After leaving Africa (As Animists, in my thinking), one group of early humans (Still Animists, in my thinking) went west to Western Europe (thereby creating Totemism, in my thinking), and another group that split off (Also Animists, in my thinking) went north to Western Siberia (thereby creating Shamanism, in my thinking). The one in Western Siberia went to western Europe, and the one in Western Europe went east, meeting each other in central Europe, where one group went east back to Siberia, but all the way to Lake Baikal. A group from around Lake Baikal in Siberia then heads into the Middle East, bringing new ideas that later evolved there into early pagan High gods/goddesses.
R1a-YP5018 migrated into Arabia 12,300 years ago
“Two (male and female) Neolithic figurines (9000–7000 BCE), gypsum with bitumen and stone inlays, excavated in Tell Fekheriye, very close to the Syria and Turkey border.” ref
Here is my art on the evolution of deity ideas, which I think began in Africa with supernatural thinking and ended in the Middle East, evolving into the first gods and goddesses, relating to my reasoned speculations of the available evidence.
This complex art/info-sheet is my thoughts about how Dual spirited human beings from Africa, may have evolved into Primordial being(s) in Western Europe with Totemism, and then evolved into Spirit/Pseudo-Ancestorial Couple after merging with Shamanism, maybe World Parent(s) in mythology, which then evolved into Devine Couple mythology, High Gods Couple, and Sky Father with Sky Mother (pre-agriculture) in the Middle East. Then later, Sky Father with Sky Mother evolved into Sky Father with Earth Mother (post-agriculture), also in the Middle East.
To me, the sun and moon (pre-deity spirit beings) can be thought of as linked primordial spirit beings, personifying the sky and cosmic order before and even after the evolution of gods. Or linked in one primordial dual-natured spirit being as each of its eyes, with one representing the sun and the other the moon, and the two may have different associated gender natures attributed to them.
“In Siberia, the sun and moon are considered the High God’s eyes.” ref
“The Eye of Horus, usually depicted as left wedjat-eye (paired with the Eye of Ra, right wedjat-eye), is a concept and symbol in ancient Egyptian religion. It was one of the most common motifs for amulets, remaining in use from the Old Kingdom (c. 2686–2181 BCE) to the Roman period (30 BCE – 641 CE). The ancient Egyptian god Horus was a sky deity, and many Egyptian texts say that Horus’s right eye was the sun and his left eye the moon. The solar eye and lunar eye were sometimes equated with the red and white crown of Egypt, respectively. Some texts treat the Eye of Horus seemingly interchangeably with the Eye of Ra, which in other contexts is an extension of the power of the sun god Ra and is often personified as a goddess.” ref
AI Overview: Divine couple creation myths frequently feature a pairing of Sky Father and Earth Mother, representing the union of active and passive forces to form the cosmos.
(The Sumerian creation myth describes a primordial state where the sky god An and the earth goddess Ki were united as a single mountain-like entity, often born from the primeval sea goddess Nammu. Their son, Enlil (god of air/storm), separated them, taking Earth (Ki) while (An) took the Heavens, allowing for the creation of life and civilization.)
“There are two types of world parent myths, both describing a separation or splitting of a primeval entity, the world parent or parents. One form describes the primeval state as an eternal union of two parents, and the creation takes place when the two are pulled apart. The two parents are commonly identified as Sky (usually male) and Earth (usually female), who were so tightly bound to each other in the primeval state that no offspring could emerge. These myths often depict creation as the result of a sexual union and serve as genealogical record of the deities born from it. In the second form of world parent myths, creation itself springs from dismembered parts of the body of the primeval being. Often, in these stories, the limbs, hair, blood, bones, or organs of the primeval being are somehow severed or sacrificed to transform into sky, earth, animal or plant life, and other worldly features. These myths tend to emphasize creative forces as animistic in nature rather than sexual, and depict the sacred as the elemental and integral component of the natural world. One example of this is the Norse creation myth described in “Völuspá“, the first poem in the Poetic Edda, and in Gylfaginning.” ref
“One of the most ancient concepts in religion is that of the divine couple. In Sumeria the divine couple appears as part of perhaps the earliest notion of Trinity. God the Father was symbolized as the Sun, his consort was symbolized alternately as either the Moon or the Earth, and the king was viewed as their offspring: the Son of the Sun; a living representative (or emanation) of God on Earth. In many traditions the gods and goddesses who comprise the divine couple are not seen as being separate or distinct entities, but rather as differing aspects of one another, or even emanations of one another. In this we see traces of an even more ancient tradition, God as the primordial androgyne. Such a notion has been part of many theologies, although the idea has largely been forgotten or (perhaps) ignored.” ref
To the Hadza, all people are dual spirit beings, Male (from your father) and Female (from your mother).
“The Hadza people of Tanzania are recognized as having a bilateral (or cognatic) descent system, rather than being strictly matrilineal or patrilineal. They do not recognize formal clans and instead trace kin connections through both the mother’s and father’s sides equally.” ref, ref
“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 a name of a relative and turn into the spirit-beings of the named. In this ritual, we find that dancers, when calling names of women, do so through the mediating power objects.” ref
Hadza gender rituals – “Epeme” and “Maitoko” – are considered as counterparts
“Hadza rights of passage mark the transition to adulthood through gender-specific rituals centered on economic responsibility and community roles. Men become adults by hunting large game and participating in the epeme ritual, while women undergo maitoko ceremonies upon their first menstruation. These rituals emphasize self-sufficiency in a largely egalitarian society.
Circumcision as a Rite of Passage to turn the Believed Dual Sexed Child into the Single Sexed Adult
“Circumcision in Africa, and the rites of initiation in Africa, as well as “the frequent resemblance between details of ceremonial procedure in areas thousands of kilometers apart, indicate that the circumcision ritual has an old tradition behind it and in its present form is the result of a long process of development.” ref
“In many African societies, traditional Male serves as a crucial rite of passage marking the transition from boyhood to manhood, sometimes metaphorically viewed as removing the “female” part of a boy to create a “full” man. This cultural ceremony often includes education, initiation, and the removal of the foreskin to signify maturity, social responsibility, and masculinity.
The history of the migration and evolution of circumcision is known mainly from the cultures of two regions. In the lands south and east of the Mediterranean, starting with Central Sahara, Sudan and Ethiopia, the procedure was practiced by the ancient Egyptians and the Semites, and then by the Jews and Muslims. In Oceania, circumcision is practiced by the Australian Aboriginals and Polynesians. There is also evidence that circumcision was practiced among the Aztec and Mayan civilizations in the Americas, but little is known about that history. It has been speculated that circumcision originated as a substitute for castration of defeated enemies or as a religious sacrifice. In many traditions, it acts as a rite of passage marking a boy’s entrance into adulthood.” ref
“At Oued Djerat, in Algeria, engraved rock art with masked bowmen, which feature male circumcision and may be a scene involving ritual, have been dated to earlier than 6000 years ago amid the Bubaline Period; more specifically, while possibly dating much earlier than 10,000 years ago, rock art walls from the Bubaline Period have been dated between 9,200 and 5,500 years ago. The cultural practice of circumcision may have spread from the Central Sahara, toward the south in Sub-Saharan Africa, and toward the east in the region of the Nile. Based on engraved evidence found on walls and evidence from mummies, circumcision has been dated to at least as early as 6000 BCE in ancient Egypt. Some ancient Egyptian mummies, which have been dated as early as 4000 BCE, show evidence of circumcision. Evidence suggests that circumcision was practiced in the Middle East by the fourth millennium BCE, when the Sumerians and the Semites moved into the area that is modern-day Iraq from the North and West. The earliest historical record of circumcision comes from Egypt, in the form of an image of the circumcision of an adult carved into the tomb of Ankh-Mahor at Saqqara, dating to about 2400–2300 BCE.” ref
“Circumcision was possibly done by the Egyptians for hygienic reasons, but also was part of their obsession with purity and was associated with spiritual and intellectual development. No well-accepted theory explains the significance of circumcision to the Egyptians, but it appears to have been endowed with great honor and importance as a rite of passage, performed in a public ceremony emphasizing the continuation of family generations and fertility. It may have been a mark of distinction for the elite: the Egyptian Book of the Dead describes the sun god Ra as having circumcised himself. Circumcision is prominent in the Hebrew Bible. In addition to proposing that circumcision was adopted by the Israelites purely as a religious mandate, scholars have suggested that Judaism’s patriarchs and their followers adopted circumcision to make penile hygiene easier in hot, sandy climates; as a rite of passage into adulthood; or as a form of blood sacrifice. Historical campaigns of ethnic, cultural, and religious persecution frequently included bans on circumcision as a means of forceful assimilation, conversion, and ethnocide.” ref
“In biblical times, West Semitic peoples, comprising Israelites, Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites, were circumcised, but not the East Semitic peoples of Mesopotamia, such as the Akkadians, Assyrians, and Babylonians. The non-Semitic Philistines, probably of Aegean or early Greek origin, did not practice this form of genital mutilation. Consequently, they were derogated by the Israelites as the “uncircumcised” (‘arelim) (Judg. 14-3; 15-18; 1 Sam. 18-25; Herodotus, History, ii.104). The Greeks abhorred circumcision, making life for circumcised Jews living among the Greeks and later the Romans very difficult. Restrictions on the Jewish practice by European governments have occurred several times in world history, including the Seleucid Empire under Antiochus IV and the Roman Empire under Hadrian, where it was used as a means of forceful assimilation and conversion.” ref, ref
“The Hadza/Hadzabe population from Tanzania, population is dominated by haplogroup B2-M112 (Y-DNA) at 51%. Haplogroup B-M112 (M112, M192, 50f2(P)) has been found mainly among pygmy populations in Central Africa, Juu (Northern Khoisan) populations in Southern Africa, and the Hadzabe in East Africa.” ref, ref
“Y- DNA B-M112 is an ancient marker, forming more than 40,000 years old found in Hadzabe and also frequent in San. Time of divergence estimates for B-M112 suggest great antiquity from other populations, including Hadzabe. With the estimate of 112,200 ± 41,800 years serves as an upper bound for the time of separation of ancestors. If, in fact, San-Hadzabe separation dates back to a time prior to out-of-Africa expansions of modern humans, clicks may be more than 40,000 years old. About 30 languages of southern Africa, spoken by Khwe and San, are characterized by a repertoire of click consonants and phonetic accompaniments. Phylogenetic tree topology indicates a basal separation of the ancient ancestors of these click-speaking peoples. That genetic divergence does not appear to be the result of recent gene flow from neighboring groups. The deep genetic divergence among click-speaking peoples of Africa and mounting linguistic evidence suggest that click consonants date to early in the history of modern humans. At least two explanations remain viable. Clicks may have persisted for tens of thousands of years, independently in multiple populations, as a neutral trait. Alternatively, clicks may have been retained, because they confer an advantage during hunting in certain environments. Isolation among groups is especially plausible given that population sizes in Africa appear to have been reduced between about 40,000 and 20,000 years ago. Under this scenario, eastern African and southern African click speakers had already been isolated from one another for tens of thousands of years by the time Bantu speakers entered their range.” ref
“Found only in Africa, click languages rely on distinctive clicking sounds made by the tongue to form words. Peoples across Africa use click languages, including the Hadza tribe of Tanzania, in eastern Africa, and the San (Bushmen) groups of Botswana and Namibia, in southern Africa. About half the Hadzabe (plural of Hadza), a third of the San, and a third of non-click speakers in central Africa share the variant, which is not found elsewhere. Changes in genetics revealed that the Hadzabe and the San “are as [genetically] distant from one another as two populations could be. Both the San and the Hadzabe appear more similar to the non-click speaking groups than to one another. The researchers dispute the going theory that the San and Hadzabe languages arose independently; the dialects, Mountain says, are too complex for that.” ref
“Tanzania is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast. To the north and west lie Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest lake. Tanzania is one of the oldest continuously inhabited areas on Earth. The indigenous populations of eastern Africa are thought to be the linguistically isolated Hadza and Sandawe hunter-gatherers of Tanzania.” ref
“The Hadza’s ancestors have probably lived in their current territory for tens of thousands of years. Hadzaland is about 50 kilometers (31 mi) from Olduvai Gorge, an area sometimes called the “Cradle of Mankind” because of the number of hominin fossils found there, and 40 kilometres (25 mi) from the prehistoric site of Laetoli. Archaeological evidence suggests that the area has been continuously occupied by hunter-gatherers much like the Hadza since at least the beginning of the Later Stone Age, 50,000 years ago and their oral history does not suggest they moved to Hadzaland from elsewhere.” 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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Totemism is associated with kinship and the veneration of some natural objects, animals, plants, elements, and other physical objects, believed to have some spiritual or supernatural powers. So, harming of totemic animals is considered a taboo in most African cultures. Animism (‘breath, spirit, life’) belief objects, places, and nature may possess spiritual essence spirit.
Hunter-Gatherer/Indigenous Peoples Religiosity, Beliefs, and Practices
Animism (simplified to me as a belief in a perceived spirit world) passably by at least 100,000 years ago “the primal stage of early religion” To me, Animistic Somethingism: You just feel/think there has to be something supernatural/spirit-world or feel/think things are supernatural/spirit-filled.
Totemism (simplified to me, as a belief that these perceived spirits could be managed or related with by created physical expressions) passably by at least 50,000 years ago “progressed stage of early religion” A totem is a representational spirit being, a sacred object, or symbol of a group of people, clan, or tribe.
Shamanism (simplified to me as a belief that some special person can commune with these perceived spirits on the behalf of others by way of rituals) passably by at least 30,000 years ago Shamanism is an otherworld connection belief thought to heal the sick, communicate with spirits/deities, and escort souls of the dead.
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I think these items likely relate to the Milky Way as a path to Heaven/Stars.
A Seeming African Origin of the Milky Way Mythology and Its Relatedness to Other Mythology
Milky Way Mythology: Often a Path to the Afterlife, Souls of the Dead on the Milky Way
Primeval Dragons and Serpents
“Primeval Dragons and Serpents mythology research lends credibility to the out-of-Africa theory of human origins, asserting that anatomically modern humans originated in Africa and spread from there to the rest of the world. It complements phylogenetic studies by biologists that indicate the first major wave of human migration radiating from Africa followed the southern coastline of Asia, peopled Australia some 50,000 years ago, and reached America from an east Asian source. Both the biological and mythological research point to a second migration reaching North America at more or less the same time from a north Eurasian source. By constructing a phylogenetic supertree to trace the evolution of serpent and dragon myths that emerged during those early waves of migrations. One proto-narrative that most likely predated the exodus from Africa includes the following core story elements: Mythological serpents guard water sources, releasing the liquid only under certain conditions. They can fly and form a rainbow. They are giants and have horns or antlers on their heads. They can produce rain and thunderstorms. Reptiles, immortal like others who shed their skin or bark and thus rejuvenate, are contrasted with mortal men and/or are considered responsible for originating death, perhaps by their bite. In this context, a person in a desperate situation gets to see how a snake or other small animal revives or cures itself or other animals. The person uses the same remedy and succeeds.” ref
“According to some interpretations, the Rainbow Serpent (of Australia) mirrors the motion of the Milky Way across stellar nights, which deepens its mystic connections between Earth and space.” ref
“The Wardaman (Northern Territory, Australia) rock painting of the Sky Boss and the Rainbow Serpent. The serpent at the bottom represents the Milky Way, and the head of the Sky Boss is associated with the Coalsack nebula, although a researcher could not deduce this astronomical connection without access to the cultural insight of Wardaman elder Bill Yidumduma Harney.” ref
“In some cultures, the Rainbow Serpent is male; in others, female; in yet others, the gender is ambiguous, or the Rainbow Serpent is hermaphroditic (Intersex) or bigender, thus an androgynous entity.” ref
The Mythology and Folklore Database: I116 – The Milky Way – the boundary between seasons.
Berezkin category: Supernatural objects, objects, and creatures
Summary of Motif: The Milky Way separates the seasons of the year or worlds (dry from wet, sky from earth, etc.)
Milky Way mythology motif in Africa:
Lango: Jok placed stars between the upper and lower worlds so that the Milky Way can help distinguish between the two seasons necessary for people’s lives (ordained the Milky Way as to arrange for the two diverse seasons necessary for man’s life)
Liberia: The Milky Way is a cloud whose movement “creates the seasons”
Lubashaba: The Milky Way is considered the boundary between dry and wet seasons
Luba kasai: The Milky Way is the barrier that separates the world of evil spirits thrown from the sky from the world of good heavenly spirits
Mpongwe: “wet and dry season separator”
Shades of the Rainbow Serpent? A KhoeSan Animal between Myth and Landscape in Southern Africa—Ethnographic Contextualizations of Rock Art Representations
“The snake is a potent entity in many cultures across the world, and is a noticeable global theme in rock art and inscribed landscapes. We mobilize our long-term ethnographic research with southern African KhoeSan peoples to situate and interpret the presence of snake motifs in the region’s rock art. We contextualize the snake as a transformative ontological mediator between everyday and “entranced” KhoeSan worlds (those associated with “altered states of consciousness”), to weave together both mythological and shamanistic interpretations of southern African rock art. Ethnographic explorations of experiences of snakes as both an aspect of natural history and the physical environment, and as embodiments of multiplicitous and mythical meaning by which to live and understand life, shed light on the presence of snakes and associated snake-themes in southern African rock art. By drawing on ethnographic material and in conjunction with a review of the literature, we highlight a dynamic assemblage of extant associations between snakes, rain, water, fertility, blood, fat, transformation, dance, and healing. We suggest that these extant associations have explanatory potential for understanding the meaning of these themes in the rock art created by the ancestors of contemporary KhoeSan peoples. Our paper contributes to a live debate regarding the interpretive relevance of ethnography for understanding rock art representations from the past.” ref
“Australian aboriginal mythology is replete with references to snakes, including the “huge hideous snake, called Jeedara, or Ganba” who Mirning aboriginals believed “lived in the caves and blowholes of on the Nullarbor Plain”—the “hissing noises from the blowholes … the sound of the monstrous snake’s breathing”—and who “ate anyone who came into his territory”, and in the ancestral Dreamtime was able to push up “the steep sea-cliffs so as to swim along beneath them”. Ramona and Desmond Morris write further that “by far the most spectacular snakes in Australian aboriginal art are the mythical rainbow serpents. These usually live in waterholes during the dry season, but take to the thunder clouds when the rains come, sometimes appearing in the sky of rainbows.” In southern Africa, Brian Morris identifies a role of the python amongst Malawian Chewa that has striking resemblance to the python amongst KhoeSan and indeed the anaconda in South American contexts, both constrictor snakes of enormous potential size—linked mythologically and empirically to waters, rivers, deep pools, and rainfall and accordingly a “key symbolic mediation between the supreme beings and humans”. And at “Python Rock” at Tsodilo Hills in Botswana, a site known for its concentration of rock art, a naturally occurring rock-form has been worked over millennia to enhance its snake-like appearance, through the addition of several hundred human-made indentations (cupules) into the rock surface whose dappled effects in sunlight are suggestive of snake-scales and movement.” 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. Though the concept of the Rainbow Serpent has existed for a very long time in Aboriginal Australian cultures. It has also been suggested that the Serpent’s position as the most prominent creator God in the Australian tradition has largely been the creation of non-Aboriginal anthropologists. In addition to stories about the Rainbow Serpent being passed down from generation to generation, the Rainbow Serpent has been worshipped through rituals and has also inspired cultural artifacts such as artwork and songs, a tradition that continues today. Many Aboriginal Australian artists continue to be inspired by the Rainbow Serpent and use it as a subject in their art.” ref
“Dreamtime (or The Dreaming or Tjukurrpa or Jukurrpa) stories tell of the great spirits and totems during creation, in animal and human form, that molded the barren and featureless earth. The Rainbow Serpent came from beneath the ground and created huge ridges, mountains, and gorges as it pushed upward. The most common motif in Rainbow Serpent stories is the Serpent as creator, with the Serpent often bringing life to an empty space. The Rainbow Serpent is understood to be of immense proportions and inhabits deep permanent waterholes and is in control of life’s most precious resource, water. In some cultures, the Rainbow Serpent is considered to be the ultimate creator of everything in the universe. 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 bisexual, 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 bisexual, it is sometimes depicted with breasts. Other times, the Serpent has no particular gender. The Serpent has also been known to appear as a scorpion or another animal or creature. In some stories, the Serpent is associated with a 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, 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 the bunyip, a fearful, water-hole-dwelling creature in Australian mythology.” ref
Dr Pete Kuzma: “In spite of there being 500 or so nations, there are similar beliefs across them. Some in different parts of Australia will be significantly different, but in most, they follow the same interpretation of the world, one of the creator spirits, the rainbow spirit, and particularly in the northern parts of Australia, this is the one that brought life to the land from the sky. A common belief in the Dreaming stories is that the Earth is a reflection of the sky. The sky is land as well. One thinking holds that the frequent return of Halley’s comment may have led to/related to the origins of the Rainbow Serpent.” – Indigenous Australian Astronomy (Astronomical Society of Edinburgh)
“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 (a Yolngu group) in north-eastern Arnhem Land, The Yurlunggur was considered “the great father”. The serpent is called Witij/Wititj by the Galpu clan of the Dhangu people, of Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory, one of Yolngu peoples. Kunmanggur by the Murinbata people and Numereji by the Kakadu (Gaagudju), both in the Northern Territory. Bolung in the Northern Territory, by the Dangbon/Dalabon/Buan and Rembarrnga. muitj (var. Moitt, Muit ) in Central Arnhemland by the Rembarrnga, etc. Wollunqua by the Warumungu people of the Northern Territory. 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). 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. Andrénjinyi by the natives of Pennefather River, North Queensland. Dhakkan (or Takkan) by the Gubbi Gubbi (Kabi), a people native to South Eastern Queensland. Goorialla by the Lardil people of Mornington Island in the Wellesley Islands chain in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland. Taipan by the Wikmunkan peoples, who traditionally ranged over an extensive area of the western Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland. Kajura by the Ingarda people of the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. Wagyl by the Noongar people who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia. Wanamangura by the Thalanyji (Talainji) people in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Wanampi by the Aṉangu people from an area equivalent to the Western Desert cultural bloc, in central Australia.” ref
“And the Rainbow Serpent is known by Myndie (Melbourne, Victoria), Bunyip (Western Victoria), as well as Arkaroo (Flinders Ranges, South Australia).” ref
“This ‘Rainbow Serpent’ is generally and variously identified by those who tell ‘Rainbow Serpent’ myths, as a snake of some enormous size often living within the deepest waterholes of many of Australia’s waterways; descended from that larger being visible as a dark streak in the Milky Way, it reveals itself to people in this world as a rainbow as it moves through water and rain, shaping landscapes, naming and singing of places, swallowing and sometimes drowning people; strengthening the knowledgeable with rainmaking and healing powers; blighting others with sores, weakness, illness, and death.” ref
“Unambal Aborigine Tribe of North West Australia: The Indigenous Australian People see the Earth as the great serpent Ungut. The Milky Way is seen as another serpent called Wallanganda. Between them, these two Serpents gave birth to ‘Creation’ by dreaming all the creatures that live on the Earth, including the spirit ancestors of the Aboriginal people, and also the Wandjina who bring both rain and fertility. The Australian Aboriginal Peoples lived in two times only: the primeval times, in which all life came into being, and the present. There is no future. Their language has numerals for ‘one’, ‘two’, and ‘three’, but the word for ‘four’ is the same as ‘very many’. The Wandjina are divided into two groups; the originators of all human customs and the inventors of all implements. The Wandjina can change from one form to another at will; from a Wandjina, to a w a human, to an animal. The Wandjina live today at the bottom of the ‘watering place’ associated with each particular painting. According to the Aboriginal People, when the Wandjina lay down, they entered the earth, leaving their imprints on the stone, so they were believed to be the originators of the rock paintings.” ref
“B3, B3a, B3b, B3c, B3d, B3e” Berezkin category: The Origins of the Characteristics of the environment
This motif has been recorded in 398 traditions
Aboriginal Cosmology
“Despite my cautionary notes about different cosmologies, it is occasionally possible to identify universal themes. Most Australian Aboriginal people held a common view of the earth as a flat disc surrounded by the boundless waters of an ocean (Similar to Sumerian mythology, like cosmic primordial waters that preexisted before creation, like other World myths, even though Australia is not listed in the waters before creation myths). Above this earth-disc was a solid vault or canopy. Beyond this vault was the sky-world, a vast, plentiful, and beautiful place. ‘The sky was a canopy covering all and coming down beyond the horizon to meet and enclose the flat surface on which men and women followed the fixed pattern of their lives’. The sky dome or canopy was usually supported by props of one sort or another. Views about what constituted the props differed across the country. In the Australian Alps, for example, the vault was held up by trees, but on the New South Wales coast, the props appear also to have been solid wooden pillars watched over and guarded by an old man. Myths told to Daisy Bates by people from the Great Australian Bight indicate that the sky-dome was held up by a great tree, known as Warda, which had to be protected at all times, an idea similarly held by groups in the east. The sky-world beyond the dome was envisaged as containing a hole, a window, or a fissure, through which the traditional healers could gain entry. They usually gained access by climbing or pulling themselves up a connecting cord. The cord was seen variously as being hair, a string, a rainbow, lightning, a spear, a grass rope, a tree, flames, a totem board, and a turtle. Among some Victorian groups, there was a view that people used to be able to climb up an immense pine tree (probably Callitris sp.), up through its branches to the topmost ones, which reached the sky. They could walk about, indeed live on the starry vault. Those people who belonged to the sky could descend to the earth and likewise visit friends before returning. Visits were made for purposes of barter between hunting grounds. The tree was viewed as ‘a regular highway between earth and the upper regions’. Around the Roper River area, amongst the Alawa people in the Northern Territory, the link was also a tree, but more specifically, a large stringy-bark. In an account of the Booandik people of South Australia, the healer (pangal) climbed to the sky-world quite regularly to visit and have social discourse with the sky people. It was also possible in some areas to gain access to the skyworld by tunneling through the earth to the other side of the sea. In other places, as well as in the Great Australian Bight, there was a notion of an underworld that could be accessed by digging through the limited thickness of the earth. The Sun Woman at night, and Moon Man by day, also traveled along in the underworld valley.” ref
