter-band trade may have appeared during the Middle Paleolithic because trade between bands would have helped ensure their survival by allowing them to exchange resources and commodities such as raw materials during times of relative scarcity (i.e. famine, drought). Like in modern hunter-gatherer societies, individuals in Paleolithic societies may have been subordinate to the band as a whole. Some sources claim that most Middle and Upper Paleolithic societies were possibly fundamentally egalitarian and may have rarely or never engaged in organized violence between groups (i.e. war).” ref
“Some Upper Paleolithic societies in resource-rich environments (such as societies in Sungir, in what is now Russia) may have had more complex and hierarchical organization (such as tribes with a pronounced hierarchy and a somewhat formal division of labor) and may have engaged in endemic warfare. Some argue that there was no formal leadership during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic. Like contemporary egalitarian hunter-gatherers such as the Mbuti pygmies, societies may have made decisions by communal consensus decision making rather than by appointing permanent rulers such as chiefs and monarchs. Nor was there a formal division of labor during the Paleolithic. Each member of the group was skilled at all tasks essential to survival, regardless of individual abilities. Theories to explain the apparent egalitarianism have arisen, notably the Marxist concept of primitive communism. Christopher Boehm (1999) has hypothesized that egalitarianism may have evolved in Paleolithic societies because of a need to distribute resources such as food and meat equally to avoid famine and ensure a stable food supply.” ref
“Raymond C. Kelly speculates that the relative peacefulness of Middle and Upper Paleolithic societies resulted from a low population density, cooperative relationships between groups such as reciprocal exchange of commodities and collaboration on hunting expeditions, and because the invention of projectile weapons such as throwing spears provided less incentive for war, because they increased the damage done to the attacker and decreased the relative amount of territory attackers could gain. However, other sources claim that most Paleolithic groups may have been larger, more complex, sedentary, and warlike than most contemporary hunter-gatherer societies, due to occupying more resource-abundant areas than most modern hunter-gatherers who have been pushed into more marginal habitats by agricultural societies.” ref
“Anthropologists have typically assumed that in Paleolithic societies, women were responsible for gathering wild plants and firewood, and men were responsible for hunting and scavenging dead animals. However, analogies to existing hunter-gatherer societies such as the Hadza people and the Aboriginal Australians suggest that the sexual division of labor in the Paleolithic was relatively flexible. Men may have participated in gathering plants, firewood, and insects, and women may have procured small game animals for consumption and assisted men in driving herds of large game animals (such as woolly mammoths and deer) off cliffs. Additionally, recent research by anthropologist and archaeologist Steven Kuhn from the University of Arizona is argued to support that this division of labor did not exist prior to the Upper Paleolithic and was invented relatively recently in human pre-history.” ref
“Sexual division of labor may have been developed to allow humans to acquire food and other resources more efficiently. Possibly, there was approximate parity between men and women during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic, and that period may have been the most gender-equal time in human history. Archaeological evidence from art and funerary rituals indicates that a number of individual women enjoyed seemingly high status in their communities, and it is likely that both sexes participated in decision making. The earliest known Paleolithic shaman (c. 30,000 years ago) was female. Jared Diamond suggests that the status of women declined with the adoption of agriculture because women in farming societies typically have more pregnancies and are expected to do more demanding work than women in hunter-gatherer societies. Like most modern hunter-gatherer societies, Paleolithic and Mesolithic groups probably followed a largely ambilineal approach. At the same time, depending on the society, the residence could be virilocal, uxorilocal, and sometimes the spouses could live with neither the husband’s relatives nor the wife’s relatives at all. Taken together, most likely, the lifestyle of hunter-gatherers can be characterized as multilocal.” ref
“Upper Paleolithic humans produced works of art such as cave paintings, Venus figurines, animal carvings, and rock paintings. Upper Paleolithic art can be divided into two broad categories: figurative art such as cave paintings that clearly depicts animals (or more rarely humans); and nonfigurative, which consists of shapes and symbols. Cave paintings have been interpreted in a number of ways by modern archaeologists. The earliest explanation, by the prehistorian Abbe Breuil, interpreted the paintings as a form of magic designed to ensure a successful hunt. However, this hypothesis fails to explain the existence of animals such as saber-toothed cats and lions, which were not hunted for food, and the existence of half-human, half-animal beings in cave paintings. The anthropologist David Lewis-Williams has suggested that Paleolithic cave paintings were indications of shamanistic practices, because the paintings of half-human, half-animal figures and the remoteness of the caves are reminiscent of modern hunter-gatherer shamanistic practices. Symbol-like images are more common in Paleolithic cave paintings than are depictions of animals or humans, and unique symbolic patterns might have been trademarks that represent different Upper Paleolithic ethnic groups.” ref
To me, the art listed as Venus figurines is not just one thing or referencing only one thing either, but several possible things, such as an ancestor spirit as well as other spirits like sky spirits that are connected to the sun, moon, Milky Way, and stars.
“Venus figurines have evoked similar controversy. Archaeologists and anthropologists have described the figurines as representations of goddesses, pornographic imagery, apotropaic amulets used for sympathetic magic, and even as self-portraits of women themselves. R. Dale Guthrie has studied not only the most artistic and publicized paintings, but also a variety of lower-quality art and figurines, and he identifies a wide range of skill and ages among the artists. He also points out that the main themes in the paintings and other artifacts (powerful beasts, risky hunting scenes, and the over-sexual representation of women) are to be expected in the fantasies of adolescent males during the Upper Paleolithic. The “Venus” figurines have been theorized, not universally, as representing a mother goddess; the abundance of such female imagery has inspired the theory that religion and society in Paleolithic (and later Neolithic) cultures were primarily interested in, and may have been directed by, women. Adherents of the theory include archaeologist Marija Gimbutas and feminist scholar Merlin Stone, the author of the 1976 book When God Was a Woman.” ref
“According to James B. Harrod humankind first developed religious and spiritual beliefs during the Middle Paleolithic or Upper Paleolithic. Controversial scholars of prehistoric religion and anthropology, James Harrod and Vincent W. Fallio, have recently proposed that religion and spirituality (and art) may have first arisen in Pre-Paleolithic chimpanzees or Early Lower Paleolithic (Oldowan) societies. According to Fallio, the common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans experienced altered states of consciousness and partook in ritual, and ritual was used in their societies to strengthen social bonding and group cohesion.” ref
“Middle Paleolithic humans’ use of burials at sites such as Krapina, Croatia (c. 130,000 years ago) and Qafzeh, Israel (c. 100,000 years ago) have led some anthropologists and archaeologists, such as Philip Lieberman, to believe that Middle Paleolithic humans may have possessed a belief in an afterlife and a “concern for the dead that transcends daily life”. Cut marks on Neanderthal bones from various sites, such as Combe-Grenal and Abri Moula in France, suggest that the Neanderthals—like some contemporary human cultures—may have practiced ritual defleshing for (presumably) religious reasons. According to recent archaeological findings from Homo heidelbergensis sites in Atapuerca, humans may have begun burying their dead much earlier, during the late Lower Paleolithic; but this theory is widely questioned in the scientific community.” ref
“Likewise, some scientists have proposed that Middle Paleolithic societies, such as Neanderthal societies, may also have practiced the earliest form of totemism or animal worship, in addition to their (presumably religious) burial of the dead. In particular, Emil Bächler suggested (based on archaeological evidence from Middle Paleolithic caves) that a bear cult was widespread among Middle Paleolithic Neanderthals. A claim that evidence was found for Middle Paleolithic animal worship c. 70,000 BCE originates from the Tsodilo Hills in the African Kalahari desert, has been denied by the original investigators of the site. Animal cults in the Upper Paleolithic, such as the bear cult, may have had their origins in these hypothetical Middle Paleolithic animal cults.” ref
“Animal worship during the Upper Paleolithic was intertwined with hunting rites. For instance, archaeological evidence from art and bear remains reveals that the bear cult apparently involved a type of sacrificial bear ceremonialism, in which a bear was shot with arrows, finished off by a shot or thrust in the lungs, and ritually worshipped near a clay bear statue covered by a bear fur with the skull and the body of the bear buried separately. Barbara Ehrenreich controversially theorizes that the sacrificial hunting rites of the Upper Paleolithic (and by extension Paleolithic cooperative big-game hunting) gave rise to war or warlike raiding during the following Epipaleolithic and Mesolithic or late Upper Paleolithic. “The existence of anthropomorphic images and half-human, half-animal images in the Upper Paleolithic may further indicate that Upper Paleolithic humans were the first people to believe in a pantheon of gods or supernatural beings, though such images may instead indicate shamanistic practices similar to those of contemporary tribal societies.” ref
“The earliest known undisputed burial of a shaman (and by extension the earliest undisputed evidence of shamans and shamanic practices) dates back to the early Upper Paleolithic era (c. 30,000 years ago) in what is now the Czech Republic. However, during the early Upper Paleolithic it was probably more common for all members of the band to participate equally and fully in religious ceremonies, in contrast to the religious traditions of later periods when religious authorities and part-time ritual specialists such as shamans, priests and medicine men were relatively common and integral to religious life. Religion was possibly apotropaic; specifically, it may have involved sympathetic magic. The Venus figurines, which are abundant in the Upper Paleolithic archaeological record, provide an example of possible Paleolithic sympathetic magic, as they may have been used for ensuring success in hunting and to bring about fertility of the land and women. The Upper Paleolithic Venus figurines have sometimes been explained as depictions of an earth goddess similar to Gaia, or as representations of a goddess who is the ruler or mother of the animals. James Harrod has described them as representative of female (and male) shamanistic spiritual transformation processes.” ref
Hadza Ancient Hunting Rituals
“The Hadzabe tribe, one of the last remaining hunter-gatherer societies in the world, practices ancient hunting rituals passed down through generations. These rituals are a key aspect of their spiritual and daily lives, reflecting their deep connection to the land and animals. When hunting, the Hadzabe utilize traditional methods such as bows and arrows, and their rituals are designed to ensure success, respect for nature, and gratitude for the animals they hunt. Hadzabe ancient hunting rituals are deeply ingrained in their culture and are considered sacred, guiding their survival in the Tanzanian wilderness. Visitors to Tanzania can witness these fascinating rituals firsthand, learning about the symbolic dances, chants, and prayers performed before and after a hunt. The Hadzabe tribe believes that the spirits of the animals guide the success of each hunt, and each step of the process is treated with reverence. Participating in a Hadzabe cultural tour with Tanzania Adventures Group allows travelers to experience these traditions in an authentic, respectful way, gaining an intimate understanding of how the tribe survives in harmony with nature.” ref
“The Hadza have been described as a population with little or no religion. Anthropologists agree, however, that they do have a cosmology – regardless of how we define religion. The Hadza cosmology includes the sun, moon, stars, and their ancestors. They have a creation story that describes how the Hadza came to populate the earth. It involves descending to earth, either from a baobab tree or down the neck of a giraffe. The Hadza do not have anything equivalent to religious leaders, churches, or organised meetings of any kind. There are no shamans or medicine men or women, and the Hadza do not practice witchcraft. They do, however, believe that other tribes have witchcraft and can successfully curse the Hadza. The strongest taboos and rituals surround epeme – which refers to a type of dance and certain cuts of animal meat. Like almost all other hunter-gatherer groups, the Hadza have an egalitarian social structure. They do not typically recognise land rights in the traditional sense, although they recognise an affinity with other Hadza groups that occupy the region. There is no political structure, formal or informal, at the tribal level. Society is typically organised in camps, which have a fluid composition of extended family and friends. Labour and food are shared between related and unrelated camp members. Hadza women have a great amount of autonomy and participate equally in decision–making with men.” ref
Men become “True” adult men or “Epeme” by killing large game
“The Hadza people embrace epeme, which can be understood as their concept of manhood, hunting, and the relationship between sexes. “True” adult men are called epeme men, which they become by killing large game, usually in their early 20s. Being an epeme comes with an advantage: only epeme men are allowed to eat certain parts of large game animals, such as warthog, giraffe, buffalo, wildebeest, and lion. The parts of these animals that are typically considered epeme are the kidney, lung, heart, neck, tongue, and genitals. No one besides other epeme men are allowed to be present for the epeme meat-eating. If a man still has not killed a large game animal by his thirties, he will automatically be considered epeme and will be allowed to eat the epeme meat. In addition to eating epeme meat, the epeme men participate in an epeme dance. In Jon Yates’s summary of Frank Marlowe’s account, this dance occurs every night when the moon isn’t visible, and must occur in near-complete darkness, with camp-fires extinguished. To begin the ritual, the women separate from the men and sit where they cannot be seen. The men gather behind a tree or hut and prepare for the dance.” ref
“In the pitch dark, as the women begin to sing, the first man starts to dance. He wears a headdress of dark ostrich feathers, bells on one of his ankles, a rattle in his hand, and a long black cape on his back. He stamps his right foot hard on the ground in time with the women’s singing, causing the bells to ring while marking the beat of the music with his rattle. He sings out to the women, who answer in a call and response. As the singing grows in strength, the women rise to join the man, who continues to dance—committing his efforts to a family member, one of the women, a friend, or one of his children. At this point, the child may join the dance as well. After each man has danced the epeme two or three times, the ritual is finished, by which time it is close to midnight. The ritual has been shown to promote social cohesion among the Hadza, and those who share the epeme dance show elevated levels of mutual trust and support.” ref
“Hadza cosmology examined through objects, rituals, and the Hadza concept of epeme. The objects are intimately linked to women and to aspects of the social and cosmological identity of the individual makers. One object is a materialisation of the woman’s name, and it leads to an examination by interview of naming practices more generally. Naming a child gives it a spirit and places the child in a strong family matrix, and since it receives two names, the child has two spirits and two families. Calling a person’s name is thus calling out to one of the spirits within the person. This practice of calling a name occurs during the epeme night dance ritual. Dancers call the name of a relative and turn into the spirit-beings of the named. In this ritual, we find that dancers, when calling the names of women, do so through the mediating power of objects.” ref
“Women typically forage in groups and target plant foods, while men tend to hunt solo or in a pair and focus on hunting and honey collection. When unsuccessful on a hunt (for game or honey), men will collect baobab fruit. Children also forage and are able to collect almost half of their daily caloric intake by the time they reach middle childhood. Children tend to focus on resources that are relatively easy to collect (eg berries, fruit, nuts) and are located close to camp. The Hadza, like most foraging populations, are central-place provisioners (a term used by Anthropologist Frank Marlowe in lieu of the term ‘central place foragers’). This means that they collect food on a daily basis and return to camp to distribute the food to weanlings, dependent children, elderly, or injured camp members. Food is widely shared within the family and with unrelated friends and neighbours. The Hadza have no food storage capabilities.” ref
“The Hadza are organized into bands or ‘camps’ of 20–30 people. Camps of over a hundred may form during berry season. There is no tribal or other governing hierarchy, and almost all decisions are made by reaching an agreement through discussion. The Hadza trace descent bilaterally (through both paternal and maternal lines), and almost all Hadza people can trace some kin tie to all other Hadza people. Furthermore, the Hadza are egalitarian, so there are no real status differences between individuals. While the elderly receive slightly more respect, all individuals are equal to others of the same age and sex, and compared to strictly stratified societies, women are fairly equal to men. This egalitarianism results in high levels of freedom and self-dependence. When conflict arises, one of the parties involved may voluntarily move to another camp as resolution. Ernst Fehr and Urs Fischbacher point out that the Hadza people “exhibit a considerable amount of altruistic punishment” to organize these tribes. The Hadza live in a communal setting and engage in cooperative child rearing, where many people, both related and unrelated, provide high-quality child care.” ref
“The Hadza are predominantly monogamous, though there is no social enforcement of monogamy. After marriage, the husband and wife are free to live where they decide, which may be with the father or mother’s family. This marital residence pattern is called ambilocality and is common among foragers. Specifically among Hadza, there is a slightly higher frequency of married couples living with the mother’s kin than with the father’s kin. Men and women value traits such as intelligence, strength, ability, skills, dexterity, and hard work when evaluating partners. They also value physical attractiveness, and many of their preferences for attractiveness, such as symmetry, averageness, and sexually dimorphic voice pitch, are similar to preferences found in Western nations. The Hadza do not follow a formal religion, and it has been claimed that they do not believe in an afterlife. Hadza offer prayers to Ishoko (the Sun) or to Haine (the moon) during hunts and believe they go to Ishoko when they die. They also hold rituals such as the monthly epeme dance for men at the new moon and the less frequent maitoko circumcision and coming-of-age ceremony for women.” ref
“Ishoko and Haine are mythological figures who are believed to have arranged the world by rolling the sky and the earth like two sheets of leather and swapping their order to put the sky above us; in the past, the sky was under the earth. These figures are described as making crucial decisions about the animals and humans by choosing their food and environment, giving people access to fire, and creating the capability of sitting. These figures have celestial connotations: Ishoko is a solar figure, and Haine, her husband, is a lunar figure. Uttering Ishoko’s name can be a greeting or a good wish to someone for a successful hunt. The character “Ishoye” seems to be another name for Ishoko. She is depicted in some tales as creating animals, including people. Some of her creatures later turned out to be man-eating giants, disastrous for their fellow giants and people. Seeing the disaster, she killed these giants, saying, “You are not people any longer.” ref
Hunter-Gatherers and the Origins of Religion
“Recent studies of the evolution of religion have revealed the cognitive underpinnings of belief in supernatural agents, the role of ritual in promoting cooperation, and the contribution of morally punishing high gods to the growth and stabilization of human society. The universality of religion across human society points to a deep evolutionary past. However, specific traits of nascent religiosity, and the sequence in which they emerged, have remained unknown. Here we reconstruct the evolution of religious beliefs and behaviors in early modern humans using a global sample of hunter-gatherers and seven traits describing hunter-gatherer religiosity: animism, belief in an afterlife, shamanism, ancestor worship, high gods, and worship of ancestors or high gods who are active in human affairs. We reconstruct ancestral character states using a time-calibrated supertree based on published phylogenetic trees and linguistic classification, and then test for correlated evolution between the characters and for the direction of cultural change. Results indicate that the oldest trait of religion, present in the most recent common ancestor of present-day hunter-gatherers, was animism, in agreement with long-standing beliefs about the fundamental role of this trait. Belief in an afterlife emerged, followed by shamanism and ancestor worship. Ancestor spirits or high gods who are active in human affairs were absent in early humans, suggesting a deep history for the egalitarian nature of hunter-gatherer societies. There is a significant positive relationship between most characters investigated, but the trait “high gods” stands apart, suggesting that belief in a single creator deity can emerge in a society regardless of other aspects of its religion.” ref
Sacred Hunting is a Rite of Passage
“A rite of passage is a ceremony or ritual of the passage that occurs when an individual leaves one group to enter another. It involves a significant change of status in society. Hunting is humanity’s original spiritual relationship between animals and ancestors, before and after hunts, humanity shared their stories, and revered having a direct relationship to the food they ate. Hunting magic is a form of magic used in hunter-gatherer societies that involves rock art in rituals to encourage a successful hunt. First observed among modern hunter-gatherers, it has been offered as a hypothesis to explain the purpose of ancient rock art from a functionalist approach. Proponents have pointed to violent imagery found in some rock art alongside animals as support for the hypothesis. Walter Burkert in Homo Necans suggested that hunting magic rituals are significant in the origin of religion. Van Gennep further distinguishes between “the secular” and “the sacred sphere. Laboratory experiments have shown that severe initiations produce cognitive dissonance. It is theorized that such dissonance heightens group attraction among initiates after the experience, arising from internal justification of the effort used. Rewards during initiations have important consequences in that initiates who feel more rewarded express stronger group identity. As well as group attraction, initiations can also produce conformity among new members. Psychology experiments have also shown that initiations increase feelings of affiliation. Initiation rites are seen as fundamental to human growth and development as well as socialization in many African communities. These rites function by ritually marking the transition of someone to full group membership. It also links individuals to the community and the community to the broader and more potent spiritual world.” ref, ref, ref
Human-Animal Empathy in Subsistence
“One of the most important relationships between humans and animals is that centered on subsistence, the means by which a group of individuals makes a living. In hunting-and-gathering and pastoral societies, the relationships between humans and animals are critical to human survival. Serving as meat, tools for hunting and for herding other animal species, and sources of commodities such as wool and leather, these societies’ animals are central to human lives. In such societies, human relationships with animals are typically characterized by animal empathy, or the sense of being attuned to the feelings or experiences of other beings—in this case, animals. Elaborate beliefs and rituals surrounding human-animal interdependence are common among hunter-gatherers and pastoralists.” ref
“The research of anthropologist Pat Shipman ([2015] 2017) suggests that human empathy and alliances with animals, especially dogs, gave humans an evolutionary advantage over animals. Relying on animals for survival prompted humans to develop not only improved hunting and meat-processing tools but also a deep understanding of their prey. Humans needed to be able to discern and predict animal behaviors, including migratory patterns. By the emergence of our species, Homo sapiens, some 300,000 years ago, humans had evolved to have a sophisticated empathic understanding of and relationship with animals. By the Upper Paleolithic (50,000–12,000 years ago), humans were leaving testimonials to their empathic relationships with animals in cave paintings.” ref
“One of the most outstanding early examples of animal art is the paintings found in the Lascaux cave in southwestern France, depicting the animals and plants that humans encountered some 17,000 years ago. These paintings were likely created over a range of years by several generations of hunters. Of the more than 6,000 images of humans, animals, and abstract signs, some 900 are animals. Animals that appear in these paintings include horses, deer, aurochs (wild cattle), bison, felines, a bird, a bear, and a rhinoceros. One black bull measures 5.6 meters (approximately 17 feet) in length. The animal is painted as if its legs are in motion. One of the felines appears to be urinating to mark its territory.” ref
“Many cultures continue to rely on wild animals for subsistence today. This dependence requires the mastery of various cognitive skills, including knowledge and understanding of animal behaviors. In all cultures, much of the socialization of children is connected to skills required for subsistence. In societies that rely on hunting for survival, children learn to be especially attentive to their environments. It is also common in such societies for children to keep pets, often the young of wild animals that have been hunted, such as birds and small mammals. Many wild animals are capable of being tamed by human handling when they are young. An animal is considered tamed when it has learned to tolerate human proximity and interaction for considerable periods of time.” ref
“Indigenous hunter-gatherers subsist on what their environment freely provides. They do not produce food but rather collect it. Indigenous hunters typically view animals as fellow sentient and spiritual beings with whom they must maintain a relationship of mutual respect. Commonly, they practice elaborate rituals associated with hunting, both to show respect for their prey and to increase the likelihood of success in the hunt. In his study of Yukaghir elk and reindeer hunters in Siberia, Danish anthropologist Rane Willerslev (2004) recorded many ritualistic hunting behaviors. These included taking a sauna bath several days before the hunt to diminish the hunters’ scent; using special language (code words) to talk about the hunt, never mentioning death or hunting directly, in order to deceive or confuse the animal spirits; and “feeding” a fire with alcohol and tobacco the night before the hunt to perfume the air and seduce the animal spirit to desire the hunter.” ref
“Even so, the hunters are never overconfident about the hunt, as they believe they risk their own identities as human beings when trying to lure an animal and its spirit. The bond between hunter and hunted in Indigenous societies is often viewed as tenuous, a relationship between equals in which the balance of power could shift in either direction. During the hunt itself, Yukaghir hunters wear wooden skis covered in elk leather so that their movements sound like the movements of an animal in snow, and they practice thinking like the elk or reindeer to lower the animals’ inhibitions so that they will allow the hunters to get near. The hunters even imagine themselves speaking to the animal, trying to diminish its fears. For the Yukaghir people, the hunt can be a dangerous interaction, and so respect is necessary at all times, even after the body of the animal has been taken.” ref
“Like hunter-gatherers, pastoralists also have empathic relationships with animals, but the nature of those relationships is different. Pastoralism, which is subsistence based on herding animals, can be either nomadic or transhumant. Nomadic pastoralism is herding based on the availability of resources and involves unpredictable movements, as herders decide from day to day where they will go next. Transhumant pastoralists have patterned movements from one location to another. The Izhma Komi and Nenets herders in Russia, discussed earlier in the chapter in the section on multispecies ethnography, practice nomadic pastoralism. While the relationship between nomadic pastoralists and their animals is based on respect and empathy, just as with hunter-gatherers, nomadic pastoralists are more involved in the daily lives of the animals they rely on.” ref
“Typically, the animals are herded into human campsites each night, and often their movements are monitored during the day. The animals are not physically dependent on humans, but the two groups are involved with each other, as herders offer supplemental food to the reindeer to reinforce their connection to the human campsites for the night. Both hunter-gatherers and nomadic pastoralists rely on their animals for meat and leather, but nomadic pastoralists might also harvest milk and use the animals as transport, two practices that require the animals to be more accustomed to human handling. The pastoral herd is more dependable as a food source than the wild animals of hunter-gatherers, but it is also more labor intensive and time consuming, requiring humans to manage the animals according to a daily routine.” ref
“Nomadic pastoralism is not as widely practiced as transhumant pastoralism, which evolved around the time of the rise of agriculture in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Transhumant pastoralists do not typically raise crops or forage for wild plants, and they are dependent on trade with agricultural societies for vegetable products. Interestingly, while there are cultures that practice strict vegetarianism and do not consume any meat products, such as the Hindu and Jain cultures in India, humans cannot live solely on meat. Arctic hunters who had no access to vegetation in the winter ate the stomach contents of grazing animals, such as caribou, to access vegetable matter. Transhumant pastoralists typically have a tenuous and competitive relationship with agriculturalist societies, as agriculturalists may not always have sufficient surplus for trade in years when there have been droughts or warfare, for example. At times, the relationships between sedentary agriculturalists and more mobile and dependent pastoralists break down into conflict involving threats, destruction of property, and even warfare.” ref
Early Warfare?
“Anthropologists disagree about whether warfare was common throughout human prehistory, or whether it was a more recent development, following the invention of agriculture or organised states. It is difficult to determine whether warfare occurred during the Paleolithic due to the sparseness of known remains. Some sources claim that most Middle and Upper Paleolithic societies were possibly fundamentally egalitarian and may have rarely or never engaged in organized violence between groups (i.e. war). Evidence of violent conflict appears to increase during the Mesolithic period, from around 10,000 years ago onwards. In War Before Civilization, Lawrence H. Keeley, a professor at the University of Illinois, says approximately 90–95% of known societies throughout history engaged in at least occasional warfare, and many fought constantly. Keeley describes several styles of primitive combat, such as small raids, large raids, and massacres. All of these forms of warfare were used by primitive societies, a finding supported by other researchers. Keeley explains that early war raids were not well organized, as the participants did not have any formal training. Scarcity of resources meant defensive works were not a cost-effective way to protect the society against enemy raids.” ref
“Was human fighting always there, as old as our species? Or is it a late cultural invention, emerging after the transition to agriculture and the rise of the state, which began, respectively, only around ten thousand and five thousand years ago? All human populations during the Pleistocene, until about 12,000 years ago, were hunter-gatherers, or foragers, of the simple, mobile sort that lacked accumulated resources. Studying such human populations that survived until recently or still survive in remote corners of the world, anthropology should have been uniquely positioned to answer the question of aboriginal human fighting or lack thereof. Yet access to, and the interpretation of, that information has been intrinsically problematic. The main problem has been the “contact paradox.” Prestate societies have no written records of their own. Therefore, documenting them requires contact with literate state societies that necessarily affects the former and potentially changes their behavior, including fighting. Since the rise of the state some 5,000 years ago, military activity has continued over much of the globe.” ref, ref
“Archeology is beset by well-recognized problems in addressing the antiquity of human fighting. Weapons for fighting before the introduction of metals are practically indistinguishable from hunting implements: stone axes, spears, and arrows. Specialized fighting equipment, such as shields, are made of perishable material — wood and leather — and do not survive. In the wake of Keeley’s book, archeological studies of the subject increased substantially, above all with respect to the more sedentary communities of foragers and horticulturalists that proliferated during the Holocene. The prevalence of palisades around settlements has been extensively documented, as have other defensive indications in settlements’ nucleation, protected location, and spacing with “no-man’s-land” between them. Holocene, which began approximately 11,700 years ago, human remains show widespread traces of violent trauma to crania and forearms (parrying fractures). The skeletal evidence is particularly striking. While rates of violent trauma varied considerably from place to place, they were exceedingly high in some areas and very high on average. Among the prehistoric hunter-gatherers of coastal Southern California, traces of healed cranial vault fractures range from 15% to nearly 40% among males and around 10% to 20% among females.” ref
“These rates are even higher when children of both sexes are factored out. The percentage for males from the earliest period in the sample (6630-4050 BCE) is close to 20% (again higher if only adults are counted). Traces of projectile injuries in the skeleton range from around 3% to over 20% in males and up to 10% among females. Broad surveys of the North American evidence reveal great variation between sites, with some recording exceedingly high rates of violence from the earliest settlement. In British Columbia, as in some other sites of the American Northwest (a prime case of the tribal-zone theory) violent skeletal trauma in the period 3500-1500 BCE is evident in 21% of 57 observable individuals. This is as high as the rate of violent trauma recorded for the subsequent period, between 1500 BCE and 500 CE, when the region’s population became denser and clustered into large villages.” ref
“It follows that increasing population density and social complexity were not the factors that inaugurated human fighting. The evidence from a comprehensive study of the Andes reveals a similar picture and similarly high rates of injuries. The cranial trauma frequencies studied varied significantly during the millennia from early human habitation to the rise of states and the Inca Empire. Nonetheless, the average rate for the Archaic, well before the coming of states, is around the average for the entire period and just under 15% for cranial trauma alone, and is skewed toward the adult male population. Note that signs of skeletal trauma remain undetected in many cases. Moreover, injuries to soft tissues, including fatal injuries, are not preserved.” ref
“This extensive archeological evidence has been particularly devastating for the Extended Rousseauan tribal-zone theory. As Ferguson, the theory’s most active exponent, conceded in his contribution to the edited volume that incorporated the earlier finds in this wave of research, “If there are people out there (sic!) who believe that violence and war did not exist until after the advent of Western colonialism, or of the state, or of agriculture, this volume proves them wrong.” Ferguson attempted to redress the balance in his next sentence: “Equally, if there are people who believe that all human societies have been plagued by violence and war, that they were always present in human evolutionary history, this volume proves them wrong.” However, the various claims in the second proposition were anything but “proved.” At best, they remained unproven and open to further investigation. Estimates for total deaths due to war vary widely. In one estimate, primitive warfare from 50,000 to 3000 BCE has been thought to have claimed 400 million±133,000 victims based on the assumption that it accounted for the 15.1% of all deaths. Ian Morris estimated that the rate could be as high as 20%. Other scholars find the prehistoric percentage much lower, around 2%, similar to the Neanderthals and ancestors of apes and primates. For the period 3000 BCE until 1991, estimates range from 151 million to several billion.” ref, ref
Hunting Ideology and Ritual Treatment of Animal Remains in Hunter-Gatherer Societies
“Ritual treatment of animal remains after hunt and consumption as an act of reciprocity with animal persons is a widespread practice among ethnographically documented northern hunter-gatherer societies. Often these practices and their associated set of beliefs are discussed as part of a broader complex of circumpolar cosmology and religion which is assumed to have arisen from historical continuities within the region and is assigned considerable time depth on that basis. However, the aforementioned practices and beliefs are by no means unique and can also be attested among various tropical hunter-gatherer groups. By way of a critical discussion of the “ontological turn” and enactivist theory, this paper suggests that, rather than through historical connections, the hunting rituals and beliefs may be better explained within the context of developmental histories of structural coupling between hunter and prey affected by bodily and empathic resonance and the complexity of the relation between epistemology and ontology.” ref
Where goods are free but knowledge costs: Hunter-gatherer ritual economics in Western Central Africa
“Forest hunter-gatherers in Western Central Africa participate in an unusual economic system that transacts material production in a very different way to intellectual production. While material goods, such as food, tools, or clothing, are generally freely given when demanded, intellectual goods, such as the right to perform specific rituals or to receive certain remedies, are exchanged for goods and money. These hunter-gatherer groups trade certain types of knowledge for material goods with each other, but never trade material goods for other material goods with each other, despite doing so with neighbouring farmers. They simply demand them from one another. The distribution of key aspects of this economic system across linguistic and international frontiers suggests that it is likely to have great antiquity. The hunter-gatherer ritual system is valued for immediately producing goods. This contrasts with cult associations among farming societies in Central and West Africa that focus on ensuring that goods will come in the future.” ref
“Although the exact time when humans first became religious remains unknown, research in evolutionary archaeology shows credible evidence of religious/ritualistic behavior from around the Middle Paleolithic era (45–200 thousand years ago). Religion requires a system of symbolic communication, such as language, to be transmitted from one individual to another. Philip Lieberman states “human religious thought and moral sense clearly rest on a cognitive-linguistic base”. From this premise science writer Nicholas Wade states:
- “Like most behaviors that are found in societies throughout the world, religion must have been present in the ancestral human population before the dispersal from Africa 50,000 years ago. Although religious rituals usually involve dance and music, they are also very verbal, since the sacred truths have to be stated. If so, religion, at least in its modern form, cannot pre-date the emergence of language. It has been argued earlier that language attained its modern state shortly before the exodus from Africa. If religion had to await the evolution of modern, articulate language, then it too would have emerged shortly before 50,000 years ago.” ref
“Another view distinguishes individual religious belief from collective religious belief. While the former does not require prior development of language, the latter does. The individual human brain has to explain a phenomenon in order to comprehend and relate to it. This activity predates by far the emergence of language and may have caused it. The theory is, belief in the supernatural emerges from hypotheses arbitrarily assumed by individuals to explain natural phenomena that cannot be explained otherwise. The resulting need to share individual hypotheses with others leads eventually to collective religious belief. A socially accepted hypothesis becomes dogmatic backed by social sanction. Language consists of digital contrasts whose cost is essentially zero. As pure social conventions, signals of this kind cannot evolve in a Darwinian social world—they are a theoretical impossibility. Being intrinsically unreliable, language works only if one can build up a reputation for trustworthiness within a certain kind of society—namely, one where symbolic cultural facts (sometimes called ‘institutional facts’) can be established and maintained through collective social endorsement. In any hunter-gatherer society, the basic mechanism for establishing trust in symbolic cultural facts is collective ritual.” ref
“Transcending the continuity-versus-discontinuity divide, some scholars view the emergence of language as the consequence of some kind of social transformation that, by generating unprecedented levels of public trust, liberated a genetic potential for linguistic creativity that had previously lain dormant. “Ritual/speech coevolution theory” exemplifies this approach. Scholars in this intellectual camp point to the fact that even chimpanzees and bonobos have latent symbolic capacities that they rarely—if ever—use in the wild. Objecting to the sudden mutation idea, these authors argue that even if a chance mutation were to install a language organ in an evolving bipedal primate, it would be adaptively useless under all known primate social conditions. A very specific social structure—one capable of upholding unusually high levels of public accountability and trust—must have evolved before or concurrently with language to make reliance on “cheap signals” (words) an evolutionarily stable strategy. The animistic nature of early human language could serve as the handicap-like cost that helped to ensure the reliability of communication. The attribution of spiritual essence to everything surrounding early humans served as a built-in mechanism that provided instant verification and ensured the inviolability of one’s speech.” ref
“Animal vocal signals are, for the most part, intrinsically reliable. When a cat purrs, the signal constitutes direct evidence of the animal’s contented state. The signal is trusted, not because the cat is inclined to be honest, but because it just cannot fake that sound. Primate vocal calls may be slightly more manipulable, but they remain reliable for the same reason—because they are hard to fake. Primate social intelligence is “Machiavellian“—self-serving and unconstrained by moral scruples. Monkeys and apes often attempt to deceive each other, while at the same time remaining constantly on guard against falling victim to deception themselves. Paradoxically, it is theorized that primates’ resistance to deception is what blocks the evolution of their signalling systems along language-like lines. Language is ruled out because the best way to guard against being deceived is to ignore all signals except those that are instantly verifiable. Words automatically fail this test.” ref
“Frans de Waal and Barbara King both view human morality as having grown out of primate sociality. Although morality awareness may be a unique human trait, many social animals, such as primates, dolphins, and whales, have been known to exhibit pre-moral sentiments. According to Michael Shermer, the following characteristics are shared by humans and other social animals, particularly the great apes:
attachment and bonding, cooperation and mutual aid, sympathy and empathy, direct and indirect reciprocity, altruism and reciprocal altruism, conflict resolution and peacemaking, deception and deception detection, community concern and caring about what others think about you, and awareness of and response to the social rules of the group.” ref
“De Waal contends that all social animals have had to restrain or alter their behavior for group living to be worthwhile. Pre-moral sentiments evolved in primate societies as a method of restraining individual selfishness and building more cooperative groups. For any social species, the benefits of being part of an altruistic group should outweigh the benefits of individualism. For example, a lack of group cohesion could make individuals more vulnerable to attack from outsiders. Being part of a group may also improve the chances of finding food. This is evident among animals that hunt in packs to take down large or dangerous prey. All social animals have hierarchical societies in which each member knows their own place. Social order is maintained by certain rules of expected behavior, and dominant group members enforce order through punishment. Additionally, higher-order primates also have a sense of fairness.” ref
“Chimpanzees live in fission-fusion groups that average 50 individuals. It is likely that early ancestors of humans lived in groups of similar size. Based on the size of extant hunter-gatherer societies, recent Paleolithic hominids lived in bands of a few hundred individuals. As community size increased over the course of human evolution, greater enforcement to achieve group cohesion would have been required. Morality may have evolved in these bands of 100 to 200 people as a means of social control, conflict resolution, and group solidarity. According to Dr. de Waal, human morality has two extra levels of sophistication that are not found in primate societies. Psychologist Matt J. Rossano argues that religion emerged after morality and built upon morality by expanding the social scrutiny of individual behavior to include supernatural agents. By including ever-watchful ancestors, spirits, and gods in the social realm, humans discovered an effective strategy for restraining selfishness and building more cooperative groups. The adaptive value of religion would have enhanced group survival. Rossano is referring here to collective religious belief and the social sanction that institutionalized morality. According to Rossano’s teaching, individual religious belief is thus initially epistemological, not ethical, in nature.” ref
“The use of symbolism in religion is a universal established phenomenon. Archeologist Steven Mithen contends that it is common for religious practices to involve the creation of images and symbols to represent supernatural beings and ideas. Because supernatural beings violate the principles of the natural world, there will always be difficulty in communicating and sharing supernatural concepts with others. This problem can be overcome by anchoring these supernatural beings in material form through representational art. When translated into material form, supernatural concepts become easier to communicate and understand. Due to the association of art and religion, evidence of symbolism in the fossil record is indicative of a mind capable of religious thoughts. Art and symbolism demonstrates a capacity for abstract thought and imagination necessary to construct religious ideas. Wentzel van Huyssteen states that the translation of the non-visible through symbolism enabled early human ancestors to hold beliefs in abstract terms.” ref
“Some of the earliest evidence of symbolic behavior is associated with Middle Stone Age sites in Africa. From at least 100,000 years ago, there is evidence of the use of pigments such as red ocher. Pigments are of little practical use to hunter-gatherers; thus, evidence of their use is interpreted as symbolic or for ritual purposes. Among extant hunter-gatherer populations around the world, red ocher is still used extensively for ritual purposes. It has been argued that it is universal among human cultures for the color red to represent blood, sex, life, and death. The use of red ocher as a proxy for symbolism is often criticized as being too indirect. Some scientists, such as Richard Klein and Steven Mithen, only recognize unambiguous forms of art as representative of abstract ideas. Upper Paleolithic cave art provides some of the most unambiguous evidence of religious thought from the Paleolithic. Cave paintings at Chauvet depict creatures that are half human and half animal.” ref
“Organized religion traces its roots to the Neolithic Revolution that began 11,000 years ago in the Near East, but may have occurred independently in several other locations around the world. The invention of agriculture transformed many human societies from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a sedentary lifestyle. The Neolithic Revolution led to a population explosion and an acceleration in the pace of technological development. The transition from foraging bands to states and empires precipitated more specialized and developed forms of religion that reflected the new social and political environment. While bands and small tribes possess supernatural beliefs, these beliefs do not serve to justify a central authority, justify the transfer of wealth, or maintain peace between unrelated individuals. Organized religion emerged as a means of providing social and economic stability through the following ways:
- Justifying the central authority, which in turn possessed the right to collect taxes in return for providing social and security services.
- Bands and tribes consist of small number of related individuals. States and nations are composed of many thousands of unrelated individuals. Jared Diamond argues that organized religion served to provide a bond between unrelated individuals who would otherwise be more prone to enmity. In his book Guns, Germs, and Steel he argues that the leading cause of death among hunter-gatherer societies is murder.
- Religions that revolved around moralizing gods may have facilitated the rise of large, cooperative groups of unrelated individuals.” ref
“The states born out of the Neolithic Revolution, such as those of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, were theocracies with chiefs, kings, and emperors playing dual roles of political and spiritual leaders. Anthropologists have found that virtually all state societies and chiefdoms from around the world have been found to justify political power through divine authority. This suggests that political authority co-opts collective religious belief to bolster itself. Following the Neolithic Revolution, the pace of technological development (cultural evolution) intensified due to the invention of writing 5,000 years ago. Symbols that became words later on made effective communication of ideas possible. Printing, invented only over a thousand years ago, rapidly increased the speed of communication and became the main spring of cultural evolution. Writing is thought to have been first invented in either Sumeria or Ancient Egypt, and was initially used for accounting. Soon after, writing was used to record myth.” ref
“The first religious texts mark the beginning of religious history. The Pyramid Texts from ancient Egypt form one of the oldest known religious texts in the world, dating to between 2400 and 2300 BCE. Writing played a major role in sustaining and spreading organized religion. In pre-literate societies, religious ideas were based on an oral tradition, which was articulated by shamans and remained limited to the collective memories of the society’s inhabitants. With the advent of writing, information that was not easy to remember could easily be stored in sacred texts that were maintained by a select group (clergy). Humans could store and process large amounts of information with writing that otherwise would have been forgotten. Writing, therefore, enabled religions to develop coherent and comprehensive doctrinal systems that remained independent of time and place. Writing also brought a measure of objectivity to human knowledge. Formulation of thoughts in words and the requirement for validation made possible the mutual exchange of ideas and the sifting of generally acceptable from unacceptable ideas. The generally acceptable ideas became objective knowledge reflecting the continuously evolving framework of human awareness of reality that Karl Popper calls ‘verisimilitude’ – a stage on the human journey to truth.” ref
The Psychic Toll of Severing the Hunter-Prey Relationship
“A productive hunt is a violent act—success requiring, as it does, the dismemberment of a living creature. Yet, to focus alone on the concluding moment, the bloody brutality of the killing itself, risks obscuring a more subtle and significant meaning to this harsh affair. For hunter-gatherers, occupying environments where animal protein is essential to subsist, the hunt is an act of necessity. Such events, however destructive and aggressive as they tend to be, are commonly associated not with the hunter’s sense of malice, disdain, or even casual disinterest, but an abiding sense of respect and honor for his prey. Forager hunters commonly sing songs in praise of the game killed, use special honorific names or titles for them, or perform other rituals and offerings to appease their spirits. Guayaki-Ache hunters of the Amazon would often salute their prey after death and sing for them. Whales among the Nuu-chah-nulth of British Columbia were addressed as “queen” and associated with many special songs and rituals. Copper Inuit hunters of Victoria Island would throw out part of the liver of every caribou killed to gain the favor of the caribou spirit. Bear ceremonialism was widely practiced in traditional societies across Eurasia and North America, where bears were treated with special respect and ceremony both during the hunt and after death. Yukaghir hunters of Siberia would address the bear as “Grandfather” and apologize to their spirit for the killing.” ref
“This emotional connection between hunter and hunted raises important questions about what happens when an animal species disappears—what is the human response to such ill-fate? In a recent paper, “The material and mental effects of animal disappearance on indigenous hunter-gatherers, past and present,” anthropologists Eyal Halfon and Ran Barkai seek to evaluate that very question. Halfon and Barkai emphasize “the inextricable connection between hunter-gatherers and other living agents with whom they share the environment and on whose existence they depend. It is a complex, multifaceted bond. Animals, certainly large mammals, are among the hunter-gatherer’s most essential partners.” Halfon and Burkai explore how hunting societies often had a fundamentally different worldview regarding human-animal interactions than what is commonly found in agricultural societies and modern industrial nations. Animal prey and their spirits represented something close to equal partners in the struggle for survival, rather than being part of the kind of dominant-subservient relationship more likely to be associated with animal domestication. The relationship between hunter and prey can represent a reciprocal bond, infused with psychological meaning and spiritual weight.” ref
“While Halfon and Burkai explore some important patterns, we should also “be careful [not to] overly romanticize the relationship that foragers have with hunted game,” says evolutionary anthropologist Manvir Singh, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse. Singh tells me in an email that while “many peoples treat the killing of an animal with respect and follow up with apology or gratitude,” those same peoples might also “think that certain dangerous or peculiar animals are heinous shape-shifting sorcerers and deserve to be killed and disposed with. They might torture animals; they might let their children adopt them as pets [and] drag them around until they die; they might accidentally kill a tabooed animal or two in the forest and let it rot…” Across the Andaman Islanders, turtles were associated with many important feasts, their skulls were kept and displayed in places of honor to ensure hunting success and protection, and their fat was often used in key rituals. However, Islanders would also commonly capture turtles and roast them whole while still living over a slow fire, as they had particular taboos about spilling turtle blood. Pigs, turtles, and dugongs were also frequently cut up while still living, as Andaman hunters believed such practices conferred them particular beneficial properties from the animals.” ref
“For many arctic hunters, the necessity not only of meat for subsistence, but animal skins for warm clothing, shoes, household covers, and other items could promote overhunting and contribute to population crashes of reindeer and caribou. “And, of course, it was populations of foragers who critically contributed to the [worldwide] extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna,” Singh notes. Halfon and Burkai seem to largely agree, acknowledging in their paper that “indigenous people hunted (and continue to hunt) these animal ‘partners’ most probably even when they were on the verge of extinction.” Although they also argue that many of the particular rituals associated with the hunt “were probably meant to ensure the sustainability of these relationships.” They also cite case studies where contemporary indigenous hunters contested assessments of Western scientists regarding declines in local animal populations, such as a Yukaghir hunter who disagreed that overhunting was contributing to a 30 percent decline in elk populations, and proposed that the animals had simply “gone elsewhere.” Though they also provide counter-examples, where there was a keen local awareness problems posed by excessive hunting: “For instance, the extinction of caribou herds in the Labrador regions at the beginning of the 20th century following what Cree tribesmen themselves referred to as a ‘wasteful slaughter’ stood as an important lesson to them, one that was enforced upon the younger generations of hunters by the tribal elders.” ref
Hunter-Gatherer Sacrifices?
“Archaeologists investigating graves from the Upper Paleolithic Period (about 26,000 to 8000 BCE) uncovered several which indicated Europe’s prehistoric hunter-gathers may have practiced human sacrifice. What they found were pairs or even groups of people with rich burial offerings and decoration. Many of the remains were young or had deformities, such as dwarfism. The diversity of the individuals buried together and the special treatment they received could be a sign of ritual killing, said Vincenzo Formicola of the University of Pisa, Italy. “These findings point to the possibility that human sacrifices were part of the ritual activity of these populations,” Formicola wrote in a recent edition of the journal Current Anthropology. Most of the hunter-gatherers who lived in Europe during the Upper Paleolithic Period buried their dead.” ref
“Their graves – numerous and usually filled with offerings such as beads and ivory – are considered a good source of information on what they thought about spirituality and the afterlife, Formicola said. “All these multiple burials can hardly be the result of natural events … (and) human sacrifices could represent an additional explanation,” Formicola added. Human sacrifices have never been apparent in the archaeological record of Upper Paleolithic Europe. They do appear much later among more complex ancient societies, such as the Egyptians. The new findings could mean the hunter-gatherers were more advanced than once thought. “What (the data is) suggesting is that the Upper Paleolithic societies developed a complexity of interactions and a common system of beliefs, of symbols and of rituals which are unknown in small groups of modern foragers,” said Formicola.” ref
10 Ancient Cultures That Practiced Ritual Human Sacrifice
“The Incas, The Egyptians, The Aztecs, The Mesopotamians, The Hawaiians, The Celts, The Chinese, The Etruscans, The Israelites, and The Carthaginians.” ref
Early Sacrifice
“Sacrifices (i.e., the presentation of offerings to higher beings or to the dead) appear as early as the Middle Paleolithic Period. Pits with some animal bones have been found in the vicinity of burial sites; thus, it is a likely possibility that they represent offerings to the dead. There is a dispute over the interpretation of the arrangement of the skulls and long bones of bears, since they are deposited in such a manner that it is hardly possible to discern a profane explanation. It is assumed that they had a cultic or magical significance. Most likely, certain parts of the prey, such as the head and the meaty shanks, or at least the bones with brain and marrow, were sacrificed. Even if it cannot be definitely stated who the recipient of these sacrifices was, analogies with present-day “primitive” phenomena make it likely that a part of the prey was offered to a higher being who was believed to dispense nourishment.” ref
“It could also, however, have been a matter of preserving parts of animals in order to resurrect the entire animal and preserve the species. Furthermore, finds of bones and drawings show that the preservation of skulls with still attached vertebrae, ribs, and front legs of oxen and reindeer played a certain religious or magical role. The sinking of whole reindeer into lakes is hard to explain other than as a sacrifice. This might be traced to the idea that what occupies the centre of attention is not the individual hunted animal but the whole herd; no longer only a part of an animal but a whole animal as part of a herd is sacrificed. The custom also existed in recent times among hunters and herders of central and north Asia. As such, finds become more numerous, it seems evident that certain specific animals and parts of their bodies are selected for sacrifice. It is difficult to differentiate between animal sacrifices and the immediate cultic veneration of an animal at the burial sites of animals.” ref
“In the Neolithic Period, the sites became especially profuse and are usually found in connection with human burials; nevertheless, there are such burial sites of animals that are not related in this manner and that occur with pronounced frequency, characteristically in particular groups of cultures. In these cases, domestic animals almost exclusively are involved, and among them, the dog and the ox predominate. The question of human sacrifice is of special significance here. Human sacrifices often were related to cannibalism and to the sacrifice of animals. With conspicuous frequency, victims discerned in ceremonial remains are females and children, sometimes along with young pigs. This practice is similar to fertility and agricultural rites that are known to have been practiced in the early Mediterranean civilizations. It is also similar to beliefs and practices observed among present-day “primitive” agrarian peoples (in which pigs are often substituted for humans), such as in ceremonies of secret societies, initiation rites, sacrifices, celebrations of feasts of the dead, and notions about fertility, especially in connection with the growing and ripening of cultivated plants.” ref
“In comparison, the inclusion of servants or women in the burial sites of highly placed persons can hardly be called sacrifice in a strict sense—that is, an offering to a higher power or deity. Such inclusions most likely reflect the social status of the deceased leader and his need for servants in the afterlife, rather than an offering. It is a sacrifice in the wider sense of respect and awe for the person and status—and all that this conveyed—of the deceased leader. This practice becomes more important only where correspondingly differentiated social conditions are found (such as in the royal graves at Ur in Mesopotamia and in those of the Shang dynasty in China). Sometimes it took on almost unbelievable forms, especially in terms of the numbers of persons and animals interred with the deceased leader. The ritual preservation of objects also must be included in the realm of sacrifice (in a wider sense). This can be demonstrated for the first time in the Neolithic Period (for instance, the ritual depositing of axes); in later periods, it plays a large role. In finds from the Bronze Age on, weapons and jewelry frequently are found in wells and springs. In Iron Age finds, such objects are found in almost unbelievable quantities in a number of swamps and other bodies of water. It seems probable that they represent the sacrifice of war booty.” ref
“In the oldest known examples of graphic art, the representations of animals play a large part; humans appear rarely and then frequently with animal attributes or as mixed human–animal figures. In the context of the whole situation, the view that these representations were merely ornamentations or served a purely artistic need may be dismissed; they are found without boundaries and background on rock walls and are not part of an interrelated scene. It is evident that animals played a predominant role in the mental world of the Upper Paleolithic Period, insofar as this role is reflected in the art of the period. What is represented is, first of all, that which is essential to the animal, partly in its relation to the hunt, but also in relation to anthropomorphic figures showing the intermixing of human and animal forms. This indicates a special and intimate relationship between humans and animals that transcends and overcomes the boundaries between different realms of being that modern concepts and understanding require. This phenomenon is similar to what is still known today as animalism (or nagualism or theriocentrism). It is characterized by close magical and religious ties of humans with animals, especially with wild animals.” ref
“It is also characterized in terms of otherworldly and superworldly realms and practices, such as placating and begging for forgiveness of the game killed, performing oracles with animal bones, and performing mimic animal dances and fertility rites for animals. Animals were thought to be manlike, to have souls, or to be equipped with magical powers. Animalism thus expresses itself in various conceptions of how animals are regarded as guardian spirits and “alter egos,” of the facile and frequent interchangeability between human and animal forms, and also of a theriomorphically (animal-formed) envisioned higher being—one who changes between human and animal forms and unifies them. Higher, often theriomorphic, beings are gods who rule over the animals, the hunters, and the hunting territory, or spirits in the bushland and with the animals. It is obviously not possible to identify special occurrences or forms of such higher beings during the Paleolithic Period, but their general features may be safely assumed.” ref
“Animalism is, to a large extent, a basis for totemism, which involves various permanent relationships of individuals or groups to certain animals or other natural objects; hence, animalism is occasionally called “protototemism.” Individual and cultic totemism, as opposed to group totemism of an almost solely social function, are particularly close to animalism, whereas religious and cultic meanings in group or clan totemism are usually poorly developed. It is not possible to determine to what extent animalism had already assumed the character of true totemism in the Paleolithic Period; the early existence of clan totemism is improbable because it occurs primarily among peoples who are to some extent agrarian, and possibly a certain kind of sedentary life was a prerequisite to its development. Also, special sacrificial traditions were closely connected to game, particularly the custom of preserving the animal skeleton or a part of a skeleton in order to placate the ruler of the animals (see above) and to provide for the continuation of the species.” ref
“A certain kind of bear ceremonialism is rooted in this conception and is to be recognized in several finds and pictures from the Upper Paleolithic Period on. A skin with attached head was evidently draped over the body of a bear made out of clay; the skull and long bones of the bear were buried separately (a practice begun in the Middle Paleolithic Period); the bear was shot with arrows and killed by a shot or a thrust into the lungs; the animal or a bearlike figure was surrounded by dancers. Similar phenomena are documented for more recent periods, above all for the hunting cultures of Neolithic Siberia. These observations can be effortlessly fitted into the practice of bear ceremonialism that is still widely distributed in northern Eurasia and North America. The question of whether animals were the immediate objects of a cult is extremely difficult to judge in each particular case. Nevertheless, with the beginning of the Neolithic Period, animal phenomena appear that probably go beyond functioning merely as a sacrifice and symbol. This applies especially to representations of oxen and bulls and to the symbolism of bull heads and bull horns.” ref
Hunting With the Hadza
“Living near Lake Eyasi in northern Tanzania, the Hadza have managed to preserve their hunter-gatherer way of life for over 30,000 – maybe over 50,000 – years. Their language was once classified with the Khoisan due to similar click sounds, but it has since been reclassified as an isolate – a language unrelated to any other. They are also not closely genetically related to any other tribe. This, combined with their location in the Great Rift Valley, only adds to the intrigue and mystique of these wonderful people. Unlike most African tribes, even their oral history does not indicate that they moved to Hadzaland from elsewhere, making them one of the oldest tribes in Africa, if not the oldest.” ref
“In the absence of honeyguides, the three young hunters were more intent on shooting birds than communicating with them. Boubous, barbets, sparrows, and other small birds fell prey to the Hadza’s traditionally-made bows and arrows – from 30m away, sometimes even further! It’s not surprising they are such good shots. Young Hadza boys get their first bows and arrows at about three years of age – and so begins a life of constant practising and hunting, resulting in the astonishing accuracy and deadly precision we saw displayed. As we continued trailing behind the three young hunters, they would split up and lose sight of one another. They did not speak, but communicated using a range of whistles that enabled them to stealthily blend into their environment with very little disturbance. A few hours (and several small birds) later, the stealthy demeanour of the hunters changed. One shouted out from a distance, his calls echoing through the baobab-dotted landscape. The other two answered loudly and joyfully, their tone signalling that the hunt was over.” ref
“As they ran in the direction of the shouting, we followed as best we could. When we caught up, one hunter stood holding an adult Kirk’s dik-dik with a perfectly placed arrow through the shoulder. No sense of pride, celebration or achievement. He had simply done what he had set out to do, and they now had sufficient meat to return to camp. The dik-dik was slung over a shoulder, and we walked off towards a particularly large baobab. Baobab Trees are common in the area and form a very important part of the Hadza’s existence. The fruit makes up about 13% of their diet, and the trees often conceal large beehives that provide honey for the hunter-gatherers. This one provided shade and demarcated both the kitchen and dining room. The hunters lit a fire in no time and, when it was at its highest, placed the whole, unskinned, unbutchered dik-dik on the leaping flames. Their bows and arrows are still the same lengths as when they were first recorded, the height of the men and women are still the same, their favourite decorative colours, the methods they use to pacify bees with smoke and to collect the prized honey, and even the whistles and calls they share with the honeyguides, are all still the same.” ref
They relaxed and sat around chatting, and plucking the birds they had killed. Once all the hair had been burnt off the dik-dik, it was taken off the fire and gutted. The liver, diaphragm, and some cuts of shoulder were placed directly onto the now smouldering coals, as were the small birds. We were all offered a piece of the meat, but the birds were kept for the hunters themselves. They handle different kills in very specific ways. Small birds are eaten in the bush by the hunters, while larger prey that is small enough to be carried is taken back to be shared at camp. If they kill a big animal such as a kudu or giraffe, the whole camp is moved to the food source, where they feast for days. After being out for several hours, we headed back to camp, walking beneath the cathedral-like baobabs, musing over the day’s events, and the future of these amazing people. Authenticity and the pursuit thereof is something we all strive for, and seek to achieve in our lives. So, when we come across something truly authentic, we are faced with the dilemma of whether to share it or not.” ref
Hunting and Gathering by the Nordic Region Sami
“Sapmi is the homeland of the Sami peoples. Sapmi covers a large area (approximately 388,500 km2) of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. Long before man domesticated plants and animals for consumption, he lived what is called a “hunter-gatherer” lifestyle. This means his method of subsistence consisted of hunting, fishing, and trapping wild animals and gathering edible wild plant species. The Sami people, natives of the Scandinavian Arctic and sub-Arctic, survived for over 10,000 years as hunter-gatherers in a harsh environment. Like other hunter-gatherer societies of the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of the world, this was only possible by having an intimate knowledge of the unique environment in which they lived. Besides having different methods of food acquisition, hunter-gatherer peoples differed from modern agricultural societies in several cultural respects. Because of the limited distribution of wild resources, the number of peoples that could survive on a given area of land was limited by the land’s capability of producing a sustainable food supply. Therefore, hunter-gatherers typically lived in “band”-level social units, consisting of one to several families. These bands were typically egalitarian, shared resources, and hunted and gathered cooperatively. These groups could split up or join with other bands in order to best exploit resources.” ref
“Also, because hunting and gathering depends on the health and vitality of the natural environment, these peoples tended to live a sustainable lifestyle by limiting their impact on nature. Some cultural differences existed among Sami peoples due to geographical variations and resulting differences in local ecosystems in which the groups resided. A good example of this in the common distinction between Sami living near and on the coast of Sapmi, known as “Coastal” or “Sea Sami,” as opposed to Sami who lived in the interior of Sapmi, who are called “Forest Sami” or “Mountain Sami.” Both groups relied heavily on reindeer and fish, although to varying degrees. Reindeer, which were domesticated by the Sami as decoy animals and beasts of burden, were also used for hunting. Tame female reindeer were used during mating season to lure bulls into range of bow and arrow or spear. Also, snares were sometimes placed in the antlers of tame bull reindeers during the rut. Wild reindeer that attempted to fight the decoy would become entangled in the snare and then be slaughtered by hunters.” ref
“Domesticated dogs, now known as the lapphund, were also used by the Sami to hunt reindeer. The dogs could either be used for tracking of could participate in herding reindeer into snares or corrals. Another method of hunting reindeer was to chase them down in deep snow while on skis, and then killing them with bow and arrow or spear. While reindeer were by far the most important resource for the Sami, other food sources were exploited when and where available. Bear hunting also played an important function in Sami culture and religion. The European brown bear, known as “him with a pelt,” was hunted according to a specific ritual. Bears found hibernating during the winter were awakened by hunters. Then, as the bear exited its den and reared up on its hind legs, a hunter would place a spear under its chest and brace it against the ground. The bear would then be impaled on the spear as it lunged toward the hunter. Although the bear was eaten, a ceremony was performed to appease its spirit. The bones were then placed in the correct anatomical position and were buried in a grave.” ref
The Myth of Man the Hunter: Women’s contribution to the hunt across ethnographic contexts
“The sexual division of labor among human foraging populations has typically been recognized as involving males as hunters and females as gatherers. Recent archeological research has questioned this paradigm with evidence that females hunted (and went to war) throughout the Homo sapiens lineage, though many of these authors assert the pattern of women hunting may only have occurred in the past. The current project gleans data from across the ethnographic literature to investigate the prevalence of women hunting in foraging societies in more recent times. Evidence from the past one hundred years supports archaeological finds from the Holocene that women from a broad range of cultures intentionally hunt for subsistence. These results aim to shift the male-hunter female-gatherer paradigm to account for the significant role females have in hunting, thus dramatically shifting stereotypes of labor, as well as mobility.” ref
Female cooperative labour networks in hunter–gatherers and horticulturalists
“Cooperation in food acquisition is a hallmark of the human species. Given that costs and benefits of cooperation vary among production regimes and work activities, the transition from hunting-and-gathering to agriculture is likely to have reshaped the structure of cooperative subsistence networks. Hunter–gatherers often forage in groups and are generally more interdependent and experience higher short-term food acquisition risk than horticulturalists, suggesting that cooperative labour should be more widespread and frequent for hunter–gatherers. Here we compare female cooperative labour networks of Batek hunter–gatherers of Peninsular Malaysia and Tsimane forager–horticulturalists of Bolivia. We find that Batek foraging results in high daily variation in labour partnerships, facilitating frequent cooperation in diffuse networks comprised of kin and non-kin. By contrast, Tsimane horticulture involves more restricted giving and receiving of labour, confined mostly to spouses and primary or distant kin. Tsimane women also interact with a few individuals in the context of hunting/fishing activities and forage mainly with spouses and primary kin. These differences give rise to camp- or village-level networks that are more modular (have more substructure when partitioned) among Tsimane horticulturalists. Our findings suggest that subsistence activities shape the formation and extent of female social networks, particularly with respect to connections with other women and non-kin. Researchers discuss the implications of restricted female labour networks in the context of gender relations, power dynamics, and the adoption of farming in humans.” ref
Hunter-gatherer men are not the selfless providers we thought
“Fearless men hunt big animals and women pick berries, and that tells us a lot about our societies today, right? Maybe not, according to a new study of modern hunter-gatherer men who have a surprising sweet tooth and a reluctance to share. RESEARCHERS HAVE LONG considered hunter-gatherer men as hard-working, selfless mates, hardly eating anything during their long hunting trips and saving most of the food they collected for their families and friends back home. This arrangement has been considered a key aspect in the evolution of our society, says Colette Berbesque, an anthropologist from the University of Roehampton in London. “Some scientists believe that men’s hunting and sharing meat with their family and other members of the community is one of the most critical elements in human evolution, and has led to traits such as our large brains, our long lifespan, and our ability to be highly cooperative,” she says. However, a new study published in the journal Evolution & Human Behaviour – led by Colette, working with researchers from the US, UK, and Tanzania – begs to differ. After following the daily activities of 75 hunter-gatherer men of the Hadza tribe in northern Tanzania for almost 1000 hours, the researchers found these men were not quite the family providers everyone thought – they ate most of the food they collected, and it turns out they have a sweet tooth for honey. The Hadza are one of the few remaining hunter-gatherer societies that continue to follow a traditional lifestyle, which can be traced back to our early beginnings. It is thought that the first humans were hunter-gatherers, and even our non-human ancestors, such as Homo erectus, are believed to have been hunter-gatherers.” ref
“Today, the Hadza tribe is made up of about 1000 people. Men in this society are in charge of finding meat, the main source of protein for the whole community, while women gather roots, fruits and other foods they can find. Scientists have pondered two main ideas to explain the behaviour of modern hunter-gatherer men. One suggests the men are doing their best to find food for their families, and if they come home with nothing, it’s because it was not possible to find food, leaving them to rely on food gathered by their wives and possibly other men to share meat with them. The alternative scenario suggests men are trying to hunt for large game, and so they might pass up smaller animals because the goal is not so much to feed their families, “but more to show off,” explains Colette. Contradicting both hypotheses, this recent study found Hadza hunter-gatherer men actually ate most of the food they found, bringing back less than less than 10% of what they collected. They also had a keen taste for honey, consuming all they could when they found it. In fact, during the researchers’ observations, honey was found and eaten roughly every other time a hunter left camp to hunt and they ate most of it – providing over 85% of all the calories Hadza men consumed before bringing anything home for others. They weren’t just snacking, either – they were eating 2,405 calories per day on average. “What we found does not support either of these ideas very well,” says Colette. “They neither showed off, nor killed themselves to bring the food they found home for their families. They usually ate what they needed and returned with the rest.” ref
Australia’s Martu – selfless hunters for social capital
“These new findings don’t apply to all hunter-gatherer groups, says Rebecca Bird, an anthropologist from Penn State University in the USA, who has worked extensively with the Martu people from central Western Australia, who still hunt and gather using ancient traditional customs. During her research, Rebecca observed Martu men eating only minimal amounts of food during their hunting trips – “just enough to keep from collapsing with hunger,” she says. “For the older people, I’ve even seen them come across a tiny patch of fruit and eat only one or two, and save the rest to share amongst everyone sitting around the fire at the end of the day.” Martu men also go out on their own or sometimes in pairs but, unlike Hadza, they bring back most of their bounty – and Rebecca thinks an important reason for this has to do with how others will see them. “If you were to eat before you took the food back to camp, it would be incredibly selfish of you, you’d get a reputation as a greedy person, and you would appear to be an unsuccessful, unskilled hunter. You get a lot of social capital by coming back starving and showing you can wait until everyone eats,” she says.” ref
“The behaviour of the Hadza resembles more of a “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” approach, says Colette, and so the findings of this new study add a twist to the classic story of the selfless hunter-gatherer man. So why are the Hadza eating most of the food they find, while the Martu share? Rebecca says there may be more at stake for the Martu than just bringing home the bacon. “Maybe the Martu are so generous because they are building trust for cooperation in other ways, which might be due to their highly unpredictable environment,” she says. “Men in particular don’t hunt cooperatively very often, but they do cooperate in ritual business and build alliances very carefully to avert possible fights. In the past, alliances were very important for obtaining marriage partners.” The Hadza, by contrast, do not form complex or long-standing political alliances, says Colette. “The Hadza are very egalitarian […] this means trying to get social prestige has the potential to backfire, and make a Hadza man look like he is trying to be a leader –which is something they resist as a group,” she explains, adding, “Most of our previous ideas about how Hadza men shared came from large game, which is relatively rare and treated differently from other foraged foods. It is shared widely perhaps because it is fairly rare to get and can’t be eaten by a single person before it goes bad.” ref
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“The genetic prehistory of humans in Asia, based on research using sequence data from humans who lived in Asia as early as 45,000 years ago. Genetic studies comparing present-day Australasians and Asians show that they likely derived from a single dispersal out of Africa, rapidly differentiating into three main lineages: one that persists partially in South Asia, one that is primarily found today in Australasia, and one that is widely represented across Siberia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia. Studies of ancient DNA from human remains in Asia dating from as far back as 45,000 years have greatly increased our understanding of the population dynamics leading to the current Asian populations.” ref
Ust’-Ishim man: Y-DNA haplogroupK2 and mt-DNA haplogroupR*
Tianyuan man: Y-DNA haplogroup K2b and mt-DNA haplogroup B
Yana Rhinoceros Horn Site: Y-DNA haplogroup P1 and mt-DNA haplogroup U
Sungir/Gravettian burials: Y-DNA haplogroup C1 and mt-DNA haplogroups U8c & U2
Ancient North Eurasians: Y-chromosome haplogroups P and its subclades R and Q and mt-DNA haplogroups U and R
Mal’ta–Buret’ culture: basalY-DNA haplogroup R* and mt-DNA haplogroup U
“MA-1 is the only known example of basal Y-DNA R* (R-M207*) – that is, the only member of haplogroup R* that did not belong to haplogroups R1, R2 or secondary subclades of these. The mitochondrial DNA of MA-1 belonged to an unresolved subclade of haplogroup U.” ref
“ANE ancestry has spread throughout Eurasia and the Americas in various migrations since the Upper Paleolithic, and more than half of the world’s population today derives between 5 and 42% of their genomes from the Ancient North Eurasians. Significant ANE ancestry can be found in Native Americans, as well as in Europe, South Asia, Central Asia, and Siberia. It has been suggested that their mythology may have featured narratives shared by both Indo-European and some Native American cultures, such as the existence of a metaphysical world tree and a fable in which a dog guards the path to the afterlife.” ref
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Here are my thoughts/speculations on where I believe is the possible origin of shamanism, which may have begun sometime around 35,000 to 30,000 years ago seen in the emergence of the Gravettian culture, just to outline his thinking, on what thousands of years later led to evolved Asian shamanism, in general, and thus WU shamanism as well. In both Europe-related “shamanism-possible burials” and in Gravettian mitochondrial DNA is a seeming connection to Haplogroup U. And the first believed Shaman proposed burial belonged to Eastern Gravettians/Pavlovian culture at Dolní Věstonice in southern Moravia in the Czech Republic, which is the oldest permanent human settlement that has ever been found. It is at Dolní Věstonice where approximately 27,000-25,000 years ago a seeming female shaman was buried and also there was an ivory totem portrait figure, seemingly of her.