“Beyond the sky-dome or canopy is the sky-world. It is a dynamic and lively place, if somewhat mysterious. The sky-world of the Yarralin people of the Northern Territory, for example, is conceived as being above the stars but below the sun and the moon. It is the home of the Lightning People. When lightning is seen in the sky, it is known that the Lightning People are active, probably fighting. This sky-world is also the world of the dead, but after some time, the spirit of a deceased person merges to become part of the collective Lightning People. The Tiwi of Melville and Bathurst Islands divided their universe into four levels, the underworld, the earth on which they live, the upper world, and beyond that, the sky-world. The upper world had two seasons annually, a wet and a dry. In the dry season, the upper world was the home for the man of thunderstorms, the woman of the monsoonal rains, and the woman of lightning. At the end of the dry season, these three moved to the sky-world and, in doing so, shed rain on the dry earth. While this was happening, the trees and plants of the upper world used the raindrops to send their spirits to the ground, where they grew into plants. Hence, all vegetation on the islands emanated from spirits dropped from the upper world. The sky-world was the place of the stars, the moon, and the sun. The sky-world was frequently envisaged as containing much quartz crystal and fresh water, both being highly valued resources. There is also an intriguing suggestion that it was represented among New South Wales groups by the Bora Ring of secret initiation grounds. The Dieri of Lake Eyre also described their sky-country as being a beautiful and abundant place, full of trees and birds. It has also been described by some as a ‘land of exquisite beauty with flowers blooming everywhere, massed together in brilliant colors like hundreds of rainbows laid out on the grass’. The flowers neither faded nor died. The perception of the sky-world, as an eternal place or space of plenty, beauty, and peacefulness, was not uncommon.” ref
“Over much of Australia and in particular, parts of the west and northwest, the spirits of the dead went to and resided in the sky-world with the ancestral heroes, but as frequently, there was a specially designated earthly place of sojourn for the dead, always located well away from that of the living. Sometimes, it was located at the eastern or western edge of the sky, or on faraway islands. In central and northeast Arnhem Land, mortuary or morning star ceremonies (known as ‘sorry business’) are performed to ensure the safe passage and transition of the deceased souls to the Land of the Dead. As to the nature of stars themselves, opinions differed. Some Aboriginal groups envisaged them as the tracks, campfires, or representations of the sky people. Others saw them as spirits of the dead, and yet others, the Karadjeri, for example, thought that, as well as being representations of the spirits of dead men and women, they were globules of light – individual nautilus shells with fish still alive inside them. Ancestral creative spirits having a bird form, which have subsequently become stars, is not an uncommon notion. The landscape for Aboriginal people was seen as having been created by ancestral spirits and, in many cases, it is still imbued with their presence. Most of the myths that involve the stars have their dramatic starting points or episodes on the earth, so that all over the continent, the terrestrial environment is intrinsically linked with the celestial environment. Many sky-based ancestral heroes and heroines are also associated with particular places on earth. So, for example, a painted door in the primary school at Yuendumu in Central Australia documents the notion that sacred places on earth fell out of the Milky Way as shooting stars.” ref
“The Wandjina, also written Wanjina and Wondjina and also known as Gulingi, are cloud and rain spirits from the Wanjina Wunggurr cultural bloc of Aboriginal Australians, depicted prominently in rock art in northwestern Australia. Some of the artwork in the Kimberley region of Western Australia dates back to approximately 4,000 years ago. Another closely related spirit entity is the creator being Wunngurr, a being analogous to the Rainbow Serpent in other Aboriginal peoples’ belief systems, but with a different interpretation.” ref
“One story tells of Wandjina, a group of rain and cloud spirits who transported the Ancestors from within the Earth, bringing them through the seas and over the land where life first began. One story tells of the Rainbow Serpent, which is said to have come to Earth from the sky and created water and all life associated with water.” ref
(So, the Rainbow Serpent, a “primordial-waters being,” who preexisted before creation, like other World myths)
“The Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains of South Australia called the (center and other sectors of) the Milky Way wodliparri in the Kaurna language, meaning “house river”. They believed that Karrawirra Parri (the River Torrens) was a reflection of wodliparri. 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 camp-fires 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. The Yolŋu people of northern Australia say that the constellation of Orion, which they call Julpan (or Djulpan), is a canoe. They tell the story of three brothers who went fishing, and one of them ate a sawfish that was forbidden under their law. Seeing this, the Sun-woman, Walu, made a waterspout that carried him and his two brothers and their canoe up into the sky. The three stars that line in the constellation’s center, which form Orion’s Belt in Western mythology, are the three brothers; the Orion Nebula above them is the forbidden fish; and the bright stars Betelgeuse and Rigel are the bow and stern of the canoe. This is an example of astronomical legends underpinning the ethical and social codes that people use on Earth.” ref
The world map was adapted from two Milky Way maps and one Cosmic Hunt map by mythology expert John White, of the Crecganford YouTube Channel, as seen in the three videos in order:
- Misunderstanding Myth: Peterson, Hancock, Dawkins et al
- The Milky Way: Source of some of our Oldest Myths
- The OLDEST story in the World – The Cosmic Hunt
The Americas map was adapted from one Milky Way map by archaeologist Edwin Lawrence Barnhart and one Cosmic hunt map by mythology expert John White, of the Crecganford YouTube Channel, as seen in the three videos in order:
I think that Milky Way mythology (path of the souls after death going to the stars/becoming stars but not life after death) originated in Africa, likely central East Africa or Southern Africa (between 100,000 and 70,000 years ago) before it moved out of Africa with human migrations to the Middle East around 60,000 to 55,000 years ago. Then one branch of humanity went to western Europe, such as France, where this mythology merged/evolved into the Cosmic Hunt (still related to the Milky Way, though with less focus), where Totemism also emerged between 50,000 and 40,000 years ago or so. A different branch of humanity left the Middle East heading for Siberia where this path of souls evolved into after life thinking or souls living on after death around 30,000 to 35,000 years ago a long with the emergence of shamanism; a belief that a special person that could contact/interact with souls. Sometimes this meant soul-travel beliefs, in which only the shamanism before death was believed to use the Milky Way as a path to the souls of ancestors for help. Shamanism beliefs spread both further East into the Americas and further west into Central Europe, where they meet Totemism and the Cosmic Hunt mythology. These now somewhat grouped mythologies both evolved from the Milky Way mythology and larger religion styles of Totemism-Shamanism, heading back to Siberia and Lake Baikal, where they evolved again before heading to the Americas, now with early Earth Diver myths, and to the Middle East, where Shamanism would evolve into Paganism by 12,000 to 13,000 years ago.
*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 Dual-Gendered or Non-gendered Being?
“The Adorant from the Geißenklösterle cave is a 35,000-to-40,000-year-old section of mammoth ivory with a depiction of a human figure, found in the Geißenklösterle cave in the Swabian Jura near Blaubeuren, Germany. The front face has a human figure of uncertain sex in relief, with raised arms and outstretched legs, but no hands. The posture is usually interpreted as an expression of worship, which is why in German the figure is called an “adorant”, a word meaning “worshipper”. It has been claimed that a belt and sword can be seen, although these are probably natural features of the ivory. On the plate’s reverse are rows of small notches. The piece is 38 mm (1.50 in) tall, 14 mm (0.55 in) wide, and 4.5 mm (0.18 in) thick. Traces of manganese and ochre can be found on it by microscope analysis. It is somewhat like the Lion-Human of Hohlenstein-Stadel ivory statue also found in Germany.” ref
“The Löwenmensch figurine, also called the Lion-Human of Hohlenstein-Stadel, is a prehistoric ivory sculpture discovered in Hohlenstein-Stadel, a German cave. The German name, Löwenmensch, meaning “lion-person” or “lion-human”, is used most frequently because it was discovered and is exhibited in Germany. Determined by carbon dating of the layer in which it was found to be between 35,000 and 40,000 years old, it is one of the oldest-known examples of an artistic representation and the oldest confirmed statue ever discovered. Its age associates it with the archaeological Aurignacian culture of the Upper Paleolithic. An example of zoomorphic art, the Lion-Human was carved out of mammoth ivory, using a flint stone knife. Seven parallel, transverse, carved gouges are on the left arm.” ref
The Venus figurines of Balzi Rossi, Italy, which stem from the Gravettian, are about 24,000 to 19,000 years old, one of which is called the “Hermaphrodite (Intersex) Venus from Balzi Rossi” (with seeming female and male traits). ref, ref
“The torso is very flat, with normal breasts hanging low. The belly is large, but not commensurate with that of the Losange, for example. Under the stomach are three difficult to interpret features: laterally, two elongated subtriangular masses, which we have considered the representation of hands on the belly, which is possible but not obvious, since they might also be inguinal fat folds, recalling those which may be observed in the Bushman women. It takes a lot of imagination to distinguish the penis, which remains the essential element of the phallic representation; as for the roughly circular mass that is found below it, it could be a testicular pouch. For the rest, hips, buttocks, and thighs are of normal proportions, with no trace of extra fat deposits. In what remains of the dorsal side, since there is a very moderate projection of the buttocks, there is no trace of steatopygia. The back of the statue, despite its poor condition, is also very interesting. It is well shaped, with a spinal depression around the shoulder blades, and an indication of the curvature of the small of the back, emphazised by a cluster of parallel incisions; the buttocks, as we have said, are normal, with an incomplete medial hole for the anus. As for the legs, the lower limbs are broken off at the knees.” ref
“A Stone Age woman was buried like a man, revealing flexible gender roles 7,000 years ago in Hungary. A study of 125 skeletons from two Neolithic cemeteries in Hungary has revealed that men and women had clear gender roles — but sometimes those roles were fluid.” ref
“The elusive minority: Non-binary gender in prehistoric Europe, per research analyzing data from burial sites spanning nearly 4,000 years, from 5,500 to 1,200 BCE (7,500 to 3,200 years ago). People tend to think that the idea that biological sex is linked with one’s role in society belongs in the past. But was it even the case in prehistory? Archaeologists at the University of Göttingen have investigated the representation of gender in Neolithic and Bronze Age graves, in order to understand if the idea of gender in prehistoric Europe was really as “binary” as might be expected. The researchers found that the role of prehistoric individuals was mostly – but not solely – determined by their biological sex.” ref
“Prehistoric graves 5000 years ago contained biologically male skeletons with women’s dress and grave goods, for example. The oldest extant writings on earth are from ancient Mesopotamia, about 4000 years ago. They contain frequent references to people who are neither male nor female, among them men living as women, eunuchs, intersex people, and more.” ref
Non-Binary Gender in Ancient Africa
Female husbands – when women take wives: “Before colonization, queerness was in fact heralded in Africa. It was championed by spiritual beliefs previously practiced by the majority of Africans. There were no gender binaries nor was heterosexuality imposed as the norm. There were, of course, many ways in which ancient Africans not only celebrated queerness but also practiced it. Female husbands was a practice in Africa where a woman, typically an older one, would take another woman, typically younger, to form a marriage contract. Same-sex relationships between women weren’t demonized back then. Denise O’Brien, author of ‘Female Husbands in South Bantu Societies’ (1977), defined this practice as “a woman takes on the legal status and social role of a husband and father by marrying another woman.” ref
“However, in Europe, marriage between women was taboo, so when Europeans arrived and enslaved people from Africa, they were surprised to witness females living together as married couples. A British anthropologist, Northcote Thomas recorded this as a “strange custom” in his 1914 paper ‘Anthropological report on the Igbo-speaking peoples of Nigeria’. Eight years later, Fredrick Lugurd, explorer of Africa, also noticed how female husbands were particularly common amongst the Igbo tribes of Nigeria. It was one of the oldest queer practices in Africa with the powerful, courageous and influential figure, Queen Nzinga Mbande of Angola (1624–1663) known to have actively married other women. You can read more about Nzinga here.” ref
Chibados – the ‘third gender’ natives of precolonial Angola: “Like homosexuality, being transgender was a common occurrence in Africa. First documented by Catholic priests, the Chibados (or Quimbandas) were male diviners who lived mostly as women. They dressed as females and were believed to have superpowers and magical insight, and in some cases acted like women. They also spoke effeminately and married other men, which was seen as a spiritually good thing “to unite in wrongful lust with them.” You can read more about the Chibados in this paper A Third Sex Around the World. It wasn’t just the Chibados who were considered third gender or different gender in Africa. There were the ‘mudoko dako‘ or effeminate males among the Langi of northern Uganda and the ‘gor-digen’ of Senegal, to name a few.” ref
“Before colonization, there were no gender binaries in Africa which is not only proven by the documentation of those considered as third gender natives, but also by our native languages that are typically not gendered. Transgendered people were treated with the utmost respect within some African countries and communities and still are today. Shanna Collins writes, “The Lugbara people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda are among those in Central Africa who still conduct spiritual ceremonies with transgender priests.” You can learn more about transgenderism in Africa in Collins’ interesting article.” ref
Androgynous Africa: “In pre-colonial Africa, gender was not dependent upon sexual anatomy. Gender roles and identities were less rigid. Not only was there gender fluidity for people, but there were also many African beliefs that had deities outside of today’s gender norms. For instance, there were the Nommo, primordial ancestral spirits in Dogon religion and cosmogony (sometimes referred to as demi deities), venerated by the Dogon people of Mali. In Ancient Egypt, there were the Goddesses Mut and Sekment who were pictured with male and female characteristics.” ref
“The worship of androgynous (and intersex) deities in Africa was so prevalent that African spiritual beliefs in intersexual deities and sex/gender transformation among their followers have been documented among 26 different tribes, named here. Transgender priests in religious ceremonies were still reported to be practising in 20th century West Africa. And cross-dressing is a feature of modern Brazilian and Haitian ceremonies derived from West African religions. More about Transgender Warriors here.” ref
The “Deviant” African Genders That Colonialism Condemned
“European travelers and anthropologists found that their gendered worldview didn’t easily map onto the societies they encountered. In “pre-colonial times,” wrote the late feminist scholar Niara Sudarkasa, women in West Africa were “conspicuous in high places.” They led armies, often played important consultative roles in politics, and in the case of the Lovedu people (present-day South Africa), they were even supreme Rain Queens. What it meant to be a woman in many African pre-colonial societies was not rigid. “Among the Langi of northern Uganda,” writes Sylvia Tamale, dean of the faculty of Law at Makerere University Uganda, “the mudoko dako, or effeminate males, were treated as women and could marry men.” There were also the Chibados or Quimbanda of Angola, male diviners who, some scholars have argued, were believed to carry female spirits through anal sex. The practice of same-sex marriage was documented in more than 40 precolonial African societies.” ref
“There is among the Angolan pagans much sodomy,” wrote one Portuguese soldier in 1681, “sharing one with the other their dirtiness and filth, dressing as women.” In another story, the inquisition in Brazil had heard complaints about Francisco Manicongo, one of the “negro sodomites who serve as passive women,” a jinbandaa from Central Africa, who had to be punished for being a deviant (in the eyes of Christians). Europeans, averse to what they called “sodomy,” expressed distress towards the idea that some people whom they perceived as men would dare be considered by their societies as women. With what the slave trade and colonialism implied, more often forced, these transgressive gender performances became the target of the inquisition. The Church disseminated the message that individuals who did not conform to their idea of men and women could be a bad influence on Christian colonial society.” ref
“One of those targeted was Vitoria. Her story was popularized by the ground-breaking work of the Brazilian queer historian Luiz Mott. We know of Vitoria (originally a slave named Antonio, from Benin, West Africa) from the authoritative accounts of the Portuguese Inquisition in Lisbon, which had her arrested in 1556. She dressed as a woman and worked on the riverbank of Lisbon, where she would beckon men, “like a woman enticing them to sin.” Under questioning by the Inquisitors, according to James H. Sweet, a historian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Vitoria “insisted that she was a woman and had the anatomy to prove it.” The inquisition was not convinced, and she was eventually given a life sentence. Whereas the Portuguese could only see deviance and sodomy, “their feminine gestures, their same-sex behaviors were simply expressions of their broader spiritual roles, roles that went completely unrecognized by the Portuguese.” ref
“The same can be said about the campaigns that intermittently condemn trans men and women in Africa. In Tamale’s view, these are “state-orchestrated ‘moral panics’” serving as decoys to distract from socioeconomic and political dysfunction. What the memory of Vitoria and the many other nonconforming victims of the Inquisition demonstrates is that it is not homosexuality and trans identities that are a colonial import into Africa, but homophobia and transphobia instead. The theological frustration with deviance and sodomy that was often used to repress them is familiar today. As Tamale puts it, “the ironic truth is that it is not homosexuality that is alien to Africa but the far off lands of Sodom and Gomorrah plus the many other religious depictions of other sexuality that are often quoted in condemning same-sex relations on the continent.” ref
Diverse, communal, gender-fluid: African families’ true history is being whitewashed?
“Right-wing moralists are pushing the nuclear family as the ideal path. But this is a neo-colonial mindset that is truly unAfrican. African families have always been diverse, built on extended kinship systems, communal parenting, and fluid roles that adapt to context and need. The notion of the nuclear family – a married heterosexual couple raising biological children in a single household, which was promoted at the recent Strengthening Families conference in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Nairobi’s Pan-African Conference on Family Values – is not indigenous to Africa. It was imported, imposed, and idealized through a combination of colonialism, missionary influence, and capitalist restructuring.” ref
“Before colonization, African cultures embraced gender diversity. For example, the Igbo and Yoruba people, found mostly in present-day Nigeria, did not have a binary view of gender and typically did not assign gender to babies at birth, waiting until later in life. The Dagaaba people (in present-day Ghana) assigned gender based not on anatomy but on the energy someone presents. In Kenya, the Agikuyu people practiced a tradition of women marrying other women. In a 2000 study on “woman-woman marriage” among Gikuyu women, Wairimũ Ngarũiya Njambi and William E O’Brien examine the dynamics of these relationships, which demonstrate the fluidity of gender relations and queerness in traditional Africa.” ref
“The right-wing and anti-gender movements cloaked in religion and family values are pushing hard to shame families that we know and love into silence. They use pulpits, policies skewed by funding, and education systems that have a goal of speaking on morality while stripping away nuance and our African histories. Our African families do not need to be fixed but honored. One of the highlights is that Africans start having conversations and loudly condemn the invasion of Eurocentric ideology of how African families should look.” ref
(Chadic/ Afro-Asiatic) African Religion and Supreme Gods
“Hausa people are an ethnic group native to West Africa. They speak the Hausa language, a Chadic language, part of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Hausa and other modern Chadic-speaking populations originally spoke Nilo-Saharan languages. Hausa animism, Maguzanci or Bori is a pre-Islamic traditional religion of the Hausa people of West Africa that involves magic and spirit possession. Bòòríí is a Hausa noun, meaning the spiritual force that resides in physical things. The Bori religion is both an institution to control these forces, and the performance of an “adorcism” (as opposed to exorcism) ritual, dance, and music by which these spirits are controlled and by which illness is healed.” ref, ref
“In the body of each person, there is the soul, residing in the heart, and the life, which wanders about inside the body. They have a bori of the same sex, which is an intermediary between the human and the jinn. Between puberty and marriage, most have a second bori, of the opposite sex, which must be consulted before marriage to prevent the fallout of its jealousy, as it has intercourse with the human as they sleep. In addition to all this, there are two angels over a person’s left and right shoulders, recording their evil and good thoughts.” ref
“The principal leader of Bori possession-trance groups in a region is the Sarkin Bori (chief of the Bori). This role is usually filled by a man. He is nominally the authority over all other Bori mediums in a region, and hosts any mediums traveling through an area. He organizes performances, sending gifts and invites to the performers. The actual power and role of the Sarkin Bori varies regionally. The Sarkin Bori and other male leaders are in charge of public possession-trance ceremonies. The Magajiyar Bori (heiress of the Bori) is always a woman. Technically, the position is subordinate to the Sarkin, but individual Magajiyar Bori may have equal or greater renown. Some may oversee districts as large as the district the Sarkim Bori, but most oversee smaller districts. She may also be the head of a brothel, and her district may be the area surrounding it.” ref
“The Magajiyar Bori and female leaders in charge of secluded ceremonies. Because of the public/private distinction, while many think of possession-trance groups as having a single vertical hierarchy, it is more accurate to describe them as parallel. The possession-trance group may borrow titles associated with the emirate structure to describe itself. These titles are used because they are a familiar system for organizing. Most of the adherents to the bori possession-trance group are women, who are stereotyped as single and as prostitutes. Male homosexuals, transvestites, transgender women, those with psychological disturbances, and men of low occupational status are also involved in the group.” ref
Non-Binary Gender in Ancient Mesopotamia
“Many Mesopotamian literary works are still studied today, like the Epic of Gilgamesh, which speaks to broad themes like friendship, eternal life, and what it means to be human, and has been interpreted by some as a queer narrative. The Mesopotamian understanding of the universe divided the world into the heavens and earth, but made space for life in the inbetween; that allowed people who were not strictly male or female to navigate those spaces. As a result, non-binary individuals served as powerful entities in Mesopotamian cultural practices. There is no question that non-binary people existed in Mesopotamia and that they were endowed from the beginning with awesome powers and abilities. In one of the earliest Sumerian creation stories, the goddess Ninmah creates a figure with neither penis or vagina, and names it as a third gender separate from men and women. Enki, the god of wisdom, then decrees that this third gender person is destined to stand before the king in a position of privilege.” ref
“The goddess (known as either Ishtar or Inanna) is a fascinating character who is often described as liminal (i.e. operating on the boundaries between things), paradoxical, and contradictory. Some commentators have gone as far as to describe her as androgynous. In the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal’s hymn to Ishtar of Nineveh, the goddess is described as being “Like [the god] Ashur, she wears a beard and is clothed in brilliance [ … ] The crown on her head gleams like the stars; the luminescent discs on her breasts shine like the sun!” Ishtar did not conform to the roles of wife and mother, standing at the boundary between male and female. From the time of ancient Sumer in southern Mesopotamia (c. 4500-1900 BCE), one of Ishtar’s powers was to change a person’s gender. It is unclear how this transformation was executed, but it is explicit in the literature of the time. In a hymn to Inanna, the priestess Enheduana writes that the power “To turn a man into a woman and a woman into a man are yours, Inanna.” The non-binary groups associated with Inanna/Ishtar appear to have made this power of transformation visible. Neither male nor female, these people were both traditionally feminine and very masculine.” ref
“Non-binary is defined in general terms as meaning not belonging to any one gender. In contemporary times, most people are assigned a gender at birth that matches their perceived biological sex, male or female. Thus, who we are is to some extent shaped by how society views us. However, individuals may not perceive themselves as only fitting in one gender or the other, which can cause difficulty in our gendered world. They might receive negative comments or even physical abuse. But many people from the past would find these comments difficult to comprehend since, for them non-binary people were not simply an accepted part of society, but were powerful. We can see from this that people have long existed outside the gender binary and will continue to do so. Beginning as early as 5,000 years ago [3000 BCE], non-binary people served in positions of power, using their location between the male and female genders as a place from which to cross existential boundaries such as those between heaven and earth, life and death. We see the elevation and celebration of non-binary individuals in cuneiform texts. At the time, non-binary people comprised distinct groups in society with clearly-defined titles: assinnu, kurgarrû, and kalû.” ref
“Of the three types of cult official, the assinnu are the best documented. They appear as devotees of Inanna/Ishtar from Sumerian times until the NeoAssyrian period (c. 911-612 BCE). In Akkadian cuneiform, the word assinnu means “manwoman.” The assinnu are associated with bringing people back from the brink of illness, using their non-gendered position to stand in for their ability to occupy the space between life and death. Some assinnu served as prophets, bridging the cosmic divide between heaven and earth. The kurgarrû are introduced to us for the first time in Sumerian religious texts beginning in 2000 BCE, eventually coming to appear alongside the assinnu in Akkadian texts. Their cultic rites were aimed at first provoking divine fury in the form of ritual chaos caused by their place between genders, and then resolving it. The kurgarrû are further defined by their ritual dress, which takes the form of a warrior ready for battle, a typically masculine presentation. However, in a list from the Neo-Assyrian period (the first millennium BCE), the kurgarrû are listed among the women musicians. It was not simply their title, then, that set them apart as non-binary citizens, but also their roles and presentation, straddling the divide between men and women.” ref
Raven (trickster deity) Gender-Shifting
“In indigenous Arctic Inuit traditions, the Raven, referred to as Tulugaq, embodies a hybrid creator-trickster possessing both human and avian attributes, including a beak and the ability to shapeshift or alter gender. This figure is central to cosmogonic myths, where Raven generates the world and its waters through rhythmic wingbeats, subsequently introducing light by stealing celestial bodies from a primordial darkness, alongside fire, drinking water, and other vital elements.” ref
“In indigenous Tlingit traditions of southeastern Alaska, narratives such as in “Raven Turns Himself into a Woman,” Raven, disguises himself as a chief’s daughter to marry into a Killerwhale clan’s village. Posing as a high-status bride, he systematically steals and hoards food supplies, fabricating excuses such as a “moving labret” to deflect suspicion, while exploiting Tlingit customs like bridal canoes and mourning rituals for cover. ” ref
Possible Dual-Gendered (Two seeming male animals with a connected vagina?)
or Three-Gendered (Two seeming animals, one female and one male with a connected vagina?) Being?