And my thoughts on how cultural/ritual aspects were influenced in the area of Göbekli Tepe. I think it relates to a few different cultures starting in the area before the Neolithic. Two different groups of Siberians first from northwest Siberia with U6 haplogroup 40,000 to 30,000 or so. Then R Haplogroup (mainly haplogroup R1b but also some possible R1a both related to the Ancient North Eurasians). This second group added its “R1b” DNA of around 50% to the two cultures Natufian and Trialetian. To me, it is likely both of these cultures helped create Göbekli Tepe. Then I think the female art or graffiti seen at Göbekli Tepe to me possibly relates to the Epigravettians that made it into Turkey and have similar art in North Italy. I speculate that possibly the Totem pole figurines seen first at Kostenki, next went to Mal’ta in Siberia as seen in their figurines that also seem “Totem-pole-like”, and then with the migrations of R1a it may have inspired the Shigir idol in Russia and the migrations of R1b may have inspired Göbekli Tepe.
I am looking into the seeming connections between totem poles, ceremonial poles, spirit poles, sacred poles, god/goddess poles, deities associated with poles (like an old woman or man that holds up the earth on a pole in mythology), sacred trees, pole star, axis mundi, maypole, Native American sun dance with poles, etc. I see lots of connections between Eurasia and Native American mythology and religious beliefs.
Gravettian Shamanistic Hunter-Gatherers
“The Gravettian is an archaeological industry of the European Upper Paleolithic that succeeded the Aurignacian circa 33,000 years ago. It is archaeologically the last European culture many consider unified, and had mostly disappeared by c. 22,000 years ago, close to the Last Glacial Maximum, although some elements lasted until c. 17,000 years ago. In modern-day Portugal, Spain and France, it was succeeded by the Solutrean and by the Epigravettian in Italy, the Balkans, Ukraine and Russia. The Gravettian culture is known for their artistic works including the famous Venus figurines, which were typically carved from either ivory or limestone. The culture was first identified at the site of La Gravette in the southwestern French department of Dordogne. While historically assumed to represent a genetically homogenous group, recent analysis of ancient DNA sequences suggests that the Gravettian was produced by multiple genetically divergent groups of hunter-gatherers.” ref
“Eastern Gravettian-producing groups belong to the Věstonice cluster, while western Gravettian-producing groups belong to the Fournol cluster, both of which have genetic continuity from producers of the earlier Aurignacian. Fournol cluster-related groups are thought to be the ancestors of the producers of the following Solutrean and Magdalenian cultures present in Western Europe after the Last Glacial Maximum, while the producers of the Epigravettian are genetically distinct from Gravettian-producing groups. Archaeologists usually describe two regional variants: the western Gravettian, known mainly from cave sites in France, Spain, and Britain, and the eastern Gravettian in Central Europe and Russia. The eastern Gravettians, which include the Pavlovian culture, were specialized mammoth hunters, whose remains are usually found not in caves but in open air sites.” ref
“The Pavlovian is an Upper Paleolithic culture, a variant of the Gravettian, that existed in the region of Moravia, northern Austria and southern Poland around 29,000–25,000 years ago. The culture used sophisticated stone age technology to survive in the tundra on the fringe of the ice sheets around the Last Glacial Maximum. Its economy was principally based on the hunting of mammoth herds for meat, fat fuel, hides for tents and large bones and tusks for building winter shelters. Excavation has yielded flint implements, polished and drilled stone artifacts, bone spearheads, needles, digging tools, flutes, bone ornaments, drilled animal teeth, and seashells. Art or religious finds are bone carvings and figurines of humans and animals made of mammoth tusk, stone, and fired clay. Textile impression made into wet clay give the oldest proof of the existence of weaving by humans. Evidence of cheek piercing has been found.” ref
Shamanism in Siberia
“A large minority of people in North Asia, particularly in Siberia, follow the religio-cultural practices of shamanism. Some researchers regard Siberia as the heartland of shamanism. The people of Siberia comprise a variety of ethnic groups, many of whom continue to observe shamanistic practices in modern times. Many classical ethnographers recorded the sources of the idea of “shamanism” among Siberian peoples. Shamanism remains an important marker of ethnic identity for many Siberian peoples. Siberian shamanism is a spiritual tradition characterized by the shaman’s ability to journey into other realms to interact with spirits, heal the sick, and guide their community.”
“It is a practice deeply rooted in the diverse cultures of Siberia, involving rituals, drumming, and trance states to connect with the spirit world. Siberian shamanism encompasses a wide range of traditions, varying across different ethnic groups and regions. Kenin-Lopsan differentiated among five categories of shamans, starting from the Tuvan belief that only persons inheriting shamanhood can be become true shamans. Kenin-Lopsan categorised Tuvan shamans in the following five groups, according to the origins of their powers:
- Shamans who directly descend from previous shamans, or shaman ancestors. It is noteworthy that these shamans called upon their ancestors or mentioned their abodes in their abodes in their invocation before their rituals.
- Shamans who originate themselves from earth and water spirits (in Tuvan: cher sug öazinden hamnaan hamnar). The members of this group have obtained their shamanic powers from the host spirits of water and earth. The existence of these is without doubt connected to the animistic beliefs of the local Turkic peoples, since one of the characters of animistic mythology was Yer-Shub, the God of Water and Earth.
- The members of the third group descend from the sky, their name was tengri boo (sky shaman). They had a relationship with rainbow: it related powers to them, or it gave a sign for them to perform their shamanic rituals. Shamans in this category chanted in their songs about various natural phenomena – storms, thunder and lightning; what is more, a man struck by lightning was to become a really powerful shaman. We can suppose that through their animistic spirit helpers this group of Tuvian shamans was responsible for the weather.
- Shamans originating from the evil spirit called albis (albistan hamnaan hamnar). This evil spirit, which can manifest either as a man or a woman, steals the soul of the shaman-to-be, who falls ill with a really serious sickness (for example, epilepsy or temporary insanity). If he/she gets cured, such a shaman will be called a “sexless shaman” (uk chok hamnar). This category contained some very powerful shamans.
- The last group also acquired abilities from evil spirits, from a devil-like spirit called aza. This kind of shaman always invites his/her spirit helpers to the session to fight sickness (spirits of sickness). It would seem that fighting diseases was the chief function of this group of shamans.”
“Shamanism typically envisions the universe as divided into the upper world (home to gods), the middle world (earth where humans live), and the underworld (inhabited by spirits and demons).”
“A central pillar or axis, like the “Golden Pillar” in Buryat shamanism, connects these worlds and represents the center of the universe.”
“Shamans rely on spirit helpers – benevolent beings from different worlds – to assist them in their rituals and healing practices.”
“Drumming, chanting, dancing, and trance states are common practices used by shamans to enter altered states of consciousness and connect with the spirit realm.”
“Shamans act as intermediaries between the spirit world and the human world, seeking to heal illnesses, solve problems, and ensure the well-being of their community.”
“Many Siberian shamanic traditions involve animistic beliefs, where spirits are believed to inhabit natural objects and phenomena.”
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Earth Diver Mythology and Religious Migrations into the Americas from Siberia:
1. Early Shamanism (Yana Rhinoceros Horn Site, 32,000 years ago and pre-Ancient North Eurasian/Mal’ta–Buret’ culture, 24,000 years ago) No Raeth Diver Myth and no Great Spirit
“The Earth-Diver myth has gone through 3 evolutionary stages: MNP-0, MNP-1, and MNP-2.”
2. Evolved Shamanism mixed with ideas from European totemism-shamanism, but no paganism. Earth Diver Mythology (MNP-0) with a great spirit (limited to “great mystery”). This Earth Diver myth can have any creature (and any number of creatures) become the demiurge’s helper as long as the least likely creature succeeds.
3. Early Paganistic-Shamanism, influenced by the early paganism of the Middle East. Sky god and goddess are now involved. Earth Diver Mythology (MNP-1) with a great spirit (sky deity-like). This Earth Diver myth has a plot that is now crystallized around a pair of waterfowl in Siberia and Western North America, as well as a pair of animals in Eastern North America.
4. Evolved Paganistic-Shamanism, influenced by the evolved paganism of the Middle East. Sky god and goddess are now involved. Earth Diver Mythology (MNP-2) with a great spirit (now a High-God/Supreme-God). This Earth Diver myth now only has one of the creatures dropped off, and the demiurge used the help of only one helper. The “cladistics” of the myth is, therefore, relatively simple: the dynamic and variable ancestral forms crystallize into progressively fewer characters.
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Paleo-Siberian languages
1. Chukotko-Kamchatkan language family (Proposals have been made for links with Eskimo–Aleut, either alone or in the context of a wider grouping. Murray Gell-Mann, Ilia Peiros, and Georgiy Starostin group Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages and Nivkh with Almosan. Algonquian–Wakashan “also Almosan, Algonkian–Mosan, Algonkin–Wakashan” is a hypothetical language family. Sergei Nikolaev argued in two papers for a systematic relationship between the Nivkh language of Sakhalin and the Amur basin and the Algic languages. He also proposed a secondary relationship between these two together and the Wakashan languages.)
2. Nivkh languages (Many words in the Nivkh languages bear a certain resemblance to words of similar meaning in other Paleosiberian languages, Ainu, Korean, or Tungusic languages. Michael Fortescue suggested in 1998 that Nivkh might be related to the Mosan languages of North America. Lexical similarities among Nivkh, Mongolic, and Tungusic are likely due to lexical borrowings.)
3. Yeniseian languages (part of the proposed Dene–Yeniseian language family, Edward Vajda’s Dene–Yeniseian proposal suggested that the possibility of a relationship between Sino-Tibetan and Na-Dene or Yeniseian might warrant serious investigation and Yeniseian is thought to have contributed many ubiquitous loanwords to Turkic and Mongolic vocabulary, such as Khan “refering to a king”, Tarqan “ancient Central Asian title used by various Turkic, Hungarian, Mongolic, as well as Iranian peoples”, and the word for ‘god’, Tengri. The Sino-Caucasian hypothesis has been expanded by others to “Dene–Caucasian” to include the Na-Dene languages of North America, Burushaski, Basque, and, occasionally, Etruscan.)
4. Yukaghir languages (Michael Fortescue argued that Yukaghir is related to the Eskimo-Aleut languages along with Uralic languages, forming the Uralo-Siberian language family.)
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Paleo-Siberian languages
“On the basis of morphological, typological, and lexical evidence, Michael Fortescue suggests that Chukotko-Kamchatkan and Nivkh (Amuric) are related, forming a larger Chukotko-Kamchatkan–Amuric language family. Fortescue does not consider Yeniseian and Yukaghir to be genetically related to Chukotko-Kamchatkan–Amuric. Four small language families and isolates are usually considered to be Paleo-Siberian languages:
- The Chukotko-Kamchatkan family, sometimes known as Luoravetlan, includes Chukchi and its close relatives, Koryak, Alutor and Kerek. Itelmen, also known as Kamchadal, is also distantly related. Chukchi, Koryak and Alutor are spoken in easternmost Siberia by communities numbering in the thousands (Chukchi) or hundreds (Koryak and Alutor). Kerek is extinct, and Itelmen is now spoken by fewer than 5 people, mostly elderly, on the west coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula.
- Nivkh (Gilyak, Amuric) consists of two or three languages spoken in the lower Amur basin and on the northern half of Sakhalin island. It has a recent modern literature.
- The Yeniseian languages were a small family formerly spoken on the middle Yenisei River and its tributaries, but are now represented only by Ket, spoken in the Turukhansk district of Krasnoyarsk Krai by no more than 200 people.
- Yukaghir is spoken in two mutually unintelligible varieties in the lower Kolyma and Indigirka valleys. Other languages, including Chuvan, spoken further inland and further east, are now extinct. Yukaghir is held by some to be related to the Uralic languages.” ref
THE CULT OF THE DEER AND “SHAMANS” IN THE DEER HUNTING SOCIETIES
“The cult of the deer was widespread in traditional societies of deer hunters. This cult was connected with the worship of the deer or man-deer, the ancestor of people and deer, and a cultural hero, the teacher of deer hunting. The most important evidence supporting a deer cult in traditional societies are the totemistic mysteries connected with the reproduction of the deer, and magic hunting rituals. The most important participant in these rituals is the shaman. We hold the opinion that a shaman is a religious specialist whose power is centred on healing, sorcery, and prophecy, and who has the ability to associate with spirits (or animals-helpers) (obsession). In this article, researchers address only the category of shamans connected with deer hunting. We shall try to reconstruct the phenomena of primitive spiritual culture on the basis of an interdisciplinary synthesis of ethnographic and archaeological sources.” ref
“Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into the physical world for the purpose of healing, divination, or to aid human beings in some other way. There is no single agreed-upon definition for the word “shamanism” among anthropologists. Anthropologist Manvir Singh argues that the most justifiable definition includes three basic features: entering non-ordinary states, engaging with unseen realities, and providing services like healing and divination. The Modern English word shamanism derives from the Russian word шаман, šamán, which itself comes from the word samān from a Tungusic language – possibly from the southwestern dialect of the Evenki spoken by the Sym Evenki peoples, or from the Manchu language. The etymology of the word is sometimes connected to the Tungus root sā-, meaning “to know”.Mircea Eliade noted that the Sanskrit word श्रमण, śramaṇa, designating a wandering monastic or holy figure, has spread to many Central Asian languages along with Buddhism and could be the ultimate origin of the word shaman. The word has been reported in Gandhari as ṣamana, in Tocharian A as ṣāmaṃ, in Tocharian B as ṣamāne and in Chinese as 沙門, shāmén. According to Juha Janhunen, “the word is attested in all of the Tungusic idioms” such as Negidal, Lamut, Udehe/Orochi, Nanai, Ilcha, Orok, Manchu, and Ulcha, and “nothing seems to contradict the assumption that the meaning ‘shaman’ also derives from Proto-Tungusic” and may have roots that extend back in time at least two millennia.” ref
Tungusic peoples
“The Tungusic language family is divided into two main branches, Northern (Ewenic–Udegheic) and Southern Tungusic (Jurchenic–Nanaic). The Tungusic expansion into Siberia displaced the indigenous Siberian languages, which are now grouped under the term Paleosiberian. Hunting magic was an important aspect of Tungusic cultures, particularly among reindeer herders and hunters in Siberia. These practices involved rituals and beliefs aimed at ensuring successful hunts and maintaining a harmonious relationship with the spirit world. Shamans played a crucial role in these rituals, acting as intermediaries between the human and spirit realms. Tungusic shamans were believed to possess the ability to communicate with spirits and influence the outcome of hunts. Shamans conducted ceremonies and rituals to ensure a good catch, often involving offerings, prayers, and symbolic actions.”
“Tungusic cosmology often included a belief in different spirit realms, including those inhabited by animals and ancestors, which shamans could access. Some Tungusic groups believed that animals possessed souls that could be influenced through rituals. The Tungusic peoples emphasized the importance of maintaining a respectful and balanced relationship with nature and its spirits to ensure continued success in hunting. The Evenki, a Tungusic group, are known for their shamanistic practices and strong connection to reindeer herding and hunting. Some Tungusic groups, like the Evenki, may have had a form of reindeer cult, where reindeer were revered and their well-being was intertwined with the success of the hunt. Tungusic beliefs about spirits inhabiting animals and nature align with animistic beliefs found in many other cultures. Certain places, like “bad places” associated with tragic events or malevolent spirits, were believed to affect hunting success and community well-being. The theory of hunting magic provides a functionalist explanation for ancient rock art, suggesting that it was created to invoke spiritual power for successful hunts. While Tengrism, a traditional belief system of Yeniseian, Turkic, and Mongolic peoples, shares some elements with Tungusic beliefs, it is a distinct system with its own deities and cosmological views.”
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“Chukchi is a Chukotko–Kamchatkan language spoken by the Chukchi people in the easternmost extremity of Siberia, mainly in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. The language is closely related to Koryak. Chukchi, Koryak, Kerek, Alutor, and Itelmen form the Chukotko-Kamchatkan language family. There are many cultural similarities between the Chukchis and Koryaks, including economies based on reindeer herding. Both peoples refer to themselves by the endonym Luorawetlat (ԓыгъоравэтԓьат [ɬəɣˀorawetɬˀat]; singular Luorawetlan ԓыгъоравэтԓьан [ɬəɣˀorawetɬˀan]), meaning “the real people”. All of these peoples and other unrelated minorities in and around Kamchatka are known collectively as Kamchadals. The Chukchi people have a rich history and culture, which have traditionally centered around war. The Chukchi prize warriors and the fighting spirit that they embody, known to battle nearby tribes, particularly the Tánñit, which comprise fellow Siberian peoples known as the Koryaks (Tánñit).” ref
Chukchi people and the Chukotko-Kamchatkan–Amuric languages
Shamanistic Sacred Gender Shifting: Trans or Bisexual/Homosexual?
“Early Russian ethnographers observed that Chukchi shamans were said to be called by spirits, dreams, or omens, and were believed to be capable of flight, exorcism, and healing. Some shamans were called by mystical forces to engage in a form of ritualized homosexual relations with other men. This ritual typically involved a gender change — a religious ceremony that, it was believed, transformed his genitalia into those of a female. After the change, he might dress in women’s clothing and behave in feminine ways. He was then believed to “lose” masculine traits like hunting skill, and instead take on “feminine” traits, like healing and nurturing. Some of these shamans would take male lovers, and could even marry other men, and the shaman would take on a “wifely” role.” ref
“According to several studies on genomic research conducted from 2014 to 2018, the Chukchi are the closest Asian relatives of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. The Chukchi are traditionally divided into the Maritime Chukchi, who had settled homes on the coast and lived primarily from sea mammal hunting, and the Reindeer Chukchi, who lived as nomads in the inland tundra region, migrating seasonally with their herds of reindeer. The Russian name “Chukchi” is derived from the Chukchi word Chauchu (“rich in reindeer”), which was used by the ‘Reindeer Chukchi’ to distinguish themselves from the ‘Maritime Chukchi,’ called Anqallyt (“the sea people”). Their name for a member of the Chukchi ethnic group as a whole is Luoravetlan (literally ‘genuine person’).” ref
“The anthropologist Marshall Sahlins called the Chukchi “tribes without rulers”. They often lacked formal political structures, but had a formal cosmic hierarchy. In Chukchi religion, every object, whether animate or inanimate, is assigned a spirit. This spirit can be either harmful or benevolent. Some of Chukchi myths reveal a dualistic cosmology. A Chukchi shaman once explained to the ethnographer Vladimir Bogoraz that “The lamp walks around. The walls of the house have voices of their own. Even the shadows on the wall constitute definite tribes and have their own country, where they live in huts and subsist by hunting.” ref
“In prehistoric times, the Chukchi engaged in nomadic hunter-gatherer modes of existence. In current times, there continue to be some elements of subsistence hunting, including that of polar bears, seals, walruses, whales, and reindeer. There are some differences between the traditional lifestyles of the coastal and inland Chukchi. The coastal Chukchi were largely settled fishers and hunters, mainly of sea mammals. The inland Chukchi were partial reindeer herders.” ref
“The Chukchi, an indigenous people of Siberia, traditionally practiced shamanism which was deeply intertwined with their hunting and gathering lifestyle. Hunting magic played a crucial role in their spiritual beliefs and practices, aimed at ensuring success and good fortune in their expeditions.
- Revering Animal Spirits: The Chukchi believed that nature, including animals, plants, and natural landmarks, possessed its own spirits. To ensure a successful hunt, it was essential to obtain the consent of the animal itself or the master spirit governing its life through relationships based on respect and reciprocity.
- Shamanistic Rituals and Communication with Spirits: Chukchi shamans acted as intermediaries between the human and spirit worlds. They would engage in various rituals, often involving drumming, dancing, and entering trance states (sometimes with the use of hallucinogenic mushrooms), to communicate with spirits and seek their guidance or influence on hunts.
- Offerings and Appeals to Spirits: The Chukchi would make offerings and verbal appeals to spirits or “masters” of animals, lands, and places, seeking their benevolence and cooperation in hunting and gathering activities. These offerings were intended to influence events positively and ensure a good hunt.
- Rituals Associated with Specific Animals: Chukchi hunting magic involved rituals specific to the animals they hunted. For instance, inland Chukchi rituals were focused on reindeer herding and involved imitating reindeer movements and habits in dances. Coastal Chukchi rituals, on the other hand, centered around whales and whale hunting.
- Respect for Animal Bones and Spirits: Many Siberian groups, including the Chukchi, held a strong belief that the life force of animals resided within their bones, blood, and vital organs. The bones of hunted animals were treated with great reverence, as it was believed that new life could regenerate from them. Some rituals involved hanging reindeer skins and bones in trees, symbolizing the return of the animal’s spirit to the “Keeper of Game” or “Master of Animals” so it could be reborn and benefit the people again.
- Protective Amulets: Chukchi also utilized amulets, such as charm strings worn in leather pouches, to ward off evil spirits that might negatively impact hunting or cause misfortune.