Chauvet cave
“The Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave in the Ardèche department of southeastern France is a cave that contains some of the best-preserved figurative cave paintings in the world, as well as other evidence of Upper Paleolithic life. It is located near the commune of Vallon-Pont-d’Arc on a limestone cliff above the former bed of the river Ardèche, in the Gorges de l’Ardèche. The dates have been a matter of dispute but a study published in 2012 supports placing the art in the Aurignacian period, approximately 32,000–30,000 years ago. A study published in 2016 using additional 88 radiocarbon dates showed two periods of habitation, one from 37,000 to 33,500 years ago and the second from 31,000 to 28,000 years ago, with most of the black drawings dating to the earlier period.” ref
“Hundreds of animal paintings have been cataloged, depicting at least 13 different species, including some rarely or never found in other ice age paintings. Rather than depicting only the familiar herbivores that predominate in Paleolithic cave art, i.e. horses, aurochs, mammoths, etc., the walls of the Chauvet Cave feature many predatory animals, e.g., cave lions, leopards, bears, and cave hyenas. There are also paintings of rhinoceroses. Typical of most cave art, there are no paintings of complete human figures, although there is one partial “Venus” figure composed of what appears to be a vulva attached to an incomplete pair of legs. Above the Venus, and in contact with it, is a bison head, which has led some to describe the composite drawing as a Minotaur. There are a few panels of red ochre hand prints and hand stencils made by blowing pigment over hands pressed against the cave surface. Abstract markings—lines and dots—are found throughout the cave. There are also two unidentifiable images that have a vaguely butterfly or avian shape to them. This combination of subjects has led some students of prehistoric art and cultures to believe that there was a ritual, shamanic, or magical aspect to these paintings.” ref
“One drawing, later overlaid with a sketch of a deer, is reminiscent of a volcano spewing lava, similar to the regional volcanoes that were active at the time. If confirmed, this would represent the earliest known drawing of a volcanic eruption. The artists who produced these paintings used techniques rarely found in other cave art. Many of the paintings appear to have been made only after the walls were scraped clear of debris and concretions, leaving a smoother and noticeably lighter area upon which the artists worked. Similarly, a three-dimensional quality and the suggestion of movement are achieved by incising or etching around the outlines of certain figures. The art is also exceptional for its time for including “scenes”, e.g., animals interacting with each other; a pair of woolly rhinoceroses, for example, are seen butting horns in an apparent contest for territory or mating rights.” ref
Aurignacian burials (around 37,000-30,000 years ago) belong to the early phase of this period in Europe. Examples have been excavated at Cave of Cavillon, Liguria – a burial wearing a cap of netted whelk shells with a border of deer’s teeth, red ochre around the face, and a bone awl at the side. ref
Aurignacian in the Zagros region dates back to about 35,500 years ago at Yafteh Cave, Lorestan, Iran. ref
In my prehistory art in this blog, I offer my speculations relating to art with possible religious/supernatural thinking which I think are loose, justified, or reasoned speculations/conjectures.
“My Holy Three thinking is me wondering if they have a 30,000-year belief connection so it may be loose speculations/conjectures.”
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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.
“Reindeer are more followed than herded, showing us how we moved from hunting to herding societies.” -Questioner
My response: Cosmic hunt mythology involves bears and horned animals. The change happened in Turkey in the Middle East. They hunted, then herded, then horned sheep, goats, and cattle. The change in dominance of animals changed the way mythology was approached. Our power over nature, rather than our power because of nature, to me.
Cosmic Hunt Myths have Primordial Origins
“The Greek version of a familiar myth starts with Artemis, goddess of the hunt and fierce protectress of innocent young women. Artemis demands that Callisto, “the most beautiful,” and her other handmaidens take a vow of chastity. Zeus tricks Callisto into giving up her virginity, and she gives birth to a son, Arcas. Zeus’ jealous wife, Hera, turns Callisto into a bear and banishes her to the mountains. Meanwhile, Arcas grows up to become a hunter and one day happens on a bear that greets him with outstretched arms. Not recognizing his mother, he takes aim with his spear, but Zeus comes to the rescue. He transforms Callisto into the constellation Ursa Major, or “great bear,” and places Arcas nearby as Ursa Minor, the “little bear.” ref
“As the Iroquois of the northeastern U.S. tell it, three hunters pursue a bear; the blood of the wounded animal colors the leaves of the autumnal forest. The bear then climbs a mountain and leaps into the sky. The hunters and the animal become the constellation Ursa Major. Among the Chukchi, a Siberian people, the constellation Orion is a hunter who pursues a reindeer, Cassiopeia. Among the Finno-Ugric tribes of Siberia, the pursued animal is an elk and takes the form of Ursa Major.” ref
“Although the animals and the constellations may differ, the basic structure of the story does not. These sagas all belong to a family of myths known as the Cosmic Hunt that spread far and wide in Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas among people who lived more than 15,000 years ago. Every version of the Cosmic Hunt shares a core storyline—a man or an animal pursues or kills one or more animals, and the creatures are changed into constellations.” ref
“Folklorists, anthropologists, ethnologists, and linguists have long puzzled over why complex mythical stories that surface in cultures widely separated in space and time are strikingly similar. In recent years, a promising scientific approach to comparative mythology has emerged in which researchers apply conceptual tools that biologists use to decipher the evolution of living species. In the hands of those who analyze myths, the method, known as phylogenetic analysis, consists of connecting successive versions of a mythical story and constructing a family tree that traces the evolution of the myth over time.” ref
“But the dissemination of Cosmic Hunt stories around the world cannot be explained by a universal psychic structure. If that were the case, Cosmic Hunt stories would pop up everywhere. Instead, they are nearly absent in Indonesia and New Guinea and very rare in Australia, but present on both sides of the Bering Strait, which geologic and archaeological evidence indicates was above water between 28,000 and 13,000 BCE. The most credible working hypothesis is that Eurasian ancestors of the first Americans brought the family of myths with them.” ref
“The Blackfoot Indians, an Algonquin tribe that depended on hunting buffalo to get enough food to survive, passed a related story from generation to generation. The trickster Crow, who is both human and bird, hides a herd of buffalo in a cave. Crow is eventually captured and placed over a smoke hole, which explains why, ever since, crows are black. Crow promises to free the buffalo. But he breaks his promise. Two heroic hunters transform themselves—one into a puppy, the other into a wood staff. Crow’s daughter picks up the puppy and staff and takes them to the cave. There the two hunters transform themselves again, one into a large dog, the other into a man, to drive the buffalo aboveground. They get past Crow by hiding under the skin of a buffalo as the herd charges out of the cave.” ref
“A composite phylogenetic tree of the family of Polyphemus myths indicates that the stories followed two major migratory patterns: The first, in Paleolithic times, spread the myth in Europe and North America. The second, in Neolithic times, paralleled the proliferation of livestock farming. hylogenetic reconstructions of both the Polyphemus and Cosmic Hunt stories build on decades of research by scholars who based their work primarily on oral and written versions of folktales and legends. The current models also incorporate empirical observations of mythological motifs in prehistoric rock art. Similarities in certain rock art motifs and the reconstructed stories open a new window on the mental universe of the first humans who migrated across the Bering Strait to the New World between 30,000 and 15,000 years ago.” ref
“This protomyth—revealed by three separate phylogenetic databases, many statistical methods and independent ethnological data—reflects the belief, widely held by ancient cultures, in the existence of a master of animals who keeps them in a cave and the need for an intermediary to free them. It could also be part of a Paleolithic conception of how game emerges from an underworld. At the Cave of the Trois-Frères (or “three brothers”) in the French Pyrenees, frequented during the upper Paleolithic, a panel shows a small creature with the head of a bison and the body of a human, which seems to be holding a short bow.” ref
“Lost in the middle of a herd of bison, another animal, similar to a bison, turns its head toward the human hybrid, and the two creatures exchange gazes. On examination, the left rear thigh of the “bison” is not the thigh of a ruminant; its proportions are much smaller, like a human thigh—so much so that archaeologist André Leroi-Gourhan took it for a human silhouette. Moreover, the artist has meticulously drawn the anus and the vulvar orifice. These two elements can be compared with some Amerindian versions of the Polyphemus story, where the man hides himself in the animal by entering its anus.” ref
“The first version of the Cosmic Hunt, the ancestor of all the other accounts of the story of Callisto, reconstructed from three different databases, would have gone like this: A man is hunting an ungulate; the hunt takes place in the sky or ends there; the animal is alive when it is transformed into a constellation; and this constellation is the one we know as Ursa Major. This reconstruction of the Cosmic Hunt story might explain the famous Paleolithic “well scene” found in a cave in Lascaux, France. The intriguing lone black spot near the bison’s withers would thus be a star.” ref
“The fixedness of the animal, which does not give the impression of actually charging, would make sense if it represented a constellation rather than an action. Moreover, according to some experts, the man might be upright and the bison ascending, which echoes the rise into the sky of the protomythic animal. Finally, the black stains on the ground under the bison suggest the bloodstained autumnal leaves of the hunted animal. Linking a mythical story and a Paleolithic image is tricky. These examples serve simply to illustrate the interpretive power of the phylogenetic method, which makes it possible to propose plausible hypotheses and to recover stories that disappeared long ago.” ref
- Animism: Spiritism and Supernaturalism/Spiritualism
- Totemism: Animism and Socio-Religio-Cultural Laws/Beliefs
- Shamanism: Animism/some Totemism as well as Afterlife thinking
- Paganism: Animism, Totemism, and Shamanism; plus Deity focus
- Organized Religion: Institutional Pagan Religion with all the aspects
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)
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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“There are two geographically plausible routes that have been proposed for humans to emerge from Africa: through the current Egypt and Sinai (Northern Route), or through Ethiopia, the Bab el Mandeb strait, and the Arabian Peninsula (Southern Route).” ref
“Although there is a general consensus on the African origin of early modern humans, there is disagreement about how and when they dispersed to Eurasia. This paper reviews genetic and Middle Stone Age/Middle Paleolithic archaeological literature from northeast Africa, Arabia, and the Levant to assess the timing and geographic backgrounds of Upper Pleistocene human colonization of Eurasia. At the center of the discussion lies the question of whether eastern Africa alone was the source of Upper Pleistocene human dispersals into Eurasia or were there other loci of human expansions outside of Africa? The reviewed literature hints at two modes of early modern human colonization of Eurasia in the Upper Pleistocene: (i) from multiple Homo sapiens source populations that had entered Arabia, South Asia, and the Levant prior to and soon after the onset of the Last Interglacial (MIS-5), (ii) from a rapid dispersal out of East Africa via the Southern Route (across the Red Sea basin), dating to ~74,000-60,000 years ago.” ref
“Within Africa, Homo sapiens dispersed around the time of its speciation, roughly 300,000 years ago. The so-called “recent dispersal” of modern humans took place about 70–50,000 years ago. It is this migration wave that led to the lasting spread of modern humans throughout the world. The coastal migration between roughly 70,000 and 50,000 years ago is associated with mitochondrial haplogroups M and N, both derivative of L3. Europe was populated by an early offshoot that settled the Near East and Europe less than 55,000 years ago. Modern humans spread across Europe about 40,000 years ago, possibly as early as 43,000 years ago, rapidly replacing the Neanderthal population.” ref, 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
“Early European modern humans were the first early modern humans (Homo sapiens) to settle in Europe and Siberia, migrating from Western Asia, continuously occupying the continent possibly from as early as 56,800 years ago. The first major one being the Aurignacian, by at least around 40,000 years ago which was succeeded by the Gravettian at least by around 30,000 years ago. The Gravettian split into the Epi-Gravettian (around 21,000 – 10,000 years ago) in the east and Solutrean in the west, due to major climatic degradation during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), peaking 21,000 years ago. As Europe warmed, the Solutrean evolved into the Magdalenian by 20,000 years ago, and these peoples recolonized Europe. The Magdalenian and Epi-Gravettian gave way to Mesolithic cultures around 15,000 years ago, such as the Western hunter-gatherer and Eastern hunter-gatherer as big game animals were dying out, and the Last Glacial Period drew to a close.” ref, ref, ref, ref
Aurignacian Early European modern humans lasting from 48,000 to 26,000 years ago ref, ref
Gravettian Early European modern humans lasting from 36,000 to 22,000 years ago ref, ref
“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 in most areas and lasting until about 17,000 years ago in Ukraine in the form of the Epi-Aurignacian. 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. Anatomically modern humans include fossils of the Ahmarian, Bohunician, Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean, and Magdalenian cultures, extending throughout the Last Glacial Maximum, covering the period of roughly 48,000 to 15,000 years ago. The genetics of the Aurignacians male Y-DNA haplogroups involving C1a, C1b, and K2a; as well as female mt-DNA haplogroups involving M, N, R, and U.” 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
Here are Damien’s thoughts/speculations on where he believes 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.
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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.
Haplogroup migrations related to the Ancient North Eurasians: I added stuff to this map to help explain.
People reached Lake Baikal Siberia around 25,000 years ago. They (to Damien) were likely Animistic Shamanists who were also heavily totemistic as well. Being animistic thinkers they likely viewed amazing things in nature as a part of or related to something supernatural/spiritual (not just natural as explained by science): spirit-filled, a sprit-being relates to or with it, it is a sprit-being, it is a supernatural/spiritual creature, or it is a great spirit/tutelary deity/goddess-god. From there comes mythology and faith in things not seen but are believed to somehow relate or interact with this “real world” we know exists.
Both areas of Lake Baikal, one on the west side with Ancient North Eurasian culture and one on the east side with Ancient Northern East Asian culture (later to become: Ancient Northeast Asian culture) areas are the connected areas that (to Damien) are the origin ancestry religion area for many mythologies and religious ideas of the world by means of a few main migrations and many smaller ones leading to a distribution of religious ideas that even though are vast in distance are commonly related to and centering on Lake Baikal and its surrounding areas like the Amur region and Altai Mountains region.
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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
“The Heavenly Shepherd” or “Gigant Great Hunter”
“Depictions of the consistently phallic Egyptian god, Min, show the deity in a standing position in a stance that closely follows the Orion constellation. In Egyptian mythology, the god Min, associated with fertility, harvest, and male virility, was linked to the constellation Orion. Depictions of Min, often with an erect phallus, visually resemble the Orion constellation, particularly the alignment of stars in Orion’s belt.” ref, ref
“In ancient Egypt, the stars of Orion were regarded as a god, called Sah, representing a constellation that encompassed the stars in Orion and Lepus, as well as stars found in some neighboring modern constellations.” ref, ref
“The Babylonian star constellations of the Late Bronze Age named Orion meant, “The Heavenly Shepherd” or “True Shepherd of Anu,” Anu being the chief god of the heavenly realms. The True Shepherd of Anu (i.e., Orion) … is a human figure, clothed, bearded, and the Twins (i.e., Gemini), who stand in front of the True Shepherd of Anu…, are two human figures, clothed. The celestial body that stands below the True Shepherd of Anu is the Rooster (Lepus). Orion served several roles in ancient Greek culture. The story of the adventures of Orion, the hunter, is the one for which there is the most evidence (and even for that, not very much); he is also the personification of the constellation of the same name; he was venerated as a hero, in the Greek sense. The Seri people of northwestern Mexico call the three stars in the belt of Orion Hapj (a name denoting a hunter), which consists of three stars, and in China, Orion is related to Sieu, which, literally meaning “three,” refers to the stars of Orion’s Belt. In Siberia, the Chukchi people see Orion as a hunter, and in old Hungarian tradition, Orion is called Nimrod (Hungarian: Nimród), the greatest hunter, father of the twins Hunor and Magor.” ref, ref
“In Greek mythology, Orion is a hunter, with hunting dogs (Canis Major and Minor) that mirror the Wild Hunt’s entourage. And whenever Scorpius appears, Orion hides away, for the two are never to be seen together. The Wild Hunt is a folklore motif occurring across various northern, western, and eastern European societies. The Wild Hunt typically involves a chase led by a mythological figure, escorted by ghostly or supernatural hunters engaged in pursuit.” ref
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“The Master of Animals or Lord of Animals is a motif in ancient art showing a human between and grasping two confronted animals. It is very widespread in the art of the Ancient Near East and Egypt. The figure is normally male, but not always, the animals may be realistic or fantastical, and the figure may have animal elements such as horns, or an animal’s upper body. Unless he is shown with specific divine attributes, he is typically described as a hero, although what the motif represented to the cultures which created the works probably varies greatly. The motif is so widespread and visually effective that many depictions were probably conceived as decoration with only a vague meaning attached to them. The Master of Animals is the “favorite motif of Achaemenian official seals“, but the figures in these cases should be understood as the king.” ref
“The human figure may be standing, found from the 4th millennium BC, or kneeling on one knee, these latter found from the 3rd millennium BC. They are usually shown looking frontally, but in Assyrian pieces typically shown from the side. Sometimes the animals are clearly alive, whether fairly passive and tamed, or still struggling or attacking. In other pieces, they may represent dead hunter’s prey. Other associated representations show a figure controlling or “taming” a single animal, usually to the right of the figure. But the many representations of heroes or kings killing an animal are distinguished from these. One of the earliest known depictions of the Master of Animals appears on stamp seals of the Ubaid period in Mesopotamia. The motif appears on a terracotta stamp seal from Tell Telloh, ancient Girsu, at the end of the prehistoric Ubaid period of Mesopotamia, c. 4000 BCE or 6,020 years ago.” ref
“The motif also takes pride of place at the top of the famous Gebel el-Arak Knife in the Louvre, an ivory and flint knife dating from the Naqada II d period of Egyptian prehistory, which began c. 3450 BC. Here a figure in the Mesopotamian dress, often taken to be a god, grapples with two lions. It has been connected to the famous Pashupati seal from the Indus Valley Civilization (2500-1500 BC), showing a figure seated in a yoga-like posture, with a horned headdress (or horns), and surrounded by animals. This in turn is related to a figure on the Gundestrup cauldron, who sits with legs part-crossed, has antlers, is surrounded by animals, and grasps a snake in one hand and a torc in the other. This famous and puzzling object probably dates to 200 BC, or possibly as late as 300 AD, and though found in Denmark was perhaps made in Thrace. A form of the master of animals motif appears on an Early Medieval belt buckle from Kanton Wallis, Switzerland, which depicts the biblical figure of Daniel between two lions.” ref
“The purse-lid from the Sutton Hoo burial of about 620 AD has two plaques with a man between two wolves, and the motif is common in Anglo-Saxon art and related Early Medieval styles, where the animals generally remain aggressive. Other notable examples of the motif in Germanic art include one of the Torslunda plates, and helmets from Vendel and Valsgärde. In the art of Mesopotamia the motif appears very early, usually with a “naked hero”, for example at Uruk in the Uruk period (c. 4000 to 3100 BC), but was “outmoded in Mesopotamia by the seventh century BC”. In Luristan bronzes the motif is extremely common, and often highly stylized. In terms of its composition, the Master of Animals motif compares with another very common motif in the art of the ancient Near East and Mediterranean, that of two confronted animals flanking and grazing on a Tree of Life.” ref
Master of Animals: Deity figures
“Although such figures are not all, or even usually, deities, the term can also be a generic name for a number of deities from a variety of cultures with close relationships to the animal kingdom or in part animal form (in cultures where that is not the norm). These figures control animals, usually wild ones, and are responsible for their continued reproduction and availability for hunters. They sometimes also have female equivalents, the so-called Mistress of the Animals. Many Mesopotamian examples may represent Enkidu, a central figure in the Ancient Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh. They may all have a Stone Age precursor who was probably a hunter’s deity. Many relate to the horned deity of the hunt, another common type, typified by Cernunnos, and a variety of stag, bull, ram, and goat gods. Horned gods are not universal, however, and in some cultures bear gods, like Arktos might take the role, or even the more anthropomorphic deities who lead the Wild Hunt. Such figures are also often referred to as ‘Lord of the forest’* or ‘Lord of the mountain’. The Greek god seen as a “Master of Animals” is usually Apollo, the god of hunting. Shiva has the epithet Pashupati meaning the “Lord of animals”, and these figures may derive from an archetype. Chapter 39 of the Book of Job has been interpreted as an assertion of the God of the Hebrew Bible as Master of Animals.” ref
“Master of the animals, is generally a supernatural figure regarded as the protector of game in the traditions of foraging peoples. The name was devised by Western scholars who have studied such hunting and gathering societies. In some traditions, the master of the animals is believed to be the ruler of the forest and guardian of all animals; in others, he is the ruler of only one species, usually a large animal of economic or social importance to the tribe. Thus, among Eurasian peoples the animal most frequently is the bear; among the reindeer cultures of the tundra, the reindeer; among the northern coastal peoples of Eurasia and America, the whale, the seal, or the walrus; among the North American Indians, the bear, the beaver, or the caribou; and among Mesoamerican and South American Indians, the wild pig, jaguar, deer, or tapir. In some traditions he is pictured in human form, at times having animal attributes or riding an animal; in other traditions, he is a giant animal or can assume animal form at will.” ref
“A complex system of customs governs the relationship between the master of the animals, the game animal, and the hunter. The master controls the game animals or their spirits (in many myths, by penning them). He releases a certain number to humans as food. Only the allotted number may be killed, and the slain animals must be treated with respect. The master of the animals, if properly invoked, will also guide the hunter to the kill. The souls of the animals, when slain, return to the master’s pens and give him a report of their treatment. If this system is violated, the master will avenge an animal improperly slain, usually by withholding game. A ceremony then must be held to remove the offense or a shaman (a religious personage with healing and psychic transformation powers) sent to placate the master.” ref
“In Minoan and Mycenaean mythological and religious iconography appears a male deity, called later by the Greeks, Master of Animals. He is a counterpart of the Mistress of Wild Animals (Potnia theron) portrayed with wild animals, mainly lions, and exerting his power over them. Some authors suppose that the Master of Animals could represent a hunting deity and protector of nature, or even a nature god. But sometimes this deity, accompanied by a lion, is armed with a spear and a shield and at other times he is again armed, but without the company of animals. M.P. Nilsson posed an interesting observation about the close relationship between the Master of Animals and the armed god, as a hunter and war god. He believed, that the spear and the shield became a religious symbol of this god.” ref
“The Master of Animals could represent, at least, from the beginning of the Late Helladic period, a nature god who is related to hunting. The Mycenaeans took this type from the Minoan belief system, which was the origin of this deity. After 1500 BCE and during the fourteenth century BCE the nature of this figure changed. The warlike tendency of the Mycenaean society was growing, and this could be the reason why their male god had to assume another responsibility. His attributes, mainly the shield, became frequent decorative motives in Mycenaean art and pottery production. Thus it is possible that the male god, depicted from the beginning primarily with animals, and later on with a spear and a shield, could be Enyalius (Enualios), known from Linear B script, and who is equated in Greek literature with Ares, the god of war.” ref
“On seals and ring-reliefs, the Master of Animals is depicted in the Minoan manner, wearing only a small cloth around his slim waist and turning his body to show his muscular torso in a frontal position. The head, usually with a beard and rich hair, has a strong facial expression. A gem from Kydonia and the Mycenaean seal ring illustrates him as such, while the well-known Aegina Treasure-pendant represents the Master of Animals with an Egyptian influence. The motif is created in a completely different way. The deity looks like an Egyptian, holding waterbirds in his hands and his surroundings consists of double snakes and papyrus flowers. Oriental seals from the Palace of Cadmus in Thiva show the Master of Animals with goats, some vegetation, and various symbols from Syrian and Mesopotamian mythology.” ref
KING OF BEASTS: Master of Animals “Ritual” Motif, around 6,000 years old or older…
I think emerging herding paganism was male-focused at the beginning, around 12,000/13,000 years ago, it was a shift from the older, more female shaman-focused tradition that had been the norm from 25,000 to 12,000 years ago, respectively, from Central Europe to the Middle East. After 12,000 years, the process in northern Mesopotamia of shamanism evolving into or emerging to become herding paganism with its Master of Animals. I believe it had at least three animals as deities: the bird, the bull, and the snake, and at least two deities in anthropomorphic form as the sky father/sun/day sky and the sky mother/moon/night sky.