- Importance of Knowledge and Observation: While shamanistic practices were crucial, the success of a Chukchi hunter also depended on their skill at prognosticating the presence of game, determining reindeer herd routes, and predicting the weather. This highlights a blend of practical knowledge with spiritual beliefs in their hunting magic practices.” ref, ref
Nivkh people
“The Nivkh, or Gilyak (also Nivkhs or Nivkhi, or Gilyaks; ethnonym: Нивхгу, Nʼivxgu (Amur) or Ниғвңгун, Nʼiɣvŋgun (E. Sakhalin) “the people”), are an indigenous ethnic group inhabiting the northern half of Sakhalin Island and the lower Amur River and coast on the adjacent Russian mainland. Historically, they may have inhabited parts of Manchuria. Nivkh were traditionally fishermen, hunters, and dog breeders. They were semi-nomadic, living near the coasts in the summer and wintering inland along streams and rivers to catch salmon. The land the Nivkh inhabit is characterized as taiga forest with cold snow-laden winters and mild summers with sparse tree cover. The Nivkh are believed to be the original inhabitants of the region, and to derive from a proposed Neolithic people that migrated from the Transbaikal region during the Late Pleistocene. The Nivkh practice shamanism, which is important for the winter Bear Festival.” ref
“Less than 5 percent speak their native Nivkh language. Nivkh is considered a language isolate or small family, although it is grouped for convenience with the Paleosiberian languages. Nivkh is divided into four dialects or languages. Nivkh (plural Nivkhgu in the Nivkh language), an endonym, means “person” in the Nivkh language. The origins of the Nivkh are hard to discern from current archaeological research. Their subsistence by fishing and coastal sea-mammal hunting is very similar to the Koryak and Itelmen on the Kamchatka Peninsula. The rigging of dog-sledges is also similar to these Chukotko-Kamchatkan groups. Spiritual beliefs are similar to those of the Northwest Coast Indians of North America, whose ancestors migrated from this area. The Nivkh are physically and genetically different from the surrounding peoples, and scholars believe they are the Indigenous inhabitants of the area.” ref
“The current archaeological model suggests that a sub-Arctic microlithic culture originating from the Transbaikal region migrated across Siberia and populated the Amur and Sakhalin region during the Late Pleistocene, or perhaps earlier. Scientists believe that people of this culture were the first to migrate eastward into the Americas. The microlithic culture was technologically adept in the harsh climate of Siberia during the last ice age. After the ice receded, Tungusic peoples from the south pressed into the warmer northern areas, soon dominating the settled peoples. The Nivkh are considered the last surviving ethnic group able to adapt to the warmer climate and not be assimilated or squeezed out by the newcomers, hence the Nivkh isolate language.” ref
“The earliest archeological radiocarbon dating for Northern Sakhalin as of 2004 is the Neolithic Age Imchin Site 2, dated to 4950–4570 BCE near the Tym’ River estuary on the west coast. Michael Fortescue suggests that Nivkh might be related to the Mosan languages of North America (however, Mosan is generally considered a Sprachbund rather than a language family). Fortescue also presents evidence that Nivkh is related to the Chukotko-Kamchatkans, forming a Chukotko-Kamchatkan–Amuric family, though the evidence was judged to be “insufficient” by Glottolog. More recently, Sergei Nikolaev argued in two papers for a systematic relationship between Nivkh and the Algic languages of North America and a more distant relationship between these two together and the Wakashan languages of coastal British Columbia.” ref
“The Sakhalin Nivkhs populated the island during the Late Pleistocene period, when the island was connected to the Continent of Asia via the exposed Strait of Tartary. When the ice age receded, the oceans rose and the Nivkh were split into two groups. It is suggested that the Nivkh people were present in a wide area of Northeast Asia and influenced other people and their cultures. Nivkhs may be related to the Susuya, Okhotsk, and Tobinitai culture that reached Hokkaido and met the Satsumon culture. Several historians suggest that the Nivkh were present in the kingdom of Goguryeo. There are indications that the ancestors of the Nivkh may have played a much more prominent role in pre- and protohistorical Manchuria. Nivkh lands extended along the northern coast of Manchuria from the Russian fortress at Tugur Bay eastward to the mouth of the Amur River at Nikolayevsk, then south through the Strait of Tartary as far as De Castries Bay. Formerly their territories had extended westwards at least as far as the Uda river and the Shantar Islands until pushed out by the Manchus and, later, the Russians.” ref
“The Nivkh were semi-sedentary hunter-gatherers with summer and winter settlements. Nivkh villages consisted of three to four households shared by several families with larger villages rare, and mostly located on the Amur estuary. Households were shared for reasons of community and survival during the harsh cold winters. Villages would last for several decades but were susceptible to floods and sometimes vanished. Often households contained families that were not related. The village was usually composed of people from two to eight different clans, four being standard. In the late fall, able-bodied Nivkh men would leave the villages to hunt for game in the surrounding hunting grounds whereas women would gather foods from the forests. Nivkh would move to winter settlements near rivers to survive the harsh snows and catch salmon spawning (see list of Nivkh settlements). The Nivkh were very hospitable, such that the Nanai located upstream on the Amur when faced with hard times would often visit or stay in Nivkh villages.” ref
“Nivkh clans (khal) were a group of people united by marriage ties, a common derived deity, arranging marriages, and responsible for group dispute resolution. The clan is divided into three exogamous sub-clans. A clan would cooperate with other members on hunts and fishing when away from the village. A Nivkh clan believed they had “one (common) akhmalk or imgi, one fire, one mountain man, one bear, one devil, one tkhusind (ransom, or clan penalty), and one sin.” ref
“Marriage tended to be exogamic, unlike many paleo-Siberian groups. Although within the clan, marriage is endogamic, while sub-clans are exogamic. They have a triangulated system of marital exchange based on a tri-clan phratry or alliance group (pandf), that according to Lev Sternberg was very similar to the Punaluan marriage. Any Nivkhi men have sexual access to women their own generation in the wife-giving lineage and vice-versa. Nivkh marriage customs were very complicated and controlled by the clan. Cross-cousin marriage seems to be the original custom with the clan, a latter necessity when the clan was unable to marry individuals without breaking taboo. The bride price was probably introduced by the Neo-Siberians. The dowry was shared by the clan. The number of men generally exceeded the number of women. It was hard to gain wives, as they were few and expensive. This led to the wealthier men having more than one wife and poor men being unable to obtain wives.” ref
“Nivkh’s traditional religion was based on animist beliefs, especially via shamanism, before colonial Russians made efforts to convert the population to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Nivkh animists believe the island of Sakhalin is a giant beast lying on its belly with the trees of the island as its hair. When the beast is upset, it awakens and trembles the earth causing earthquakes. Nivkh have a pantheon of vaguely defined gods (yz, yzng) that presided over the mountains, rivers, seas, and sky. Nivkhs’ have extensive folklore, songs, and mythos of how humans and the universe were created, and of how fantastic heroes, spirits and beasts battled with each other in ancient times. Some Nivkhs have converted to Russian Orthodoxy or other religions, though many still practice traditional beliefs. Fire is especially venerated. It is the symbol of the unity of the clan. Fire is considered a deity of their ancestors, protecting them from evil spirits and guarding their clan from harm. An open flame would be “fed” a leaf of tobacco, spices, or a tipple of vodka in order to please the spirits for protection. Nivkhs would also frequently offer items to the deities by ‘feeding’. The sea would be “fed” an item of importance in order that the sea god protects the travellers.” ref
“Shamans’ (ch’am) main role was in diagnosing and curing disease for the Nivkh. The rare shamans typically wore an elaborate coats with belts often made of metal. Remedies composed of plant and sometimes animal matter were employed to cure sickness. Talismans were used or offered to patients to prevent sickness. Shamans additionally functioned as a conduit to combat and ward off evil spirits that cause death. A shaman’s services were usually compensated with goods, quarters, and food.” ref
“Nivkh Shamans also presided over the Bear Festival, a traditional holiday celebrated between January and February depending on the clan. Bears were captured and raised in a corral for several years by local women, who treated the bear like a child. The bear was considered a sacred earthly manifestation of Nivkh ancestors and the gods in bear form (see Bear worship). During the festival, the bear would be dressed in a specially-made ceremonial costume. It would be offered a banquet to take back to the realm of gods to show benevolence upon the clans. After the banquet, the bear would be sacrificed and eaten in an elaborate religious ceremony. Dogs were often sacrificed as well.” ref
“The bear’s spirit returned to the gods of the mountain ‘happy’ and would then reward the Nivkh with bountiful forests. The festival typically would be arranged by relatives to honour the death of a kinsman. Generally, the Bear Festival was an inter-clan ceremony where a clan of wife-takers restored ties with a clan of wife-givers upon the broken link of the kinsman’s death. The Bear Festival was suppressed during Soviet occupation though the festival has had a modest revival since the decline of Soviet Union, albeit as a cultural instead of religious ceremony. A very similar ceremony, Iomante, is practiced by the Ainu people of Japan.” ref
“Lell et al. (2002) tested a sample of seventeen Nivkh males and found that six of them (35%) belonged to Haplogroup C-M48, six of them (35%) belonged to haplogroup P-M45 (xQ-M3, R-M17), two of them (12%) belonged to haplogroup C-M130 (xM48), two of them (12%) belonged to haplogroup K-M9 (xO-M119, O-M122, N-Tat, P-M45), and one of them (6%) belonged to haplogroup O-M119. Tajima et al. (2004) tested a sample of twenty-one Nivkh males and found that eight of them (38%) belonged to haplogroup C-M217, a haplogroup which is also common among Koryaks, Itelmens, Yukaghirs, Tungusic peoples, and Mongols; six (29%) belonged to haplogroup K-M9 (xO-M122, O-M119, P-P27), four of them (19%) belonged to haplogroup P-P27 (xR-SRY10831.2), two of them (9.5%) belonged to R-SRY10831.2, and one of them (4.8%) belonged to Haplogroup BT-SRY10831.1 (xC-RPS4Y711, DE-YAP, K-M9).” ref
“According to the abstract for a doctoral dissertation by Vladimir Nikolaevich Kharkov, a sample of 52 Nivkhs from Sakhalin Oblast contained the following Y-DNA haplogroups: 71% (37/52) C-M217 (xC-M77/M86, C-M407), 7.7% (4/52) O-M324 (xO-M134), 7.7% (4/52) Q-M242 (xQ-M346), 5.8% (3/52) D-M174, 3.8% (2/52) O-M175 (xO-P31, O-M122), 1.9% (1/52) O-P31, and 1.9% (1/52) N-M46/M178. Kharkov et al. (2024) examined the Y-chromosome haplogroups of 37 Nivkh males in the Okhinsky District of Sakhalin Oblast, who were estimated to have no paternal admixture with other ethnic groups. The results showed that 43.2% (16/37) belonged to haplogroup C2a1a2b-B90, 32.4% (12/37) to C2a1a1b1a-F13958, 10.8% (4/37) to C2a1-ACT1942, 8.1% (3/37) to Q1a1a1-M120, and 5.4% (2/37) to O2a1b1a2a-F238.” ref
Nivkh mythology
“The subject matter of Nivkh tales is quite characteristic: myths about the moon and the sun, tales about finding good luck and relationships with the other world. Despite the stories about battles with forest, mountain, taiga, underground peoples, in general the heroic component in mythology is absent. In addition to tylgund, there are also nastund – an improvisational myth, ker-aind – a short epic tale, and tales about animals. One of the legends recorded by Piłsudski contains a story about a thing known in various mythologies as vagina dentata – a vagina with teeth.” ref
Hunting magic
“Hunting magic is a form of magic used in hunter-gatherer societies that involves rock art in rituals to encourage a successful hunt. First observed among modern hunter-gatherers, it has been offered as a hypothesis to explain the purpose of ancient rock art from a functionalist approach. Proponents have pointed to violent imagery found in some rock art alongside animals as support for the hypothesis.” ref
Tengrism
“Tengrism (also known as Tengriism, Tengerism, or Tengrianism) is a belief-system originating in the Eurasian steppes, based on shamanism and animism. It generally involves the titular sky god Tengri. According to some scholars, adherents of Tengrism view the purpose of life to be in harmony with the universe. The forms of the name Tengri (Old Turkic: Täŋri) among the ancient and modern Turkic and Mongolic are Tengeri, Tangara, Tangri, Tanri, Tangre, Tegri, Tingir, Tenkri, Tangra, Teri, Ter, and Ture. The name Tengri (“the Sky”) is derived from Old Turkic: Tenk (“daybreak”) or Tan (“dawn”). Meanwhile, Stefan Georg proposed that the Turkic Tengri ultimately originates as a loanword from Proto-Yeniseian *tɨŋgɨr- “high”. Mongolia is sometimes poetically called the “Land of Eternal Blue Sky” (Mönkh Khökh Tengeriin Oron) by its inhabitants. According to some scholars, the name of the important deity Dangun (also Tangol) (God of the Mountains) of the Korean folk religion is related to the Siberian Tengri (“Heaven”), while the bear is a symbol of the Big Dipper (Ursa Major).” ref
“It was the prevailing religion of the Göktürks, Xianbei, Bulgars, Xiongnu, Yeniseian and Mongolic peoples and Huns, as well as the state religion of several medieval states such as the First Turkic Khaganate, the Western Turkic Khaganate, the Eastern Turkic Khaganate, Old Great Bulgaria, the First Bulgarian Empire, Volga Bulgaria, Khazaria, and the Mongol Empire. In the Irk Bitig, a ninth century manuscript on divination, Tengri is mentioned as Türük Tängrisi (God of Turks). According to many academics, Tengrism was, and to some extent still is, a predominantly polytheistic religion based on the shamanistic concept of animism, and was first influenced by monotheism during the imperial period, especially by the 12th–13th centuries. Abdulkadir Inan argues that Yakut and Altai shamanism are not entirely equal to the ancient Turkic religion.” ref
“Tengrism differs from contemporary Siberian shamanism in that it was a more organized religion. Additionally the polities practicing it were not small bands of hunter-gatherers like the Paleosiberians, but a continuous succession of pastoral, semi-sedentarized khanates and empires from the Xiongnu Empire (founded 209 BCE) to the Mongol Empire (13th century). On a scale of complexity, Tengrism lies somewhere between the Proto-Indo-European religion (a pre-state form of pastoral shamanism on the western steppe) and its later form the Vedic religion. The chief god Tengri (“Heaven”) is considered strikingly similar to the Indo-European sky god *Dyḗus and the East Asian Tian (Chinese: “Sky; Heaven”). The structure of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion is actually closer to that of the early Turks than to the religion of any people of neolithic European, Near Eastern, or Mediterranean antiquity.” ref
“Tengrism formed from the various Turkic and Mongolic folk religions, which had a diverse number of deities, spirits, and gods. Turkic folk religion was based on Animism and similar to various other religious traditions of Siberia, Central Asia, and Northeast Asia. Ancestor worship played an important part in Tengrism. Tengrists view their existence as sustained by the eternal blue sky (Tengri), the fertile mother-earth spirit (Eje), and a ruler regarded as the chosen one by the holy spirit of the sky. Heaven, earth, spirits of natur,e and ancestors provide for every need and protect all humans. By living an upright, respectful life, a human will keep his world in balance and perfect his personal Wind Horse, or spirit. The Huns of the northern Caucasus reportedly believed in two gods: Tangri Han (or Tengri Khan), considered identical to the Persian Esfandiyār and for whom horses were sacrificed, and Kuar (whose victims are struck by lightning).” ref
“Traditional Tengrism was more embraced by the nomadic Turks than by those residing in the lower mountains or forests. This belief influenced Turkic and Mongol religious history since ancient times until the 14th century, when the Golden Horde converted to Islam. Since then, Tengrism has been mostly submerged by other religious ideas. Traditional Tengrism persists among the Mongols and in some Turkic and Mongolic-influenced regions of Russia (Sakha, Buryatia, and Tuva) in parallel with other religions. According to Hungarian archaeological research, the religion of the Magyars (Hungarians) until the end of the 10th century (before Christianity) was a form of Tengrism and Shamanism. Tengrism was probably similar with the folk traditions of the Tungusic peoples, such as the Manchu folk religion. Similarities with Korean shamanism, and Chinese shamanism Wuism, as well as Japanese Shinto are also evident.” ref
The Ket are a Yeniseian-speaking people
“The Ket people, indigenous to Siberia, were traditionally hunter-gatherers, and their hunting practices were deeply intertwined with their spiritual beliefs and rituals. The traditional economy of the Ket, like that of other taiga dwellers, was based on hunting squirrel, sable, fox, deer, elk, bear, and hare and selling the furs, mostly to Russian merchants. Traditionally, reindeer breeding and fishing have been of great importance. Ket transport depends chiefly on domesticated reindeer for hauling sledges; they also use skis and boats as the weather dictates. They dwell in conical tents in summer and in semisubterranean houses in winter. The Ket were divided into two exogamous kinship groups, or phratries, of ceremonial and cultic importance; these were subdivided into clans that were territorial and economic units as well as mutual-aid groups. Shamans acted as healers and as intermediaries with the spirit world. The Ket people share their origin with other Yeniseian people and are closely related to other Indigenous people of Siberia and Indigenous peoples of the Americas. They belong mostly to Y-DNA haplogroup Q-M242.”
“According to a 2016 study, the Ket and other Yeniseian people originated likely somewhere near the Altai Mountains or near Lake Baikal. It is suggested that parts of the Altaians are predominantly of Yeniseian origin and closely related to the Ket people. The Ket people are also closely related to several Native American groups. According to this study, the Yeniseians are linked to the Paleo-Eskimo groups. The Ket language has been linked to the Na-Dené languages of North America in the Dené–Yeniseian language family. This link has led to some collaboration between the Ket and northern Athabaskan peoples. Although a potential link to the Na-Dené languages has been identified, this link is not accepted by all linguists. The Kets have a rich and varied culture, filled with an abundance of Siberian mythology, including shamanistic practices and oral traditions. Siberia, the area of Russia in which the Kets reside, has long been identified as the originating place of the Shaman or Shamanism.”
“The shamans of the Ket people have been identified as practitioners of healing as well as other local ritualistic spiritual practices. Supposedly, there were several types of Ket shamans, differing in function (sacral rites, curing), power, and associated animals (deer, bear). Also, among Kets (as with several other Siberian peoples such as the Karagas), there are examples of the use of skeleton symbolics. Hoppál interprets it as a symbol of shamanic rebirth, although it may also symbolize the bones of the loon (the helper animal of the shaman, joining the air and underwater worlds, just like the story of the shaman who traveled both to the sky and the underworld). The skeleton-like overlay represented shamanic rebirth among some other Siberian cultures as well.”
Siberian peoples, any of a large number of small ethnic groups living in Siberia. Most engage either in reindeer herding or fishing, while some also hunt furbearing animals or farm and raise horses or cattle. In the past, many had both summer and winter dwellings, their winter homes sometimes being partially or entirely underground and their summer homes being various styles of tent. Vyacheslav Ivanov and Vladimir Toporov compared Ket mythology with those of speakers of Uralic languages, assuming in the studies that they are modeling semiotic systems in the compared mythologies. They have also made typological comparisons. Among other comparisons, possibly from Uralic mythological analogies, the mythologies of Ob-Ugric peoples and Samoyedic peoples are mentioned. Other authors have discussed analogies (similar folklore motifs, purely typological considerations, and certain binary pairs in symbolics) may be related to a dualistic organization of society – some dualistic features can be found in comparisons with these peoples.”
“However, for Kets, neither dualistic organization of society nor cosmological dualism have been researched thoroughly. If such features existed at all, they have either weakened or remained largely undiscovered. There are some reports of a division into two exogamous patrilinear moieties, folklore on conflicts of mythological figures, and cooperation of two beings in the creation of the land, the motif of the earth-diver. This motif is present in several cultures in different variants. In one example, the creator of the world is helped by a waterfowl as the bird dives under the water and fetches earth so that the creator can make land out of it. In some cultures, the creator and the earth-fetching being (sometimes called a devil, or taking the shape of a loon) compete with one another; in other cultures (including the Ket variant), they do not compete at all, but rather collaborate. However, if dualistic cosmologies are defined in a broad sense, and not restricted to certain concrete motifs, then their existence is more widespread; they exist not only among some Uralic-speaking peoples, but in examples on every inhabited continent.”
Ket hunting rituals
Respect for Nature and Spirits:
- “Ket beliefs are strongly connected to the natural world, particularly the bear, which they see as a sacred animal and the host of wild animals. They perform rituals before hunting to appease the Bear Spirit (Kaigus), fumigating their hunting gear to cleanse it from contamination and ensuring respect for the prey.”
The Bear Cult and “Bear Holiday”
- “The Ket observed a significant bear cult, demonstrated by elaborate rituals surrounding the hunting and consumption of bear meat. The ritual of showing the identity of the bear and the man is called the “Bear holiday” or “Bear Hunt”. Skinning the bear after killing it is the first stage of initiating the animal to a human being, followed by eating the meat, which symbolizes the merging of the bear and the man.”
Shamanism and Healing
- “Ket shamans played a vital role in their society, acting as healers and intermediaries with the spirit world. They believed illness was caused by an unwell spirit rather than a physical ailment and used their spiritual connection to heal. One type of medicine man, the bangos, connected with the earth and underworld, having moles and bats as helpers and harnessing earth spirits. Ket shamans (senang) had a connection with the sky and birds, viewing the sky as the abode of the creator deity Es.”
Communication with Animal Spirits
- “Successfully hunting involved mastering techniques and obtaining the consent of the animal or its master spirit through relationships based on respect and reciprocity. Shamans facilitated communication with animal souls and master spirits through rituals like the “dark tent” ceremony, where they communicated with unseen beings by imitating animal sounds and voices.”
“The Ket family groups who nomadized across broad areas near the Yenisei River and its tributaries in Russia’s Turukhansk District were the last hunter-gatherers of Inner Eurasia. Traditional ethnographic accounts categorize them as “Paleosiberians” or “Paleoasiatics,” together with North Pacific Rim sea-mammal hunters and fishers such as the Yukagir, Yupik, Itelmen, Nivkh, and Ainu, as, although Ket origins and language appear to be completely distinct from these peoples. Evidence from river names suggests the Ket and their now extinct southern relatives (the Yugh, Kott, Arin, Assan and Pumpokol) lived in the forests between the Upper Yenisei and the southern tip of Lake Baikal before being pushed gradually northward by the intrusion of pastoral peoples.”
“The usefulness of the terms “Paleosiberians” or “Paleoasiatics” as a generic economic descriptor for all North Asian non-pastoral hunting groups is diminished by the inclusion of the reindeer-breeding Chukchi and Korak in this designation. Unlike the reindeer-herders who surround them on all sides, the Ket traditionally had only one domesticate, the dog, an animal used in hunting and for pulling small loads. A few southern Ket groups briefly acquired reindeer from their Selkup neighbors during the 20th century.”
“Though distinct from the reindeer-breeding tribes of western and southern Siberia both linguistically and anthropologically, the Ket maintained centuries of contact with neighboring Samoyedic and Turkic tribes, often intermarrying with them. Consequently, all central Siberian peoples, including the Ket, share many parallels in their spiritual culture and traditional healing practices. Though Ket shamanism reveals a number of unique aspects, the features held in common with other West Siberian forest peoples such as the Selkup, Khanty, and South Siberian Turks (Khakas, Altai, Shor), places it squarely within the cultural heritage of spiritual traditions from aboriginal central Siberia.”
“The shaman costume described so elaborately in Anuchin is, in fact, typical for only one of these five categories. This happened to be the most widespread type of shaman, called the qaduks shaman, whose main spirit helper is a flying female reindeer, known as qaduks, a word not found outside of shamanic parlance. This category of shaman traveled to the sky world by using the drum as a female reindeer to ascend into the sky. The membrane of the drum, consequently, was made of reindeer skin. A qaduks great shaman typically had reindeer horns made of iron as part of his headgear. In contrast to the qaduks shaman, the bear shaman generally did not ascend into the sky but rather took paths across the earth, especially leading to the forbidding northwest, where Hosedam was thought to imprison the souls she had stolen from unfortunate people. The bear shaman had no drum and used a bear paw instead of a drumstick. While shamanizing he sometimes fastened the dried nose and mouth portions of a bear over his face, using a rawhide strap.”
“His clothing was made of bearskin and contained iron images of the bones of bears. There was also a category of shaman whose patron spirit was an anthropomorphic figure called kandelok, which sported bear paws instead of hands. The kandelok shaman also had an iron headdress described by Alekseenko as resembling a sort of helmet. Bear shamans and kandelok shamans possessed not only bear spirit helpers, but also were assisted by the allel family guardian spirits and by the dangols, or spirits of dead ancestors. Another category of shaman was associated with a mythical giant eagle known as dagh, said to be large enough to cover the sun. Iron images of eagle claws often adorned his coat. This type of shaman especially prized eagle feathers. Like the qaduks shaman, the eagle shaman could ascend to the sky and receive assistance from spirits there. Interestingly, the eagle was said to have first taught humans how to shamanize. In one version, the first shaman had originally been an eagle.”
“In another version, a two-headed eagle taught humans to shamanize and was punished by losing one of his heads, in a sort of Siberian analog to the Prometheus myth. Two-headed eagles images are often found among the shaman’s iron pendants. The first great shaman Doh seems to have been an eagle shaman, given the fact that an eagle often perched on his shoulder. Among the Ket it was taboo to kill eagles, and eagle feathers found by chance on the ground were displayed in special places of honor in the tent. The last category of shaman was the dragonfly (dynd) shaman, whose coat tapered to a point in the back, symbolizing the insect’s shape. The dragonfly shaman’s headdress, which sported iron plates formed in the shape of thunderclouds. This type of shaman was thought to be the most powerful, and could ascend to the highest levels of the sky accessible to humans.”
“His patrons were the dragonfly and the swan, as well as Tomam, benevolent goddess of the south revered for sending the migrating birds northward every summer. The swan (tigh), a sacred bird that could not be hunted, was a special spirit helper to the dragonfly shaman. Dragonfly shamans could only operate in warm months, however, when the dragonfly, swan, and other migratory birds sent by Tomam were present. Dragonfly shamans seem to have been the least common type of shaman, while minor shamans most often belonged to the qaduks category.”
“These did not acquire a drum or headdress and practiced with a drumstick, but instead wore regular clothing and the special headband known as tuneng. The seven trails accessible to shamans were apportioned differently according to the category to which the shaman belonged. The qaduks, bear, eagle and kandelok shamans all were capable to traveling from southwest to northwest, into the frozen realm of Hosedam. The dragonfly shaman could travel only to the southwest, along two different trails. All shamans except the bear could travel eastward toward the sunrise. Bear shamans were confined to the earth, while the other categories could also fly up to the sky during their quests, though the kandelok shamans, like the bear shaman, usually operated in the earthly realm.”
“The Ket religious and mythological system is a hierarchy in which six levels are distinguished. The connection between the levels is carried out with the help of plots in which characters of different levels participate. The first (highest) level of Ket mythology includes only one mythological character – the upper god Eś (Eş, which is translated into English as ‘sky’ and ‘god’ or ‘deified sky’). In his image, the Kets personified the sky and the natural phenomena associated with it – thunder (Eş deşij, “Eś screams” – a phrase pronounced during thunder), lightning, clouds, and even the northern lights – “the fire of the sky-Eś” (Eş (dә) bok). The sky itself is called “Eś’s skin” (Eşt holәt) in Ket language. Many folklore stories indicate that Eś lives in the sky, above the seventh circle of the upper world.” ref
“Ket shamanistic practices also involve rituals during times when both the sun and moon are visible, indicating a connection to these celestial bodies. The Ket people, an indigenous group in Siberia, have myths and traditions related to the sun and moon, though not as prominently featured as in some other cultures. While the Inuit and other groups have elaborate brother-sister myths explaining the sun and moon’s origins and celestial movements, the Ket focus more on the sky as a deity (Eś) and its associated phenomena like thunder and the northern lights.” ref
“The characters of the second level include the personification of the evil principle, the mistress of the underworld Hosedem, who has several parallel names in Ket: Хоşеdæm, Хоşijdæm, Hosejdam, etc. and is translated as “mother of Hosij”. Khosedem sends bad weather, troubles and damage, pestilence, as well as death and illness of people, devouring their souls – uļwej. According to some legends, Khosedem lives in the ground, according to others – on a rock on the northern island at the mouth of the Yenisey. There are several versions of her relationship with Eś – according to one, Khosedem was Eś’s wife and lived with him in his transparent palace. But one day she betrayed Eś and went to the Moon, for which she was overthrown to the earth by her ex-husband. According to another version, Khosedem herself decided to leave heaven. Tomam (Tomam, Tomæm, “mother of heat”) also belongs to this level, and is associated with the south, heat, and the sun. While Khosedem is associated with the north and winter, Tomam is associated with the south and spring.” ref
“The third level includes the characters-heroes of the epic. Doh and Albe are the first cultural heroes of the Kets, who confront Khosedem. Albe acts as the first person or even a participant in the act of creation of the world, while Doh lived later, as evidenced by the story of his death, separated from the time of the narrator by a gap of 300 years. The three brothers Balne, Belegene, and Torete, whose acts of bravery are best attested in the Ket tales, also belong to this level. In addition to these five heroes, other heroes also belong to the third level, in particular, the great shamans of the past: Purtos, whose words are referenced in shamanic songs, and the shaman Vasily Lesovkin, who is at the intersection of historical time and the time of the narrator. He appears in the tragic situation of the clash between the Kets and the non-Kets, leading to the death of the shaman and the end of the tradition of great shamans.” ref
“The fourth level includes spirits – embodiments of earthly nature. This includes earth and water spirits, Dotethem, Lyutys, Kai-gus, Ul-gus, and others. All these creatures live in forests and rivers and are capable of causing harm to humans, although they do not always actively strive to do so. Another class of this level includes objects that make up the system of human protection and the well-being of his home. Such objects include Alel – a person’s assistant in the fight against troubles, illnesses, and evil spirits, represented as a wooden figurine of a small man dressed in animal skins. A separate class of this level includes natural objects – animals: first of all, the bear, as well as the loon as a bird of the lower world, the eagle as a bird of the upper world, the swan, the deer, the beaver, the burbot.” ref
“A special class is represented by celestial objects: the moon, the sun, some stars, and constellations. In this case, the Big Dipper and Orion are depicted as animals (like an elk and a deer) and are adjacent to the previous class. Another class within this level is the hostile to the Kets “non-Kets”: Evenks, Yuraks, Russians. The last class of this level consists of characters who may have previously belonged to higher levels, but in the texts of the 20th century appear in fairy-tale time and are sometimes opposed to each other as good and evil beginnings: Hun — the daughter of the sun or the sun itself and Kalbesem.” ref
“The fifth level of Ket mythology is represented by shamans. Shamanism in Ket mythology is associated with the reincarnation of a shaman, explained by the inhabitation of spirits. These spirits themselves can be considered as objects of the fourth level. Shamans can differ in the strength of their shamanic abilities (the difference between great shamans and lesser shamans). The main character of the sixth level is the person himself. However, just as a shaman becomes a shaman only after the spirits enter him, a person becomes an object of this level only after the main (seventh) soul enters him – uļwej, which accompanies the person throughout his life.” ref
“In a Ket encampment, tents were erected with the most prominent member’s dwelling standing closest to the east. The tent opening faced west, since the western side through which everyone entered was regarded as the profane side of the tent. The back inner portion, reserved for adult males, was the cleanest, most sacred area. Snow sleds normally were parked facing east. A sled parked facing west signaled that its owner had died. A kettle tipped toward the west symbolized death. A red sunset was thought to be a harbinger for a deterioration of the next day’s weather, a manifestation of Deles, spirit of the blood-red sky. Together with the north and the underground spaces, the west represented yet another image of death and the underworld. The low-lying forests on the western side of the Yenisei were thought to be infested with lytis, evil spirits of the dead sometimes regarded as servants of Hosedam.” ref
“It was also the abode of Bissimdes, the eldest son of Es who had failed to heed his father’s warnings and froze to death in the swampy lowlands. There he dwells still, sending storms, warfare, and all manner of ill will to the Ket from that direction. Bissimdes was also thought to send storms, so that the color red, which symbolized both blood and the sunset, were linked in this way. The role of Bissimdes in the west and Hosedam in the north, therefore, overlapped. Hosedam was also known as tygilam, or ‘Downriver Mother’. Along the Yenisei, the notions ‘downriver’ and ‘north’ were basically synonymous. The east, like the upriver south, had no such negative connotations. After the Bear Ceremony, in which a bear was ritually slaughtered and eaten to propitiate success in the hunt, the bear’s bones and certain organs were secreted in a cavity of a tree facing east, as it was believed this direction fostered reincarnation of the bear’s spirit. Bones of animals killed for food on the hunt were likewise placed on the east side of trees in the hope of facilitating their abundant reappearance during the next hunting season.” ref
“When a Ket woman gave birth, the midwife would take from the tent in an eastward direction a birchbark box containing the afterbirth, tying it to the eastern side of a pine (i.e., “cedar”) tree. The positioning of this box facing the eastern exposure was designed to invoke the life-giving properties of this direction. The box also contained a miniature bow fashioned from willow twigs and designed to protect the infant from evil spirits. Clockwise motion also played a positive role in many rituals, during which the participants moved in an east to west motion. Along the axis of the Yenisei, the eastern shore was hilly, while the western shore was low and swampy. For this reason, the Ket called the east tyngbang, or stony land, and the west ulbang, or watery land.” ref
“Ket culture heroes such as Alba and Olgit (progenitor of a subdivision of one of the two traditional Ket moieties, or exogamous marriage groups), as well as the three brother warriors Balna, Belegen, and Toget, were said to have turned into mountainous crags on the eastern side of the Yenisei. The rocky promontory on the western bank of the Yenisei downriver from Vorogovo Village is said to derive from the mythic figure Syoksa, who tried to prevent Alba from finding the local river-mouth spirit, for which Alba killed him. His body became a cliff, still tinged with the red ochre that formed from his spilled blood. The Ket world was thought to float on an enormous sea and be surrounded by seven seas. These expanses of water were associated with the underworld or with Hosedam, who was thought to live at the place where the Yenisei emptied into the frozen sea.” ref
“But bodies of fresh water on the land, particularly rivers, were familiar places of plenty and benevolence. In the Ket language, the adverb igda means both ‘down to the river’s edge’ as well as ‘downriver’ and ‘downhill’, while at means ‘into the forest’ as well as ‘upriver’ and ‘uphill’. The riverbank, in particular, was a zone of life-giving support, while the forest interior was more forbidding, though likewise vital during the winter months when the water was thickly frozen over. In some Ket legends, the Qaigus is portrayed as a female forest mother. In others, the Qaigus is simply the bear – master of all forest animals. Bears were thought to be reincarnations of deceased humans who ‘visited’ the Ket. When a hunter found a bear and killed it, the Ket believed that it was the bear who had ‘offered’ to visit the world of humans. No skill was attributed to the hunters.” ref
“Once a bear’s carcass had been procured, the Ket performed an ancient rite called the Bear Ceremony, during which they consumed his flesh in a highly ritualized fashion, ‘hosting’ the bear as their ‘guest’ by giving him assorted gifts and asking him various questions. The carcass was ritually butchered by the older men, with bones carefully disarticulated at the joints rather than broken. Strips of fat were removed from the carcass in a specific order, and all of the flesh was cooked and consumed, including the head. The hunter responsible for finding the bear swallowed its two eyes raw. Parts of the skin, including the nose and lips, were attached to leather thongs and worn by participants in the feast. The trachea and lungs were set aside and placed back inside the bear’s den. After the feast ended, the bones were taken upland into the forest and placed in the hollow of a tree facing east.” ref
“This ceremony was performed to invoke the creature’s goodwill toward the winter hunt, since the bear was a vital link between the riverine Ket and their crucial inland hunting grounds. After the ritual had been completed, the Ket were careful to observe the etiquette of returning the bear’s bones and major body parts to a special place in the forest. The bones of animals killed during the hunt were left in a similar fashion to regenerate on the east side of trees. Fish remains were likewise respectfully returned to the river to placate the Ulgus, or water spirit. The water gave life both in the present, real world as well as mythologically. According to Ket legend, the past had seen many floods that cleansed the earth.” ref
“During each deluge, people and animals survived by clinging to bits of turf floating in the frothy torrent. In the future, another, final flood will resurrect great Ket heroes of the past such as Doh, Alba, and Balna. In this way, the future, unseen but destined to repeat the past, was perceived as existing behind the present. The Ket word ongta ‘in back’ refers to the temporal future as well as the spatial notion of behind. Traditionally, Ket society was divided into two moieties that exchanged marriage partners. One was called Bogdadeng, or ‘People of the Fire’, the other Qengtandeng, or ‘People of the Large Ski Pole Ring’. Tracks of the latter could be recognized in the snow by the larger imprint left by the ends of their ski poles. Both groups were patrilocal, with women from the opposing moiety inducted as marriage partners.” ref
“Even after clans representing the two originally separate marriage groups began to live side-by-side in villages, their social division was reflected in the strict observance of myriad local customs. One could not marry a woman from inside one’s own moiety. It was also the custom to invite members of the opposite moiety to prepare the dead for burial, as one’s own dead relative posed a danger to the whole clan. Shamans felt hindered from calling their spirit helpers while in the vicinity of newly dug graves for fear of unintentionally arousing the spirits of the deceased. Gravesites thus added a special dimension to the local landscape, and were located inland and away from hunting or camping areas. In general, the newly deceased posed a special danger to the members of their own family, clan, or moiety. Even when returning from visiting a sick person, a fire was lit for the visitor to step over for purification.” ref
“On the contrary, the Bear Ceremony was performed by members of a single moiety, with the women who had married into the group playing a minor role. Each moiety also had its own sacred family holai sites, which were dangerous to members of the opposite moiety, especially to the women, who could be seized by the holai spirit’s sons, the dosn, as marriage partners. Each family group had its own allel guardians, passed down through each family’s youngest son, as well as its own dangols ancestor spirit images. It was forbidden to give away the family baby cradle or even to give nonfamily members the dry-rot wood used as absorbent material on the cradle bottom, as this was thought to deprive the group of its fertility.” ref
“Also, it was forbidden to transfer fire to anyone outside one’s own moiety, a custom that the modern Ket extended to include the offering of matches to strangers. Even into the early 20th century, the moiety system regulated who gathered with whom during the collective waterfowl hunts of late spring, the summer weir-fishing season, and the fall gathering before saying farewell to the riverbank. Members of each moiety referred to each other using the special cosanguinal kinship term be’p, while members of the opposing moiety were known by the affinal term qoj, which also translates as ‘neighbor’. The males in each patriarchal clan also served as military units during incidents of inter-ethnic conflict with non-Ket.” ref
“The Ket referred to themselves as kyndeng ‘people of the light’ or simply as de’ng ‘people’. The word ke’t is actually the singular form denoting ‘human being’ and probably derives from the word ky’t, denoting ‘offspring of a single mother’ – in other words, a blood relative. Other people were de’ng ‘people’ in a broader sense, but not in the narrow sense of kyndeng. The Ket thus marked out a mental map of ethnic space to accommodate themselves with their diverse pastoral neighbors. The Yugh, a riverine people who spoke a language similar to Ket, were also regarded as a distinct ethnicity. They were assumed to be descendants of non-Ket who originally spoke a completely different language. A famous legend states that the first Ket shaman Doh’s son, who had taken the shape of a loon, was killed by the heedless Yugh, who did not understand the words of warning he was shouting down to them.” ref
“The Selkup – the Ket and Yugh neighbors to the southwest – were friendly and often exchanged marriage partners with adjacent Ket groups, becoming in the process part of one or the other moiety. This is revealed in the Ket ethnonym for Selkup, la’k, a borrowing of the Selkup word for ‘friend’. The Ket neighbors to the north and east were less congenial. The dyreng – who were probably south-wandering groups of Forest Enets, though the term is usually translated as ‘Yurak’, that is, ‘Nenets’ – were often at war with the Ket. Evenki (humbang) were infiltrating Ket lands from east of the Yenisei and tended to be hostile to both the Ket and Selkup.” ref
“The world of light, where the Ket resided, stood in contrast to both the sky and the underworld – two realms inhabited by beings that only shamans could hope to visit, summon, or treat with. Connecting all of these dichotomies into a unified whole was a series of colorful rituals. Some ceremonies treated the bear as a guest returning to the human world. Others placated evil forest spirits before the winter hunt, or welcomed the migratory birds each spring. Still others were designed to venerate the clan’s ancestors at key locales overlooking the river.” ref
Yukaghir people
“The Yukaghirs, or Yukagirs, are a Siberian ethnic group in the Russian Far East, living in the basin of the Kolyma River. Modern Yukaghirs are thought to be descendants of the late Neolithic Ymyyakhtakh culture. The Ymyyakhtakh culture was a Late Neolithic culture of Siberia, with a very large archaeological horizon, dating to c. 2200–1300 BCE. Its origins seem to be in the Lena River basin of Yakutia, and also along the Yenisei River. From there, it spread to the east and west. Individual sites were also found in Taymyr. Some features of the East Siberian Ymyyakhtakh culture spread amazingly quickly as far as Scandinavia. Ceramics with wafer prints are found at the Late Bronze Age monuments of the Taimyr Peninsula, Yamal Peninsula, Bolshezemelskaya and Malozemelskaya tundra, the Kola Peninsula, and Finland (not to mention East Siberia and North-East Asia).” ref, ref
“The Ymyyakhtakh made round-bottomed ceramics with waffle and ridge prints on the outer surface. Stone and bone arrowheads, spears, and harpoons are richly represented. Armour plates were also used in warfare. Finds of bronze ware are frequent in the burial grounds. The culture was formed by the tribes migrating from the shores of Lake Baikal to the north, contacting and merging with the local substrate of the Bel’kachi culture. The carriers of culture are identified either with the Yukaghirs ethnic group, or perhaps with the Chukchi and Koryaks. The Ymyyakhtakh culture persisted at least until the first centuries of our era. It was later replaced by the Ust-Mil culture. After 1,700 BCE, the Ymyyakhtakh culture is believed to have spread to the east as far as the Chukotka Peninsula, where it was in cultural contact with the Eskimo–Aleut language speakers, and the Paleo-Eskimos. A ceramic complex comparable to the Ymyyakhtakh culture (typified by pottery with an admixture of wool) is also found in northern Fennoscandia near the end of the second millennium BCE.” ref
“Migration and admixture are key demographic events that have influenced the genetic structure of modern human populations. The genetic diversity of inhabitants in Inner Eurasia, a vast geographic region encompassing Siberia and the Eurasian Steppe, has been shaped by a complex history of mixture between diverse source populations of both eastern and western Eurasian origins. As a result of this complex history, present-day Inner Eurasian populations are stratified into three distinct admixture clines mirroring geography. The northernmost one among these clines, composed of populations from the boreal forest and tundra regions who mostly speak the Uralic and Yeniseian languages, share a distinct type of Eastern Eurasian ancestry, frequently referred to as the Siberian ancestry in recent archeogenetics literature. Among the present-day populations, it is most enriched in Nganasans and other Samoyedic-speaking ones such as Nenets, Enets, and Selkups.” ref
“The Samoyedic-speaking populations inhabit the northernmost region of Siberia (Nganasans, Enets, and Nenets) as well as the Yenisei River basin to the south (Selkups). Although ancient genomes have been only scarcely reported in these regions, the Siberian ancestry was present in a larger area in the past, including early Metal Age individuals from Bolshoy Oleni Ostrov in the Kola Peninsula, Iron Age individuals from the eastern Baltic Sea, and Iron Age individuals from the Volga–Oka interfluve. Together with the genetic analysis of present-day populations, these studies suggest that the populations with the Siberian ancestry once occupied a large area in Siberia and northeastern Europe and formed a substratum for the genetic profile of present-day populations in the regions. Therefore, it is crucial to trace the origins and spreads of the Siberian ancestry for understanding the formation of present-day human populations and languages in northern Eurasia. Despite the recent accumulation of ancient genome data in Siberia, centered on southern Siberia, it remains obscure how these populations are related to present-day inhabitants of Siberia, such as Nganasans, calling for a careful reinvestigation of previously published data.” ref
“Among the previously published ancient genomes, the Middle Holocene (ca. 8,000 to 3,000 years ago) southern Siberians represent a pivotal ancient lineage connected to the present-day Siberian ancestry. Of particular interest are those from the archeological sites at Lake Baikal and Yakutia because they harbored Y haplogroups N and Q, which are prevalent in present-day Siberians. These archeological sites also belong to multiple interrelated but distinct archeological cultures of hunter–gatherers: the Lake Baikal region was inhabited by the Kitoi culture during the Early Neolithic period (ca. 8,000 to 6,800 years ago), followed by the Serovo–Glazkovo culture during the Late Neolithic period and Early Bronze Age (ca. 6,000 to 3,400 years ago), while the Syalakh inhabited the Yakutia region–Belkachi culture during the Early–Middle Neolithic periods (ca. 7,000 to 4,300 years ago), succeeded by the Late Neolithic Ymyyakhtakh culture (ca. 4,300 to 3,300 years ago). Overall, they show genome-wide genetic profiles closely related to present-day Siberians but still different enough to reject a simple ancestor–descendant relationship. Therefore, the Middle Holocene Siberians in Yakutia and Lake Baikal provide an excellent starting point from which we can build a historical model for the origins of the Siberian ancestry and populations harboring it.” ref
The genetic makeup of the Middle Holocene Siberians resulted from the admixture of three ancestries (Fig. 1): Ancient North Eurasian (ANE), Ancient Paleo-Siberian (APS; an ancestry closely related to the Native American ancestries), and Ancient North Asian (ANA). ANE ancestry is represented by the Upper Paleolithic individuals from the Mal’ta (MA1) and Afontova Gora sites (AG2 and AG3). During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), ANE ancestry intermixed with populations of Eastern Eurasian origin and formed the ancestral population of Native Americans. This ancestral population left its genetic legacy in later APS populations, e.g. 14,000-yr-old terminal Pleistocene individual from Ust-Kyakta-3 in southern Siberia (UKY) and 9,800-yr-old Mesolithic individual from the Duvanny Yar site at the Kolyma River in northern Siberia (Kolyma_M). At the beginning of the Middle Holocene, individuals of ANA ancestry already appeared in both East and West Baikal, presumably expanded from the neighboring regions in northeastern China where ANA ancestry was present at least 14,000 years ago.” ref
“Although the genetic profile and the geographic distribution of these three ancestries in Siberia have been actively investigated using ancient genomes, it remains unexplored how, when, and where the genetic profiles of present-day Siberians were formed out of these three ancestral populations. In this study, we provide a proximal historical model for the genetic relationship between a comprehensive set of published Siberian genome data. Our findings demonstrate that the APS population was present in the Baikal and Yakutia during the Middle Holocene, and in each region, the local APS population formed a genetic substratum for the later populations. Yakutian populations from three different time points are genetically distinct due to multiple streams of ANA-related gene flow between them. Finally, we show that the Middle Neolithic Yakutia (Yakutia_MN) population serves as a better-fitting source than the Lake Baikal one for the Siberian ancestry found in the genetic makeup of northern Siberians, northeastern Europeans, Paleo-Eskimos, and ancient Athabaskans.” ref
“Middle Holocene Siberian populations has provided significant insights into the origin of the Siberian ancestry. We identified two primary lineages within the Middle Holocene Siberians: the Lake Baikal lineage and the Yakutia lineage. Interestingly, we observed an increasing affinity between ancient Yakutia populations and present-day Nganasan over time, while this trend was not observed in the West Baikal populations. Further analysis using the outgroup-f3 statistic revealed a strong genetic affinity between Nganasan and Yakutia, as well as a closely related individual in southern Siberia, Krasnoyarsk_BA. Similar to Yakutia_LN and Krasnoyarsk_BA, Nganasan could be modeled as Yakutia_MN + EastBaikal_N (P = 0.675; 54% contribution from Yakutia_MN), but its Yakutia_MN ancestry proportion was slightly higher than that of Yakutia_LN (48%). This model breaks when Yakutia_LN was added to the outgroup population set, supporting a strong affinity between Nganasan and Yakutia_LN (P = 2.38 × 10−11). Therefore, we suggest that Nganasan descended from a metapopulation to which Yakutia_LN and Krasnoyarsk_BA belonged but its direct ancestor had less contribution from the EastBaikal_N-related gene flow than Yakutia_LN.” ref
“The 13 tribes that once constituted the Yukaghir group are: Vadul–Alais, Odul, Chuvan, Anaoul, Lavren, Olyuben, Omok, Penjin, Khodynts, Khoromoy, Shoromboy, Yandin, and Yandyr. The surviving three tribes are the Odul of Nelemnoe, the Vadul of Andryushkino and the Chuvan of the Anadyr river area. Of the extinct groups, the most important were the Khodynts, the Anaoul (both of the Anadyr River area), and the Omok (north of the Chuvan). Sometimes the Chuvan are considered a separate people. The Chuvantsy language has been extinct since the early 20th century. In 2002, 1,087 identified themselves as Chuvan compared to more than 1,300 in 1989. The Vadul are mainly involved in reindeer herding while the Odul (Kogime) are mostly hunter-gatherers. The Vadul are also known as Tundra Yukaghir. The Odul are also known as Taiga Yukaghir or Kolyma Yukaghir. The Vadul and Odul languages are as different as German is from Dutch. Both are nearing extinction, and Odul is in a much weaker state compared to Vadul. In the 1989 census, more than 700 of the Yukaghirs identified as Vadul while fewer than 400 were Odul.” ref
“The Yukaghir are one of the oldest peoples in North-Eastern Asia. Originally they lived over a huge territory from Lake Baikal to the Arctic Ocean. By the time of the first encounter with Russians, Yukaghir were divided into twelve tribes with around 9,000 people. The Yukagir ethnonym is Odul or Vadul, which means “mighty”. Tribal divisions among the Yukaghir are fading now, although in every census from 1926, significant number of tribesmen identified themselves with tribal divisions like Anaoul, Odul and Vadul rather than describing themselves as Yukaghir. The Soviet government actively discouraged this tendency and now only the most elderly identify this way. In the 2002 census, out of the 1,509 Yukaghirs, 51 identified themselves as Omok, 40 as Alais, 21 as Odul, 17 as Vadul, 6 as Khangait, and 4 as Detkil.” ref
“The head of every clan was an elder called a Ligey Shomorokh. His was the final word in all aspects of life. Hunting leaders were Khangitche, and war leaders were Tonbaia Shomorokh (“the mighty man”). Women and teenagers had equal voices with men. The internal life of the community was under the control of the older women. Their decisions in those matters were indisputable. In the beginning of every summer all clans gathered for the Sakhadzibe festival, where mutual Yukaghir questions were discussed. In the Yakut-Sakha Republic there are three nomadic extended family communities. These are Tchaila in Nizhnekolymsky District, Teki Odulok in Verkhnekolymsky District and Ianugail in Ust-Yansky District. The head of Ianugail is I. I. Tomsky. The community’s main activities are deer hunting and fishing. Tchaila is the biggest of the three.” ref
“Its head is S. I. Kurilov. They have 4000 domesticated reindeer, 200 horses, and 20 cows. The community also hunts deer and polar foxes. There is also a shop where traditional skin and fur garments are made. The head of Teki Odulok is N. I. Shalugin. Their base is the village of Nelemnoe. This community is in the most difficult situation. Due to the “creative interpretation” of various Perestroika and privatization laws by the local and district administration and so-called businessmen, the community has lost all their reindeer, cows and even part of its land. All they have left are about 50 horses. They have no money for supplies for hunting and fishing. 80% of all adult population is de facto unemployed. The highest forum for Yukagir is the all-people gathering Suktuul.” ref
“The main traditional activity is nomadic and semi-nomadic hunting of deer, moose, wild sheep, and sable, as well as fishing. Reindeer are bred mostly for transportation. Horses are known among the Yukaghir as “domestic reindeer of Yakuts” (Yoqod ile in Tundra Yukaghir or Yaqad āçə in Kolyma Yukaghir). A Yukaghir house is called a chum. The decline of traditional economic activities, the unfavorable environmental situation of the Yukaghir’s traditional lands and waters, and the absence of local and federal laws and executive mechanisms protecting indigenous peoples in Russia, have not aided the welfare and continuation of traditional Yukaghir communities. The average life span for men is 45 years, and 54 years for women. Child mortality is the highest in the Yakut-Sakha Republic. In addition, one expedition made to the Yukaghir found that most had no knowledge of traditional Yukaghir culture.” ref
“The Yukaghir languages are a small language family of two closely related languages, Tundra Yukaghir and Kolyma Yukaghir, although there used to be more. They are unclassified languages: their origin and relation to other languages are unknown; some scholars consider them distantly related to the Uralic languages, but this classification is not accepted by the majority of specialists in Uralic linguistics. The languages are regarded as moribund, since less than 370 people can speak either Yukaghir language. Most Yukaghirs today speak Yakut and Russian.” ref
“The relationship of the Yukaghir languages with other language families is uncertain, though it has been suggested that they are distantly related to the Uralic languages, thus forming the putative Uralic–Yukaghir language family. Michael Fortescue argued that Yukaghir is related to the Eskimo-Aleut languages along with Uralic languages, forming the Uralo-Siberian language family.” ref
“Alongside Russian Orthodox beliefs, Yukaghirs practice shamanism. The dominant cults are ancestral spirits, the spirits of Fire, Sun (Pugu), Hunting, Earth, and Water, which can act as protectors or as enemies of people. The most important is the cult of Pugu, the Sun, who is the highest judge in all disputes. The spirits of the dead go to a place called Aibidzi. Every clan had a shaman called an alma. After death every alma was treated as a deity, and the body of the dead alma was dismembered and kept by the clan as relics. The Yukaghir still continue traditions stemming from their origins as nomadic reindeer-hunters: they practice dog sacrifice and have an epic poem based around crows. The animal cult was especially strong in the elk cult. There was a number of rituals and taboos connected with elk and deer hunting.” ref
Haplogroup Q Y-DNA
“Q is the predominant Y-DNA haplogroup among Native Americans, the Swati tribe, and several peoples of Central Asia and Northern Siberia. Subclades of Q-M346 (Q1b, as of 2019) were the predominant Y-DNA lineages among pre-Columbian indigenous peoples of the Americas. These include, in particular, subclades of Q-M3 (Q1b1a1a) and Q-Z780 (Q1b1a2). Most were descendants of the major founding groups who migrated from Asia into the Americas by crossing the Bering Strait. Subclades of Q1b (M346) other than Q1b1a1a (M3) and Q1b1a2 (Z780) are virtually restricted to the Eurasian continent.” ref
“Among Native Americans from North America, two Q-lineages outside Q1b/Q-M346 have also been found. These are Q-P89.1 (under Q1, a.k.a. Q-L472/MEH2) and Q-NWT01 (under Q-F746, a.k.a. Q1a1). These may have not been among the initial migrants from Beringia, but from later arrivals who traveled, using boats, along the shoreline of East Asia and then into North America. It is unclear whether the current frequency of Q-M242 lineages represents their frequency at the time of immigration or is the result of the shifts in a small founder population over time. Regardless, Q-M242 came to dominate the paternal lineages in the Americas.” ref
“In the indigenous people of North America, Q-M242 is found in Na-Dené speakers at an average rate of 68%. The highest frequency is 92.3% in Navajo, followed by 78.1% in Apache, 87% in SC Apache, and about 80% in North American Eskimo (Inuit, Yupik)–Aleut populations. (Q-M3 occupies 46% among Q in North America). On the other hand, a 4000-year-old Saqqaq individual belonging to Q1a-MEH2* has been found in Greenland. Surprisingly, he turned out to be genetically more closely related to Far East Siberians such as Koryaks and Chukchi people rather than Native Americans. Today, the frequency of Q runs at 53.7% (122/227: 70 Q-NWT01, 52 Q-M3) in Greenland, showing the highest in east Sermersooq at 82% and the lowest in Qeqqata at 30%.” ref
“Haplogroup Q-M242 has been found in approximately 94% of Indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and South America. The frequencies of Q among the whole male population of each country reach as follows:
- 61% in Bolivia.
- 51% in Guatemala,
- 40.1% (159/397) to 50% in Peru
- 37.6% in Ecuador,
- 37.3% (181/485) in Mexico (30.8% (203/659) among the specifically Mestizo segment)
- 31.2% (50/160) in El Salvador,
- 15.3% (37/242) to 21.8% (89/408) in Panama,
- 16.1% in Colombia,
- 15.2% (25/165) in Nicaragua,
- 9.7% (20/206) in Chile,
- 5.3% (13/246 in 8 provinces in northeastern, central, southern regions) to 23.4% (181/775 in 8 provinces in central-west, central, northwest regions) in Argentina,
- 5% in Costa Rica,
- 3.95% in Brazil, and so on.” ref
“Q-M242 originated in Asia (Altai region), and is widely distributed across it. Q-M242 is found in Russia, Siberia (Kets, Selkups, Siberian Tatars, Siberian Yupik people, Nivkhs, Chukchi people, Yukaghirs, Tuvans, Altai people, Koryaks, etc.), Mongolia, China, Uyghurs, Tibet, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and so on. In Siberia, the regions between Altai and Lake Baikal, which are famous for many prehistoric cultures and as the most likely birthplace of haplogroup Q, exhibit high frequencies of Q-M242. In a study (Dulik 2012), Q-M242 (mostly Q-M346 including some Q-M3) has been found in 24.3% (46/189: 45 Q-M346, 1 Q-M25) of all Altaian samples. Among them, Chelkans show the highest frequency at 60.0% (15/25: all Q-M346), followed by Tubalars at 41% (11/27: 1 Q-M25, 10 Q-M346) and Altaians-Kizhi at 17% (20/120).” ref
“In a former study, Q-M242 is found in 4.2% of southern Altaians and 32.0% of northern Altaians with the highest frequency of 63.6% in Kurmach-Baigol (Baygol). The frequency reaches 13.7% (20/146) in the whole samples. In another study, the frequency rises up to 25.8% (23/89: all Q-M346) in Altaians. Based on the results of these studies, the average frequency of Q-M242 in Altaians is about 21%. Tuva, which is located on the east side of Altai Republic and west of Lake Baikal as well as on the north side of Mongolia, shows higher frequency of Q-M242. It is found in 14% ~38.0% (41/108) of Tuvans.” ref
“The highest frequencies of Q-M242 in Eurasia are witnessed in Kets (central Siberia) at 93.8% (45/48) and in Selkups (north Siberia) at 66.4% (87/131). Russian ethnographers believe that their ancient places were farther south, in the area of the Altai and Sayan Mountains (Altai-Sayan region). Their populations are currently small in number, being just under 1,500 and 5,000, respectively. In linguistic anthropology, the Ket language is significant as it is currently the only surviving one in the Yeniseian language family, which has been linked by some scholars to the Native American Na-Dené languages and, more controversially, the language of the Huns. In far eastern Siberia, Q-M242 is found in 35.3% of Nivkhs (Gilyaks) in the lower Amur River, and 33.3% of Chukchi people and 39.2% of Siberian Yupik people in Chukotka (Chukchi Peninsula). It is found in 30.8% of Yukaghirs who live in the basin of the Kolyma River, which is located northwest of Kamchatka. It is also found in 15% (Q1a* 9%, Q-M3 6%) of Koryaks in Kamchatka.” ref
“Q-M120 (M120, M265/N14) – It has been found at low frequency among Han Chinese, Dungans, Nivkhs, Koryaks, Yukaghirs, Vietnamese, Japanese, Tuvans, Kalmyks, Koreans, Mongols in Mongolia, Tibetans, and Hmong Daw in Laos. It has also been reported in Bhutanese, Hazara, Bruneian Murut, Gujar, Baloch, Georgian, and Peruvian populations. Q-M3 (M3) – Common in indigenous peoples of the Americas . Q-M19 (M19) – Found among some indigenous peoples of South America, such as the Ticuna and the Wayuu. Q-M194 (M194) – In South America. Q-M199 (M199, P106, P292) – In South America.” ref
“Q-M378 (M378) – It is widely distributed in Europe, South Asia, West and East Asia. It is found among samples of Hazaras and Sindhis. It is also found in the Mongols, the Japanese people, and the Uyghurs of North-Western China in two separate groups. The Q-M378 subclade is a branch to which Q-M242 men in some European Jewish Diaspora populations belong. Its subbranch Q-L245’s subclades Q-Y2200 and Q-YP1035 are found in Ashkenazi Jews. Some Sephardic Jews carry other subclades of Q-L245, including Q-BZ3900, Q-YP745, and Q-YP1237. Q-M378 samples have also been located in Central America (Panama) and South America (Andean Region).” ref
“Y-DNA Q samples from ancient sites
- South Central Siberia (near Altai)
- Afontova-Gora-2, Yenisei River Bank, Krasnoyarsk (South Central Siberia of Russia), 17,000 years ago: Q1a1-F1215 (mtDNA R)
- North America
- Anzick-1, Clovis culture, western Montana, 12,600 years ago: Q1a2-L54* (not M3, mtDNA D4h3a)
- Kennewick Man, Washington, 8,500 years ago: Q1a2-M3 (mtDNA X2a)
- Altai (West Mongolia)
- Tsagaan Asga and Takhilgat Uzuur-5 Kurgan sites, westernmost Mongolian Altai, 2,900-4,800 years ago: 4 R1a1a1b2-Z93, 3 Q1a2a1-L54, 1 Q-M242, 1 C-M130.
- Greenland
- Saqqaq (Qilakitsoq), Greenland, 4,000 years ago: Q1a-YP1500 (mtDNA D2a1)” ref
China
- “Hengbei site (Peng kingdom cemetery of Western Zhou period), Jiang County, Shanxi, 2,800-3,000 years ago: 9 Q1a1-M120, 2 O2a-M95, 1 N, 4 O3a2-P201, 2 O3, 4 O*
- In another paper, the social status of those human remains of ancient Peng kingdom(倗国) are analyzed. aristocrats: 3 Q1a1 (prostrate 2, supine 1), 2 O3a (supine 2), 1 N (prostrate) / commoners : 8 Q1a1 (prostrate 4, supine 4), 3 O3a (prostrate 1, supine 2), 3 O* (supine 3) / slaves: 3 O3a, 2 O2a, 1 O*
- (cf) Pengbo (倗伯), Monarch of Peng Kingdom is estimated as Q-M120.
- Pengyang County, Ningxia, 2,500 years ago: all 4 Q1a1-M120 (with a lot of animal bones and bronze swords and other weapons, etc.)
- Heigouliang, Xinjiang, 2,200 years ago: 6 Q1a* (not Q1a1-M120, not Q1a1b-M25, not Q1a2-M3), 4 Q1b-M378, 2 Q* (not Q1a, not Q1b: unable to determine subclades):
- In a paper (Lihongjie 2012), the author analyzed the Y-DNAs of the ancient male samples from the 2nd or 1st century BCE cemetery at Heigouliangin Xinjiang – which is also believed to be the site of a summer palace for Xiongnu kings – which is east of the Barkol basin and near the city of Hami. The Y-DNA of 12 men excavated from the site belonged to Q-MEH2 (Q1a) or Q-M378 (Q1b). The Q-M378 men among them were regarded as hosts of the tombs; half of the Q-MEH2 men appeared to be hosts and the other half as sacrificial victims.
- Xiongnu site in Barkol, Xinjiang, all 3 Q-M3
- Three samples from a Xiongnu) site in Barkol, Xinjiang were found to be Q-M3 (Q1a2a1a1). And, as Q-M3 is mostly found in Yeniseians and Native Americans, the authors suggest that the Xiongnu had connections to speakers of the Yeniseian languages. These discoveries have some positive implications on the not as yet clearly verified theory that the Xiongnu were precursors of the Huns.