“The Ojibwe constellation of Biboonkeonini, the Wintermaker, includes the familiar stars of our Orion, but his outstretched arms reach to include Procyon in Canis Minor and Aldebaran in Taurus. The painting depicts the Ojibwe way of seeing star figures — both their inner spirit and outer form. The Wintermaker, a skilled canoeist, ushers in the cold and winds that characterize the season. Northern hemisphere skywatchers associate these same qualities with hunterly Orion, but the western character and myth have no direct seasonal connection like the Ojibwe constellation. Still, it’s fascinating that both figures are formed of nearly identical stars, testimony to the striking pattern and strong impression Orion–Wintermaker made on two very different cultures.” ref
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.
Around 10,000 years ago, ideas went into Africa. Around 10,000 to 9,000 years ago, these ideas from the Middle East were in Siberia then moved to China and to the Americas by around 9,000 years ago. Religious ideas also left the Middle East from 9,000 to 8,000 years ago to Europe. Around 8,000 years ago, new ideas got to Ukraine but didn’t spread far. From 8,000 to 7,000 years ago, ideas again entered Africa with evolved beliefs from the Middle East. By 7,000 years ago, evolved deities from the Middle East moved again to Europe and Ukraine. And 7,000 years ago, the Siberian sun god of the sky, with a warrior culture, armed forts, and pre-kurgans, moved from Siberia to Ukraine and then returned to the Middle East around 6,000 years ago, influencing the Sumerian religious ideas. 6,000 to 5,000 years ago, these new Siberian influenced ideas from the Middle East were also in Africa. Then new evolved ideas moved back out of from Ukraine to the East by 5,500 to 5,000 years ago to Siberia, then China, and the Americas. Ideas from Ukraine went into Europe as well. Then, 5,000 to 4,000 years ago, the new ideas, now somewhat evolved again, from Siberia headed back to Europe, and so did ideas from the Middle East. ETC. This is just a rough outline to grasp some of the details, as I feel I understand them. There is a bit more, but this gives a good idea of how complicated it was.
I think the person, snakes, and two birds seen at Körtik Tepe is the oldest known Neolithic archaeological site in Turkey, more than 12,000 years old, were likely related to the Orion constellation as a shamanic figure holding a snake, referencing the use of the Milky Way to communicate with the gods and ancestors, as well as soul travel via the Milky Way. The big snake to me would reference the Milky Way itself and the two birds, either the star Venus and the moon, or some aspect of the sun, and the moon, but the sun aspect was likely not the noon sun by itself, as I see that as gaining prominence at a later date. And I think the other figures, also related to the Orion constellation, either as a deity or a deity of the stars, put Orion there. I assume, as seen at Tell Fekheriye, Syria, 11,000 to 9,000 years old, involving two standing figures on “step stools of power” that by 11,000 years ago were at least two sky deities, such as something similar to both a sky father and a sky mother deity, at this time, related to the stars, or planets (also seen as stars or star-like). But we must remember that planets were seen as star-related in mythology.
High Gods and a Divine Couple (universal mommy and daddy)?
I think high gods started with a divine couple, a sky god (sky father) “Day sky, often the Sun” and a sky goddess (sky mother) “Night sky, often the Noon” around 11,000 years ago or older, associated with pre-pastoralism animal management, early herding, and proto-pastoralism, of big-horned goats, big-horned sheep, both domesticated around 11,000 years ago, and cattle domesticated around 10,000 years ago or a little older, especially so with cattle, the last three. Then, as farming and agriculture grew and the domestication of grains emerged a little after 10,000 to 9,000 years ago, and along came a new Earth goddess (Earth Mother), who then commonly took the place of the older sky goddess (sky mother) as the wife or consort to the sky god (sky father). This younger divine couple, a sky god (sky father) and Earth goddess (Earth Mother), becomes the norm the world over. Spread largely with the spread of farming and agriculture to me.
The myths of (Sky Father) and Earth Mothers in general are found throughout the world, and I think started in the Middle East, with their origins around 11,000 years ago or older. Though totem couple artifacts are seen in Siberia’s Lake Baikal area with the Ancient North Eurasians Mal’ta–Buret’ culture (24,000 years ago) and seem to trace back to at least Russia, above the area between north of the Black Sea and the Caucasus mountains at the Kostenki site 25,000 years ago, a time when Kostenki is related to the eastern Gravettian culture, because the Kostenki site started with Aurignacian culture. I think the couple theme, though it seems to have evidence dating back to at least 25,000 years ago in portable totem pole-like figurines, was not considered deities until they evolved in the Middle East, due to different lifestyles creating a motivation for different thinking, a transition from hunting and gathering to herding and farming.
ref (“Goddess Mut’s name could be written with the phallus glyph; above she is portrayed ithyphallically.” ref)
Divine Androgyny in Ancient Egypt
“Since it is believed that it is not possible to apply modern categories to ancient times, the reasons for these characterizations should be searched in Ancient Egyptian culture itself, where, in certain circumstances, gender fluidity was possible. All of these deities portray belligerent or dangerous/aggressive aspects; there is also evidence of Mut and Neith’s role as creator goddesses. In the Amduat funerary text, Neith is referred to as Njt-TAjt, and in Esna, she is said to be both male and female. In the temple of Hibis, there is a relief with an ithyphallic Mut, while in Karnak, there is a female lion-headed ithyphallic goddess. Given the fact that representations of an ithyphallic Sekhmet also exist, such as the ones kept in the LACMA, the goddess on this relief could be either Mut or Sekhmet. Again, in Khonsu’s Temple, there are some mentions of Mut as the “Mother who gave birth to her Father.” ref
“In the Egyptian religion, the existence of deities that present duplex characteristics is well attested, especially in gods of creation, such as Atum. For male deities, however, it is not possible to represent these aspects in a figurative way: in the cosmogonic myth of the Eliopolitan religion, Atum swallows his semen after masturbating, and then he spits the first couple of gods. It is important to notice that it is the hand of the god that has the female function during the creation, becoming then a goddess herself called Iuisaas. For female deities, that are able to give birth themselves, there is no need for the intervention of another part of their bodies. Sekhmet and Mut, instead, are goddesses that can present themselves in different ways: an aggressive way that has to be pacified and a nurturing way. The duplicity in aspect and behavior is a fundamental characteristic for them.” ref
“In Ancient Egyptian culture, belligerent and aggressive aspects are usually associated with masculinity and kingship In my opinion, the figurative representation of ithyphallic Mut and Sekhmet are meant to highlight the aggressive part of their nature, while the textual reference for Mut and Neith show the androgyny typical of creator gods, that is easier to represent in a figurative way for female deities than for male ones. It is important to challenge the binary concept that we have for gender in ancient society. Many consider Ancient Egyptian society to be divided in polar opposites; opposites in which also the dichotomy male-female is fundamental. Valentina Alessia Beretta (Art History and Archaeology), came to the hypothesis that, regarding Ancient Egypt, this kind of analysis is, for now, applicable only to divine beings to whom the binds in which humanity is constricted, don’t apply.” ref
Mut, female (Gender Fluid or Intersex?) Egyptian Deity
“Mut (Ancient Egyptian: mut; also transliterated as Maut and Mout) was a mother goddess worshipped in ancient Egypt. Her name means mother in the ancient Egyptian language. Mut had many different aspects and attributes that changed and evolved greatly over the thousands of years of ancient Egyptian culture. Mut was considered a primal deity, associated with the primordial waters of Nu from which everything in the world was born. Mut was sometimes said to have given birth to the world through parthenogenesis, but more often she was said to have a husband, the solar creator god Amun-Ra. Although Mut was believed by her followers to be the mother of everything in the world, she was particularly associated as the mother of the lunar child god Khonsu. At the Temple of Karnak in Egypt’s capital city of Thebes, the family of Amun-Ra, Mut, and Khonsu were worshipped together as the Theban Triad. Numerous texts refer to Mut as a “mother”, and she is occasionally depicted with a divine child on her lap.” ref
“In art, Mut was usually depicted as a woman wearing the double crown of the kings of Egypt, representing her power over the whole of the land. Mut’s name could be written with the phallus glyph 𓂸𓏏, and here the goddess herself was even portrayed ithyphallically. In art, Mut was pictured as a woman with the wings of a vulture, holding an ankh, wearing the united crown of Upper and Lower Egypt and a dress of bright red or blue, with the feather of the goddess Ma’at at her feet. Alternatively, as a result of her assimilations, Mut is sometimes depicted as a cobra, a cat, a cow, or as a lioness as well as the vulture. Before the end of the New Kingdom almost all images of female figures wearing the Double Crown of Upper and Lower Egypt were depictions of the goddess Mut, here labeled “Lady of Heaven, Mistress of All the Gods”. The last image on this page shows the goddess’s facial features which mark this as a work made sometime between late Eighteenth Dynasty and relatively early in the reign of Ramesses II (reigned c. 1279–1213 BCE).” ref
“The pharaoh Hatshepsut had the ancient temple to Mut at Karnak rebuilt during her rule in the Eighteenth Dynasty. Previous excavators had thought that Amenhotep III had the temple built because of the hundreds of statues found there of Sekhmet that bore his name. However, Hatshepsut, who completed an enormous number of temples and public buildings, had completed the work seventy-five years earlier. She began the custom of depicting Mut with the crown of both Upper and Lower Egypt. It is thought that Amenhotep III removed most signs of Hatshepsut, while taking credit for the projects she had built. Hatshepsut was a pharaoh who brought Mut to the fore again in the Egyptian pantheon, identifying strongly with the goddess. She stated that she was a descendant of Mut. She also associated herself with the image of Sekhmet, as the more aggressive aspect of the goddess, having served as a very successful warrior during the early portion of her reign as pharaoh. The epithet “Eye of Ra” has been used for Mut since the nineteenth dynasty, but does not appear to have been used for Mut in the Eighteenth Dynasty. As the “Eye of Re,” Mut took on the leonine traits of Sekhmet, Bastet, and Tefnut and was known as the “Lady of the Isheru.” The Isheru, a horseshoe-shaped sacred lake linked to lioness goddesses, may have been inspired by an earlier structure, possibly at Bubastis.” ref
“Mut did not originate as the wife of Amun. She appears as an independent goddess also outside Thebes and had her own temples and priesthood. Studies on the origins of Amun in Karnak suggest that elements of Min’s theology were incorporated into Amun’s divine identity, including a family structure consisting of a male deity (Min. often represented in male human form, shown with an erect penis), a female counterpart (Mut-Min), and a son (Min-Hor-Nacht). the Seventeenth Dynasty rulers showed interest in Coptos and its deity Min, restoring his temple and launching expeditions from the region. While Amun’s association with Ra began under Senusret I, the integration of Min’s theological aspects likely occurred between the Seventeenth and early Eighteenth Dynasty as part of the broader efforts to solidify religious and political legitimacy. While Min’s iconography was adopted in the Eleventh Dynasty, the integration of Mut-Min as Amun-Ra’s consort likely occurred later, no earlier than the Seventeenth Dynasty.” ref
“Mut was the consort of Amun, the patron deity of pharaohs during the Middle Kingdom (c. 2055–1650 BCE) and New Kingdom (c. 1550–1070 BCE). Amunet and Wosret may have been Amun’s consorts early in Egyptian history, but Mut, who did not appear in texts or art until the late Middle Kingdom, displaced them. However, it is possible that Mut is simply a later name for Wosret. The first documented depiction of Amun, Mut, and Khonsu as a triad dates from the reign of queen Hatshepsut. Mut and Khonsu each have their own separate sanctuaries, distinct from Amun’s. Although they are often depicted together with Amun in his temple or elsewhere, they are rarely directly associated with his name. Their connection to Amun was secondary and relatively loose, despite appearing as a fixed divine family when the Amun cult spread to Nubia, the oases, and other regions.” ref
“Amun and Khonsu are often depicted as father and son, but were also viewed as two manifestations of the same god, representing a continuous cycle of death and rebirth—Amun as the aged form and Khonsu as the youthful, reborn version. Since Amun is periodically reborn as Khonsu, Mut’s role within the divine triad is fluid; she can be wife, mother, and daughter. This shifting relationship reflects the broader concept that Egyptian triads are subdivisions of the primeval and androgynous creator god, who initially impregnated and gave birth to himself. She is called “the daughter and mother who created her own father” and “the mother who became a daughter.” In some texts, she is depicted as the great serpent who encircles her father Ra, and rebirthes him as the god Khonsu. This concept aligns with Amun’s portrayal as “the bull of his mother,” a title borrowed from Min of Coptos, emphasizing self-creation.” ref
Neith, female (Gender Fluid or Intersex?) Egyptian Deity
“As a deity, Neith is normally shown carrying the was scepter (symbol of rule and power) and the ankh (symbol of life). She is associated with Mehet-Weret, as a cow who gives birth to the sun daily, whose name means “Great Flood.” In these forms, she is associated with the creation of both the primeval time and the daily “re-creation”. As protectress of Ra or the king, she is represented as a uraeus. In time, this led to her being considered as the personification of the primordial waters of creation.” ref
“Some modern writers assert that they may interpret that as her being ‘androgynous‘, since Neith is the creator capable of giving birth without a partner (asexually) and without association of creation with sexual imagery, as seen in the myths of Atum and other creator deities; which in turn led to her being accredited as the creator of birth itself. However, her name always appears as feminine. Erik Hornung interprets that in the Eleventh Hour of the Amduat, Neith’s name appears written with a phallus. In reference to Neith’s function as creator with both male and female characteristics, Peter Kaplony has said in the Lexikon der Ägyptologie: “Die Deutung von Neith als Njt “Verneinung” ist sekundär. Neith ist die weibliche Entsprechung zu Nw(w), dem Gott der Urflut (Nun and Naunet).” She was considered to be eldest of the Ancient Egyptian deities. Neith is said to have been “born the first, in the time when as yet there had been no birth.” ref
“Neith form Ancient Egyptian: nt, also spelled Nit, Net, or Neit) was an ancient Egyptian deity, possibly of Libyan origin. She was connected with warfare, as indicated by her emblem of two crossed bows, and with motherhood, as shown by texts that call her the mother of particular deities, such as the sun god Ra and the crocodile god Sobek. As a mother goddess, she was sometimes said to be the creator of the world. She also had a presence in funerary religion, and this aspect of her character grew over time: she became one of the four goddesses who protected the coffin and internal organs of the deceased. The Egyptian goddess Neith, the primary lordess, bearing her war goddess symbols, the crossed arrows and shield or sheath on her head, the ankh, and the was-sceptre. She sometimes wears the Red Crown of Lower Egypt.” ref
“Neith is one of the earliest Egyptian deities to appear in the archaeological record; the earliest signs of her worship date to the Naqada II period (c. 3600–3350 BCE or 5,600 to 5,350 years ago). Her main cult center was the city of Sais in Lower Egypt, near the western edge of the Nile Delta, and some Egyptologists have suggested that she originated among the Libyan peoples who lived nearby. She was the most important goddess in the Early Dynastic Period (c. 3100–2686 BCE or 5,100 to 4,686 years ago) and had a significant shrine at the capital, Memphis. In subsequent eras, she lost her preeminence to other goddesses, such as Hathor, but she remained important, particularly during the Twenty-sixth Dynasty (664–525 BCE or 2,664 to 2,525 years ago), when Sais was Egypt’s capital. She was worshipped in many temples during the Greek and Roman periods of Egyptian history, most significantly Esna in Upper Egypt, and the Greeks identified her with their goddess Athena.” ref
“Neith is one of the most ancient deities associated with ancient Egyptian culture. Flinders Petrie noted the earliest depictions of her standards were known in predynastic periods, as can be seen from a representation of a barque bearing her crossed arrow standards in the Predynastic Period. In the very early periods of Egyptian history, the main iconographic representations of this goddess appear to have been limited to her hunting and war characteristics, although there is no Egyptian mythological reference to support the concept that this was her primary function as a deity. Neith’s symbol and part of her hieroglyph also bore a resemblance to a loom, and so in later syncretisation of Egyptian myths by the Greek ruling class of that time she was conflated with Athena, a Greek deity of war and weaving.” ref
“Her first anthropomorphic representations occur in the early dynastic period, on a diorite vase of King Ny-Netjer of the Second Dynasty. The vase was found in the Step Pyramid of Djoser (Third Dynasty) at Saqqara. That her worship predominated the early dynastic periods is demonstrated by a preponderance of theophoric names (personal names that incorporate the name of a deity) within which Neith appears as an element. Predominance of Neith’s name in nearly forty percent of early dynastic names, and particularly in the names of four royal women of the First Dynasty, clearly emphasizes the importance of this goddess in relation to the early society of Egypt, with special emphasis on association with the Royal House. An analysis of her attributes shows Neith was a goddess with many roles. From predynastic and early dynasty periods, she was referred to as an “Opener of the Ways” (same as Wepwawet), which may have referred, not only to her leadership in hunting and war but also as a psychopomp (escort newly deceased souls) in cosmic and underworld pathways, escorting souls.” ref
“Sometimes Neith was pictured as a woman nursing a baby crocodile, and she then was addressed with the title, “Nurse of Crocodiles”, reflecting a southern provincial mythology in Upper Egypt that she served as the mother of the crocodile god, Sobek. As the mother of Ra, in her Mehet-Weret form, she was sometimes described as the “Great Cow who gave birth to Ra”. As a maternal figure (beyond being the birth-mother of the sun-god Ra), Neith is associated with Sobek as her son (as early as the Pyramid Texts), but in later religious conventions that paired deities, no male deity is consistently identified with her in a pair and so, she often is represented without one. In the Pyramid Texts, Neith is paired with the goddess Selket as the two braces for the sky, which places these goddesses as the supports for the heavens. This ties in with the vignette in The Contendings of Horus and Seth when, as the most ancient among them, Neith is asked by the deities to decide who should rule. She was appealed to as an arbiter in the dispute between Horus and Seth. In her message of reply, Neith selects Horus, and says she will “cause the sky to crash to the earth” if he is not selected.” ref
I believe that the birth of the Earth Mother, which may have occurred sometime before 10,000 years ago, or after it sometime at least by 8,000 years ago to likely 9,000 years ago from the Sky Woman/Mistress of Animals, took place at Nevalı Çori (8400-8100 BCE or approximately 10,000 years ago), in Southeastern Anatolia, Turkey. This new Earth Mother/Mistress of Animals goddess is later seen at Çatal Höyük (7,100-5,700 BCE or 9,100 to 7,700 years ago), sitting figurines, and to me, the standing figurines are likely related to the sky. Later, after 6/5,000 years ago, even sky deities may be depicted as sitting and sitting in a chair/stool in general, after this time seems to be associated with elites and deities. These ideas seem to spread in the movement ways of Haplogroup E, west to Central Turkey as seen at seen at Çatal Höyük, on next to west Turkey, then Europe/Balkans/Ukraine, as seen at the Cucuteni–Trypillia culture, It moved south to Israel and Egypt/North Africa, as well as Sodi Arabia and the Horn of Africa. These ideas seem to spread East to Iran, then Pakistan/India, as seen in the Indus Valley civilization.
From Sky Mother to Earth Mother?
Native American Legends: Sky Woman (Ataensic, Atahensic, Ataentsic)
“Tribal affiliation: Iroquois League, Wyandot
Native names: Ataensic, Ata-en-sic, Ataentsic, Atahensic, Ataensiq, Aataentsic, Athensic, Ataensie, Eataentsic, Eyatahentsik, Iaataientsik, Yatahentshi; Iotsitsisonh, Iotsitsisen, Iottsitison, Iottsitíson, Atsi’tsiaka:ion, Atsi’tsiakaion, Ajinjagaayonh; Iagen’tci, Iagentci, Eagentci, Yekëhtsi, Yagentci; Awenhai, Awenha’i, Awenha:ih; Wa’tewatsitsiané:kare; Aientsik, Aentsik
Also known as: Grandmother Moon, the Woman who Fell from the Sky
Type: Mother goddess, sky spirit, first woman
Related figures in other tribes: Nokomis (Anishinabe), Our Grandmother (Shawnee)” ref
“Sky Woman is either the grandmother or the mother (depending on the version) of the twin culture heroes Sky-Holder and Flint, sometimes known as Good Spirit and Bad Spirit.” ref
Sky Woman (depending on the version) either dies giving birth to twins and becomes Earth Mother, or Sky Woman has a daughter who dies giving birth to twins, becoming Earth Mother.
“Myths about Sky Woman vary enormously from community to community. In some Iroquois myths, Sky Woman is a minor character who dies in childbirth immediately upon reaching the earth, while in others, she is the central character of the entire creation saga. In some myths, Sky Woman is the mother of the twins, but more commonly, she is the mother of a daughter, Tekawerahkwa or Breath of the Wind, who in turn gives birth to the twins. In some Iroquois traditions, the twins represent good and evil, while in others, neither twin is evil, but Flint represents destruction, death, night, and winter to Sky-Holder’s creation, life, day, and summer. In many versions of the myth, Sky Woman favored Flint, usually because Flint had deceived her into thinking Sky-Holder killed Tekawerahkwa, but sometimes because Sky Woman herself disapproved of Sky-Holder’s human creations and their ways. In other versions, Sky Woman supported both of her grandchildren equally, declaring that there must be both life and death in the world. Sky Woman is associated with the moon by many Iroquois people. In some traditions, Sky Woman turned into the moon; in others, Sky-Holder turned her body into the sun, moon, and stars after her death; and in still others, it was Sky Woman herself who created the sun, moon, and stars.” ref
“Sky Woman goes by many different names in Iroquois mythology. The name “Sky Woman” itself is a title, not her name– she is a Sky Woman because she is one of the Sky People, Karionake. Her own name is variously given as Ataensic (a Huron name probably meaning “ancient body,”) Iagentci (a Seneca name meaning “ancient woman,”) Iotsitsisonh or Atsi’tsiaka:ion (Mohawk names meaning “fertile flower” and “mature flower,”) Awenhai (a Cayuga and Seneca name also meaning “mature flower,”) and Aentsik (probably an Iroquois borrowing from Huron.) She is sometimes also referred to as Grandmother or Grandmother Moon.” ref
“Sky Woman (Shy Mother in my thinking) is the Iroquois sky goddess who falls from the sky world to a watery world, where animals create land on a turtle’s back. Sky Woman gives birth to the first child on earth, a daughter (Earth Mother in my thinking), who later becomes pregnant, dies in childbirth, giving birth to twins who are polar opposites; her body becomes the source of the Earth’s fertility. The good twin created the Moon and Stars from his mother’s breasts, and tasked them, his sisters, to guard the night sky. He gave the rest of his mother’s body to the earth, the Great Mother from whom all life came. Hahgwehdiyu then planted a seed into his mother’s corpse. From this seed grew corn, as a gift to mankind.”
According to Mohawk midwife Katsi Cook: “They say corn is the breast milk of Mother Earth. In Akwesasne, a Mohawk community on the New York/Canadian border, the connections between women’s fertile bodies and these important cultural foods are reinforced through Mother Earth gardens, which were planted as part of the Ohero:kon Rites of Passage ceremonies revitalized by Bear Clan Mother Louise MacDonald and her family. As part of this ceremony, young men shape a pile of dirt into the form of a woman’s body, while the uncles lead them in a discussion about the sanctity of women. The young women then plant seeds on the woman-shaped garden—corn at her breasts, strawberries at her heart, beans at her fingers, squash at her navel, and sunchokes at her feet—just as they sprang up from the grave of Sky Woman’s daughter.
Sky Woman (Shy Mother in my thinking) fell from the sky and was placed upon the newly formed earth made for her. Soon after her arrival, Sky Woman gave birth to twins. The firstborn became known as the Good Spirit. The other twin caused his mother so much pain that she died during his birth. He was to be known as the Evil Spirit. The Good Spirit took his mother’s head and hung it in the sky, and it became the sun. The Good Spirit also fashioned the stars and the moon from his mother’s body. He buried the remaining parts of Sky Woman under the earth (Thus, she became Earth Mother, in my thinking). Thus, living things may always find nourishment from the soil, for it springs from Mother Earth. While the Good Spirit provided light, the Evil Spirit created the darkness.” 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 am still 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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“In Australian Aboriginal mythology, Baiame (or Biame, Biami, Baayami, Baayama, Byamee) is the creator god and sky father, and Birrangulu, or Birrahgnooloo, a “fertility spirit” with powers over water (can send floods if properly asked), maintenance of the earthly landscape, and one of his two wives, can be seen as the mother from the sky, often being identified as an emu. By coming to earth (and possibly staying on earth), she may have become the earth mother and is said to be the mother of Daramulum. Daramulum (variations: Darhumulan, Daramulan, Dhurramoolun or Dharramaalan), a sky hero shapeshifter associated with an emu-wife. In other stories, Dharramalan is said to be the brother of Baiame. The Baiame story tells how Baiame came down from the sky to the land and created rivers, mountains, and forests in all the lands. When he had finished, he returned to the sky, and people called him the Sky Hero, or All Father, or Sky Father. He then gave the people their laws of life, traditions, songs, and culture of several Aboriginal Australian peoples of south-eastern Australia, such as the Wonnarua, Kamilaroi, Guringay, Eora, Darkinjung, and Wiradjuri peoples.” ref, ref, ref
“There are Australian Aborigines who believed that the Sun Mother created all the animals, plants, and bodies of water on earth upon the urging of the Father of All Spirits. These two divine beings did not actually have children. Only their names reflected the mother-father theme. However, the Sun Mother was portrayed as one who gives life to the sleeping spirits. A human mother also gives life to a spirit.” ref
“Myths from all over the world have a mother and father figure in them. The mother is usually the Earth and the father 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. In Egyptian mythology, Nut is the sky mother and Geb is the earth father).” ref
“Earth goddess is a deification of the Earth associated with a figure with chthonic or terrestrial attributes. The Earth is usually portrayed as a goddess. Earth goddesses are often associated with the chthonic deities of the underworld. In Greek mythology, the Earth is personified as Gaia, corresponding to Roman Terra, Indic Prithvi, etc. traced to an “Earth Mother” complementary to the “Sky Father” in Proto-Indo-European religion. Ki was the earth goddess in Sumerian religion, chief consort of the sky god An. In some legends, Ki and An were brother and sister, being the offspring of Anshar (“Sky Pivot”) and Kishar (“Earth Pivot”), earlier personifications of the heavens and earth.” ref, ref
Separation of Heaven (man in general) and Earth (woman in general) from the “dual-gendered being.”
“The separation of heaven and earth is a cross-cultural creation myth event. The separation serves the role of differentiating the chaotic, undifferentiated cosmos (sometimes interpreted as a universal cosmic ocean) into coherent and organized parts. The mechanics and cause differ from one story to another, but is usually either a spontaneous process, or a result of the agency of a deity. The separation myth occurs among the natives of both the North and South Americas. In ancient Near Eastern texts, the original mass that is separated is a solid in older Sumerian literature, but becomes a water in younger Akkadian literature (such as the Enuma Elish). Sumerian literature mentions the separation event most frequently than any other. Heaven and earth are described as being in a cosmic and physical, symbolized as a marriage, in the earliest literature from the ancient Near East (like the Sumerian Song of the hoe), and as a common and recurring mythological motif later (like in the Danaids of Aeschylus). In the 2nd millennium BCE, some texts shift emphasis from the union, to the separation, between heaven and earth, an idea that begins to be seen not only in Sumerian but also in Akkadian, Phoenician, Egyptian, and Greek mythologies.” ref
“One source says that the separation happens over the course of “long days and nights” by Anu, the King of Heaven, and Enlil, the King of Earth. According to one cuneiform tablet (KAR 4): “After heaven was made distant and separated from earth, (its) trusty companion”. The event is also mentioned in many other Sumerian sources (including Lugalbanda in the Mountain Cave, the Debate between silver and copper, Enki and Ninmah, OIP 99 113 ii and 136 iii, etc). One version, in Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld, says that heaven was carried off from the earth by the sky god Anu to become the possession of the wind god Enlil. Akkadian sources also have this idea, prominently including the Enuma Elish, where Marduk divides the corpse of the slain primordial goddess Tiamat into two, one stretched out to create heaven, the other to create the earth. The separation event is also found in Hittite texts. In the Song of Kumarbi, it is implicit. It is explicit in the Song of Ullikummi, where the giant Upelluri, a counterpart of Atlas, say: “When heaven and earth were built upon me I knew nothing of it, and when they came and cut heaven and earth asunder with a cleaver I knew nothing of it.” ref
“In the Quran, the canonical scripture of Islam that comes from the Arabian Peninsula, the separation myth is mentioned as a belief that is held in common between itself and in its existing religious environment. Recently found pre-Islamic inscriptions suggest this belief was inherited from older Arabian religions that are more closely related to ancient Near Eastern creation myths. The Quran says: (21:30) (Do those who disbelieve not see that the heavens and the earth were (once) a solid mass [ratq], and We split the two of them apart [fa-fataqnā-humā], and We made every living thing from water?) In the Quran, ratq (translated as “solid mass”) is a hapax legomenon, a word that only appears one time in the text. In subsequent Arabic dictionaries, it means something that is patched up or sewn together, meaning that heaven and earth were once connected to one another. The separation is described using the verb fataqa, meaning “splitting, cleaving, unstitching, unsewing.” ref
“In Chinese mythology and in Taoism, heaven and earth are separated. In earlier sources, this is a process that happens spontaneously. Later sources, after a primordial being named Pangu (P’an Ku) had been transformed into a great deity and the creator of heaven and earth, relate the separation of the two to Pangu. In earlier sources, Pangu is originally inside of heaven and earth. The three of them grow over the course of 18,000 years, eventually separating. In the Wuyan Linianji, the growth and separation of heaven and earth occurs naturally, and only later does Pangu begin to grow. In later texts, once Pangu had become transformed into the creator of heaven and earth, the growing body of Pangu is the cause of the separation of heaven and earth. Other late sources have heaven and earth being created out of distinct parts of the corpse of Pangu. One Instance of the Pangu myth involving the separation myth is the Record of Cycles in Threes and Fives (3rd century CE): (Heaven and Earth were once inextricably commingled like a chicken’s egg, within which was engendered Pan-ku. After 18,000 years, this mass split apart, what was bright and light forming Heaven, and what was dark and heavy forming Earth.) The Pangu tale is not the only Chinese tradition with the separation myth. It also occurs in a few texts predating the common era, one being the Classic of History.” ref
“In Egyptian cosmology the separation myth is a familiar motif in the religious literature of Egypt, exemplified by its classic formulation, that “Shu separates the sky (Nut) from earth (Geb)” appearing in many texts. One of the Pyramid Texts (1208c) refers to “when the sky was separated from the earth”. In the Coffin Texts: For I [Shu] am weary at the Uplifting of Shu / Since I lifted my daughter Nut atop me / That I might give her to my father Atum in his utmost extent / I have put Geb under my feet.” ref
“In Early Greek cosmology, some have seen hints of the myth of the separation of heaven and earth in Hesiod‘s Theogony. The separation myth is explicitly described by Euripides, a playwright of the 5th century BCE, preserved in a fragment from his lost play Melanippe the Wise, reported by Diodorus. And the tale is not mine but from my mother, how sky and earth were one form; and when they had been separated apart from each other they bring forth all things, and give them up into light; trees, birds, beasts, the creatures nourished by the salt sea, and the race of mortals. The idea is also found in the Bibliotheca historica (1.7.1) of Diodorus Siculus and in the Argonautica (1.496) of Apollonius of Rhodes. In the latter, Orpheus sings of “how earth and heaven and sea were once joined together in one form, and by deadly strife were separated each from the other.” ref
“The separation myth appears in Hindu cosmology, including in the Rigveda, one of the four canonical texts of the Hindu scripture of the Vedas: The Father of the Eye, who is wise in his heart, created as butter these two worlds that bent low. As soon as their ends had been made fast in the east, at that moment sky and earth moved far apart. (10.82.1) The generations have become wise by the power of him who has propped apart the two world-halves even though they are so vast. He has pushed away the dome of the sky to make it high and wide; he has set the sun on its double journey and spread out the earth (7.86.1)” ref
“In Oceania (especially Polynesia), as well as in Indonesia, a myth appears that begins with a primordial sexual union between Heaven (Rangi) and Earth (Papa), and then describes their separation. In the creation according to the Māori: Rangi and Papa, or Heaven and Earth, were the source from which in the beginning all things originated. Darkness then rested upon the heaven and upon the earth, and they still both clave together, for they had not yet been rent apart.. . . Now are rent apart Rangi and Papa, and with cries and groans of woe they shriek aloud: ‘Wherefore slay you thus your parents ? Why commit you so dreadful a crime as to slay us, as to rend your parents apart? And in the creation story from the Gilbert Islands: in the beginning there was nothing in the Darkness and the Cleaving-together save one person. . . . Heaven was like hard rock that stuck to the earth. And heaven and earth were called the Darkness and Cleaving together Then Na Arean called to him Riiki that great Eel and said, “Sir, thou art long and taut: thou shalt lift the heavens on thy snout.” .. . Na Arean called aloud, saying, “Lift, lift.” But Riiki answered, ” I can no more, for heaven clings to the underworld.” . . . He said again, “Slide sideways and cut. Heaven clings to the underworld.” They answered, “We cut, we cut.” .. . So Riiki the Eel raised the heavens aloft, and the earth sank under the sea.” ref
The shared cosmology of the ancient Near East?
“The cosmology of the ancient Near East refers to beliefs about where the universe came from, how it developed, and its physical layout, in the ancient Near East, an area that corresponds with the Middle East today (including Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia, the Levant, Anatolia, and the Arabian Peninsula). The basic understanding of the world in this region from premodern times included a flat earth, a solid layer or barrier above the sky (the firmament), a cosmic ocean located above the firmament, a region above the cosmic ocean where the gods lived, and a netherworld located at the furthest region in the direction down. Creation myths explained where the universe came from, including which gods created it (and how), as well as how humanity was created. These beliefs are attested as early as the fourth millennium BCE and dominated until the modern era, with the only major competing system being the Hellenistic cosmology that developed in Ancient Greece in the mid-1st millennium BCE.” ref
“Geographically, these views are known from the Mesopotamian cosmologies from Babylonia, Sumer, and Akkad; the Levantine or West Semitic cosmologies from Ugarit and ancient Israel and Judah (the biblical cosmology); the Egyptian cosmology from Ancient Egypt; and the Anatolian cosmologies from the Hittites. This system of cosmology went on to have a profound influence on views in early Greek cosmology, later Jewish cosmology, patristic cosmology, and Islamic cosmology (including Quranic cosmology). The cosmology of the ancient Near East can be divided into cosmography, the understanding of the physical structure and features of the cosmos, and cosmogony, the creation myths describing the origins of the cosmos. The cosmos and the gods were also related, as cosmic bodies like heaven, earth, the stars were believed to be and/or personified as gods, and the sizes of the gods were frequently described as being of cosmic proportions.” ref
Cosmography (structure of the cosmos)
“The many civilizations of the ancient Near East shared most of their main views about the structure of the cosmos, a situation that held for thousands of years. Widely held beliefs about cosmography included:
- a flat earth and a solid heaven (firmament), both of which are disk-shaped
- a primordial cosmic ocean. When the firmament is created, it separates the cosmic ocean into two bodies of water:
- the heavenly upper waters located on top of the firmament, which act as a source of rain
- the lower waters that the earth is above and that the earth rests on; they act as the source of rivers, springs, and other earthly bodies of water
- the region above the upper waters, namely the abode of the gods
- the netherworld, the furthest region in the direction downwards, below the lower waters” ref
“Paul Keyser categorizes the cosmology of the ancient Near East into a larger, cross-cultural group of cosmologies that he calls a “cradle cosmology”, and Keyser suggests an even larger number of shared features between them all. Some misconceptions are held about Near Eastern cosmography. One misconception is the idea that ziggurats were considered cosmic objects that reached all the way up to heaven. Another misconception is that the firmament was shaped like a dome or a vault, whereas in reality, it was believed to be flat. Another controversy concerns whether the ancients thought this cosmography was literal or observational (phenomenological). John Hilber argues that ancient Near Eastern cosmography was not phenomenological for many reasons, including: based on the descriptions provided by cosmological texts, that non-cosmological texts assume the reality of this cosmography (like in incantations), anthropological studies showing that there are primitive cosmologies still believed in today and that these are not phenomenological, and that there is a cognitive expectation that humans will construct models to explain the observations they make, and that the cosmography described in cosmological texts would have played this role.” ref
Cosmogony (creation of the cosmos)
“Many widely held beliefs permeated the creation myths of ancient Near Eastern cosmogony:
- Creatio ex materia from a primordial state of chaos; that is, the organization of the world from pre-existing, unordered and unformed (hence chaotic) elements, represented by a primordial body of water
- the presence of a divine creator
- the Chaoskampf motif: a cosmic battle between the protagonist and a primordial sea monster
- the separation of undifferentiated elements (to create heaven and earth)
- the creation of mankind” ref
“Lisman uses the broader category of “Beginnings” to encompass three separate though inter-related categories: the beginning of the cosmos (cosmogony), the beginning of the gods (theogony), and the beginning of humankind (anthropogeny). There is evidence that Mesopotamian creation myths reached as far as Pre-Islamic Arabia. The Mesopotamian cosmos can be understood as multiple planes of existence, layered above one another. The highest plane of existence was heaven, which was the home of the sky god Anu. Below heaven was the atmosphere which ranged from the bottom of heaven (or the lowermost firmament) to the ground that humans walk on. This region between heaven and earth was inhabited by Enlil, the king of the gods in Sumerian mythology. Below the ground was the cosmic ocean, and this was believed to be the place of residence of the sibling deities Enki and Ninhursag. The lowest plane of existence was the underworld. Other deities inhabited these planes of existence even if they did not reign over them, such as the sun and moon gods. In later Babylonian accounts, the god Marduk alone ascends to the top rank of the pantheon and rules over all domains of the cosmos. The three-tiered cosmos (sky-earth-underworld) is found in Egyptian artwork on coffin lids and burial chambers.” ref
Creation of the cosmos
“The world was thought to be created ex materia. That is, out of pre-existing, and unformed, eternal matter. This is in contrast to the later notion of creation ex nihilo, which asserts that all the matter of the universe was created out of nothing. The primeval substance had always existed, was unformed, divine, and was envisioned as an immense, cosmic, chaotic mass of water or ocean (a representation that still existed in the time of Ovid). In the Mesopotamian theogonic process, the gods would be ultimately generated from this primeval matter, although a distinct process is found in the Hebrew Bible where God is initially distinct from the primeval matter. For the cosmos and the gods to ultimately emerge from this formless cosmic ocean, the idea emerged that it had to be separated into distinct parts and therefore be formed or organized. This event can be imagined of as the beginning of time. Furthermore, the process of the creation of the cosmos is coincident or equivalent to the beginning of the creation of new gods.” ref
“In the 3rd millennium BCE, the goddess Nammu was the one and singular representation of the original cosmic ocean in Mesopotamian cosmology. From the 2nd millennium BCE onwards, this cosmic ocean came to be represented by two gods, Tiamat and Abzu who would be separated from each other to mark the cosmic beginning. The Ugaritic god Yam from the Baal Cycle may also represent the primeval ocean. Sumerian and Akkadian sources understand the matter of the primordial universe out of which the cosmos emerges in different ways. Sumerian thought distinguished between the inanimate matter that the cosmos was made of and the animate and living matter that permeated the gods and went on to be transmitted to humans. In Akkadian sources, the cosmos is originally alive and animate, but the deaths of Abzu (male deity of the fresh waters) and Tiamat (female sea goddess) give rise to inanimate matter, and all inanimate matter is derived from the dead remains of these deities.” ref
Creation of the gods
“The core Mesopotamian myth to explain the gods’ origins begins with the primeval ocean, personified by Nammu, containing Father Sky and Mother Earth within her. In the god-list TCL XV 10, Nammu is called ‘the mother, who gave birth to heaven and earth’. The conception of Nammu as mother of Sky-Earth is first attested in the Ur III period (early 2nd millennium BC), though it may go back to an earlier Akkadian era. Earlier in the 3rd millennium BCE, the starting point was not Nammu, but just Sky and Earth, with little apparent question about their own origins. The representation of Sky as male and Earth as female may come from the analogy between the generative power of the male sperm and the rain that comes from the sky, which respectively fertilize the female to give rise to newborn life or the Earth to give rise to vegetation. In the desert-dweller milieu, life depended on pastureland. Sky and Earth are in a union. Because they are the opposite sex, they inevitably reproduce. Every generation of their offspring includes a pair of gods, and altogether, this successive pairs or generations of gods is known as the Enki-Ninki deities.” ref
“It has been named this way because in every version of the story, the first pair of offspring gods are Enki and Ninki (“Lord and Lady Earth”). The only other consistent feature between all versions of the story is that the last pair is made up of Enlil and Ninlil. In addition, in each pair, one member is male (indicated by the En- prefix) and the other is female (indicated by the Nin- prefix). The birth of Enlil results in the separation of heaven and earth as well as the division of the primordial ocean into the upper and lower waters. Sky, now known as Anu, can mate with other deities after being separated from Earth: he mates with his mother Nammu to give birth to Enki (different from the earlier Enki) who takes dominion over the lower waters. The siblings Enlil and Ninlil mate to give birth to Nanna (also known as Sin), the moon god, and Ninurta, the warrior god. Nanna fathers Utu (known as Shamash in Akkadian texts), the sun god, and Inanna (Venus). By this point, the main features of the cosmos had been created/born. A variation of this myth existed in Egyptian cosmology. Here, the primordial ocean is given by the god Nu. The creation act neither takes its materials from Nu, unlike in Mesopotamian cosmology, nor is Nu eliminated by the creation act.” ref
Separation of heaven and earth
“The cosmic union, or marriage, of heaven and earth is spoken of in ancient Near Eastern texts stretching back to the 3rd millennium BCE. The first source that mentions their separation is from the late 3rd millennium BCE, known as the Song of the hoe. During the 2nd millennium BC, these texts shift in their focus from the union to the separation of heaven and earth, as shown by Sumerian, Akkadian, Phoenician, Egyptian, and Greek mythologies. The cause of the separation involves either the agency of Enlil or takes place as a spontaneous act. One recovered Hittite text states that there was a time when they “severed the heaven from the earth with a cleaver”, and an Egyptian text refers to “when the sky was separated from the earth” (Pyramid Text 1208c). OIP 99 113 ii and 136 iii says Enlil separated Earth from Sky and separated Sky from Earth. Enkig and Ninmah 1–2 also says Sky and Earth were separated in the beginning. The introduction of Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld says that heaven is carried off from the earth by the sky god Anu to become the possession of the wind god Enlil. Several other sources also present this idea.” ref
“In the Akkadian Enuma Elish, written in the early 1st millennium BC, the god Marduk divides the corpse of the slain primordial goddess Tiamat into two parts, one stretched out to create heaven, the other to create the earth. As begins in lines 135–138: 135 The Lord [Marduk] rested, examining her [Tiamat’s] dead body, 136. To divide the abortion (and) to create ingenious things (therewith). 137. He split her open like a mussel (?) into two (parts); 138. Half of her he set in place and formed the sky (therewith) as a roof…. The nature of the original mass is described in several ways. In older, Sumerian texts from the 3rd to early 2nd millennia BCE, the original mass was a solid. In the younger Akkadian tradition, such as the Enuma Elish, the original mass was a water. In the Sumerian sources, heaven and earth are separated over the course of “long days and nights” (similar to the six-day timeline in the Genesis creation narrative), by two gods: Anu, the King of Heaven, and Enlil, the King of Earth.” ref
“Tangaroa is the great atua (gods and spirits of the Polynesian people, such as the Māori or the Hawaiians) of the sea, lakes, rivers, and creatures that live within them, especially fish, in Māori mythology. As Tangaroa-whakamau-tai, he exercises control over the tides. He is sometimes depicted as a whale. Tangaroa is son of Ranginui and Papatūānuku, Sky and Earth. After joining his brothers Rongo, Tū, Haumia, and Tāne in the forcible separation of their parents, he is attacked by his brother Tāwhirimātea, the atua of storms, and forced to hide in the sea. The contention between Tangaroa and Tāne Mahuta, the father of birds, trees, and humans, is an indication that the Māori thought of the ocean and the land as opposed realms.” ref
“In Māori culture, the sea is often considered to be the source and foundation of all life. Islands are fish drawn up from the water, and people evolved from amphibious beginnings. But Tangaroa, god of the sea, can also be destructive. Traditions tell of vengeance wrought by the sea upon those who fall out of favor. Māori and their Polynesian forebears have been island peoples for many generations, so it is not surprising that water, particularly the sea, figures prominently in their worldview. In some traditions, the oceans’ depths are considered to be the origin and source of all life. The islands are believed to be fish, pulled up from beneath the sea, and humans are thought to have evolved from aquatic beginnings. In one version of the Māori creation story, Tangaroa is the son of Papatūānuku, the earth mother, and Ranginui, the sky father. In other versions, however, Tangaroa is the husband of Papatūānuku and a competitor of Ranginui.” ref
“The sky (Rangi) cohabited with the earth (Papa), who was the wife of the sea (Tangaroa). She was seduced by the sky. They had a child whom they called Tānenui-a-rangi, ‘Tāne, great of the heavens.’ The family thereupon decided that the sun should be allowed to shine through the armpit of the sky. ‘Tāne-great of the heavens’ said, ‘The sun shines above.’ He then said, ‘Let us raise our father above and leave the female, Papa, as our parent.’ They joined in and said, ‘Raise him up, separate the two. Let the female be set apart, let the male be set apart so that we may prosper in the world.’ The sky was then raised above. Hence, the sky stands above, and the earth lies below. It is likely that this version of the creation story – where water lies between the earth and sky – reflects an islander’s view of the world, where much of the earth appears to be under the sea. Following the separation of the adulterous lovers by their child, the earth returns to her place beneath the water, and what is left above is the whenua – a word meaning both land and placenta, which comes from the womb of the earth and floats on the sea. The Māori term for island is moutere – ‘floating land’.” ref
Proto-Indo-European mythology/Creation myth and a Dual-Gendered Primordial Being
“There is no scholarly consensus as to which of the variants is the most accurate reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European cosmogonic myth. Bruce Lincoln‘s reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European motif known as “Twin and Man” is supported by a number of scholars such as Jaan Puhvel, J. P. Mallory, Douglas Q. Adams, David W. Anthony, and, in part, Martin L. West. Although some thematic parallels can be made with traditions of the Ancient Near East, and even Polynesian or South American legends, Lincoln argues that the linguistic correspondences found in descendant cognates of *Manu and *Yemo make it very likely that the myth has a Proto-Indo-European origin. According to Edgar C. Polomé, “some elements of the [Scandinavian myth of Ymir] are distinctively Indo-European”, but the reconstruction proposed by Lincoln “makes too [many] unprovable assumptions to account for the fundamental changes implied by the Scandinavian version”. David A. Leeming also notes that the concept of the Cosmic egg, symbolizing the primordial state from which the universe arises, is found in many Indo-European creation myths.” ref
“Regarding the primordial state that may have preceded the creation process, West notes that the Vedic, Norse and, at least partially, the Greek traditions give evidence of an era when the cosmological elements were absent, with similar formulae insisting on their non-existence: “neither non-being was nor being was at that time; there was not the air, nor the heaven beyond it” (Rigveda), “there was not sand nor sea nor the cool waves; earth was nowhere nor heaven above; Ginnungagap there was, but grass nowhere” (Völuspá), “there was Chasm and Night and dark Erebos at first, and broad Tartarus, but earth nor air nor heaven there was” (The Birds). Lincoln reconstructs a creation myth involving twin brothers, *Manu (“Man”) and *Yemo (“Twin”), as the progenitors of the world and humankind, and a hero named *Trito (“Third”) who ensured the continuity of the original sacrifice. Some scholars have proposed that the primeval being *Yemo was depicted as a two-fold hermaphrodite rather than a twin brother of *Manu, both forming indeed a pair of complementary beings entwined together. The Germanic names Ymir and Tuisto were understood as twin, bisexual or hermaphrodite, and some myths give a sister to the Vedic Yama, also called Twin and with whom incest is discussed. In this interpretation, the primordial being may have self-sacrificed, or have been divided in two, a male half and a female half, embodying a prototypal separation of the sexes.” ref
“The comparative analysis of different Indo-European tales has led scholars to reconstruct an original Proto-Indo-European creation myth involving twin brothers, *Manu– (‘Man’) and *Yemo– (‘Twin’), as the progenitors of the world and mankind, and a hero named *Trito (‘Third’) who ensured the continuity of the original sacrifice. Hermann Güntert, stressing philological parallels between the Germanic and Indo-Iranian texts, argued in 1923 for an inherited Indo-European motif of the creation of the world from the sacrifice and dismemberment of a primordial androgyne. Although some thematic parallels can be made with Ancient Near East (the primordial couple Adam and Eve), and even Polynesian or South American legends, the linguistic correspondences found in descendant cognates of *Manu and *Yemo make it very likely that the myth discussed here has a Proto-Indo-European (PIE) origin.” ref
To the third man *Trito, the celestial gods then offer cattle as a divine gift, which is stolen by a three-headed serpent named *Ngʷhi (“serpent”). *Trito first suffers at his hands, but the hero eventually manages to overcome the monster, fortified by an intoxicating drink and aided by the Sky-Father. He eventually gives the recovered cattle back to a priest for it to be properly sacrificed. *Trito is now the first warrior, maintaining through his heroic actions the cycle of mutual giving between gods and mortals. The story of *Trito served as a model for later cattle raiding epic myths and most likely as a moral justification for the practice of raiding among Indo-European peoples. In the original legend, *Trito is only taking back what rightfully belongs to his people, those who sacrifice properly to the gods. The myth has been interpreted either as a cosmic conflict between the heavenly hero and the earthly serpent, or as an Indo-European victory over non-Indo-European people, the monster symbolizing the aboriginal thief or usurper.” ref
“The first man Manu and his giant twin Yemo are crossing the cosmos, accompanied by a primordial cow. To create the world, Manu sacrifices his brother and, with the help of heavenly deities (the Sky-Father, the Storm-God and the Divine Twins), forges both the natural elements and human beings from his twin’s remains. Manu thus becomes the first priest after initiating sacrifice as the primordial condition for the world order. His deceased brother Yemo turns into the first king as social classes emerge from his anatomy (priesthood from his head, the warrior class from his breast and arms, and the commoners from his sexual organs and legs). Although the European and Indo-Iranian versions differ on this matter, the primeval cow was most likely sacrificed in the original myth, giving birth to the other animals and vegetables. Yemo may have become the King of the Otherworld, the realm of the dead, as the first mortal to die in the primordial sacrifice, a role suggested by the Indo-Iranian and, to a lesser extent, in the Germanic, Greek and Celtic traditions.” ref, ref