- Mongolian noble burials in the Yuan dynasty, Shuzhuanglou Site, northernmost Hebei
- China, 700 years ago: all 3 Q (not analysed subclade, the principal occupant Gaodangwang Korguz (高唐王=趙王 阔里吉思)’s mtDNA=D4m2, two others mtDNA=A)
- (cf) Korguz was a son of a princess of Kublai Khan (元 世祖), and was the king of the Ongud He died in 1298 and was reburied in Shuzhuanglou in 1311 by his son. (Do not confuse this man with the Uyghur governor, Korguz, who died in 1242.) The Ongud tribe (汪古部) was a descendant of the Shatuo tribe (沙陀族), which was a tribe of Göktürks (Western Turkic Khaganate) and was prominent in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period of China, building three dynasties. His two queens were all princesses of the Yuan dynasty (Kublai Khan’s granddaughters). It was very important for the Yuan dynasty to maintain a marriage alliance with the Ongud tribe, which had been a principal assistant since Genghis Khan‘s period. About 16 princesses of the Yuan dynasty married the kings of the Ongud tribe.” ref
“In Northern Europe, haplogroup Q comprises about 2.5% of males. According to the Swedish Haplogroup Database, 4.1% (27/664) of Swedish males belong to Q-M242. About 2/3 of the samples analyzed subclades in detail belong to Q1a2b-F1161/L527, and about 1/3 are in Q1a2a-L804. In Norway, Q-M242 is found in about 2.6% (~4%) of males, with Q-L804 being more common than Q-F1161/L527. It is observed among 1.6% of males in Denmark, 3% in the Faroe Islands (known to be related to Vikings). In an article (Helgason et al.) on the haplotypes of Icelanders, 7.2% (13/181) of males in Iceland are labelled as R1b-Branch A, but they are actually Q-M242. On the other hand, it is 0.2% in Finland, 4.6% in Latvia, 1.1% in Lithuania, 0.5% in Estonia.” ref
“The ancestors of present-day Native Americans migrated to the Americas from Siberia via the Beringia around 16,000 years ago. Q1a2a1-L54 and its subclade Q1a2a1a1-M3 are the two predominant subclades of haplogroup Q found on both sides of the Bering Strait. Q1a2a1-L54 has spread throughout Northern Asia, the Americas, and Western and Central Europe. An ancient individual of the Clovis culture belonged to Q1a2a1-L54 (xQ1a2a1a1-M3). Q1a2a1a1-M3, one of the most thoroughly studied subclades within haplogroup Q, is frequent both in the Chukotka Peninsula of Siberia (close to Alaska) and the Americas. Previous studies indicated that Q1a2a1a1-M3 migrated from Siberia to the Americas and partially returned to Siberia. The estimated time of Q1a2a1a1-M3 is 13,000-22,000 years ago. Q1a2a1a1a-M19, a subclade of Q1a2a1a1-M3, remained in Southern America and has a similarly diversified pattern with its upstream lineage. The age of Q1a2a1a1a-M19 is approximately 7,000–8,000 years ago.” ref
“The frequencies of haplogroup Q range from 0 to 94% in Eurasia (approximately 5% on average). Haplogroup Q reaches its highest frequencies in Siberia, especially in Kets (90–94%) and Selkups (66–71%), and is rarely seen in Western, Southern and South-eastern Asia. Subclade Q1a1a1-M120 appears almost only in Eastern Asia, and its diversity implies that haplogroup Q has migrated from north to south with the ancestors of current Han Chinese during the Neolithic period. Subclades Q1a1b-M25 and Q1a2-M346 have spread widely in Eurasia. Q1a1b-M25 reaches its highest frequency in Turkmen (34–43%) and shows low frequencies in other Eurasian populations, while Q1a2-M346 appears in Central, Western, and Southern Asia, and most parts of Europe. Haplogroup Q has also appeared in other parts of the world. For instance, an ancient DNA study of a Saqqaq individual in Greenland suggests that haplogroup Q1a-MEH2 was frequent in Siberian and Native American populations.” ref
“A few subclades of haplogroup Q have been identified in the Comoros population in Africa (Q1a2-M346) and the Polynesian islands in Oceania (Q1a2a1a1c-M199). Subclade Q1a1a1-M120 was found specifically in the Han Chinese with a low frequency. Our results suggested that subclade Q1a1a1-M120 had migrated from Mongolia to China during the Neolithic period, and spread over China with the ancestors of Han Chinese. Previous studies showed that Q1a1a1-M120 had migrated from north-western China to the Central Plain as nomads, and merged into the northern Han Chinese farmers at approximately 2,500–3,000 years ago. Therefore, we supposed that the ancient nomads with Q1a1a1-M120 had migrated to south-eastward from north-western China and were assimilated by the Han Chinese farmers.” ref
“Subclade Q1a2a1-L54 was mainly found in Yeniseian (Ket) and Samoyedic (Enets and Selkup) speakers (ESM_1). Genetic evidence showed that Yeniseian and Samoyedic speakers had genetic affinities to northern Altaians with high frequencies of haplogroup Q-M242 (xL54), while southern Altaians had many L54 samples and showed similarities with Turkic-speaking populations. However, Yeniseian and Samoyedic samples in this study belonged to L54, which was different from the results of previous studies (xL54). In view of the time estimates, we postulated that Q1a2a1-L54 had migrated from the southern Altai region and was assimilated into Yeniseian- and Samoyedic-speaking populations during a recent historical period.” ref
“Both Q1a1b-M25 and Q1a2-M346 subclades were frequent in Turkic-speaking populations, and their time estimates were at approximately 3,000-5,000 years ago. Q1a1b-M25 had spread from Central Asia to Western Asia and to Hungary in Central Europe (ESM_1); Q1a2-M346 had migrated from Southern Siberia to most parts of Eurasia and the Comoros Islands of Africa. The results coincided with Turkic nomadic migrations from Southern Siberia and Mongolia to Central and Western Asia, Caucasus, and Eastern Europe. Therefore, we suggested that Q1a1b-M25 and Q1a2-M346 probably migrated with Turkic nomads from Southern Siberia to most parts of Eurasia. A few Q1a1b-M25 and Q1a2-M346 samples in Mongolic-speaking populations probably indicated that Turkic nomads had overlapped with Mongolic-speaking populations when they lived in the present Mongolian territory. An ancient DNA study showed that the Hungarians probably originated from Central Asia–Southern Siberia at approximately 4,000 years ago. Therefore, we proposed that Q1a1b-M25 and Q1a2-M346 had migrated from Central Asia–Southern Siberia to Central Europe at least 4,000 years ago. Three individuals of Africa (the Comoros Islands) that belonged to Q1a2-M346 reaffirmed that Middle Eastern populations had a genetic influence on the Comoros Islands.” ref
“Subclades Q1a2a1a2-L804 and Q1a2b2-F1161 were the downstream of Q1a2-M346, both of which mainly distributed in Western and Northern Europe. Q1a2a1a2-L804 arrived in Western and Northern Europe as early as 5,000-7,000 years ago. Ancient DNA studies showed that first European farmers migrated from Central Europe to Western and Northern Europe between 5,000-7,500 years ago. Therefore, we supposed that Q1a2a1a2-L804 had spread from Central Europe to Western and Northern Europe with European early Neolithic farmers. The time estimate for Q1a2b2-F1161 was one thousand years later than its upstream clade Q1a2-M346, which seemed to be unrelated to the Neolithic transition of Europe. Since Q1a2-M346 spread across Europe at that time, it probably brought Q1a2b2-F1161 to Western and Northern Europe, and even to Western and Southern Asia.” ref
“Subclades Q1b1a-M378 and Q1b1a1-L245 were correlated with the Jewish people, both of which probably represented that some of the Jewish Diaspora populations had expanded into Europe within historical times. As seen in central clusters of Q1b1a-M378 and Q1b1a1-L245 mainly consisted of samples from Central and Eastern Europe. The results reaffirmed that some Jewish Diaspora populations had migrated from Central and Eastern Europe, and finally settled in other parts of Europe. Previous Y-chromosome studies showed that haplogroups J, R, and Q3a1 had certain proportions in Jewish populations and spread over Europe. Subclades Q1b1a-M378 and Q1b1a1-L245 probably spread over Europe with haplogroups J, R, and Q3a1.” ref
“The Q1b1a-M378 samples from Southern Asia might represent the descendants of Ashkenazi Jewish populations because its upstream haplogroup Q-P36 was regarded as minor Ashkenazi Jewish founding lineages in Southern Asia. The study of the human Y-chromosome haplogroup Q in Eurasia revealed a clear pattern of its migration routes during the past 10,000 years, especially in Han Chinese, Yeniseian-, Samoyedic-, Turkic- speaking, and Jewish populations. It is clear that a higher resolution database will be helpful to draw more conclusions on the origins, migrations, and ethno-linguistic affiliations of haplogroup Q.” ref
Haplogroup C Y-DNA
“Haplogroup C is found in ancient populations on every continent except Africa and is the predominant Y-DNA haplogroup among males belonging to many peoples indigenous to East Asia, Central Asia, Siberia, North America and Australia as well as a some populations in Europe, the Levant, and later Japan. Males carrying C-M130 are believed to have migrated to the Americas some 6,000-8,000 years ago, and was carried by Na-Dené-speaking peoples into the northwest Pacific coast of North America. The distribution of Haplogroup C-M130 is generally limited to populations of Siberia, parts of East Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. Haplogroup C2 (M217) – the most numerous and widely dispersed C lineage – was once believed to have originated in Central Asia, spread from there into Northern Asia and the Americas while other theory it originated from East Asia. C-M217 stretches longitudinally from Central Europe and Turkey, to the Wayuu people of Colombia and Venezuela, and latitudinally from the Athabaskan peoples of Alaska to Vietnam to the Malay Archipelago.” ref
“Found at especially high frequencies in Buryats, Daurs, Hazaras, Itelmens, Kalmyks, Koryaks, Manchus, Mongolians, Oroqens, and Sibes, with a moderate distribution among other Tungusic peoples, Koreans, Ainus, Nivkhs, Altaians, Tuvinians, Uzbeks, Han Chinese, Tujia, Hani, and Hui. The highest frequencies of Haplogroup C-M217 are found among the populations of Mongolia and Far East Russia, where it is the modal haplogroup. Haplogroup C-M217 is the only variety of Haplogroup C-M130 to be found among Native Americans, among whom it reaches its highest frequency in Na-Dené populations. C-M93 (C2a) is found sporadically in Japanese people.” ref
- C-L1373/F1396 (C2b) has been identified in Central Asia.
- C-P39 (C2b1a1a) is found among several indigenous peoples of North America, including some Na-Dené-, Algonquian– and Siouan-speaking populations.
- C-M48 (C2b1b; previously C3c) is found at high frequencies in northern Tungusic peoples, Kazakhs, Oirats, Kalmyks, Mongolians, Yukaghirs, Nivkhs, Koryaks, Itelmens, and Udegeys, with a moderate distribution among southern Tungusic peoples, Buryats, Tuvinians, Yakuts, Chukchi, Kyrgyz, Uyghurs, Uzbeks, Karakalpaks, and Tajiks.” ref
“Haplogroup C-M217, also known as C2 (and previously as C3), is a Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup. It is the most frequently occurring branch of the wider Haplogroup C (M130). It is found mostly in Central Asia, Eastern Siberia and significant frequencies in parts of East Asia and Southeast Asia including some populations in the Caucasus, Middle East, South Asia, East Europe. It is found in a much more widespread area with a low frequency of less than 2%. The haplogroup C-M217 is now found at high frequencies among Central Asian peoples, indigenous Siberians, and some Native peoples of North America. In particular, males belonging to peoples such as the Buryats, Evens, Evenks, Itelmens, Tom Tatars, Kalmyks, Kazakhs, Koryaks, Mongolians, Negidals, Nivkhs, Udege, and Ulchi have high levels of M217.” ref
“The oldest samples of haplogroup C-M217 found among Ancient Northeast Asians of Amur region. The haplogroup C-M217 is found in Ancient samples of Xiongnu, Göktürks, Uyghurs, Khazars, and Kipchaks. One particular haplotype within Haplogroup C2-M217 has received a great deal of attention, because of the possibility that it may represent direct patrilineal descent from Genghis Khan, though that hypothesis is controversial. According to the recent result, C2’s subgroups are divided into C2b and C2e, and in Mongolia, most belong to C2b(Genghis Khan modal), while very few are C2e. On the other hand, C2b takes the minority, and most are C2e in Japan, Korea, and Southern East Asia. The specific subclade Haplogroup C3b2b1*-M401(xF5483) of the broader C3b1a3-F3273/M504, M546 subclade, which has been identified as a possible marker of the Manchu Aisin Gioro and has been found in ten different ethnic minorities in northern China, is relatively rare in Han Chinese populations (Heilongjiang, Gansu, Guangdong, Sichuan and Xinjiang).” ref
“Y chromosome haplogroup C2c1a1a1-M407 is carried by Mongol descendants of the Northern Yuan ruler from 1474 to 1517, Dayan Khan, who is a male line descendant of Genghis Khan which was found out after geneticists in Mongolia conducted tests on them. C2b1a3a1c2-F5481 clade of C2*-ST which is also widespread in Central Asia among Kazakhs, Hazaras and ordinary commoner Mongols. The Kerey clan of the Kazakhs have a high amount of the C3* star-cluster (C2*-ST) Y chromosome and is very high among Hazaras, Kazakhs and Mongols in general. Toghan, Genghis Khan’s sixth son has claimed descendants who have Y haplogroup C2b1a1b1-F1756 just like the first son of Genghis Khan, Jochi‘s descendants in the Kazakh Tore clan.” ref
“The extremely broad distribution of Haplogroup C-M217 Y-chromosomes, coupled with the fact that the ancestral paragroup C is not found among any of the modern Siberian or North American populations among whom Haplogroup C-M217 predominates, makes the determination of the geographical origin of the defining M217 mutation exceedingly difficult. The presence of Haplogroup C-M217 at a low frequency but relatively high diversity throughout East Asia and parts of Southeast Asia makes that region one likely source. In addition, the C-M217 haplotypes found with high frequency among North Asian populations appear to belong to a different genealogical branch from the C-M217 haplotypes found with low frequency among East and Southeast Asians, which suggests that the marginal presence of C-M217 among modern East and Southeast Asian populations may not be due to recent admixture from Northeast or Central Asia.” ref
“More precisely, haplogroup C2-M217 is now divided into two primary subclades: C2a-L1373 (sometimes called the “northern branch” of C2-M217) and C2b-F1067 (sometimes called the “southern branch” of C2-M217). The oldest sample with C2-M217 is AR19K in the Amur River basin (19,587-19,175 years ago). C2a-L1373 (estimated TMRCA 16,000 [95% CI 14,300 <-> 17,800] years ago) has been found often in populations from Central Asia through North Asia to the Americas, and rarely in individuals from some neighboring regions, such as Europe or East Asia. C2a-L1373 subsumes two subclades: C2a1-F3447 and C2a2-BY63635/MPB374. C2a1-F3447 includes all extant Eurasian members of C2a-L1373, whereas C2a2-BY63635/MPB374 contains extant South American members of C2a-L1373 as well as ancient archaeological specimens from South America and Chertovy Vorota Cave in Primorsky Krai.” ref
“C2a1-F3447 (estimated TMRCA 16,000 [95% CI 14,700 <-> 17,400] years ago) includes the Y-DNA of an approximately 14,000-year-old specimen from the Ust’-Kyakhta 3 site (located on the right bank of the Selenga River in Buryatia, near the present-day international border with Mongolia) and C2a1b-BY101096/ACT1942 (found in individuals from present-day Liaoning Province of China, South Korea, Japan, and a Nivkh from Russia) in addition to the expansive C2a1a-F1699 clade. C2a1a-F1699 (estimated TMRCA 14,000 [95% CI 12,700 <-> 15,300] years ago) subsumes four subclades: C2a1a1-F3918, C2a1a2-M48, C2a1a3-M504, and C2a1a4-M8574. C2a1a1-F3918 subsumes C2a1a1a-P39, which has been found at high frequency in samples of some indigenous North American populations, and C2a1a1b-FGC28881, which is now found with varying (but generally quite low) frequency all over the Eurasian steppe, from Heilongjiang and Jiangsu in the east to Jihočeský kraj, Podlaskie Voivodeship, and Giresun in the west.” ref
“Haplogroup C2a1a2-M48 is especially frequent and diverse among present-day Tungusic peoples, but branches of it also constitute the most frequently observed Y-DNA haplogroup among present-day Mongols in Mongolia, Alshyns in western Kazakhstan, and Kalmyks in Kalmykia. Extant members of C2a1a3-M504 all share a relatively recent common ancestor (estimated TMRCA 3,900 [95% CI 3,000 <-> 4,800] years ago), and they are found often among Mongols, Manchus (e.g. Aisin Gioro), Kazakhs (most tribes of the Senior Zhuz as well as the Kerei tribe of the Middle Zhuz), Kyrgyz, and Hazaras. C2a1a4-M8574 is sparsely attested and deeply bifurcated into C-Y176542, which has been observed in an individual from Ulsan and an individual from Japan, and C-Y11990. C-Y11990 is likewise quite ancient (estimated TMRCA 9,300 [95% CI 7,900 <-> 10,700] years ago according to YFull or 8,946 [99% CI 11,792 – 6,625] years ago according to FTDNA) but rare, with one branch (C-Z22425) having been found sporadically in Jammu and Kashmir, Germany, and the United States and another branch (C-ZQ354/C-F8513) having been found sporadically in Slovakia (Prešov Region), China, Turkey, and Kipchak of the central steppe (Lisakovsk 23 Kipchak in Kazakhstan, medieval nomad from 920 ± 25 years ago uncal or 1036 – 1206 CE).” ref
“The predominantly East Asian distributed C-F1067 subsumes a major clade, C-F2613, and a minor clade, C-CTS4660. The minor clade C-CTS4660 has been found in China (including a Dai and several Han from southern China as well as a Han from Anhui and a Han from Inner Mongolia; according to Chinese genomics company 23mofang, C-CTS4660 is currently mainly concentrated in the Liangguang region of China, accounting for about 0.24% of the national male population) and Thailand (including Northern Thai and Lao Isan). The major clade C-F2613 has known representatives from China (Oroqen, Hezhe, Manchu, Uyghur, Han, Tibetan, Tujia, Dai), Korea, Japan, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan (Dungan, Kyrgyz), Tajikistan (Tajik), Afghanistan (Hazara, Tajik), Pakistan (Burusho, Hazara), Nakhchivan, Chechnya, and Syria and includes the populous subclades C-F845, C-CTS2657, and C-Z8440. C-M407, a notable subclade of C-CTS2657, has expanded in a post-Neolithic time frame to include large percentages of modern Buryat, Soyot, and Hamnigan males in Buryatia and Barghut males in Hulunbuir in addition to many Kalmyks and other Mongols and members of the Qongirat tribe in Kazakhstan (but only 2 or 0.67% of a sample of 300 Korean males).” ref
“The specific subclade haplogroup C3b2b1*-M401(xF5483) has been identified as a possible marker of the Aisin Gioro and is found in ten different ethnic minorities in northern China, but completely absent from Han Chinese. Genetic testing also showed that the haplogroup C3b1a3a2-F8951 of the Aisin Gioro family came to southeastern Manchuria after migrating from their place of origin in the Amur river’s middle reaches, originating from ancestors related to Daurs in the Transbaikal area. The Tungusic speaking peoples mostly have C3c-M48 as their subclade of C3 which drastically differs from the C3b1a3a2-F8951 haplogroup of the Aisin Gioro which originates from Mongolic speaking populations like the Daur. Jurchen (Manchus) are a Tungusic people. The Mongol Genghis Khan’s haplogroup C3b1a3a1-F3796 (C3*-Star Cluster) is a fraternal “brother” branch of C3b1a3a2-F8951 haplogroup of the Aisin Gioro.” ref
“A genetic test was conducted on seven men who claimed Aisin Gioro descent, with three of them showing documented genealogical information of all their ancestors up to Nurhaci. Three of them turned out to share the C3b2b1*-M401(xF5483) haplogroup, out of them, two of them were the ones who provided their documented family trees. The other four tested were unrelated. The Daur Ao clan carries the unique haplogroup subclade C2b1a3a2-F8951, the same haplogroup as Aisin Gioro, and both Ao and Aisin Gioro only diverged merely a couple of centuries ago from a shared common ancestor. Other members of the Ao clan carry haplogroups like N1c-M178, C2a1b-F845, C2b1a3a1-F3796, and C2b1a2-M48. People from northeast China, the Daur Ao clan, and the Aisin Gioro clan are the main carriers of haplogroup C2b1a3a2-F8951. The Mongolic C2*-Star Cluster (C2b1a3a1-F3796) haplogroup is a fraternal branch to Aisin Gioro’s C2b1a3a2-F8951 haplogroup.” ref
“Haplogroup C-M217 is the modal haplogroup among Mongolians and most indigenous populations of the Russian Far East, such as the Buryats, Northern Tungusic peoples, Nivkhs, Koryaks, and Itelmens. The subclade C-P39 is common among males of the indigenous North American peoples whose languages belong to the Na-Dené phylum. The frequency of Haplogroup C-M217 tends to be negatively correlated with distance from Mongolia and the Russian Far East, but it still comprises more than ten percent of the total Y-chromosome diversity among the Manchus, Koreans, Ainu, and some Turkic peoples of Central Asia. Beyond this range of high-to-moderate frequency, which contains mainly the northeast quadrant of Eurasia and the northwest quadrant of North America, Haplogroup C-M217 continues to be found at low frequencies, and it has even been found as far afield as Northwest Europe, Turkey, Pakistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal and adjacent regions of India, Vietnam, Maritime Southeast Asia, and the Wayuu people of South America.” ref
“It is found in Ossetians 4.7% (1/21), and in Russians 0.73% (3/406),frequency ranges depending on the district. It is found 0.2% in Central/Southern Russia but 0.9% Rovslav and 0.7% Belgorod. It is found 0.5% in ethnic Bulgarians but 1.2% in Montana Province, 0.8% Sofia Province and 1.4% in an unknown area some of whom exhibit divergent Y-STR haplotypes. Haplogroup C-M127 also has been found with high frequency in a small sample of Uzbeks from Takhar, Afghanistan (7/13 = 54% C-M217). In an early study of Japanese Y-chromosomes, haplogroup C-M217 was found relatively frequently among Ainus (2/16=12.5% or 1/4=25%) and among Japanese of the Kyūshū region (8/104=7.7%). However, in other samples of Japanese, the frequency of haplogroup C-M217 was found to be only about one to three percent.” ref
“In a study published in 2014, large samples of males from seven different Japanese cities were examined, and the frequency of C-M217 varied between a minimum of 5.0% (15/302 university students in Sapporo) and a maximum of 7.8% (8/102 adult males in Fukuoka), with a total of 6.1% (146/2390) of their sampled Japanese males belonging to this haplogroup; the authors noted that no marked geographical gradient was detected in the frequencies of haplogroups C-M217 or C-M8 in that study. The frequency of Haplogroup C-M217 in samples of Han from various areas has ranged from 0% (0/27) in a sample of Han from Guangxi in southern China to 23.5% (4/17) in a sample of Han from Shanghai in eastern China, 23.5% (8/34) in a sample of Han from Xi’an in northwestern China, and 29.6% (8/27) in a sample of Han from Jilin in northeastern China, with the frequency of this haplogroup in several studies’ pools of all Han samples ranging between 6.0% and 12.0%.” ref
“C-M217 also has been found in many samples of ethnic minority populations from central and southern China, such as Dong (8/27 = 29.6% from Guizhou, 10/45 = 22.2% from Hunan, 1/17 = 5.9% from Guangxi), Bulang (3/11 = 27.3% from Yunnan), Tujia (6/26 = 23.1% from Hubei, 7/33 = 21.2% from Guizhou, 9/49 = 18.4% from Jishou, Hunan), Hani (13/60 = 21.7% from Yunnan, 6/34 = 17.6%), Yi (4/32 = 12.5% Boren from Yunnan, 3/24 = 12.5% Yi from Sichuan, 4/61 = 6.6% Yi from Yunnan), Mulao (1/11 = 9.1% from Guangxi), Naxi (1/12 = 8.3% from Yunnan), Miao (7/92 = 7.6% from Guizhou, 2/58 = 3.4%), Shui (2/29 = 6.9% from Guizhou), She (3/47 = 6.4% from Fujian, 1/34 = 2.9%), Wa (1/16 = 6.3% from Yunnan), Dai (1/18 = 5.6% from Yunnan), Gelao (1/21 = 4.8% from Guizhou), ethnic Vietnamese (2/45 = 4.4% from Guangxi), Yao (1/28 = 3.6% from Guangdong, 1/35 = 2.9% from Liannan, Guangdong, 2/113 = 1.8% from Guangxi), Bai (1/34 = 2.9% from Yunnan), Tibetans (4/156 = 2.6%), Buyi (2/109 = 1.8% from Guizhou), and Taiwanese aborigines (1/48 = 2.1%).” ref
“In Vietnam, Y-DNA that belongs to haplogroup C-M217 has been found in about 7.5% of all published samples, including 12.5% (6/48) of a sample of Vietnamese from Hanoi, Vietnam, 11.8% (9/76) of another sample of Kinh (“ethnic Vietnamese”) from Hanoi, Vietnam, 10% (1/10) of a sample from Vietnam, 8.5% (5/59) of a sample of Cham people from Binh Thuan, Vietnam, 8.3% (2/24) of another sample of Vietnamese from Hanoi, 4.3% (3/70) of a sample of Vietnamese from an unspecified location in Vietnam, 2.2% (1/46) of the KHV (“Kinh in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam”) sample of the 1000 Genomes Project, and 0% (0/27) of one study’s samples of Kinh and Muong. Macholdt et al. (2020) have found Y-DNA that belongs to haplogroup C-M217 in 4.67% (28/600) of a set of samples from Vietnam, including 26.8% (11/41) of a sample of Hmong from Điện Biên Phủ, 13.9% (5/36) of a sample of Pathen from Quang Bình District, 12.1% (4/33) of a sample of Hanhi from Mường Tè District, 10.3% (3/29) of a sample of Sila from Mường Tè District, and 10.0% (5/50) of a sample of Kinh (n=42 from Hanoi, including all five members of haplogroup C-M217).” ref
“Haplogroup C-M217 has been found less frequently in other parts of Southeast Asia and nearby areas, including Myanmar (3/72 = 4.2% Bamar and Rakhine), Laos (1/25 = 4.0% Lao from Luang Prabang), Malaysia (2/18 = 11.1% Malaysia, 0/8 Malaysia, 0/12 Malaysian (ordinary Malay near Kuala Lumpur), 0/17 Orang Asli, 0/27 Malay, 0/32 Malaysia), Java (1/37 = 2.7%, 1/141 = 0.71%), Nepal (2/77 = 2.6% general population of Kathmandu), Thailand (1/40 = 2.5% Thai, mostly sampled in Chiang Mai; 13/500 = 2.6% Northern Thailand, or 11/290 = 3.8% Northern Thai people and 2/91 = 2.2% Tai Lü), the Philippines (1/48 = 2.1%, 1/64 = 1.6%), and Bali (1/641 = 0.2%).” ref
“Although C-M217 is generally found with only low frequency (<5%) in Tibet and Nepal, there may be an island of relatively high frequency of this haplogroup in Meghalaya, India. The indigenous tribes of this state of Northeast India, where they comprise the majority of the local population, speak Khasian languages or Tibeto-Burman languages. A study published in 2007 found C-M217(xM93, P39, M86) Y-DNA in 8.5% (6/71) of a sample of Garos, who primarily inhabit the Garo Hills in the western half of Meghalaya, and in 7.6% (27/353) of a pool of samples of eight Khasian tribes from the eastern half of Meghalaya (6/18 = 33.3% Nongtrai from the West Khasi Hills, 10/60 = 16.7% Lyngngam from the West Khasi Hills, 2/29 = 6.9% War-Khasi from the East Khasi Hills, 3/44 = 6.8% Pnar from the Jaintia Hills, 1/19 = 5.3% War-Jaintia from the Jaintia Hills, 3/87 = 3.4% Khynriam from the East Khasi Hills, 2/64 = 3.1% Maram from the West Khasi Hills, and 0/32 Bhoi from Ri-Bhoi District).” ref
“C2 (previously C3) M217 Typical of Mongolians, Kazakhs, Buryats, Daurs, Kalmyks, Tom Tatars, Hazaras, Afghan Uzbeks, Evenks, Evens, Oroqen, Ulchi, Udegey, Manchus, Sibes, Nivkhs, Koryaks, and Itelmens, with a moderate distribution among other Tungusic peoples, Ainus, Koreans, Han, Vietnamese, Altaians, Tuvinians, Uyghurs, Uzbeks, Kyrgyzes, Nogais, and Crimean Tatars. It is found in moderate to low frequencies among Japanese, Tai peoples, North Caucasian peoples, Abazinians, Adygei, Tabassarans, Kabardians, Tajiks, Pashtuns, etc.” ref
- C2b L1373, F1396
- C2b MPB374 Ecuador (Bolívar Province), USA, Devil’s Gate (NEO239)
- C2b F3447, F3914
- C2b Y163913, ACT1932, BY75034/ACT1924
- C2b1 F4032
- C2b1a F1699, F6301
- C2b1a* Japanese, Germany
- C2b1a1 F3918, Y10418/FGC28813/F8894
- C2b1a1* Yugurs
- C2b1a1a P39 Canada, USA (Found in several indigenous peoples of North America, including some Na-Dené-, Algonquian-, or Siouan-speaking populations)
- C2b1a1a1 BY1360/Z30568
- C2b1a1a2 Z38874
- C2b1a1b FGC28881.2
- C2b1a1b1 F1756, F3985
- C2b1a1b1 F1756* Poland
- C2b1a1b1a F3830 China (Kazakh, Yugur, Mongol, Manchu, Hezhen, Xibe, Hui, northern Han), Russian Federation (Altai Kizhi, etc.), Kazakhstan, Afghanistan (Uzbek, Hazara, Pashtun), Saudi Arabia, Syria
- C-F3887 Kazakhstan (East Kazakhstan Region), Russia (Tatarstan)
- C-TYT114704/C-MF156488 China (Manchu Irgen Gioro clan from Benxi)
- C-F9721 Greece
- C-F9721* China (Jiangsu)
- C-F12439 China (Heilongjiang)
- C-F12439* China (Shandong)
- C-BY197432 Kazakhstan
- C-Z603 Kazakhstan
- C-F3887 Kazakhstan (East Kazakhstan Region), Russia (Tatarstan)
- C2b1a1b1b Y10420/Z30402, Y10428/Z30415
- C-Y10420* Turkey (Giresun)
- C-Y11606 United Kingdom
- C-Y11606* China (Shaanxi), Russia (Bashkortostan), Poland (Podlaskie), Czech Republic (South Bohemian Region)
- C-Y147607 Kazakhstan
- C2b1a1b2 B77 Koryak
- C2b1a1b1 F1756, F3985
- C2b1a2 (previously C3c) M48
- C2b1a2a M86 (M77) Typical of Northern Tungusic peoples, Kazakhs, Oirats, Kalmyks, Outer Mongolians, Yukaghirs, and Ulchi, with a moderate distribution among other Southern Tungusic peoples, Inner Mongolians, Buryats, Tuvinians, Yakuts, Chukchi, Kyrgyz, Uyghurs, Uzbeks, Karakalpaks, and Tajiks
- C-M77* China (Xibo), Russian Federation (Ulchi, Even, Evenk, Buryat, Derbet Kalmyks, Torgut Kalmyks), Mongolia (Zakhchin, Derbet), Kazakhstan, Turkey
- C2b1a2a1 F11120, SK1061, Z40439
- C2b1a2a1a B469
- C2b1a2a1a2 B470 Zakhchin, Ulchi
- C2b1a2a1a1 B87 Xibo
- C2b1a2a1a1b B88 Buryat
- C2b1a2a1a1a B89 Evenk, Even
- C2b1a2a1b B80/Z32868 Evens
- C-B1049 Tozhu Tuvan
- C2b1a2a1a B469
- C-F11611/ZQ1
- C2b1a2a2 Y12792/F6379
- C-Y138418
- C-Y152949 Italy (Genova)
- C-Y138372
- C-Y138372* China (Shanxi, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia)
- C-Y170702 China (Shaanxi, Heilongjiang, Qinghai)
- C-Y182574 China (Shaanxi)
- C-Y12825/SK1064/F5485
- C-SK1066, F6193 Russian Federation (Kalmyks), Kazakhstan, Mongolia (Bulgan, Tsaatan)
- C-Y15849/F12970 Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Russian Federation (Tatarstan)
- C-Y15844
- C-ZQ149 Tomsk Tatar
- C-Y15552 Kazakhstan, Russian Federation, Karakalpak
- C-Y138418
- C2b1a2a2 Y12792/F6379
- C2b1a2b B90 Found frequently in Koryaks and Nivkhs and with lower frequency among Ulchi, Evenks, Evens, Yukaghirs, and Chukchi
- C2b1a2a M86 (M77) Typical of Northern Tungusic peoples, Kazakhs, Oirats, Kalmyks, Outer Mongolians, Yukaghirs, and Ulchi, with a moderate distribution among other Southern Tungusic peoples, Inner Mongolians, Buryats, Tuvinians, Yakuts, Chukchi, Kyrgyz, Uyghurs, Uzbeks, Karakalpaks, and Tajiks
- C2b1a Y4553/FGC16371/F11250
- C2b1a F1699, F6301
People don’t commonly teach religious history, even that of their own claimed religion. No, rather they teach a limited “pro their religion” history of their religion from a religious perspective favorable to the religion of choice.