“To the third man Trito, the celestial gods offer cattle as a divine gift, which is stolen by a three-headed serpent named *Ngwhi (‘serpent’; and the Indo-European root for negation). Trito first suffers at his hands, but fortified by an intoxicating drink and aided by a helper-god (the Storm-God or *Haner, ‘Man’), together they go to a cave or a mountain, and the hero finally manages to overcome the monster. Trito then gives the recovered cattle back to a priest for it to be properly sacrificed. He is now the first warrior, maintaining through his heroic deeds the cycle of mutual giving between gods and mortals. Some scholars have proposed that the primeval being Yemo was depicted as a two-folded hermaphrodite rather than a twin brother of Manu, both forming indeed a pair of complementary beings entwined together. The Germanic names Ymir and Tuisto were understood as twin, bisexual or hermaphrodite, and some myths give a sister to the Vedic Yama, also called Yamī (‘Twin’). The primordial being may therefore have self-sacrificed, or have been divided in two, a male half and a female half, embodying a prototypal separation of the sexes that continued the primordial union of the Sky Father (Dyēus) with the Mother Earth (Dhéǵhōm).” From the name of the sacrificed First King *Yemo (‘Twin’) derive the Indic Yama, god of death and the underworld; the Avestan Yima, king of the golden age and guardian of hell; the Norse Ymir (from Germ. *Yumiyáz), ancestor of the giants (jötnar); and most likely Remus (from Proto-Latin *Yemos), killed in the Roman foundation myth by his twin brother Rōmulus. Latvian jumis (‘double fruit’), Latin geminus (‘twin’) and Middle Irish emuin (‘twin’) are also linguistically related.” ref
“According to Lincoln, *Manu and *Yemo seem to be the protagonists of “a myth of the sovereign function, establishing the model for later priests and kings”, while the legend of *Trito should be interpreted as “a myth of the warrior function, establishing the model for all later men of arms.” The myth indeed recalls the Dumézilian tripartition of the cosmos between the priest (in both his magical and legal aspects), the warrior (the Third Man), and the herder (the cow). In the creation myth, the first man *Manu and his twin *Yemo are crossing the cosmos, accompanied by the giant primordial cow. To create the world, *Manu sacrifices his brother and, with the help of heavenly deities (the Sky-Father, the Storm-God and the Divine Twins), forges both the natural elements and human beings from his remains. *Manu thus becomes the first priest after initiating sacrifice as the primordial condition for the world order, and his deceased brother *Yemo the first king as social classes emerge from his anatomy (priesthood from his head, the warrior class from his breast and arms, and the commoners from his sexual organs and legs). Although the European and Indo-Iranian versions differ on this matter, Lincoln argues that the primeval cow was most likely sacrificed in the original myth, giving birth to the other animals and vegetables, since the pastoral way of life of Proto-Indo-Iranian speakers was closer to that of Proto-Indo-European speakers.” ref
“To the Proto-Indo-European there was a fundamental opposition between the never-aging gods dwelling above in the skies and the mortal humans living beneath on the earth. Earth (*dʰéǵʰōm) was perceived as a vast, flat and circular continent surrounded by waters (“the Ocean”). Although they may sometimes be identified with mythical figures or stories, the stars (*h₂stḗr) were not bound to any particular cosmic significance and were perceived as ornamental more than anything else. According to Martin L. West, the idea of the world-tree (L. axis mundi) is probably a later import from North Asiatic cosmologies: “The Greek myth might be derived from the Near East, and the Indic and Germanic ideas of a pillar from the shamanistic cosmologies of the Finno-Ugric and other peoples of central and northern Asia. The basic Indo-European root for the divine creation is *dheh1, ‘to set in place, lay down, or establish’, as attested in the Hittite expression nēbis dēgan dāir (“…established heaven (and) earth”), the Young Avestan formula kə huvāpå raocåscā dāt təmåscā? (“What skillful artificer made the regions of light and dark?”), the name of the Vedic creator god Dhātr, and possibly in the Greek name Thetis, presented as a demiurgical goddess in Alcman‘s poetry. The concept of the Cosmic Egg, symbolizing the primordial state from which the universe arises, is also found in many Indo-European creation myths. A similar depiction of the appearance of the universe before the act of creation is given in the Vedic, Germanic and, at least partly, in the Greek tradition. Although the idea of a created world is untypical of early Greek thinking, similar descriptions have been highlighted in Aristophanes‘s The Birds: “…there was Chasm and Night and dark Erebos at first, and broad Tartarus, but earth nor air nor heaven there was…” The analogy between the Greek Χάος (‘Chaos, Chasm‘) and the Norse Ginnungagap (‘Gaping abyss’) has also been noted by scholars. The importance of heat in Germanic creation myths has also been compared with similar Indian beliefs emphasized in the Vedic hymn on ‘cosmic heat’.” ref, ref
“Many Indo-European beliefs explain aspects of human anatomy from the results of the original dismemberment of Yemo: his flesh usually becomes the earth, his hair grass, his bone yields stone, his blood water, his eyes the sun, his mind the moon, his brain the clouds, his breath the wind, and his head the heavens. The traditions of sacrificing an animal before dispersing its parts following socially established patterns, a custom found in Ancient Rome and India, has been interpreted as an attempt to restore the balance of the cosmos ruled by the original sacrifice. In the Indo-Iranian version of the myth, his brother Manu also sacrifices the cow, and from the parts of the dead animal are born the other living species and vegetables. In the European reflexes, however, the cow (represented by a she-wolf in the Roman myth) serves only as a provider of milk and care for the twins before the creation. This divergence may be explained by the cultural differences between the Indo-Iranian and European branches of the Indo-European family, with the former still strongly influenced by pastoralism, and the latter much more agricultural, perceiving the cow mainly as a source of milk. According to Lincoln, the Indo-Iranian version best preserves the ancestral motif, since they lived closer to the original Proto-Indo-European pastoral way of life.” ref
“Mánu (‘Man, human’) appears in the Rigveda as the first sacrificer and the founder of religious law, the Law of Mánu. He is the brother (or half-brother) of Yama (‘Twin’), both presented as the sons of the solar deity Vivasvat. The association of Mánu with the ritual of sacrifice is so strong that those who do not sacrifice are named amanuṣāḥ, which means ‘not belonging to Mánu’, ‘unlike Mánu’, or ‘inhuman’. The Song of Puruṣa (another word meaning ‘man’) tells how the body parts of the sacrificed primeval man led to the creation of the cosmos (the heaven from his head, the air from his navel, the earth from his legs) and the Hindu castes (the upper parts becoming the upper castes and the lower parts the commoners). In the later Śatapatha Brāhmana, both a primordial bull and Mánu’s wife Manāvī are sacrificed by the Asuras (demi-gods). According to Lincoln, this could represent an independent variant of the original myth, with the figure of Yama laying behind that of Manāvī.” ref
“After a religious transformation led by Zarathustra around the 7th–6th centuries BCE that degraded the status of prior myths and deities, *Manuš was replaced in the Iranian tradition with three different figures: Ahriman, who took his role as first sacrificer; Manūščihr (‘son’ or ‘seed of Manuš’), who replaced him as ancestor of the priestly line; and Zarathustra himself, who took his role as priest par excellence. Manūščihr is described in the Greater Bun-dahišnīh as the ancestor of all Mōpats (‘High Priests’) of Pars, and it has been proposed that *Manuš was originally regarded as the First Priest instead of Zarathustra by pre-Zoroastrian tribes.” ref
“The Indo-Iranian tradition portrays the first mortal man or king, *YamHa, as the son of the solar deity, *Hui-(H)uas-uant. Invoked in funeral hymns of the Rigveda, Yama is depicted as the first man to die, the one who established the path towards death after he freely chose his own departure from life. Although his realm was originally associated with feasting, beauty and happiness, Yama was gradually portrayed as a horrific being and the ruler of the Otherworld in the epic and puranic traditions. Some scholars have equated this abandonment (or transcendence) of his own body with the sacrifice of Puruṣa. In a motif shared with the Iranian tradition, which is touched in the Rigveda and told in later traditions, Yama and his twin sister Yamī are presented as the children of the sun-god Vivasvat. Discussing the advisability of incest in a primordial context, Yamī insists on having sexual intercourse with her brother Yama, who rejects it, thus forgoing his role as the creator of humankind.” ref
“In pre-Zoroastrian Iran, Yima was seen as the first king and first mortal. The original myth of creation was indeed condemned by Zarathustra, who makes mention of it in the Avesta when talking about the two spirits that “appeared in the beginning as two twins in a dream … (and) who first met and instituted life and non-life”. Yima in particular is depicted as the first to distribute portions of the cow for consumption, and is explicitly condemned for having introduced the eating of meat. After a brief reign on earth, the king Yima was said in a later tradition to be deprived of his triple royal nimbus, which embodied the three social classes in Iranian myths. Mithra receives the part of the Priest, Thraētona that of the Warrior, and Kərəsāspa that of the Commoner. The saga ends with the real dismemberment of Yima by his own brother, the daiwic figure Spityura. In another myth of the Younger Avesta, the primal man Gayōmart (Gaya marətan; ‘Mortal Life’) and the primeval world ox Gōšūrvan are sacrificed by the destructive spirit Ahriman (Aŋra Mainyu, ‘Evil Spirit’). From the ox’s parts came all the plants and animals, and from Gayōmart’s body the minerals and humankind.” ref
“In the Vīdēvdāt, Yima is presented as the builder of an underworld, a sub-terrestrial paradise eventually ruled by Zarathustra and his son. The story, giving a central position to the new religious leader, is once again probably the result of a Zoroastrian reformation of the original myth, and Yima might have been seen as the ruler of the realm of the dead in the early Iranian tradition. Norbert Oettinger argues that the story of Yima and the Vara was originally a flood myth, and the harsh winter was added in due to the dry nature of Eastern Iran, as flood myths didn’t have as much of an effect as harsh winters. He has argued that the Videvdad 2.24’s mention of melted water flowing is a remnant of the flood myth, and mentions that the Indian Flood Myths originally had their protagonist as Yama, but it was changed to Manu later. The motif of Manu and Yemo has been influential throughout Eurasia following the Indo-European migrations. The Greek, Old Russian (Poem on the Dove King) and Jewish versions (Cain & Able) depend on the Iranian, and a Chinese version of the myth has been introduced from Ancient India. The Armenian version of the myth of the First Warrior Trito depends on the Iranian, and the Roman reflexes were influenced by earlier Greek versions.” ref
“Ymir is depicted in the Eddas as the primal being and a frost jötunn (‘giant’). After Óðinn and his brothers killed him, they made the earth out of his flesh, the mountains from his bones, the trees from his hair, the sky from his skull, and the sea and lakes from his blood; and from his two armpits came a man and a woman. The Germanic name Ymir means ‘Twin’, and some scholars have proposed that it was also understood as hermaphrodite or bisexual. In fact, one of his legs is said to make love to the other one, fathering a six-headed son, the ancestor of the giants. In another Old Norse story, the primeval cow Auðhumla is said to be formed from melting ice like Ymir, and she fed him with her milk. In his book Germania (ca. 98 CE), Tacitus reports the existence of a myth involving an earth-born god named Tuisto (‘Twin’) who fathered Mannus (‘Man’), the ancestor of West Germanic peoples. Tuisto has begotten Mannus on his own, and his name is also understood to mean hermaphrodite. Some scholars have proposed that the Germanic tribal name Alamanni meant ‘Mannus‘ own people’, although ‘all-men’ remains the most widely accepted etymology among linguists.” ref
“Baltic mythology records a fertility deity Jumis, whose name means ‘pair, double (of fruits)’. His name is also considered a cognate to Indo-Iranian Yama, and related to Sanskrit yamala ‘in pairs, twice’ and Prakrit yamala ‘twins’. Ranko Matasović cites the existence of Jumala as a female counterpart and sister of Jumis in Latvian dainas (folksongs), as another fertility deity, and in the same vein, Zmago Smitek mentioned the pair as having “pronounced vegetational characteristics”. Jumis, whose name can also mean ‘double ear of wheat’, is also considered a Latvian chthonic deity that lived “beneath the plowed field”, or a vegetation spirit connected to the harvest. Following Puhvel’s line of argument, Belarusian scholar Siarhiej Sanko attempted to find a Proto-Baltic related pair, possibly named Jumis (“twin”) and Viras (“male, hero”). He saw a connection with (quasi-pseudo-)historical Prussian king Widewuto and his brother Bruteno. Related to them is a pair of figures named Wirschaitos and Szwaybrutto (Iszwambrato, Schneybrato, Schnejbrato, Snejbrato) which he interprets as “Elder” and “His Brother”, respectively. These latter two would, in turn, be connected to the worship, by the Prussians, of stone statues erected during their expansion in the 12th and 13th centuries.” ref
“Twins in mythology also often share deep bonds. Twins in mythology are often cast as two halves of the same whole, sharing a bond deeper than that of ordinary siblings, or seen as fierce rivals. They can be seen as representations of a dualistic worldview. They can represent another aspect of the self, a doppelgänger, or a shadow. In Greek mythology, Castor and Pollux share a bond so strong that when mortal Castor dies, Pollux gives up half of his immortality to be with his brother. Castor and Pollux are the Dioscuri twin brothers. Their mother is Leda, a being who was seduced by Zeus who had taken the form of a swan. Even though the brothers are twins, they have two different fathers. This phenomenon is a very common interpretation of twin births across different mythological cultures. Castor’s father is Tyndareus, the king of Sparta (hence the mortal form). Pollux is the son of Zeus (demigod). This brothers were said to be born from an egg along with either sister Helen and Clytemnestra.” ref
“This teleologically explains why their constellation, the Dioskouroi or Gemini, is only seen during one half of the year, as the twins split their time between the underworld and Mount Olympus. In an aboriginal tale, the same constellation represents the twin lizards who created the plants and animals and saved women from evil spirits. Another example of this strong bond shared between twins is the Ibeji twins from African mythology. Ibeji twins are viewed as one soul shared between two bodies. If one of the twins dies, the parents then create a doll that portrays the body of the deceased child, so the soul of the deceased can remain intact for the living twin. Without the creation of the doll, the living twin is almost destined for death because it is believed to be missing half of its soul. Divine twins in twin mythology are identical to either one or both place of a god. The Feri gods are not separated entities but are unified into one center. These divine twins can function alone in one body, either functioning as a male or as male and female as they desire. Divine twins represent a polarity in the world. Egyptian: “Nut and Geb, Dualistic twins” God of Earth (Geb) and Goddess of the sky (Nut).” ref
Maya Hero Twins
“Many Native American cultures in the United States have traditions of two male hero twins. The Maya Hero Twins are the central figures of a narrative included within the colonial Kʼicheʼ document called Popol Vuh, and constituting the oldest Maya myth to have been preserved in its entirety. Called Hunahpu and Xbalanque in the Kʼicheʼ language, the Twins have also been identified in the art of the Classic Mayas (200–900 CE). The twins are often portrayed as complementary forces. The name “Xbalanque” (pronounced [ʃɓalaŋˈke]) has been variously translated as ‘Jaguar Sun’ (x-balam-que), ‘Hidden Sun’ (x-balan-que), and ‘Jaguar Deer’ (x-balam-quieh). The initial sound may stem from yax (precious), since in Classical Maya, a hieroglyphic element of this meaning precedes the pictogram of the hero (although it has also been suggested to be the female prefix ix-).” ref
Hero Twins and Maya Creation Myth: The “Popol Vuh”
“The story opens with cosmic creation: the lifting of the earth out of the sea, followed by several attempts by primordial gods to create humans to populate the earth’s surface. Early in the story creation is threatened by three monstrous, disorderly beings who introduce chaos and must be destroyed. The nefarious trio is defeated by two youthful demiurges, Hunahpu and Xbalanque, tricksters now often referred to as the Hero Twins and comparable to similar characters in North and South American folklore. The “myth” section of the narrative ostensibly ends when the Hero Twins defeat the Death Lords of the Underworld (Xibalba) and rise up as the sun and moon, after which true humans are created and “history” begins.” Bender notions, embedded in post-Enlightenment ideologies, do not apply to Mesoamerica. Indeed, gender status in ancient Mesoamerica was quite fluid. The second assumption is that the storylines within which the Hero Twins appear are irrelevant to their identity.” ref
“Although the youths are major characters in two separated series of episodes occurring in different stages of cosmic creation, the conventional belief is that they are identical and unchanging throughout the narrative. Arguments against this assumption require more explanation. These supra-human beings engage in acts of creative destruction within the early portion of a cosmogonic myth that narrates the establishment of world order –through various trial-anderror attempts– necessary for the consequent emergence of true humans and organized society. An ostensible function of the narrative is to explain the origin of gender difference as well as other societal features. The sequential episodes should reveal how gender came into existence integrated with the creation of other constituent parts of sociocosmic order. Taking this into account, one should expect that characters or qualities appearing earlier in the story might be gender-ambiguous, gender neutral, transgendered, or able to change their gender assignments from one episode to the next. It was through these trial-anderror experiments that gendered roles, agencies, relationships, and ideologies appropriate for late prehispanic K’iche’ society came into being. The narrative explains how these transformations occurred across the episodes, thereby legitimating current social practices by grounding them in unquestionable cosmic foundations.” ref
Questioning Xbalanque’s gender, one of the Hero Twins in Mayan mythology
“In 1981 Tarn and Prechtel observed that old “arguments about whether Xbalanque is a male or a female are one of the cruxes of Maya scholarship still.” Over three decades later, the situation has not improved. Two reasons are commonly given for questioning the gender of Xbalanque. The first is the “x” (or “ix”) prefix of his name, which more often goes with female appellations, a prime example being his mother, Xquic (“x-” + quic or kik’, “blood”; more modern orthography from Sam Colop in 1999. The second and more contentious reason is the assignment of his ultimate fate to be associated with the moon, an entity most often gendered female in Maya belief. From their first to last appearances in the story, Hunahpu and Xbalanque are referred to together as “boys” in the K’iche’ text, although the word is q’ahol (k’ajol), which more literally means someone’s “son”. The “x” prefix for the youth always named second has been considered curious, but it is not a solid argument for gender assignment. The Popol Vuh creation story opens with a recitation of the names of the primordial gods, including a male and female dyad who both have the “x” prefix (Xpiyacoc as male, Xmucane as female).” ref
“Moreover, this prefix also marks the diminutive, conflating gender and relative status in this usage. As such it is suitable for the presumably younger brother, and when the youths are first introduced it serves to demarcate a junior member of the pair. Tarn and Prechtel further suggested that the “ambiguous position” of Xbalanque indicated by the “x” prefix may reflect his role as an “assistant” to his older brother, in the way that modern Maya ritual officials have a male assistant referred to as “wife.” Taking into account the nuanced meanings of the “x” prefix and the notion of a male assistant or junior partner as “wife” in Maya usage may seem to clarify the presumed gender ambiguity of Xbalanque while simultaneously providing a needed cultural contextual balance against the dominant Western notions of gender. However, these arguments are not entirely satisfactory. Among the various older brother/younger brother dyads in the Popol Vuh, Xbalanque is the only younger brother with the “x” prefix.” ref
“As for the suggestion that this addition to his name indicates his role as junior “assistant” to his older brother, in the various episodes 142 the two brothers work at the same tasks and assist each other. Indeed, it is always Xbalanque who engages in certain actions on his own while his brother Hunahpu is debilitated (in one instance having been beheaded), actions that save his brother and move the story forward. Furthermore, it is seldom observed that towards the end of the Hero Twins portion of the Popol Vuh, when the youths agree to be put to death by the Lords of Xibalba (knowing they will be transformed and brought to life again), Hunahpu is given the “x” prefix alongside his brother, while continuing to be named first. “Xhunahpu” appears six times in the manuscript. Most translators have ignored this variation or mentioned it only in a footnote, not changing the translated text itself. The common suggested explanation is that the “x” prefix is to be read as the diminutive, but only Tedlock, in his revised translation, names the elder brother “little Hunahpu” each time to correspond to the manuscript.” ref
“His younger brother, however, is never referred to as “little Balanque” to match this usage. Edmonson in 1971 ignored the “x” prefix in Xbalanque’s name altogether, referring to the second youth as “Jaguar Deer” based on his translation of the name. However, he translated the name of the twins’ mother, Xquic, as “Blood Girl,” treating the “x“ prefix as a combined gender and diminutive reference that needed to be made explicit. Tedlock in 1985 called her “Blood Woman,” marking gender but not diminutive status, while Christenson in 2003 ennobled her feminine quality as “Lady Blood.” Thus, in these translators’ hands the ambiguity concerning the “x” in Xbalanque’s name remains. As noted above, the more profound gender error with regard to Xbalanque, according to contemporary scholarship, is his association with the moon. After the youths’ final defeat of the Death Lords in Xibalba, they ascended into the sky. According to the different modern translations, one became, or arose as, or is, or was given the sun, and the other the moon.” ref
“Tedlock in 1985 was slightly more conservative, reading the line as “the sun belongs to one and the moon to the other,” and Girard disagreed with the usual interpretation that the two youths literally became the sun and moon. Although the boys are not named in this part of the story, the presumption is that they always go in sequence, so Hunahpu must be associated with the sun and Xbalanque with the moon. That assignment has not set well with a number of Maya scholars because the Moon is female in most Maya ethnoastronomies. Partly on 143 that basis in 1948 Girard identified Xbalanque as female and as a lunar goddess. No other prominent scholar has adopted this extreme position. A minority but well researched opinion is that in K’iche’ belief the moon, in its multiple phases, is a complex entity that cannot be assigned to a single gender. Tedlock suggested that Xbalanque was associated with the full moon, which in K’iche’ belief is considered to be an underworld or nocturnal sun, an opinion later reiterated by Sam Colop in 2008.” ref
“Carmack had earlier demonstrated how the boys could have been associated with the sun and moon in Postclassic K’iche’ cosmology. Nevertheless, the more popular solution to this problem has been to determine an alternative celestial assignment for the two brothers on the presumption that the Moon cannot be male and Xbalanque is male. Evidence from elsewhere in the Maya area, –contemporary folklore, calendricastronomical data, Classic period imagery and hieroglyphs, and some ascribed logic of Maya belief– has been used to argue that the Hero Twins must instead be avatars of Venus and the Sun, who are related as elder and younger brother in Mesoamerican astrology. This means that the Popol Vuh manuscript got it wrong. Other scholars have accepted this “compelling logic”. As a result, a new “Popol Vuh” is now being written and promulgated as the Popol Vuh in Maya textbooks and popular books.” ref
“Although still called the Popol Vuh –claiming the same name– it is a conflation of interpretations by contemporary iconographers with readings of the sixteenth-century document. The major focus in the new “Popol Vuh” is on the Maize God, the Hero Twins and their association with Venus and the Sun, and other episodes and characters not found in Fr. Ximénez’s manuscript but appearing in earlier, Classic period Maya imagery. It would seem that the conundrum of Xbalanque’s gender has been solved by contemporary scholarship by disregarding the original text. The learned arguments favoring this “correction” apparently no longer require repeating, and twenty-firstcentury audiences are exposed to a rewritten “Popol Vuh” without being informed of its hybrid authorship. While this rewrite may satisfy some, it turns out that the early colonial K’iche’ elites, whose putative errors have condemned them to irrelevancy, are not so easily silenced.” ref
“In 1971 in the town of Totonicapán a companion manuscript to the Popol Vuh came to light along with six other early manuscripts written in K’iche’. El Título de Totonicapán relates the epic tale of K’iche’ cosmogony and history similar to that of the Popol Vuh. The portion given to the Hero Twins is unfortunately very abbreviated, but extremely pertinent to this discussion. The author(s) 144 unequivocally wrote that Hunahpu became the sun and Xbalanque the moon, and further stated that Xbalanque was a girl.” ref
Chinese Hero Twins
“Fuxi or Fu Hsi is a culture hero in Chinese mythology, credited along with his sister and wife Nüwa with creating humanity and the invention of music, hunting, fishing, domestication, and cooking, as well as the Cangjie system of writing Chinese characters around 2,900 or 2,000 BCE. He is also said to be the originator of bagua (the eight trigrams) after observing that there were eight fundamental building blocks in nature: heaven, earth, water, fire, thunder, wind, mountain, and lake. These eight are all made of different combinations of yin and yang, which are what came to be called bagua. Pangu was said to be the creation god in Chinese mythology. He was a giant sleeping within an egg of chaos. As he awoke, he stood up and divided the sky and the earth. Pangu then died after standing up, and his body turned into rivers, mountains, plants, animals, and everything else in the world, among which is a powerful being known as Huaxu (華胥). uaxu gave birth to a twin brother and sister, Fuxi and Nüwa (brother-sister/husband-wife figures representing the primordial union of Yin and Yang). Fuxi and Nüwa are said to be creatures that have human faces and the bodies of snakes.” ref
“However, in some myths, Fuxi was held to be the creator, not Pangu, who worked alone and not with Nüwa. Fuxi was known as the “original god”, and he was said to have been born in the lower-middle reaches of the Yellow River in a place called Chengji (成紀) (possibly modern Lantian, Shaanxi province, or Tianshui, Gansu province). A possible historical interpretation of the myth is that Huaxu (Fuxi’s mother) was a leader during the matriarchal society (c. 2600 BCE) as early Chinese developed language skill while Fuxi and Nüwa were leaders in the early patriarchal society (c. 2600 BCE) when the Chinese began performing marriage rituals. A divinity Taihao (太皞, “The Great Bright One”) appears, vaguely, in sources before the Han dynasty, independent from Fuxi. Later, Fuxi is identified with Taihao, the latter being his courtesy or formal name. According to legend, the goddess of the Luo River, Fufei, was the daughter of Fuxi. Additionally, some versions of the legend state that she is Fuxi’s consort. She drowned in the Luo River while crossing it and became the spirit of the Luo River. According to the Classic of Mountains and Seas, Fuxi and Nüwa one day they set up two separated piles of fire, and the fire eventually became one. Under the fire, they decided to become husband and wife.” ref
“By connecting, the two were representative of Yin and Yang; Fuxi being connected to Yang and masculinity along Nüwa being connected to Yin and femininity. This is further defined with Fuxi receiving a carpenter’s square which symbolizes his identification with the physical world because a carpenter’s square is associated with straight lines and squares leading to a more straightforward mindset. Meanwhile, Nüwa was given a compass to symbolize her identification with the heavens because a compass is associated with curves and circles leading to a more abstract mindset. With the two being married, it symbolized the union between heaven and Earth. Other versions have Nüwa invent the compass rather than receive it as a gift. In addition, the system of male and female sex, the yang-yin philosophy, is expressed here in a complex way: first as Fuxi and Nüwa, then as a compass (masculine) and a square (feminine), and thirdly, as Nüwa (woman) with a compass (man) and Fuxi (man) with a square (woman).” ref
“Originating in ancient Chinese philosophy, yin and yang or yin-yang is the concept that there exist cosmic principles or forces that are opposite but complementary, which interact, interconnect, support and perpetuate each other. Together they form a dynamic system in which the whole is greater than the interdependent components, and both parts are essential for the cohesion of the whole. Taiji is a Chinese cosmological term for the “Supreme Ultimate” state of undifferentiated absolute and infinite potential, the oneness before duality, from which yin and yang originate. Included among these forms are humans. Many natural dualities (such as light and dark, fire and water, expanding and contracting) are thought of as physical manifestations of the duality symbolized by yin and yang. This duality, as a unity of opposites, lies at the origins of many branches of classical Chinese science, technology and philosophy, as well as being a primary guideline of traditional Chinese medicine, and a central principle of different forms of Chinese martial arts and exercise. In Taoist metaphysics, distinctions between good and bad, along with other dichotomous moral judgments, are perceptual, not real; so, the duality of yin and yang is an indivisible whole.” ref
“In Chinese philosophy, taiji (“supreme ultimate” or taiji may be understood as ‘source of the world’) is a cosmological state of the universe and its affairs on all levels—including the mutually reinforcing, codependent interactions between the two opposing forces of yin and yang (a dualistic monism), as well as that among the Three Treasures, the four cardinal directions, and the Five Elements—which together ultimately bring about the myriad of things from the Eight directions, each with their own nature. Yin and yang are reflections and originate from wuji to become taiji. The concept of taiji has reappeared throughout the technological, religious, and philosophical history of the Sinosphere, finding concrete application in techniques developed in acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine. Any philosophy that asserts two elements such as the yin-yang of Chinese philosophy will also look for a term to reconcile the two, to ensure that both belong to the same sphere of discourse. The “supreme ultimate” creates yang and yin. Movement generates yang, and when its activity reaches its limit, it becomes tranquil. Through tranquility the supreme ultimate generates yin. When tranquility has reached its limit, there is a return to movement. Movement and tranquility, in alternation, each become the source of the other. The distinction between the yin and the yang is determined and their two forms stand revealed. By the transformations of the yang and the union of the yin, emerge the 4 directions and then the 5 phases (wuxing) of wood, fire, earth, metal, and water.” ref
Dual-gendered Deities in the Americas?
“In effect, for many indigenous peoples throughout the Americas, conceptions of gender and sexuality are rooted in their founding myths, the origin of their existence originating from sacred dual forces. In the region of Mesoamerica, among the Nahuas, it was believed that all existence was the result of the actions of Ometeotl, the sacred force composed of Omecihuatl (dual woman) and Ometecuhtli (dual man), in other words, a sacred and philosophical entity composed of the female-male pair. In the Andean region, the sacred and creative principle was attributed to the deity of Viracocha, the sacred force that meant father-mother. They were even invoked as such in their native Quechua language: “Cay cari cachon, cay uarmi cachon”, which means, “be it male or female”. This conception is also reminiscent of the body, as they were revered as ulca apo, i.e. lord of the ulli (phallus) and the raca (vulva). It was believed that the strength of these dual principles was projected onto human reality and the cosmos in its surrounding and all-encompassing quality. Their evolution in the terrestrial sphere meant they endowed each territorial space with attributes of one of each of the poles of duality, which implied the geographical partition and boundaries were defined by the differentiation of its gender qualities.” ref
“Thy mother, thy father, Ome tecutli, Ome ciuatl, the heavenly woman, formed thee, created thee, [sent thee]…’Ometecuhtli (Two-Lord) and Omecíhuatl (Two-Lady) ruled the highest of the 13 Aztec heavens (some sources suggest there were originally nine, mirroring the nine underworlds) – Omeyocan, the Place of Duality. Omeyocan is described and depicted (pic 3) in the colonial-era Codex Vaticanus A (aka Codex Ríos, Codex Vaticanus 3738) and the deity residing there is named as Ometeotl, (though interestingly the commentator, Pedro de los Ríos, changes the name from Two-Lord to Three-Lord, in a natty attempt to link the deity to the Christian Trinity!). Later in the same codex, however (pic 4), the same deity is depicted and named as Tonacatecuhtli (Lord of Our Sustenance), male counterpart of Tonacacíhuatl (Lady of Our Sustenance), together forming a(nother) primordial generative androgynous force from which all other deities (and then humans) were created. Few images exist of this couple, and their association with Ometecuhtli and Omecíhuatl, whilst logical and highly likely, is unclear to say the least. In the Histoyre du Mechique, for instance, T-T are placed in the seventh heaven whilst O-O reside in the thirteenth, whereas in the Anales de Cuauutitlan T-T are firmly placed, with other gods, in Omeyocan.” ref
“We know that T-T were primordial deities reaching back to Toltec and probably pre-Toltec cultures and that the Toltecs (so revered by the Aztecs) held belief in a supreme (dual) deity at the heart of their religious tradition. The trouble is, no sacrifices or prayers were directed to them, references to them are rare, and different names keep popping up in association with them… At this point, time to introduce yet another eternal but remote ‘first pair’, our ‘divine grandparents’, Cipactonal (male) and Oxomoco (female), famously depicted in the Codex Borbonicus (pic 5). Whilst in some sources (Codex Borbonicus, Codex Borgia) the couple are shown as (very old) humans, in the (later) Codex Vaticanus B (3773) they are seen as deities (top pic/pic 7). Other epithets given to them included Tloque Nahuaque (God of the Near and Far), Ipalnemohuani (Giver of Life) and Moyocoyani (One who Invents Oneself). Beyond bisexual, this couple, to paraphrase Klein, completely epitomized Male and Female. ‘To the Aztec, creation is the result of complementary opposition and conflict. Much like a dialogue between two individuals, the interaction and exchange between opposites constitute a creative act. The concept of interdependent opposition is embodied in the creator god, Ometeotl… possessing both the male and female creative principles’ (Taube).” ref
Aztec: “In the Codex Chimalpopoca, the male deity Tezcatlipoca and his alter ego sorcerer [necoc] Yāōtl “Enemies on Both Sides” once transformed themselves into women to copulate with Huemac.” ref
Inuit: “In Inuit shamanism, the first two humans were Aakulujjuusi and Uumarnituq, both male. This same-sex couple desired company and decided to mate. This sexual encounter resulted in pregnancy for Uumarnituq. As he was physically not equipped to give birth, a spell was cast that changed his sex, giving him a vagina capable of passing the child. The now-female Uumarnituq was also responsible for introducing war into the world via magic, in order to curb overpopulation. The goddess Sedna is an Inuit creator deity, with dominion of marine animals. She is depicted as gynandrous or hermaphroditic in some myths, and is served by two-spirit shamans.” ref
“‘Two-Spirit’ is a modern umbrella term, an English translation of the Ojibwe ‘niizh manidoowag,’ which refers to a person who embodies both masculine and feminine spirits. In Native American cultures, ‘Two-Spirit’ individuals held important roles as healers, visionaries, and keepers of cultural knowledge, and were seen as bridges between the physical and spiritual worlds because their unique perspectives were highly valued. In pre-colonial Hawaii, māhū, those who embody both masculine and feminine spirits, held esteemed positions within society. Praised for having a spiritual connection and knowledge, māhū were often served as healers, teachers of hula and keepers of cultural traditions. They were considered integral to maintaining harmony in the community. Ancient Incas worshiped a ‘dual-gendered god’ known as Chuqui Chinchay, the deity of water, in which its manifestation on Earth was a wild cat. The quariwarmi shamans wore androgynous clothing as a third space between the masculine and the feminine, the present and the past, the living and the dead. ‘Their shamanic presence invoked the androgynous creative force often represented in Andean mythology,’ according to scholar Michael J. Horswell. They were deemed sodomites by the conquering Spaniards.” ref
“Among the Ojibwe and speakers of cognate Algonkian language, a grammatical distinction is made between animate and inanimate genders, not between male and female genders. Persons and personal actions are talked about in a different way from objects and impersonal events. As demonstrated in the work of such scholars as Marjorie Balzer, Marie Czaplicka, and Bernard Saladin D’Anglure, these and other indigenous conceptions of gender, sex, and sexual orientation, tend to disrupt Western binary conventions of “male” and “female,” conflations of sex and gender, and heterosexuality as normative.” ref
“Deities that disguise themselves as, or adopt behaviors traditional to, the opposite gender for a given culture may be called transgender, and beings with no reproductive organs or with both male and female organs may be called androgynous or intersex. Individual myths have been denoted “queer” for rejecting a heteronormative and binary view of gender. It is common in polytheistic mythologies to find characters that can change gender, or have aspects of both male and female genders at the same time.” ref
Japanese: “Shinto gods are involved in all aspects of life, some kami were associated with gender variance include: Oyamakui, a transgender mountain spirit that protects industry and childbearing; and Inari Ōkami, the kami of agriculture and rice, who is depicted as various genders, the most common representations being a young female food goddess, an old man carrying rice, and an androgynous bodhisattva. Inari is further associated with foxes and kitsune, shapeshifting fox trickster spirits. Kitsune sometimes disguise themselves as women, hiding their true gender, to trick human men into sexual relations with them. A common belief in medieval Japan was that any woman encountered alone, especially at dusk or night, could be a fox. There is widespread agreement that cross-dressing of heroes and gods is widely observed in Japanese mythology. Through a woman dressed as a man or a man dressed as a woman, a double gender condition is created, gaining powerful power and divinity.” ref
“Kami are the deities, divinities, spirits, mythological, spiritual, or natural phenomena that are venerated in the traditional Shinto religion of Japan. Kami can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, beings and the qualities that these beings express, and / or the spirits of venerated dead people. Many kami are considered the ancient ancestors of entire clans (some ancestors became kami upon their death if they were able to embody the values and virtues of kami in life). Traditionally, great leaders like the Emperor could be or became kami. In Shinto, kami are not separate from nature, but are of nature, possessing positive and negative, and good and evil characteristics.” ref
Thai Buddhist: “Thai Buddhists believe the disciple Ānanda to have been reincarnated several times as a woman, and in one previous life to have been transgender. Ānanda is popular and charismatic, and known for his emotionality. In one story of one of his previous lives, Ānanda was a solitary yogi who fell in love with a nāga, a serpent king of Indian folklore, who took the form of a handsome youth. The relationship became sexual, causing Ānanda to regretfully break off contact, to avoid distraction from spiritual matters.” ref
Hindu: “Hindu mythology has many examples of deities changing gender, manifesting as different genders at different times, or combining to form androgynous or hermaphroditic beings. Gods change sex or manifest as an Avatar of the opposite sex in order to facilitate sexual congress. Non-divine beings also undergo sex-changes through the actions of the gods, as the result of curses or blessings, or as the natural outcome of reincarnation.” ref
Pacific Islands, Celebes, Vanuatu, Borneo and the Philippines: “In Tagalog mythology, the hermaphrodite Lakapati is identified as the most important fertility deity in the Tagalog pantheon. In Suludnon mythology, there are accounts of female binukots (well-kept maidens) who had powers to transition into male warriors. The most famous of which are Nagmalitong Yawa and Matan-ayon. In one epic, after Buyong Humadapnon was captured by the magical binukot Sinangkating Bulawan, the also powerful female binukot, Nagmalitong Yawa, cast her magic and transitioned into a male warrior named Buyong Sumasakay. He afterwards successfully rescued the warrior Buyong Humadapnon. In a similar epic, the female binukot Matan-ayon, in search of her husband Labaw Donggon, sailed the stormy seas using the golden ship Hulinday together with her less powerful brother-in-law Paubari. Once when she was bathing after sailing far, Buyong Pahagunong spotted her and tried to make her his bride. The event was followed by a series of combat, where in one instance, Matan-ayon transitioned into the male warrior Buyong Makalimpong. After a series of battles, Labaw Donggon arrives and attacks Buyong Pahagunong, while Buyong Makalimpong once again transitioned into Matan-ayon. Matan-ayon then has a conversation with the supreme goddess Laonsina about why the men are fighting and agree to sit back and watch them if they truly are seeking death.” ref
“Third gender, or gender variant, spiritual intermediaries are found in many Pacific island cultures, including religion in pre-colonial Philippines, such as the bajasa of the Torajan people of Sulawesi, the bantut of the Tausūg people of the south Philippines, and the bayogin. These shamans are typically biologically male but display feminine behaviours and appearance. The pre-Christian Philippines had a polytheistic religion, which included the transgender or hermaphroditic gods Bathala and Malyari, whose names means “Man and Woman in One” and “Powerful One” respectively; these gods are worshipped by the Bayagoin. Among their pantheon of deities, the Ngaju of Borneo worship Mahatala-Jata, an androgynous or transgender god. The male part of this god is Mahatala, who rules the Upperworld, and is depicted as a hornbill living above the clouds on a mountain-top; the female part is Jata, who rules the Underworld from under the sea in the form of a katuali. These two manifestations are linked via a jewel-encrusted bridge that is seen in the physical world as a rainbow. Mahatala-Jata is served by balian, female hierodules, and basir, transgender shamans metaphorically described as “water snakes which are at the same time hornbills”. Similar transgender shamans, the “manang bali”, are found in the Iban. Girls fated to become manang bali may first dream of becoming a woman and also of being summoned by the deities Menjaya Raja Manang or Ini. Menjaya Raja Manang began existence as a male god until the wife of her brother Sengalang Burong became sick. This prompted Menjara to become the world’s first healer, allowing her to cure her sister-in-law, but this treatment also resulted in Menjara changing into a woman or androgynous being.” ref
“The Healing Stones of Kapaemahu tells the story of four māhū – individuals of dual male and female mind, heart, and spirit – who long ago brought healing arts from Tahiti to Hawaiʻi. Before they left, they used special dual male-female kiʻi to transfer their powers to four large boulders that the people brought to Waikiki. These stones still exist on Waikiki Beach and may be the only monument in the world to honor and uplift gender fluidity.” ref
Islamic and Pre-Islamic Arabian: “The word Jinn means “hidden from sight” and the myths surrounding the jinn, long-lived shape-shifting spirits created from “smokeless fire” (Quran 15:27), which were created from “flameless fire”. Some believe their shape-shifting abilities allow them to change gender at will, but this is not consistent throughout the Islamic world although their ability to fly and travel exceedingly fast are consistent traits of the Jinn. Jinn are served by the al-Jink and mukhannathun, transgender and homoerotically inclined wanderers with entertainment and spiritual functions.[125] In pre-Islamic Arabic and Oikoumene cultures, third-gender individuals such as mukhannathun were worshippers in widespread goddess cults. Arabian mythology also contains magical sex-changing springs or fountains, such as al-Zahra. Upon bathing in or drinking from al-Zahra, a person will change sex.” ref
“Jinn, also romanized as djinn or anglicized as genies, are supernatural beings in ancient Arabian religion and Islam. Since jinn are neither innately evil nor innately good, Islam acknowledged spirits from other religions and could adapt them during its expansion. Likewise, jinn are not a strictly Islamic concept; they may represent several pagan beliefs integrated into Islam. While they are naturally invisible, jinn are supposed to be composed of thin and subtle bodies (ajsām) and are capable of shapeshifting, usually choosing to appear as snakes, but also as scorpions, lizards, or humans. A jinni’s interaction with a human may be negative, positive, or neutral, and can range from casual to highly intimate, even involving sexual activity and the production of hybrid offspring. However, they rarely meddle in human affairs, preferring instead to live among their own in a societal arrangement similar to that of the Arabian tribes.” ref
“The Eridu Genesis, “The Creation of Man”, from circa the 20th century BCE, lists physically differing people created by the goddess Ninmah. These included “the woman who cannot give birth” and “the one who has no male organ or female organ”, which have been regarded as being third gender or androgynous. In ancient Mesopotamia, worship of the goddess Inanna included “soothing laments” sung by third-gender priests called “gala“. According to First Babylonian dynastic texts, these priests were created specifically for this purpose by the god Enki. Some gala took female names, and the word itself means “penis+anus”, hinting at their androgynous status. The cultural practice, or “me”, of androgynous, third-gender or homoerotically inclined priests were part of those said to have been stolen by Innana from Enki in “The Descent of Innana” myth. In the Babylonian Erra myth, the gender of the “kurgaru” and “assinnu” priests was supernaturally changed by the goddess Ishtar, making them feminine. The changes may also facilitate possession by the goddess, causing a psychological change or prompting physical castration. The relationship between the semi-divine hero Gilgamesh and his “intimate companion” Enkidu in the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh has been interpreted as a sexual one by some modern scholars. Enkidu was created as a companion to Gilgamesh by the goddess Aruru, and civilised by a priestess. As Gilgamesh and Enkidu were of similar ages and status, their relationship has been seen as relatively egalitarian, in contrast with the typically pederastic mode of ancient Greece.” ref
“ Aphroditus was an androgynous Aphrodite from Cyprus, in later mythology became known as Hermaphroditus the son of Hermes and Aphrodite.” ref
Greek: “Aphroditus was sometimes referred to as the male form of Aphrodite. Statues of him showed him with a female figure, breasts, narrow waist, long hair, women’s clothing, but also with a penis and testes. He is said to have originated on the island of Cyprus, and arrived in Athens in the 4th century BCE. He was sometimes celebrated there in transvestite rites. It is said the festivals allowed “women to act the part of men, and men to put on woman’s clothing and play the part of women. He was definitely gender non-conforming. Hermaphroditus was the son of Hermes, messenger of the gods, and Aphrodite, Goddess of love. His name is a combination of both of his parents. Hermaphroditus is the god of hermaphrodites and effeminates.” ref
Dual Gendered Primordial Being
“Aztec Dual Gendered Primordial Being: “Ometeotl was an Aztec God of duality. He was considered both male and female, using the names Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl. He had an equivalent god in Mayan mythology, Itzamna, who identified with Hunab Ku, an invisible god. Both gods could be considered self-created gods according to myth. Ometeotl was to the Aztecs the idea that their Universe consisted of dark and light, night and day, order and war, and things like that.” ref
“Aztec primordial dual gendered being Ōmeteōtl (“Two-God”) is a name used to refer to the pair of Aztec deities Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, also known as Tōnacātēcuhtli and Tonacacihuatl. Ōme translates as “two” or “dual” in Nahuatl and teōtl translates as “Divinity”. Ometeotl was one as the first divinity, and Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl when the being became two to be able to reproduce all creation. Multiple Nahuatl sources, notably the Florentine Codex, name the highest level of heaven Ōmeyōcān or “place of duality” (Sahagún specifically terms it “in ōmeyōcān in chiucnāuhnepaniuhcān” or “the place of duality, above the nine-tiered heavens).” In the Histoyre du Mechique, Franciscan priest André Thevet translated a Nahuatl source reporting that in this layer of heaven there existed “a god named Ometecuhtli, which means two-gods, and one of them was a goddess.” There is some evidence that these two gods were considered aspects of a single being, as when a singer in the Cantares Mexicanos asks where he can go given that “ōme ihcac yehhuān Dios” (“they, God, stand double”). The Historia de los Mexicanos por sus pinturas reports of the two that “se criaron y estuvieron siempre en el treceno cielo, de cuyo principio no se supo jamás, sino de su estada y creación, que fue en el treceno cielo” (they were raised and had always been in the thirteenth heaven; nothing was ever known of their beginning, just their dwelling and creation, which were in the thirteenth heaven). As a result of these references, many scholars (most notably Miguel León-Portilla) interpret the rare name ōmeteōtl as “Dual God” or “Lord of the Duality”. León-Portilla further argues that Ōmeteōtl was the supreme creator deity of the Aztecs, and that the Aztecs envisioned this deity as a mystical entity with a dual nature.” ref
“In Aztec mythology, Tonacatecuhtli (celestial sky god) was a creator and fertility god, worshipped for populating the earth and making it fruitful. Most Colonial-era manuscripts equate him with Ōmetēcuhtli. His consort was Tonacacihuatl. Tōnacātēcuhtli was the Central Mexican form of the aged creator god common to Mesoamerican religion.” ref
“In Aztec mythology, Tōnacācihuātl was a creator and goddess of fertility, worshiped for peopling the earth and making it fruitful. Most Colonial-era manuscripts equate her with Ōmecihuātl. Tōnacācihuātl was the consort of Tōnacātēcuhtli. She is also referred to as Ilhuicacihuātl or “Heavenly Lady.” Tōnacācihuātl was the Central Mexican form of the creator goddess common to Mesoamerican religions. n the Florentine Codex, Sahagún relates that Aztec midwives would tell newborns after bathing them, “You were created in the place of duality, the place above the nine heavens. Your mother and father—Ōmetēuctli and Ōmecihuātl, the heavenly lady—formed you, created you.” Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, or Tonacatecuhtli and Tonacacihuatl govern the divine nature divided into two gods (it is convenient to know man and woman; the man, who created and governed everything that is of the masculine gender and the woman everything that belonged to the feminine gender).” ref
“Cipactli (Classical Nahuatl: Cipactli “crocodile” or “caiman“) was the first day of the Aztec divinatory count of 13 X 20 days (the tonalpohualli) and Cipactonal “Sign of Cipactli” was considered to have been the first diviner. In Aztec cosmology, the crocodile symbolized the earth floating in the primeval waters. According to one Aztec tradition, Teocipactli “Divine Crocodile” was the name of a survivor of the flood who rescued himself in a canoe and again repopulated the earth. In the Mixtec Vienna Codex (Codex Vindobonensis Mexicanus I), Crocodile is a day associated with dynastic beginnings. In Aztec mythology, Cipactli was a primeval sea monster, part crocodilian, part fish, and part toad or frog. Always hungry, every joint on its body was adorned with an extra mouth. The deity Tezcatlipoca sacrificed a foot when he used it as bait to draw the monster nearer. He and Quetzalcoatl created the earth from its body. Karl A.” ref
“Taube has noted that among the Formative-period Olmec and the pre-Hispanic Maya peoples, crocodilians were identified with rain-bringing wind, probably because of the widespread belief that wind and rain clouds are “breathed” out of cave openings in the earth. A series of Olmec-style basreliefs from Chalcatzingo in the state of Morelos portrays crocodilians breathing rain clouds from their upturned mouths. Portable green stone Olmec sculptures depict crocodilians in similar positions, indicating that they are probably also breathing. In the Maya tzolk’in, the day Cipactli corresponds to Imix. In the Mayan Popol Vuh, the name of the earthquake demon, Zipacna, apparently derives from Cipactli. Sipakna is the demon Sipak of 20th century Highland Maya oral tradition. In Migian, Cipactli is Quanai. In other versions, Cipactli is called Tlaltecuhtli, a deity referred to as the “earth monster.” ref
“According to Aztec folklore, in the beginning was the void. It was at some ancient time in the Aztec creation story that the dual god, Ometecuhtli/Omecihuatl, created itself. This god was good and bad, chaos and order, male and female. Being male and female, it was able to reproduce with itself. It had four children, which came to represent the four directions of north, south, east and west. The gods were Huizilopochtli (south), Quetzalcoatl (east), Tezcatlipoca (west), and Xipe Totec (north). The directions were very important to the Aztecs, since their empire was believed to be at the very center of the universe. The four gods created water and other gods, as well as the sea monster Cipactli. Cipactli was a massive creature of indefinite gender and it was said to be part fish and part crocodile. It became the source of the cosmos in a very odd way. As the gods continued to create, they had a problem; their creations would fall into the water and be eaten alive by the bloodthirsty Cipactli.” ref
“The four gods attacked the sea monster, pulling it in four directions. Cipactli fought back, biting Tezcatlipoca and tearing off his foot. However, Cipactli was eventually destroyed. From this enormous creature the universe was created. All the thirteen heavens of Aztec religion stretch into its head, the earth was created in the middle, while its tail reaches down to the nine underworlds (Mictlán). To conclude, one could say that according to the Aztec creation story the world is on the back of this mythical sea monster, floating in the water of space, just like the newly discovered stones are ‘floating’ on the water’s surface. Archaeologist Iris del Rocio Hernandez Bautist, also pointed out that according to Mesoamerican folklore and religion, the world was devoid of any land. She notes that Cipactli floated on the primitive waters and from the monster’s body the sky and the earth were created. She suggests that there was a ritualized command of the water coming from nearby springs to irrigate the pond in order to create a visual effect in which it seemed that the structure and the hills of stone floated on the water mirror, which in turn reflected the surrounding passage. “These visual effects, in addition to the characteristics of the elements that make up the site and the relationship they have with each other, make us suppose that Nahualac could represent a microcosm that evokes the primitive waters and the beginning of the mythical time-space.” ref
Incan Dual Gendered Primordial Being Viracocha: “The Incas, like many of their Andean predecessors, viewed the cosmos in a way that emphasized what they saw as the duality of nature. The Incan people believed that the god Viracocha was the creator of all things. Viracocha was hermaphroditic in nature, being first male and then female. Stemming from Viracocha were the Sun, or the male principle, and the Moon, the female principle. These two were siblings as well as spouses and gave life to the other gods and goddesses as well as to man and woman (Cobo 1990). From the Sun extended Venus Morning, Lord Earth, and Man. From the Moon extended Venus Evening, Mother Sea, and Woman.” ref