Do you truly think “Religious Belief” is only a matter of some personal choice?
Do you not see how coercive one’s world of choice is limited to the obvious hereditary belief, in most religious choices available to the child of religious parents or caregivers? Religion is more commonly like a family, culture, society, etc. available belief that limits the belief choices of the child and that is when “Religious Belief” is not only a matter of some personal choice and when it becomes hereditary faith, not because of the quality of its alleged facts or proposed truths but because everyone else important to the child believes similarly so they do as well simply mimicking authority beliefs handed to them. Because children are raised in religion rather than being presented all possible choices but rather one limited dogmatic brand of “Religious Belief” where children only have a choice of following the belief as instructed, and then personally claim the faith hereditary belief seen in the confirming to the belief they have held themselves all their lives. This is obvious in statements asked and answered by children claiming a faith they barely understand but they do understand that their family believes “this or that” faith, so they feel obligated to believe it too. While I do agree that “Religious Belief” should only be a matter of some personal choice, it rarely is… End Hereditary Religion!
Animism: Respecting the Living World by Graham Harvey
“How have human cultures engaged with and thought about animals, plants, rocks, clouds, and other elements in their natural surroundings? Do animals and other natural objects have a spirit or soul? What is their relationship to humans? In this new study, Graham Harvey explores current and past animistic beliefs and practices of Native Americans, Maori, Aboriginal Australians, and eco-pagans. He considers the varieties of animism found in these cultures as well as their shared desire to live respectfully within larger natural communities. Drawing on his extensive casework, Harvey also considers the linguistic, performative, ecological, and activist implications of these different animisms.” ref
We are like believing machines we vacuum up ideas, like Velcro sticks to almost everything. We accumulate beliefs that we allow to negatively influence our lives, often without realizing it. Our willingness must be to alter skewed beliefs that impend our balance or reason, which allows us to achieve new positive thinking and accurate outcomes.
My thoughts on Religion Evolution with external links for more info:
- (Pre-Animism Africa mainly, but also Europe, and Asia at least 300,000 years ago), (Pre-Animism – Oxford Dictionaries)
- (Animism Africa around 100,000 years ago), (Animism – Britannica.com)
- (Totemism Europe around 50,000 years ago), (Totemism – Anthropology)
- (Shamanism Siberia around 30,000 years ago), (Shamanism – Britannica.com)
- (Paganism Turkey around 12,000 years ago), (Paganism – BBC Religion)
- (Progressed Organized Religion “Institutional Religion” Egypt around 5,000 years ago), (Ancient Egyptian Religion – Britannica.com)
- (CURRENT “World” RELIGIONS after 4,000 years ago) (Origin of Major Religions – Sacred Texts)
- (Early Atheistic Doubting at least by 2,600 years ago) (History of Atheism – Wikipedia)
“Religion is an Evolved Product” and Yes, Religion is Like Fear Given Wings…
Atheists talk about gods and religions for the same reason doctors talk about cancer, they are looking for a cure, or a firefighter talks about fires because they burn people and they care to stop them. We atheists too often feel a need to help the victims of mental slavery, held in the bondage that is the false beliefs of gods and the conspiracy theories of reality found in religions.
Understanding Religion Evolution:
- Pre-Animism (at least 300,000 years ago)
- Animism (Africa: 100,000 years ago)
- Totemism (Europe: 50,000 years ago)
- Shamanism (Siberia: 30,000 years ago)
- Paganism (Turkey: 12,000 years ago)
- Progressed organized religion (Egypt: 5,000 years ago), (Egypt, the First Dynasty 5,150 years ago)
- CURRENT “World” RELIGIONS (after 4,000 years ago)
- Early Atheistic Doubting (at least by 2,600 years ago)
“An Archaeological/Anthropological Understanding of Religion Evolution”
It seems ancient peoples had to survived amazing threats in a “dangerous universe (by superstition perceived as good and evil),” and human “immorality or imperfection of the soul” which was thought to affect the still living, leading to ancestor worship. This ancestor worship presumably led to the belief in supernatural beings, and then some of these were turned into the belief in gods. This feeble myth called gods were just a human conceived “made from nothing into something over and over, changing, again and again, taking on more as they evolve, all the while they are thought to be special,” but it is just supernatural animistic spirit-belief perceived as sacred.
Quick Evolution of Religion?
Pre-Animism (at least 300,000 years ago) pre-religion is a beginning that evolves into later Animism. So, Religion as we think of it, to me, all starts in a general way with Animism (Africa: 100,000 years ago) (theoretical belief in supernatural powers/spirits), then this is physically expressed in or with Totemism (Europe: 50,000 years ago) (theoretical belief in mythical relationship with powers/spirits through a totem item), which then enlists a full-time specific person to do this worship and believed interacting Shamanism (Siberia/Russia: 30,000 years ago) (theoretical belief in access and influence with spirits through ritual), and then there is the further employment of myths and gods added to all the above giving you Paganism (Turkey: 12,000 years ago) (often a lot more nature-based than most current top world religions, thus hinting to their close link to more ancient religious thinking it stems from). My hypothesis is expressed with an explanation of the building of a theatrical house (modern religions development). Progressed organized religion (Egypt: 5,000 years ago) with CURRENT “World” RELIGIONS (after 4,000 years ago).
Historically, in large city-state societies (such as Egypt or Iraq) starting around 5,000 years ago culminated to make religion something kind of new, a sociocultural-governmental-religious monarchy, where all or at least many of the people of such large city-state societies seem familiar with and committed to the existence of “religion” as the integrated life identity package of control dynamics with a fixed closed magical doctrine, but this juggernaut integrated religion identity package of Dogmatic-Propaganda certainly did not exist or if developed to an extent it was highly limited in most smaller prehistoric societies as they seem to lack most of the strong control dynamics with a fixed closed magical doctrine (magical beliefs could be at times be added or removed). Many people just want to see developed religious dynamics everywhere even if it is not. Instead, all that is found is largely fragments until the domestication of religion.
Religions, as we think of them today, are a new fad, even if they go back to around 6,000 years in the timeline of human existence, this amounts to almost nothing when seen in the long slow evolution of religion at least around 70,000 years ago with one of the oldest ritual worship. Stone Snake of South Africa: “first human worship” 70,000 years ago. This message of how religion and gods among them are clearly a man-made thing that was developed slowly as it was invented and then implemented peace by peace discrediting them all. Which seems to be a simple point some are just not grasping how devastating to any claims of truth when we can see the lie clearly in the archeological sites.
I wish people fought as hard for the actual values as they fight for the group/clan names political or otherwise they think support values. Every amount spent on war is theft to children in need of food or the homeless kept from shelter.
Here are several of my blog posts on history:
- To Find Truth You Must First Look
- (Magdalenian/Iberomaurusian) Connections to the First Paganists of the early Neolithic Near East Dating from around 17,000 to 12,000 Years Ago
- Natufians: an Ancient People at the Origins of Agriculture and Sedentary Life
- Possible Clan Leader/Special “MALE” Ancestor Totem Poles At Least 13,500 years ago?
- Jewish People with DNA at least 13,200 years old, Judaism, and the Origins of Some of its Ideas
- Baltic Reindeer Hunters: Swiderian, Lyngby, Ahrensburgian, and Krasnosillya cultures 12,020 to 11,020 years ago are evidence of powerful migratory waves during the last 13,000 years and a genetic link to Saami and the Finno-Ugric peoples.
- The Rise of Inequality: patriarchy and state hierarchy inequality
- Fertile Crescent 12,500 – 9,500 Years Ago: fertility and death cult belief system?
- 12,400 – 11,700 Years Ago – Kortik Tepe (Turkey) Pre/early-Agriculture Cultic Ritualism
- Ritualistic Bird Symbolism at Gobekli Tepe and its “Ancestor Cult”
- Male-Homosexual (female-like) / Trans-woman (female) Seated Figurine from Gobekli Tepe
- Could a 12,000-year-old Bull Geoglyph at Göbekli Tepe relate to older Bull and Female Art 25,000 years ago and Later Goddess and the Bull cults like Catal Huyuk?
- Sedentism and the Creation of goddesses around 12,000 years ago as well as male gods after 7,000 years ago.
- Alcohol, where Agriculture and Religion Become one? Such as Gobekli Tepe’s Ritualistic use of Grain as Food and Ritual Drink
- Neolithic Ritual Sites with T-Pillars and other Cultic Pillars
- Paganism: Goddesses around 12,000 years ago then Male Gods after 7,000 years ago
- First Patriarchy: Split of Women’s Status around 12,000 years ago & First Hierarchy: fall of Women’s Status around 5,000 years ago.
- Natufians: an Ancient People at the Origins of Agriculture and Sedentary Life
- J DNA and the Spread of Agricultural Religion (paganism)
- Paganism: an approximately 12,000-year-old belief system
- Paganism 12,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Pre-Capitalism)
- Shaman burial in Israel 12,000 years ago and the Shamanism Phenomena
- Need to Mythicized: gods and goddesses
- 12,000 – 7,000 Years Ago – Paleo-Indian Culture (The Americas)
- 12,000 – 2,000 Years Ago – Indigenous-Scandinavians (Nordic)
- Norse did not wear helmets with horns?
- Pre-Pottery Neolithic Skull Cult around 11,500 to 8,400 Years Ago?
- 10,400 – 10,100 Years Ago, in Turkey the Nevail Cori Religious Settlement
- 9,000-6,500 Years Old Submerged Pre-Pottery/Pottery Neolithic Ritual Settlements off Israel’s Coast
- Catal Huyuk “first religious designed city” around 9,500 to 7,700 years ago (Turkey)
- Cultic Hunting at Catal Huyuk “first religious designed city”
- Special Items and Art as well as Special Elite Burials at Catal Huyuk
- New Rituals and Violence with the appearance of Pottery and People?
- Haplogroup N and its related Uralic Languages and Cultures
- Ainu people, Sámi people, Native Americans, the Ancient North Eurasians, and Paganistic-Shamanism with Totemism
- Ideas, Technology and People from Turkey, Europe, to China and Back again 9,000 to 5,000 years ago?
- First Pottery of Europe and the Related Cultures
- 9,000 years old Neolithic Artifacts Judean Desert and Hills Israel
- 9,000-7,000 years-old Sex and Death Rituals: Cult Sites in Israel, Jordan, and the Sinai
- 9,000-8500 year old Horned Female shaman Bad Dürrenberg Germany
- Neolithic Jewelry and the Spread of Farming in Europe Emerging out of West Turkey
- 8,600-year-old Tortoise Shells in Neolithic graves in central China have Early Writing and Shamanism
- Swing of the Mace: the rise of Elite, Forced Authority, and Inequality begin to Emerge 8,500 years ago?
- Migrations and Changing Europeans Beginning around 8,000 Years Ago
- My “Steppe-Anatolian-Kurgan hypothesis” 8,000/7,000 years ago
- Around 8,000-year-old Shared Idea of the Mistress of Animals, “Ritual” Motif
- Pre-Columbian Red-Paint (red ochre) Maritime Archaic Culture 8,000-3,000 years ago
- 7,522-6,522 years ago Linear Pottery culture which I think relates to Arcane Capitalism’s origins
- Arcane Capitalism: Primitive socialism, Primitive capital, Private ownership, Means of production, Market capitalism, Class discrimination, and Petite bourgeoisie (smaller capitalists)
- 7,500-4,750 years old Ritualistic Cucuteni-Trypillian culture of Moldova, Romania, and Ukraine
- Roots of a changing early society 7,200-6,700 years ago Jordan and Israel
- Agriculture religion (Paganism) with farming reached Britain between about 7,000 to 6,500 or so years ago and seemingly expressed in things like Western Europe’s Long Barrows
- My Thoughts on Possible Migrations of “R” DNA and Proto-Indo-European?
- “Millet” Spreading from China 7,022 years ago to Europe and related Language may have Spread with it leading to Proto-Indo-European
- Proto-Indo-European (PIE), ancestor of Indo-European languages: DNA, Society, Language, and Mythology
- The Dnieper–Donets culture and Asian varieties of Millet from China to the Black Sea region of Europe by 7,022 years ago
- Kurgan 6,000 years ago/dolmens 7,000 years ago: funeral, ritual, and other?
- 7,020 to 6,020-year-old Proto-Indo-European Homeland of Urheimat or proposed home of their Language and Religion
- Ancient Megaliths: Kurgan, Ziggurat, Pyramid, Menhir, Trilithon, Dolman, Kromlech, and Kromlech of Trilithons
- The Mytheme of Ancient North Eurasian Sacred-Dog belief and similar motifs are found in Indo-European, Native American, and Siberian comparative mythology
- Elite Power Accumulation: Ancient Trade, Tokens, Writing, Wealth, Merchants, and Priest-Kings
- Sacred Mounds, Mountains, Kurgans, and Pyramids may hold deep connections?
- Between 7,000-5,000 Years ago, rise of unequal hierarchy elite, leading to a “birth of the State” or worship of power, strong new sexism, oppression of non-elites, and the fall of Women’s equal status
- Paganism 7,000-5,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Capitalism) (World War 0) Elite & their slaves
- Hell and Underworld mythologies starting maybe as far back as 7,000 to 5,000 years ago with the Proto-Indo-Europeans?
- The First Expression of the Male God around 7,000 years ago?
- White (light complexion skin) Bigotry and Sexism started 7,000 years ago?
- Around 7,000-year-old Shared Idea of the Divine Bird (Tutelary and/or Trickster spirit/deity), “Ritual” Motif
- Nekhbet an Ancient Egyptian Vulture Goddess and Tutelary Deity
- 6,720 to 4,920 years old Ritualistic Hongshan Culture of Inner Mongolia with 5,000-year-old Pyramid Mounds and Temples
- First proto-king in the Balkans, Varna culture around 6,500 years ago?
- 6,500–5,800 years ago in Israel Late Chalcolithic (Copper Age) Period in the Southern Levant Seems to Express Northern Levant Migrations, Cultural and Religious Transfer
- KING OF BEASTS: Master of Animals “Ritual” Motif, around 6,000 years old or older…
- Around 6000-year-old Shared Idea of the Solid Wheel & the Spoked Wheel-Shaped Ritual Motif
- “The Ghassulian Star,” a mysterious 6,000-year-old mural from Jordan; a Proto-Star of Ishtar, Star of Inanna or Star of Venus?
- Religious/Ritual Ideas, including goddesses and gods as well as ritual mounds or pyramids from Northeastern Asia at least 6,000 years old, seemingly filtering to Iran, Iraq, the Mediterranean, Europe, Egypt, and the Americas?
- Maykop (5,720–5,020 years ago) Caucasus region Bronze Age culture-related to Copper Age farmers from the south, influenced by the Ubaid period and Leyla-Tepe culture, as well as influencing the Kura-Araxes culture
- 5-600-year-old Tomb, Mummy, and First Bearded Male Figurine in a Grave
- Kura-Araxes Cultural 5,520 to 4,470 years old DNA traces to the Canaanites, Arabs, and Jews
- Minoan/Cretan (Keftiu) Civilization and Religion around 5,520 to 3,120 years ago
- Evolution Of Science at least by 5,500 years ago
- 5,500 Years old birth of the State, the rise of Hierarchy, and the fall of Women’s status
- “Jiroft culture” 5,100 – 4,200 years ago and the History of Iran
- Stonehenge: Paganistic Burial and Astrological Ritual Complex, England (5,100-3,600 years ago)
- Around 5,000-year-old Shared Idea of the “Tree of Life” Ritual Motif
- Complex rituals for elite, seen from China to Egypt, at least by 5,000 years ago
- Around 5,000 years ago: “Birth of the State” where Religion gets Military Power and Influence
- The Center of the World “Axis Mundi” and/or “Sacred Mountains” Mythology Could Relate to the Altai Mountains, Heart of the Steppe
- Progressed organized religion starts, an approximately 5,000-year-old belief system
- China’s Civilization between 5,000-3,000 years ago, was a time of war and class struggle, violent transition from free clans to a Slave or Elite society
- Origin of Logics is Naturalistic Observation at least by around 5,000 years ago.
- Paganism 5,000 years old: progressed organized religion and the state: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Kings and the Rise of the State)
- Ziggurats (multi-platform temples: 4,900 years old) to Pyramids (multi-platform tombs: 4,700 years old)
- Did a 4,520–4,420-year-old Volcano In Turkey Inspire the Bible God?
- Finland’s Horned Shaman and Pre-Horned-God at least 4,500 years ago?
- 4,000-year-Old Dolmens in Israel: A Connected Dolmen Religious Phenomenon?
- Creation myths: From chaos, Ex nihilo, Earth-diver, Emergence, World egg, and World parent
- Bronze Age “Ritual” connections of the Bell Beaker culture with the Corded Ware/Single Grave culture, which were related to the Yamnaya culture and Proto-Indo-European Languages/Religions
- Low Gods (Earth/ Tutelary deity), High Gods (Sky/Supreme deity), and Moralistic Gods (Deity enforcement/divine order)
- The exchange of people, ideas, and material-culture including, to me, the new god (Sky Father) and goddess (Earth Mother) religion between the Cucuteni-Trypillians and others which is then spread far and wide
- Koryaks: Indigenous People of the Russian Far East and Big Raven myths also found in Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, and other Indigenous People of North America
- 42 Principles Of Maat (Egyptian Goddess of the justice) around 4,400 years ago, 2000 Years Before Ten Commandments
- “Happy Easter” Well Happy Eostre/Ishter
- 4,320-3,820 years old “Shimao” (North China) site with Totemistic-Shamanistic Paganism and a Stepped Pyramid
- 4,250 to 3,400 Year old Stonehenge from Russia: Arkaim?
- 4,100-year-old beaker with medicinal & flowering plants in a grave of a woman in Scotland
- Early European Farmer ancestry, Kelif el Boroud people with the Cardial Ware culture, and the Bell Beaker culture Paganists too, spread into North Africa, then to the Canary Islands off West Africa
- Flood Accounts: Gilgamesh epic (4,100 years ago) Noah in Genesis (2,600 years ago)
- Paganism 4,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (First Moralistic gods, then the Origin time of Monotheism)
- When was the beginning: TIMELINE OF CURRENT RELIGIONS, which start around 4,000 years ago.
- Early Religions Thought to Express Proto-Monotheistic Systems around 4,000 years ago
- Kultepe? An archaeological site with a 4,000 years old women’s rights document.
- Single God Religions (Monotheism) = “Man-o-theism” started around 4,000 years ago with the Great Sky Spirit/God Tiān (天)?
- Confucianism’s Tiān (Shangdi god 4,000 years old): Supernaturalism, Pantheism or Theism?
- Yes, Your Male God is Ridiculous
- Mythology, a Lunar Deity is a Goddess or God of the Moon
- Sacred Land, Hills, and Mountains: Sami Mythology (Paganistic Shamanism)
- Horse Worship/Sacrifice: mythical union of Ruling Elite/Kingship and the Horse
- The Amorite/Amurru people’s God Amurru “Lord of the Steppe”, relates to the Origins of the Bible God?
- Bronze Age Exotic Trade Routes Spread Quite Far as well as Spread Religious Ideas with Them
- Sami and the Northern Indigenous Peoples Landscape, Language, and its Connection to Religion
- Prototype of Ancient Analemmatic Sundials around 3,900-3,150 years ago and a Possible Solar Connection to gods?
- Judaism is around 3,450 or 3,250 years old. (“Paleo-Hebrew” 3,000 years ago and Torah 2,500 years ago)
- The Weakening of Ancient Trade and the Strengthening of Religions around 3000 years ago?
- Are you aware that there are religions that worship women gods, explain now religion tears women down?
- Animistic, Totemistic, and Paganistic Superstition Origins of bible god and the bible’s Religion.
- Myths and Folklore: “Trickster gods and goddesses”
- Jews, Judaism, and the Origins of Some of its Ideas
- An Old Branch of Religion Still Giving Fruit: Sacred Trees
- Dating the BIBLE: naming names and telling times (written less than 3,000 years ago, provable to 2,200 years ago)
- Did a Volcano Inspire the bible god?
- Dené–Yeniseian language, Old Copper Complex, and Pre-Columbian Mound Builders?
- No “dinosaurs and humans didn’t exist together just because some think they are in the bible itself”
- Sacred Shit and Sacred Animals?
- Everyone Killed in the Bible Flood? “Nephilim” (giants)?
- Hey, Damien dude, I have a question for you regarding “the bible” Exodus.
- Archaeology Disproves the Bible
- Bible Battle, Just More, Bible Babble
- The Jericho Conquest lie?
- Canaanites and Israelites?
- Accurate Account on how did Christianity Began?
- Let’s talk about Christianity.
- So the 10 commandments isn’t anything to go by either right?
- Misinformed christian
- Debunking Jesus?
- Paulism vs Jesus
- Ok, you seem confused so let’s talk about Buddhism.
- Unacknowledged Buddhism: Gods, Savior, Demons, Rebirth, Heavens, Hells, and Terrorism
- His Foolishness The Dalai Lama
- Yin and Yang is sexist with an ORIGIN around 2,300 years ago?
- I Believe Archaeology, not Myths & Why Not, as the Religious Myths Already Violate Reason!
- Archaeological, Scientific, & Philosophic evidence shows the god myth is man-made nonsense.
- Aquatic Ape Theory/Hypothesis? As Always, Just Pseudoscience.
- Ancient Aliens Conspiracy Theorists are Pseudohistorians
- The Pseudohistoric and Pseudoscientific claims about “Bakoni Ruins” of South Africa
- Why do people think Religion is much more than supernaturalism and superstitionism?
- Religion is an Evolved Product
- Was the Value of Ancient Women Different?
- 1000 to 1100 CE, human sacrifice Cahokia Mounds a pre-Columbian Native American site
- Feminist atheists as far back as the 1800s?
- Promoting Religion as Real is Mentally Harmful to a Flourishing Humanity
- Screw All Religions and Their Toxic lies, they are all fraud
- Forget Religions’ Unfounded Myths, I Have Substantiated “Archaeology Facts.”
- Religion Dispersal throughout the World
- I Hate Religion Just as I Hate all Pseudoscience
- Exposing Scientology, Eckankar, Wicca and Other Nonsense?
- Main deity or religious belief systems
- Quit Trying to Invent Your God From the Scraps of Science.
- Archaeological, Scientific, & Philosophic evidence shows the god myth is man-made nonsense.
- Ancient Alien Conspiracy Theorists: Misunderstanding, Rhetoric, Misinformation, Fabrications, and Lies
- Misinformation, Distortion, and Pseudoscience in Talking with a Christian Creationist
- Judging the Lack of Goodness in Gods, Even the Norse God Odin
- Challenging the Belief in God-like Aliens and Gods in General
- A Challenge to Christian use of Torture Devices?
- Yes, Hinduism is a Religion
- Trump is One of the Most Reactionary Forces of Far-right Christian Extremism
- Was the Bull Head a Symbol of God? Yes!
- Primate Death Rituals
- Christian – “God and Christianity are objectively true”
- Australopithecus afarensis Death Ritual?
- You Claim Global Warming is a Hoax?
- Doubter of Science and Defamer of Atheists?
- I think that sounds like the Bible?
- History of the Antifa (“anti-fascist”) Movements
- Indianapolis Anti-Blasphemy Laws #Free Soheil Rally
- Damien, you repeat the golden rule in so many forms then you say religion is dogmatic?
- Science is a Trustable Methodology whereas Faith is not Trustable at all!
- Was I ever a believer, before I was an atheist?
- Atheists rise in reason
- Mistrust of science?
- Open to Talking About the Definition of ‘God’? But first, we address Faith.
- ‘United Monarchy’ full of splendor and power – Saul, David, and Solomon? Most likely not.
- Is there EXODUS ARCHAEOLOGY? The short answer is “no.”
- Lacking Proof of Bigfoots, Unicorns, and Gods is Just a Lack of Research?
- Religion and Politics: Faith Beliefs vs. Rational Thinking
- Hammer of Truth that lying pig RELIGION: challenged by an archaeologist
- “The Hammer of Truth” -ontology question- What do You Mean by That?
- Navigation of a bad argument: Ad Hominem vs. Attack
- Why is it Often Claimed that Gods have a Gender?
- Why are basically all monotheistic religions ones that have a male god?
- Shifting through the Claims in support of Faith
- Dear Mr. AtHope, The 20th Century is an Indictment of Secularism and a Failed Atheist Century
- An Understanding of the Worldwide Statistics and Dynamics of Terrorist Incidents and Suicide Attacks
- Intoxication and Evolution? Addressing and Assessing the “Stoned Ape” or “Drunken Monkey” Theories as Catalysts in Human Evolution
- Sacred Menstrual cloth? Inanna’s knot, Isis knot, and maybe Ma’at’s feather?
- Damien, why don’t the Hebrews accept the bible stories?
- Dealing with a Troll and Arguing Over Word Meaning
- Knowledge without Belief? Justified beliefs or disbeliefs worthy of Knowledge?
- Afrocentrism and African Religions
- Crecganford @crecganford offers history & stories of the people, places, gods, & culture
- Empiricism-Denier?
I am not an academic. I am a revolutionary that teaches in public, in places like social media, and in the streets. I am not a leader by some title given but from my commanding leadership style of simply to start teaching everywhere to everyone, all manner of positive education.
To me, Animism starts in Southern Africa, then to West Europe, and becomes Totemism. Another split goes near the Russia and Siberia border becoming Shamanism, which heads into Central Europe meeting up with Totemism, which also had moved there, mixing the two which then heads to Lake Baikal in Siberia. From there this Shamanism-Totemism heads to Turkey where it becomes Paganism.
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Not all “Religions” or “Religious Persuasions” have a god(s) but
All can be said to believe in some imaginary beings or imaginary things like spirits, afterlives, etc.
Paganism 12,000-4,000 years old
12,000-7,000 years old: related to (Pre-Capitalism)
7,000-5,000 years old: related to (Capitalism) (World War 0) Elite and their slaves!
5,000 years old: related to (Kings and the Rise of the State)
4,000 years old: related to (First Moralistic gods, then the Origin time of Monotheism)
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Low Gods “Earth” or Tutelary deity and High Gods “Sky” or Supreme deity
“An Earth goddess is a deification of the Earth. Earth goddesses are often associated with the “chthonic” deities of the underworld. Ki and Ninhursag are Mesopotamian earth goddesses. In Greek mythology, the Earth is personified as Gaia, corresponding to Roman Terra, Indic Prithvi/Bhūmi, etc. traced to an “Earth Mother” complementary to the “Sky Father” in Proto-Indo-European religion. Egyptian mythology exceptionally has a sky goddess and an Earth god.” ref
“A mother goddess is a goddess who represents or is a personification of nature, motherhood, fertility, creation, destruction or who embodies the bounty of the Earth. When equated with the Earth or the natural world, such goddesses are sometimes referred to as Mother Earth or as the Earth Mother. In some religious traditions or movements, Heavenly Mother (also referred to as Mother in Heaven or Sky Mother) is the wife or feminine counterpart of the Sky father or God the Father.” ref
“Any masculine sky god is often also king of the gods, taking the position of patriarch within a pantheon. Such king gods are collectively categorized as “sky father” deities, with a polarity between sky and earth often being expressed by pairing a “sky father” god with an “earth mother” goddess (pairings of a sky mother with an earth father are less frequent). A main sky goddess is often the queen of the gods and may be an air/sky goddess in her own right, though she usually has other functions as well with “sky” not being her main. In antiquity, several sky goddesses in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Near East were called Queen of Heaven. Neopagans often apply it with impunity to sky goddesses from other regions who were never associated with the term historically. The sky often has important religious significance. Many religions, both polytheistic and monotheistic, have deities associated with the sky.” ref
“In comparative mythology, sky father is a term for a recurring concept in polytheistic religions of a sky god who is addressed as a “father”, often the father of a pantheon and is often either a reigning or former King of the Gods. The concept of “sky father” may also be taken to include Sun gods with similar characteristics, such as Ra. The concept is complementary to an “earth mother“. “Sky Father” is a direct translation of the Vedic Dyaus Pita, etymologically descended from the same Proto-Indo-European deity name as the Greek Zeûs Pater and Roman Jupiter and Germanic Týr, Tir or Tiwaz, all of which are reflexes of the same Proto-Indo-European deity’s name, *Dyēus Ph₂tḗr. While there are numerous parallels adduced from outside of Indo-European mythology, there are exceptions (e.g. In Egyptian mythology, Nut is the sky mother and Geb is the earth father).” ref
Tutelary deity
“A tutelary (also tutelar) is a deity or spirit who is a guardian, patron, or protector of a particular place, geographic feature, person, lineage, nation, culture, or occupation. The etymology of “tutelary” expresses the concept of safety and thus of guardianship. In late Greek and Roman religion, one type of tutelary deity, the genius, functions as the personal deity or daimon of an individual from birth to death. Another form of personal tutelary spirit is the familiar spirit of European folklore.” ref
“A tutelary (also tutelar) in Korean shamanism, jangseung and sotdae were placed at the edge of villages to frighten off demons. They were also worshiped as deities. Seonangshin is the patron deity of the village in Korean tradition and was believed to embody the Seonangdang. In Philippine animism, Diwata or Lambana are deities or spirits that inhabit sacred places like mountains and mounds and serve as guardians. Such as: Maria Makiling is the deity who guards Mt. Makiling and Maria Cacao and Maria Sinukuan. In Shinto, the spirits, or kami, which give life to human bodies come from nature and return to it after death. Ancestors are therefore themselves tutelaries to be worshiped. And similarly, Native American beliefs such as Tonás, tutelary animal spirit among the Zapotec and Totems, familial or clan spirits among the Ojibwe, can be animals.” ref
“A tutelary (also tutelar) in Austronesian beliefs such as: Atua (gods and spirits of the Polynesian peoples such as the Māori or the Hawaiians), Hanitu (Bunun of Taiwan‘s term for spirit), Hyang (Kawi, Sundanese, Javanese, and Balinese Supreme Being, in ancient Java and Bali mythology and this spiritual entity, can be either divine or ancestral), Kaitiaki (New Zealand Māori term used for the concept of guardianship, for the sky, the sea, and the land), Kawas (mythology) (divided into 6 groups: gods, ancestors, souls of the living, spirits of living things, spirits of lifeless objects, and ghosts), Tiki (Māori mythology, Tiki is the first man created by either Tūmatauenga or Tāne and represents deified ancestors found in most Polynesian cultures). ” ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref
Mesopotamian Tutelary Deities can be seen as ones related to City-States
“Historical city-states included Sumerian cities such as Uruk and Ur; Ancient Egyptian city-states, such as Thebes and Memphis; the Phoenician cities (such as Tyre and Sidon); the five Philistine city-states; the Berber city-states of the Garamantes; the city-states of ancient Greece (the poleis such as Athens, Sparta, Thebes, and Corinth); the Roman Republic (which grew from a city-state into a vast empire); the Italian city-states from the Middle Ages to the early modern period, such as Florence, Siena, Ferrara, Milan (which as they grew in power began to dominate neighboring cities) and Genoa and Venice, which became powerful thalassocracies; the Mayan and other cultures of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica (including cities such as Chichen Itza, Tikal, Copán and Monte Albán); the central Asian cities along the Silk Road; the city-states of the Swahili coast; Ragusa; states of the medieval Russian lands such as Novgorod and Pskov; and many others.” ref
“The Uruk period (ca. 4000 to 3100 BCE; also known as Protoliterate period) of Mesopotamia, named after the Sumerian city of Uruk, this period saw the emergence of urban life in Mesopotamia and the Sumerian civilization. City-States like Uruk and others had a patron tutelary City Deity along with a Priest-King.” ref
“Chinese folk religion, both past, and present, includes myriad tutelary deities. Exceptional individuals, highly cultivated sages, and prominent ancestors can be deified and honored after death. Lord Guan is the patron of military personnel and police, while Mazu is the patron of fishermen and sailors. Such as Tu Di Gong (Earth Deity) is the tutelary deity of a locality, and each individual locality has its own Earth Deity and Cheng Huang Gong (City God) is the guardian deity of an individual city, worshipped by local officials and locals since imperial times.” ref
“A tutelary (also tutelar) in Hinduism, personal tutelary deities are known as ishta-devata, while family tutelary deities are known as Kuladevata. Gramadevata are guardian deities of villages. Devas can also be seen as tutelary. Shiva is the patron of yogis and renunciants. City goddesses include: Mumbadevi (Mumbai), Sachchika (Osian); Kuladevis include: Ambika (Porwad), and Mahalakshmi. In NorthEast India Meitei mythology and religion (Sanamahism) of Manipur, there are various types of tutelary deities, among which Lam Lais are the most predominant ones. Tibetan Buddhism has Yidam as a tutelary deity. Dakini is the patron of those who seek knowledge.” ref
“A tutelary (also tutelar) The Greeks also thought deities guarded specific places: for instance, Athena was the patron goddess of the city of Athens. Socrates spoke of hearing the voice of his personal spirit or daimonion:
You have often heard me speak of an oracle or sign which comes to me … . This sign I have had ever since I was a child. The sign is a voice which comes to me and always forbids me to do something which I am going to do, but never commands me to do anything, and this is what stands in the way of my being a politician.” ref
“Tutelary deities who guard and preserve a place or a person are fundamental to ancient Roman religion. The tutelary deity of a man was his Genius, that of a woman her Juno. In the Imperial era, the Genius of the Emperor was a focus of Imperial cult. An emperor might also adopt a major deity as his personal patron or tutelary, as Augustus did Apollo. Precedents for claiming the personal protection of a deity were established in the Republican era, when for instance the Roman dictator Sulla advertised the goddess Victory as his tutelary by holding public games (ludi) in her honor.” ref
“Each town or city had one or more tutelary deities, whose protection was considered particularly vital in time of war and siege. Rome itself was protected by a goddess whose name was to be kept ritually secret on pain of death (for a supposed case, see Quintus Valerius Soranus). The Capitoline Triad of Juno, Jupiter, and Minerva were also tutelaries of Rome. The Italic towns had their own tutelary deities. Juno often had this function, as at the Latin town of Lanuvium and the Etruscan city of Veii, and was often housed in an especially grand temple on the arx (citadel) or other prominent or central location. The tutelary deity of Praeneste was Fortuna, whose oracle was renowned.” ref
“The Roman ritual of evocatio was premised on the belief that a town could be made vulnerable to military defeat if the power of its tutelary deity were diverted outside the city, perhaps by the offer of superior cult at Rome. The depiction of some goddesses such as the Magna Mater (Great Mother, or Cybele) as “tower-crowned” represents their capacity to preserve the city. A town in the provinces might adopt a deity from within the Roman religious sphere to serve as its guardian, or syncretize its own tutelary with such; for instance, a community within the civitas of the Remi in Gaul adopted Apollo as its tutelary, and at the capital of the Remi (present-day Rheims), the tutelary was Mars Camulus.” ref
Household deity (a kind of or related to a Tutelary deity)
“A household deity is a deity or spirit that protects the home, looking after the entire household or certain key members. It has been a common belief in paganism as well as in folklore across many parts of the world. Household deities fit into two types; firstly, a specific deity – typically a goddess – often referred to as a hearth goddess or domestic goddess who is associated with the home and hearth, such as the ancient Greek Hestia.” ref
“The second type of household deities are those that are not one singular deity, but a type, or species of animistic deity, who usually have lesser powers than major deities. This type was common in the religions of antiquity, such as the Lares of ancient Roman religion, the Gashin of Korean shamanism, and Cofgodas of Anglo-Saxon paganism. These survived Christianisation as fairy-like creatures existing in folklore, such as the Anglo-Scottish Brownie and Slavic Domovoy.” ref
“Household deities were usually worshipped not in temples but in the home, where they would be represented by small idols (such as the teraphim of the Bible, often translated as “household gods” in Genesis 31:19 for example), amulets, paintings, or reliefs. They could also be found on domestic objects, such as cosmetic articles in the case of Tawaret. The more prosperous houses might have a small shrine to the household god(s); the lararium served this purpose in the case of the Romans. The gods would be treated as members of the family and invited to join in meals, or be given offerings of food and drink.” ref
“In many religions, both ancient and modern, a god would preside over the home. Certain species, or types, of household deities, existed. An example of this was the Roman Lares. Many European cultures retained house spirits into the modern period. Some examples of these include:
- Brownie (Scotland and England) or Hob (England) / Kobold (Germany) / Goblin / Hobgoblin
- Domovoy (Slavic)
- Nisse (Norwegian or Danish) / Tomte (Swedish) / Tonttu (Finnish)
- Húsvættir (Norse)” ref
“Although the cosmic status of household deities was not as lofty as that of the Twelve Olympians or the Aesir, they were also jealous of their dignity and also had to be appeased with shrines and offerings, however humble. Because of their immediacy they had arguably more influence on the day-to-day affairs of men than the remote gods did. Vestiges of their worship persisted long after Christianity and other major religions extirpated nearly every trace of the major pagan pantheons. Elements of the practice can be seen even today, with Christian accretions, where statues to various saints (such as St. Francis) protect gardens and grottos. Even the gargoyles found on older churches, could be viewed as guardians partitioning a sacred space.” ref
“For centuries, Christianity fought a mop-up war against these lingering minor pagan deities, but they proved tenacious. For example, Martin Luther‘s Tischreden have numerous – quite serious – references to dealing with kobolds. Eventually, rationalism and the Industrial Revolution threatened to erase most of these minor deities, until the advent of romantic nationalism rehabilitated them and embellished them into objects of literary curiosity in the 19th century. Since the 20th century this literature has been mined for characters for role-playing games, video games, and other fantasy personae, not infrequently invested with invented traits and hierarchies somewhat different from their mythological and folkloric roots.” ref
“In contradistinction to both Herbert Spencer and Edward Burnett Tylor, who defended theories of animistic origins of ancestor worship, Émile Durkheim saw its origin in totemism. In reality, this distinction is somewhat academic, since totemism may be regarded as a particularized manifestation of animism, and something of a synthesis of the two positions was attempted by Sigmund Freud. In Freud’s Totem and Taboo, both totem and taboo are outward expressions or manifestations of the same psychological tendency, a concept which is complementary to, or which rather reconciles, the apparent conflict. Freud preferred to emphasize the psychoanalytic implications of the reification of metaphysical forces, but with particular emphasis on its familial nature. This emphasis underscores, rather than weakens, the ancestral component.” ref
“William Edward Hearn, a noted classicist, and jurist, traced the origin of domestic deities from the earliest stages as an expression of animism, a belief system thought to have existed also in the neolithic, and the forerunner of Indo-European religion. In his analysis of the Indo-European household, in Chapter II “The House Spirit”, Section 1, he states:
The belief which guided the conduct of our forefathers was … the spirit rule of dead ancestors.” ref
“In Section 2 he proceeds to elaborate:
It is thus certain that the worship of deceased ancestors is a vera causa, and not a mere hypothesis. …
In the other European nations, the Slavs, the Teutons, and the Kelts, the House Spirit appears with no less distinctness. … [T]he existence of that worship does not admit of doubt. … The House Spirits had a multitude of other names which it is needless here to enumerate, but all of which are more or less expressive of their friendly relations with man. … In [England] … [h]e is the Brownie. … In Scotland this same Brownie is well known. He is usually described as attached to particular families, with whom he has been known to reside for centuries, threshing the corn, cleaning the house, and performing similar household tasks. His favorite gratification was milk and honey.” ref
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“These ideas are my speculations from the evidence.”
I am still researching the “god‘s origins” all over the world. So you know, it is very complicated but I am smart and willing to look, DEEP, if necessary, which going very deep does seem to be needed here, when trying to actually understand the evolution of gods and goddesses. I am sure of a few things and less sure of others, but even in stuff I am not fully grasping I still am slowly figuring it out, to explain it to others. But as I research more I am understanding things a little better, though I am still working on understanding it all or something close and thus always figuring out more.
Sky Father/Sky God?
“Egyptian: (Nut) Sky Mother and (Geb) Earth Father” (Egypt is different but similar)
Turkic/Mongolic: (Tengri/Tenger Etseg) Sky Father and (Eje/Gazar Eej) Earth Mother *Transeurasian*
Hawaiian: (Wākea) Sky Father and (Papahānaumoku) Earth Mother *Austronesian*
New Zealand/ Māori: (Ranginui) Sky Father and (Papatūānuku) Earth Mother *Austronesian*
Proto-Indo-European: (Dyḗus/Dyḗus ph₂tḗr) Sky Father and (Dʰéǵʰōm/Pleth₂wih₁) Earth Mother
Indo-Aryan: (Dyaus Pita) Sky Father and (Prithvi Mata) Earth Mother *Indo-European*
Italic: (Jupiter) Sky Father and (Juno) Sky Mother *Indo-European*
Etruscan: (Tinia) Sky Father and (Uni) Sky Mother *Tyrsenian/Italy Pre–Indo-European*
Hellenic/Greek: (Zeus) Sky Father and (Hera) Sky Mother who started as an “Earth Goddess” *Indo-European*
Nordic: (Dagr) Sky Father and (Nótt) Sky Mother *Indo-European*
Slavic: (Perun) Sky Father and (Mokosh) Earth Mother *Indo-European*
Illyrian: (Deipaturos) Sky Father and (Messapic Damatura’s “earth-mother” maybe) Earth Mother *Indo-European*
Albanian: (Zojz) Sky Father and (?) *Indo-European*
Baltic: (Perkūnas) Sky Father and (Saulė) Sky Mother *Indo-European*
Germanic: (Týr) Sky Father and (?) *Indo-European*
Colombian-Muisca: (Bochica) Sky Father and (Huythaca) Sky Mother *Chibchan*
Aztec: (Quetzalcoatl) Sky Father and (Xochiquetzal) Sky Mother *Uto-Aztecan*
Incan: (Viracocha) Sky Father and (Mama Runtucaya) Sky Mother *Quechuan*
China: (Tian/Shangdi) Sky Father and (Dì) Earth Mother *Sino-Tibetan*
Sumerian, Assyrian and Babylonian: (An/Anu) Sky Father and (Ki) Earth Mother
Finnish: (Ukko) Sky Father and (Akka) Earth Mother *Finno-Ugric*
Sami: (Horagalles) Sky Father and (Ravdna) Earth Mother *Finno-Ugric*
Puebloan-Zuni: (Ápoyan Ta’chu) Sky Father and (Áwitelin Tsíta) Earth Mother
Puebloan-Hopi: (Tawa) Sky Father and (Kokyangwuti/Spider Woman/Grandmother) Earth Mother *Uto-Aztecan*
Puebloan-Navajo: (Tsohanoai) Sky Father and (Estsanatlehi) Earth Mother *Na-Dene*
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Hinduism around 3,700 to 3,500 years old. ref
Judaism around 3,450 or 3,250 years old. (The first writing in the bible was “Paleo-Hebrew” dated to around 3,000 years ago Khirbet Qeiyafa is the site of an ancient fortress city overlooking the Elah Valley. And many believe the religious Jewish texts were completed around 2,500) ref, ref
Judaism is around 3,450 or 3,250 years old. (“Paleo-Hebrew” 3,000 years ago and Torah 2,500 years ago)
“Judaism is an Abrahamic, its roots as an organized religion in the Middle East during the Bronze Age. Some scholars argue that modern Judaism evolved from Yahwism, the religion of ancient Israel and Judah, by the late 6th century BCE, and is thus considered to be one of the oldest monotheistic religions.” ref
“Yahwism is the name given by modern scholars to the religion of ancient Israel, essentially polytheistic, with a plethora of gods and goddesses. Heading the pantheon was Yahweh, the national god of the Israelite kingdoms of Israel and Judah, with his consort, the goddess Asherah; below them were second-tier gods and goddesses such as Baal, Shamash, Yarikh, Mot, and Astarte, all of whom had their own priests and prophets and numbered royalty among their devotees, and a third and fourth tier of minor divine beings, including the mal’ak, the messengers of the higher gods, who in later times became the angels of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Yahweh, however, was not the ‘original’ god of Israel “Isra-El”; it is El, the head of the Canaanite pantheon, whose name forms the basis of the name “Israel”, and none of the Old Testament patriarchs, the tribes of Israel, the Judges, or the earliest monarchs, have a Yahwistic theophoric name (i.e., one incorporating the name of Yahweh).” ref
“El is a Northwest Semitic word meaning “god” or “deity“, or referring (as a proper name) to any one of multiple major ancient Near Eastern deities. A rarer form, ‘ila, represents the predicate form in Old Akkadian and in Amorite. The word is derived from the Proto-Semitic *ʔil-, meaning “god”. Specific deities known as ‘El or ‘Il include the supreme god of the ancient Canaanite religion and the supreme god of East Semitic speakers in Mesopotamia’s Early Dynastic Period. ʼĒl is listed at the head of many pantheons. In some Canaanite and Ugaritic sources, ʼĒl played a role as father of the gods, of creation, or both. For example, in the Ugaritic texts, ʾil mlk is understood to mean “ʼĒl the King” but ʾil hd as “the god Hadad“. The Semitic root ʾlh (Arabic ʾilāh, Aramaic ʾAlāh, ʾElāh, Hebrew ʾelōah) may be ʾl with a parasitic h, and ʾl may be an abbreviated form of ʾlh. In Ugaritic the plural form meaning “gods” is ʾilhm, equivalent to Hebrew ʾelōhîm “powers”. In the Hebrew texts this word is interpreted as being semantically singular for “god” by biblical commentators. However the documentary hypothesis for the Old Testament (corresponds to the Jewish Torah) developed originally in the 1870s, identifies these that different authors – the Jahwist, Elohist, Deuteronomist, and the Priestly source – were responsible for editing stories from a polytheistic religion into those of a monotheistic religion. Inconsistencies that arise between monotheism and polytheism in the texts are reflective of this hypothesis.” ref
Jainism around 2,599 – 2,527 years old. ref
Confucianism around 2,600 – 2,551 years old. ref
Buddhism around 2,563/2,480 – 2,483/2,400 years old. ref
Christianity around 2,o00 years old. ref
Shinto around 1,305 years old. ref
Islam around 1407–1385 years old. ref
Knowledge to Ponder:
Stars/Astrology:
- Possibly, around 30,000 years ago (in simpler form) to 6,000 years ago, Stars/Astrology are connected to Ancestors, Spirit Animals, and Deities.
- The star also seems to be a possible proto-star for Star of Ishtar, Star of Inanna, or Star of Venus.
- Around 7,000 to 6,000 years ago, Star Constellations/Astrology have connections to the “Kurgan phenomenon” of below-ground “mound” stone/wood burial structures and “Dolmen phenomenon” of above-ground stone burial structures.
- Around 6,500–5,800 years ago, The Northern Levant migrations into Jordon and Israel in the Southern Levant brought new cultural and religious transfer from Turkey and Iran.
- “The Ghassulian Star,” a mysterious 6,000-year-old mural from Jordan may have connections to the European paganstic kurgan/dolmens phenomenon.
“Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Different cultures have employed forms of astrology since at least the 2nd millennium BCE, these practices having originated in calendrical systems used to predict seasonal shifts and to interpret celestial cycles as signs of divine communications. Most, if not all, cultures have attached importance to what they observed in the sky, and some—such as the Hindus, Chinese, and the Maya—developed elaborate systems for predicting terrestrial events from celestial observations. Western astrology, one of the oldest astrological systems still in use, can trace its roots to 19th–17th century BCE Mesopotamia, from where it spread to Ancient Greece, Rome, the Islamicate world and eventually Central and Western Europe. Contemporary Western astrology is often associated with systems of horoscopes that purport to explain aspects of a person’s personality and predict significant events in their lives based on the positions of celestial objects; the majority of professional astrologers rely on such systems.” ref
Around 5,500 years ago, Science evolves, The first evidence of science was 5,500 years ago and was demonstrated by a body of empirical, theoretical, and practical knowledge about the natural world. ref
Around 5,000 years ago, Origin of Logics is a Naturalistic Observation (principles of valid reasoning, inference, & demonstration) ref
Around 4,150 to 4,000 years ago: The earliest surviving versions of the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, which was originally titled “He who Saw the Deep” (Sha naqba īmuru) or “Surpassing All Other Kings” (Shūtur eli sharrī) were written. ref
Hinduism:
- 3,700 years ago or so, the oldest of the Hindu Vedas (scriptures), the Rig Veda was composed.
- 3,500 years ago or so, the Vedic Age began in India after the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilization.
Judaism:
- around 3,000 years ago, the first writing in the bible was “Paleo-Hebrew”
- around 2,500 years ago, many believe the religious Jewish texts were completed
Myths: The bible inspired religion is not just one religion or one myth but a grouping of several religions and myths
- Around 3,450 or 3,250 years ago, according to legend, is the traditionally accepted period in which the Israelite lawgiver, Moses, provided the Ten Commandments.
- Around 2,500 to 2,400 years ago, a collection of ancient religious writings by the Israelites based primarily upon the Hebrew Bible, Tanakh, or Old Testament is the first part of Christianity’s bible.
- Around 2,400 years ago, the most accepted hypothesis is that the canon was formed in stages, first the Pentateuch (Torah).
- Around 2,140 to 2,116 years ago, the Prophets was written during the Hasmonean dynasty, and finally the remaining books.
- Christians traditionally divide the Old Testament into four sections:
- The first five books or Pentateuch (Torah).
- The proposed history books telling the history of the Israelites from their conquest of Canaan to their defeat and exile in Babylon.
- The poetic and proposed “Wisdom books” dealing, in various forms, with questions of good and evil in the world.
- The books of the biblical prophets, warning of the consequences of turning away from God:
- Henotheism:
- Exodus 20:23 “You shall not make other gods besides Me (not saying there are no other gods just not to worship them); gods of silver or gods of gold, you shall not make for yourselves.”
- Polytheism:
- Judges 10:6 “Then the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD, served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the sons of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; thus they forsook the LORD and did not serve Him.”
- 1 Corinthians 8:5 “For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords.”
- Monotheism:
- Isaiah 43:10 “You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me.
Around 2,570 to 2,270 Years Ago, there is a confirmation of atheistic doubting as well as atheistic thinking, mainly by Greek philosophers. However, doubting gods is likely as old as the invention of gods and should destroy the thinking that belief in god(s) is the “default belief”. The Greek word is apistos (a “not” and pistos “faithful,”), thus not faithful or faithless because one is unpersuaded and unconvinced by a god(s) claim. Short Definition: unbelieving, unbeliever, or unbelief.
Expressions of Atheistic Thinking:
- Around 2,600 years ago, Ajita Kesakambali, ancient Indian philosopher, who is the first known proponent of Indian materialism. ref
- Around 2,535 to 2,475 years ago, Heraclitus, Greek pre-Socratic philosopher, a native of the Greek city Ephesus, Ionia, on the coast of Anatolia, also known as Asia Minor or modern Turkey. ref
- Around 2,500 to 2,400 years ago, according to The Story of Civilization book series certain African pygmy tribes have no identifiable gods, spirits, or religious beliefs or rituals, and even what burials accrue are without ceremony. ref
- Around 2,490 to 2,430 years ago, Empedocles, Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a citizen of Agrigentum, a Greek city in Sicily. ref
- Around 2,460 to 2,370 years ago, Democritus, Greek pre-Socratic philosopher considered to be the “father of modern science” possibly had some disbelief amounting to atheism. ref
- Around 2,399 years ago or so, Socrates, a famous Greek philosopher was tried for sinfulness by teaching doubt of state gods. ref
- Around 2,341 to 2,270 years ago, Epicurus, a Greek philosopher known for composing atheistic critics and famously stated, “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him god?” ref
This last expression by Epicurus, seems to be an expression of Axiological Atheism. To understand and utilize value or actually possess “Value Conscious/Consciousness” to both give a strong moral “axiological” argument (the problem of evil) as well as use it to fortify humanism and positive ethical persuasion of human helping and care responsibilities. Because value-blindness gives rise to sociopathic/psychopathic evil.
“Theists, there has to be a god, as something can not come from nothing.”
Well, thus something (unknown) happened and then there was something. This does not tell us what the something that may have been involved with something coming from nothing. A supposed first cause, thus something (unknown) happened and then there was something is not an open invitation to claim it as known, neither is it justified to call or label such an unknown as anything, especially an unsubstantiated magical thinking belief born of mythology and religious storytelling.
While hallucinogens are associated with shamanism, it is alcohol that is associated with paganism.
The Atheist-Humanist-Leftist Revolutionaries Shows in the prehistory series:
Show two: Pre-animism 300,000 years old and animism 100,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”
Show tree: Totemism 50,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”
Show four: Shamanism 30,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”
Show five: Paganism 12,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”
Show six: Emergence of hierarchy, sexism, slavery, and the new male god dominance: Paganism 7,000-5,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Capitalism) (World War 0) Elite and their slaves!
Prehistory: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” the division of labor, power, rights, and recourses: VIDEO
Pre-animism 300,000 years old and animism 100,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”: VIDEO
Totemism 50,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”: VIDEO
Shamanism 30,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”: VIDEO
Paganism 12,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Pre-Capitalism): VIDEO
Paganism 7,000-5,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Capitalism) (World War 0) Elite and their slaves: VIEDO
Paganism 5,000 years old: progressed organized religion and the state: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Kings and the Rise of the State): VIEDO
Paganism 4,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (First Moralistic gods, then the Origin time of Monotheism): VIEDO
I do not hate simply because I challenge and expose myths or lies any more than others being thought of as loving simply because of the protection and hiding from challenge their favored myths or lies.
The truth is best championed in the sunlight of challenge.
An archaeologist once said to me “Damien religion and culture are very different”
My response, So are you saying that was always that way, such as would you say Native Americans’ cultures are separate from their religions? And do you think it always was the way you believe?
I had said that religion was a cultural product. That is still how I see it and there are other archaeologists that think close to me as well. Gods too are the myths of cultures that did not understand science or the world around them, seeing magic/supernatural everywhere.
I personally think there is a goddess and not enough evidence to support a male god at Çatalhöyük but if there was both a male and female god and goddess then I know the kind of gods they were like Proto-Indo-European mythology.
This series idea was addressed in, Anarchist Teaching as Free Public Education or Free Education in the Public: VIDEO
Our 12 video series: Organized Oppression: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of power (9,000-4,000 years ago), is adapted from: The Complete and Concise History of the Sumerians and Early Bronze Age Mesopotamia (7000-2000 BC): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szFjxmY7jQA by “History with Cy“
Show #1: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Samarra, Halaf, Ubaid)
Show #2: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power
Show #3: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Uruk and the First Cities)
Show #4: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (First Kings)
Show #5: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Early Dynastic Period)
Show #6: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power
Show #7: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Sargon and Akkadian Rule)
Show #9: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Gudea of Lagash and Utu-hegal)
Show #12: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Aftermath and Legacy of Sumer)
The “Atheist-Humanist-Leftist Revolutionaries”
Cory Johnston ☭ Ⓐ Atheist Leftist @Skepticallefty & I (Damien Marie AtHope) @AthopeMarie (my YouTube & related blog) are working jointly in atheist, antitheist, antireligionist, antifascist, anarchist, socialist, and humanist endeavors in our videos together, generally, every other Saturday.
Why Does Power Bring Responsibility?
Think, how often is it the powerless that start wars, oppress others, or commit genocide? So, I guess the question is to us all, to ask, how can power not carry responsibility in a humanity concept? I know I see the deep ethical responsibility that if there is power their must be a humanistic responsibility of ethical and empathic stewardship of that power. Will I be brave enough to be kind? Will I possess enough courage to be compassionate? Will my valor reach its height of empathy? I as everyone, earns our justified respect by our actions, that are good, ethical, just, protecting, and kind. Do I have enough self-respect to put my love for humanity’s flushing, over being brought down by some of its bad actors? May we all be the ones doing good actions in the world, to help human flourishing.
I create the world I want to live in, striving for flourishing. Which is not a place but a positive potential involvement and promotion; a life of humanist goal precision. To master oneself, also means mastering positive prosocial behaviors needed for human flourishing. I may have lost a god myth as an atheist, but I am happy to tell you, my friend, it is exactly because of that, leaving the mental terrorizer, god belief, that I truly regained my connected ethical as well as kind humanity.
Cory and I will talk about prehistory and theism, addressing the relevance to atheism, anarchism, and socialism.
At the same time as the rise of the male god, 7,000 years ago, there was also the very time there was the rise of violence, war, and clans to kingdoms, then empires, then states. It is all connected back to 7,000 years ago, and it moved across the world.
Cory Johnston: https://damienmarieathope.com/2021/04/cory-johnston-mind-of-a-skeptical-leftist/?v=32aec8db952d
The Mind of a Skeptical Leftist (YouTube)
Cory Johnston: Mind of a Skeptical Leftist @Skepticallefty
The Mind of a Skeptical Leftist By Cory Johnston: “Promoting critical thinking, social justice, and left-wing politics by covering current events and talking to a variety of people. Cory Johnston has been thoughtfully talking to people and attempting to promote critical thinking, social justice, and left-wing politics.” http://anchor.fm/skepticalleft
Cory needs our support. We rise by helping each other.
Cory Johnston ☭ Ⓐ @Skepticallefty Evidence-based atheist leftist (he/him) Producer, host, and co-host of 4 podcasts @skeptarchy @skpoliticspod and @AthopeMarie
Damien Marie AtHope (“At Hope”) Axiological Atheist, Anti-theist, Anti-religionist, Secular Humanist. Rationalist, Writer, Artist, Poet, Philosopher, Advocate, Activist, Psychology, and Armchair Archaeology/Anthropology/Historian.
Damien is interested in: Freedom, Liberty, Justice, Equality, Ethics, Humanism, Science, Atheism, Antiteism, Antireligionism, Ignosticism, Left-Libertarianism, Anarchism, Socialism, Mutualism, Axiology, Metaphysics, LGBTQI, Philosophy, Advocacy, Activism, Mental Health, Psychology, Archaeology, Social Work, Sexual Rights, Marriage Rights, Woman’s Rights, Gender Rights, Child Rights, Secular Rights, Race Equality, Ageism/Disability Equality, Etc. And a far-leftist, “Anarcho-Humanist.”
I am not a good fit in the atheist movement that is mostly pro-capitalist, I am anti-capitalist. Mostly pro-skeptic, I am a rationalist not valuing skepticism. Mostly pro-agnostic, I am anti-agnostic. Mostly limited to anti-Abrahamic religions, I am an anti-religionist.
To me, the “male god” seems to have either emerged or become prominent around 7,000 years ago, whereas the now favored monotheism “male god” is more like 4,000 years ago or so. To me, the “female goddess” seems to have either emerged or become prominent around 11,000-10,000 years ago or so, losing the majority of its once prominence around 2,000 years ago due largely to the now favored monotheism “male god” that grow in prominence after 4,000 years ago or so.
My Thought on the Evolution of Gods?
Animal protector deities from old totems/spirit animal beliefs come first to me, 13,000/12,000 years ago, then women as deities 11,000/10,000 years ago, then male gods around 7,000/8,000 years ago. Moralistic gods around 5,000/4,000 years ago, and monotheistic gods around 4,000/3,000 years ago.
To me, animal gods were likely first related to totemism animals around 13,000 to 12,000 years ago or older. Female as goddesses was next to me, 11,000 to 10,000 years ago or so with the emergence of agriculture. Then male gods come about 8,000 to 7,000 years ago with clan wars. Many monotheism-themed religions started in henotheism, emerging out of polytheism/paganism.
Damien Marie AtHope (Said as “At” “Hope”)/(Autodidact Polymath but not good at math):
Axiological Atheist, Anti-theist, Anti-religionist, Secular Humanist, Rationalist, Writer, Artist, Jeweler, Poet, “autodidact” Philosopher, schooled in Psychology, and “autodidact” Armchair Archaeology/Anthropology/Pre-Historian (Knowledgeable in the range of: 1 million to 5,000/4,000 years ago). I am an anarchist socialist politically. Reasons for or Types of Atheism
My Website, My Blog, & Short-writing or Quotes, My YouTube, Twitter: @AthopeMarie, and My Email: damien.marie.athope@gmail.com