“Inca mythology of the Inca Empire was based on pre-Inca beliefs. The Andean people (and the Incas) had a dualistic view of the cosmos. One of the most important figures in pre-Inca Andean beliefs was the creator deity Viracocha. During Inca times, Viracocha remained significant – he was seen as the creator of all things, or the substance from which all things are created, and intimately associated with the sea. One of the most important figures in pre-Inca Andean beliefs is the creator deity Viracocha, who even during Inca times was one of the most important deities in the Inca pantheon and seen as the creator of all things, or the substance from which all things are created, and intimately associated with the sea. In pre-Incan Andean iconography Viracocha takes the form of a Staff God, characterized by front-facing figures holding vertical objects which are referred to as “staffs”. As the chief deity, Viracocha was the creator god and served as the primary religious icon of the entire Peruvian Andes, particularly during the Early Horizon (900-200 BCE) onwards.” ref
“In “Southern Andean Iconographic Series” the Staff God pose is a religious icon and a standardized pose reminiscent in its way of the standardized poses in Byzantine art. The pose shows a front-facing human or human-like figure with vertical attributes, one in each hand. There is no uniform representation of a “Staff God”. Dozens of variations of “Staff Gods” exist. Some scholars think that some of these personages are possible depictions of Viracocha or Thunupa (the Aymara weather god). However, there is little evidence to support the idea that these front-facing figures do represent deities. The oldest known depiction of a Staff God was found in in a burial site in the Pativilca River Valley (Norte Chico region) and carbon dated to 2250 BCE. This makes it the oldest religious icon to be found in the Americas.” ref
“The staff god was a basic iconography shared by the cultures of pre-Columbian Peru, particularly those occupying the northern coast and the southern highlands. This is seen in the stylistic uniformity of the icons and representations, which suggested widespread adherence. There were varying depictions of the Staff-God among these Andean cultures. However, it was often portrayed as a deity in apotheosis, with hands always holding instruments of power. For instance, an artifact found at Chavin de Huantar showed the deity holding a Spondylus and Strombus shells, which were female and male symbols, respectively. This representation indicated how the Staff-God wielded authority to maintain social harmony and the Andean ideal of gender complementarity.” ref
“Viracocha is the creator and supreme deity in the pre-Inca and Inca mythology in the Andes region of South America. According to the myth Viracocha had human appearance and was generally considered as bearded (possibly relating to a foam-beard of the sea or lake). Viracocha’s many epithets include great, all knowing, powerful, etc. Other designations are “the creator”, Viracochan Pachayachicachan, Viracocha Pachayachachi or Pachayachachic (“teacher of the world”). Similarly to the Incan god Viracocha, the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl and several other deities from Central and South American pantheons, like the Muisca god Bochica are described in legends as being bearded. While descriptions of Viracocha’s physical appearance are open to interpretation, men with beards were frequently depicted by the Peruvian Moche culture in its famous pottery, long before the arrival of the Spanish. He was sometimes represented as an old man wearing a beard (a symbol of water gods) and a long robe and carrying a staff.” ref, ref
“The Inca believed in a supreme deity called Viracocha, was neither male nor female.” ref
“Viracocha rose from Lake Titicaca (or sometimes the cave of Paqariq Tampu) during the time of darkness to bring forth light, making the sun, moon, and the stars. He was believed to have created the sun and moon on Lake Titicaca. Viracocha created these heavenly bodies were created from islands in Lake Titicaca. Thus, it can be thought that Viracocha embodies the Andean belief in yanantin (complementary opposites, such as male/female, light/dark, upper/lower), embodies duality by bridging celestial and terrestrial realms. Because the relationship of opposites as a harmonious partnership yanantin is considered the primary organizing principle of creation. The concept of yanantin is integrated into Andean spatial organization, such as at Lake Titicaca and Pachacamac, linking the Upper World (Hanan) and Lower World (Hurin).” ref, ref, ref, ref, ref
“Yanantin is one of the defining characteristics of native Andean thought and exemplifies Andean adherence to a philosophical model based in what is often referred to as a “dualism of complementary terms” or, simply, a “complementary dualism”. Much like in Chinese Taoism, Andean philosophy views the opposites of existence (such as male/female, dark/light, inner/outer) as interdependent and essential parts of a harmonious whole. Because existence itself is believed to be dependent upon the tension and balanced interchange between the polarities, there is a very definite ideological and practical commitment within indigenous Andean life to bringing the seemingly conflicting opposites into harmony with one another without destroying or altering either one. Among the indigenous people of Peru and Bolivia, the union of opposing yet interdependent energies is called yanantin or “complementary opposites.” Because the relationship of opposites as a harmonious partnership is considered the primary organizing principle of creation, yanantin infuses all aspects of social and spiritual life within the indigenous Andean worldview. In the Quechua language, the prefix yana- means ”help,” while its suffix -ntin means “inclusive in nature, with implications of totality, spatial inclusion of one thing in another, or identification of two elements as members of the same category”. Put together, yanantin has been translated as “the complement of difference.” However, according to some Andeans: Yanantin doesn’t focus on the differences between two beings. That is what disconnects them. Instead, we focus on the qualities that brought them together. That is yanantin. To some Andeans they don’t really see the differencesthus why they see them as not necessarily opposed, but as complementary. One on its own can’t hold everything, can’t take care of everything. Not only are they great together, but they need to be together. There is no other way.” ref
“West African: The celestial creator deity of Dahomean religion is Mawu-Lisa, formed by a merger of the twin brother and sister gods Lisa (the moon) and Mawa (the sun). In combined form, they presented as intersex or transgender (with changing gender). Other androgynous gods include Nana Buluku, the “Great mother” that gave birth to Lisa and Mawu and created the universe, and contains both male and female essences. The Akan people of Ghana have a pantheon of gods that includes personifications of the planets. These personifications manifest as androgynous or transgender deities, and include Abrao (Jupiter), Aku (Mercury), and Awo (Moon). Possession by spirits is an integral part of Yoruba and other African religions. The possessed are usually women, but can also be men, and both genders are regarded as the “bride” of the deity while possessed. The mythology of the Shona people of Zimbabwe is ruled over by an androgynous creator god called Mwari, who occasionally splits into separate male and female aspects.” ref
“Mawu-Lisa (alternately: Mahu) is a creator goddess, associated with the Sun and Moon in Gbe mythology and West African Vodun. Mawu and Lisa are divine; put together they are an agender god. Mawu (Mahu, Mau) and Lisa are the children of Nana Buluku, and are the parents of Oba Koso (Shango), known as Hebioso among the Fon. According to myth, Mawu is the sole creator of human beings from clay, while her husband Lisa was instructed by her to teach humans how to build civilization. As the myth goes, after creating the Earth and all life and everything else on it, Mawu became concerned that it might be too heavy, so she asked the primeval serpent, Aido Hwedo, to curl up beneath the earth and thrust it up in the sky.” ref
“The Fon people, are the largest ethnic group in Benin Republic, a country in West Africa and their language is a branch of the Niger–Congo languages. The traditional Fon religion is regionally called Vodoun, Vodzu or Vodu, which is etymologically linked to Vodun – a term that refers to their theological concept of “numerous immortal spirits and deities”. Nana Buluku, also known as Nana Buruku, Nana Buku or Nanan-bouclou, is the female supreme being in the West African traditional religion of the Fon people (Benin, Dahomey) and the Ewe people (Togo) as well as she is called the Nana Bukuu among the Yoruba people and the Olisabuluwa among Igbo people, , who gave birth to the Mawu-Lisa the secondary creator (Moon-Sun, female-male) deities, spirits and inert universe. In Fon belief, the feminine deity Mawu had to work with trickster Legba and the cosmic serpent Aido Hwedo (known as the “Rainbow Serpent“) to create living beings, a method of creation that imbued the good, the bad and a destiny for every creature including human beings.” ref, ref
“Ayida-Weddo, “sky mother,” a powerful loa (loa/lwa are deities venerated in the traditional religions of West Africa, especially those of the Fon and Yoruba. Many lwa are also understood to live under the water, at the bottom of the sea or in rivers.) spirit in Vodou, revered in regions across Africa and the Caribbean, namely in Benin, Suriname and Haiti. Vodou teaches that a loa/lwa can possess an individual regardless of gender; both male and female lwa can possess either men or women. In some instances a succession of lwa possess the same individual, one after the other. The person being possessed is referred to as the chwal, then takes on the behavior and expressions of the possessing lwa. Alongside Damballa, Ayida-Weddo is regarded among the most ancient and significant loa. Considered in many sources as the female half of Damballa’s twin spirit, the names Da Ayida Hwedo, Dan Ayida Hwedo, and Dan Aida Wedo have also been used to refer to her. Thought to have existed before the Earth, Ayida-Weddo assisted the creator goddess Mawu-Lisa in the formation of the world, and is responsible for holding together the Earth and heavens. In many stories, she is married to Damballa (portrayed as a great white or black serpent or be depicted as a rainbow). As his inseparable companion, she shares him with his concubine, Erzulie Freda. In others, she is one with Damballa: a single entity sharing a dual spirit. As his female aspect, together they represent dynamism, life, creation, and the intertwined harmony of male and female, earth and heaven, and body and spirit. Ayida-Weddo is symbolized by the rainbow, snake, thunderbolt, and white paquet congo. When represented in art, she is often depicted as a serpent consuming its own tail. In veves, she is invariably portrayed alongside Damballa as one of two dancing or intertwined serpents. Damballa is said to be the sky father and the primordial creator of all life, or the first thing created by the Bondye. In those Vodou societies that view Damballa as the primordial creator.” ref, ref, ref
“The indigenous population of Australia have a shamanistic religion, which includes a pantheon of gods. The Rainbow Serpent of the Wunambal known as Ungud has been described as androgynous or transgender. Clever men identify their erect penises with Ungud and his androgyny inspires some to undergo ceremonial subincision of the penis. Angamunggi is another transgender rainbow-serpent god, worshipped as a “giver of life”. Other Australian mythological beings include Labarindja, blue-skinned wild women or “demon women” with hair the color of smoke. Stories about them show them to be completely uninterested in romance or sex with men, and any man forcing his attention upon them could die, due to the “evil magic in their vaginas”. They are sometimes depicted as gynandrous or intersex, having both a penis and a vagina. This is represented in ritual by having their part played by men in women’s clothes.” ref
“The spirits, deities, and epic characters have the ability to transform not only their appearance (taking at will the appearance of animals, fish, reptiles, and insects) but also their sex, playing, as a result, different gender roles. Sometimes the same spirits can come to a person in the form of either a woman or a man. The concept of “soul” has a special place in Siberian peoples’ perception of the universe. Men and women may have diferent numbers of souls: the northern Khanty and Mansi believe that men have fve of them and women four. The Ket who originated from the southern tip of Lake Baikal (Yeniseian-speaking people part of the proposed Dene–Yeniseian language family “related with Na-Dene languages of Western North America,” Ket are mostly to Y-DNA haplogroup Q-M242, linked to Paleo-Inuit groups) believe in seven souls, unlike animals, who had only one. The seventh human soul was immortal and thought to return in the body of a child born soon after the person’s death. This endless process of reincarnation continued humanity. The Selkup people believe in seven souls, which together make up a complex of essential elements (breath, life spirit, the human soul, wisdom, man’s soul, the vital force, and the soul shadow). A plurality of souls can also be noted in Paleo-Asiatic cultures. “The Nivkh consider that a person possesses three souls: one main and two shadows (akin to assistants). Other models have been noted, according to which an ordinary person has one soul, a rich person has two, and a shaman four. A complex system of beliefs about the soul that cannot be reduced—at least in academic observations—to a simple and categorical model exists among the Turkic-speaking peoples of South Siberia. At least four relevant substances have been evident: tyn (literally “breath”); kut/hut, which is the embryo that gives rise to human existence and, at the same time, the life force that provides this existence; jula/ˇ cula, which is the name for kut once it has been released from the body as well as the counterpart of the shaman and his or her assistant; and sür, a materialized human counterpart that, like kut and jula, can be separated from the person a few years before death. After death the sür becomes a payana (spirit), from which the person has received kut for his or her earthly existence. Another large group consists of terms associated with the moment of a person’s death or the postmortem existence of certain substances or counterparts. This category refers above all to süne or sürün—a counterpart whose existence always starts at the moment of a person’s death. Afer burial the süne or sürün goes away to the country of the dead, üzüt-jer. An üzüt is a dead person. When a shaman reaches the land of üzüts, he or she has to destroy the üzüts’ camp; a violation of this rule and consenting to sip the wine of üzüts would lead to disaster. It is hard to determine whether üzüt is one of the incarnations of the spirituality of humans or just a symbol of a dead person. Moreover, whether üzüt is a fnal stage of transformation of the human kut remains unclear. Finally, many peoples of Siberia maintain beliefs in the existence of a place to store embryos (e.g., in the branches of a tree), which at the request of parents and/or by the action of certain spirits or deities can be inserted into the womb of the future mother.” ref, ref, ref, ref
“Shamanic behavior necessitates a broadening of the notion of gender to be more fluid and dynamic, to include not only male and female but also various mediating identities. Czaplicka, for example, notes that Siberian shamans are a “third class,” separate from males and females, and Saladin D’Anglure proposes a “ternary” model for Inuit shamans wherein shamans are “in between” persons (by persuasion or initiation) who embody a “third gender” due to their ability to mediate. The “third gender” status of Inuit shamans is part of wider gender concepts: children are understood to have decided which gender to be before or at birth, their genitalia adapting to their decision. Other children are given the name of a deceased relative of the opposite gender, performing that gender identity for the time that they hold the name.” ref
“Third gender” (shamans in other instances may have a fourth or even multiple gender identity) overlaps in some examples with homosexuality, with the marriage of some shamans to same-sex “spirit” partners involving, in some examples, homosexual marriages in the “ordinary world.” Shamans’ costumes may combine features peculiar to the dress of both men and women. Early explorers assumed biological males dressed in women’s clothing (some of whom were shamans) were transvestites, and the pejorative French term berdache (“male prostitute,” “transvestite”) entered anthropological literature. The more sensitive “two-spirit” as proposed by Native Americans in the 1990s, referring to the individual having two spirits, although “changing ones” more successfully avoids reproducing a Western binary opposition. ” ref
Nonhuman Spirit Sexual Relations?
“Cross-dressing may indicate shamans’ difference from the rest of the community or show that they have formed an intimate, sexual, and/or marital relationship with a nonhuman person of the same gender. Transvestitism may be temporary, a part of specific performances, or permanent as a sign of a distinctive everyday identity. Shamans may undertake marriage to non-human persons of the same gender as themselves, and, for example, a female shaman may sometimes be “male” in relation to a spirit wife: a Sora shaman of the Indian subcontinent marries a man and the “spirit son” of her predecessor, who is her own aunt. The tightly bound relationship between shamans and their other-world helpers, especially those with whom they form sexual and/or marital relationships, may mean that secrets are kept, and the revealing of such secrets may lead to the withdrawal of assistance from a nonhuman helper, thus compromising the shaman’s ability to shamanize. Sex has been theorized as key to understanding shamanism by Roberte Hamayon, who attends to shamans, sex, and gender in Siberian shamanism. She argues that shamanic séances among the Evenk and Buryats are “sexual encounters” in themselves. She views the “marriage” between shamans and their non-human helpers as more significant in understanding what these shamans do than the “ecstasy,” “mastery of spirits,” “altered states,” or “journeying” emphasized by other scholars.” ref
Sexual Identity and Gendered Behavior of Chilean Mapuche Shamans
“The machi (Mapuche shamans), their gendered practices and their use of a unique tree in ritual transvestitism. A person’s gender and sexual identity are not as fixed as has been assumed, and can play out quite differently in various social as well as ritual contexts, with the connection between gendered social relationships, altered states of consciousness, and shamanic performances. The non-ideological practices of female machi contribute to current discussions of power and resistance, agency and structure, and the practice of power itself. Hierarchical gendered relationships with spirits, deities, and animals, expressed through spiritual kinship, marriage, and mastery, also reflect historical ethnic and national relationships between the Mapuche in Chile.” ref
“These intersections are encountered by a wide range of indigenous communities,” she says, “and strongly influence their traditional beliefs of spiritual healing. The machi, most of whom are women and partially-transvestite men, have been widely misread by anthropologists and shunned by the Chilean majority because of biases toward their spiritual practices, which challenge the exclusiveness of gender and sexual identity. The Mapuche communities see machi practice as both sacred and gender deviant, and machi themselves have reacted to Chilean national and Mapuche prejudices against gender variance by shrouding their shifting gender identities and sexualities in silence.” ref
“Like most shamans, the machi use such tools as out-of-body experiences induced by rhythmic drumming, dream interpretation, music, spirit embodiment, and plant-based medicines to exorcize evil spirits; heal physical, psychological, and social illnesses; and generally restore the cosmic order. The foye tree, whose bark and leaves are transformed into potent medicines by the machi, is the Mapuche’s sacred tree of life, believed to connect the natural, human, and spirit worlds, and allow machi to participate in the forces that permeate the cosmos. The masculine and feminine aspects of the foye tree and its white, hermaphroditic flowers reflect the shifting ritual identities of the machi.” ref
“And that machi complicate notions of personhood and sexuality in various ways. In ritual, male and female machi wear women’s shawls and scarves, and shift from and between masculine, feminine, and co-gender identities that combine masculine and feminine gender polarities. This marks them as different from ordinary women and men, and Bacigalupo notes that the spirits are interested in machi’s gendered discourses and performances, not in the sex under the machi’s clothes. The Mapuche believe that their ritual gender identities, determined by spirits, may, in some cases, result in sexual variance among machi. In their everyday and political lives, machi assume the gender identities of women or men as defined and determined by dominant Chilean culture.” ref
“Male and female machi must negotiate the gendered expectations of the spirits and the more biologically oriented hegemonic discourses of Chilean society in which sex is “naturally” associated with gender (i.e., femininity and masculinity), and male sexuality is determined by who penetrates whom. Although it would appear that these different gender and sexual referents would be the source of much conflict, their juggling of different genders and sexual identities adds an important dimension to the ways in which national and Mapuche discourses conflict, overlap, are transformed, and are appropriated. Male machi must reconcile their ritual co-gendered identities, partial transvestism, and special sexualities with the need to masculinize their roles in their everyday lives, and this includes negotiating with the Chilean national homophobic notions.” ref
Gender Fluidity and Shamanism in the Spanish Philippines
“The history of the babaylanes, or shamans, of the Philippines has been fairly well-documented in scholarly and public literature. What has not been as carefully examined are records of the gender-bending, feminine shamans (bayog, asog) in seventeenth-century Philippines.’ The anthropological consensus surrounding them is that these shamans are subservient to female shamans and that they appropriate femininity, which is seen as the source of shamanistic power. These narratives are too simplistic to view bayogs/asogs as men in women’s clothes who ‘appropriate’ feminine spiritual power, that their femininity can be equally valid, and the spiritual power of all the shamans is manifest in both ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ behaviors. The relationship between gender fluidity and religious power among shamans in Southeast Asia has been well-documented by anthropologists. As the argument goes, people who occupy the liminal space between the two genders have historically been accorded special religious and ritualistic powers and responsibilities. However, nuances vary by location. In the Philippines, for instance, some have argued that although there are many accounts of ‘effeminate men’ who play the role of ‘shaman’ and are mostly referred to in various sources as bayog (Tagalog) or asog (Visayan), they were the exception to the rule. The shaman role is predominantly held by women. One must interpret these ‘men’ as only able to access shamanistic powers insofar as they access femininity.” ref
“This argument is advanced most strongly by Carolyn Brewer, a feminist historian whose crucial book on gender, shamanism, and Catholicism begins from when the first Spaniard descends on the shores, 1521 until 1685. That precolonial Philippines practiced religions led by feminine people, and the Spaniards reversed this, introducing a religious system in which Spanish men ruled. In this argument, she singles out the bayog/asog as ‘men’ who adopted femininity to access power within animist religious contexts, and then dropped it to access power in the church. It is impossible to know how internalized ‘womanhood’ or ‘femininity’ is to bayog/asog in the seventeenth century, but referring to them as men is not a neutral stance. Instead, it reflects a particular stance, one that takes the sex anatomy of the bayog/asog as their most salient gender-marker. In Brewer’s eyes, the performance of femininity was a practical choice, one that gave ‘the male shaman status and authority in a sphere that would have been denied to him.’ Brewer allows no possibility of any feminine subjectivity by bayogs or asogs.” ref
“In her conclusion, she writes, ‘The female/feminine shaman was doubly marginalized by both her femaleness and her femininity, the male shaman who dressed as a woman was doubly advantaged in relation to his maleness and his appropriation of the spiritually powerful feminine.’ Notably, it is only female shamans whom she describes as ‘feminine.’ In contrast, a bayog or asog is described not as feminine but as a ‘male shaman who dressed as a woman’ who employs an ‘appropriation of the spiritually powerful feminine.’ Brewer’s interpretations, along with Garcia’s, clearly analytically privilege ‘sex’ (as defined anatomically) over ‘gender’ (the roles and norms that fall under the labels of masculinity or femininity). What can we discover if we adopt an analytical framework that privileges ‘gender’ over ‘sex’? Might we then take the feminine performance of the ‘male shaman’ as equally deserving of the designation of ‘femininity’? There seems to be a belief that ‘spiritual potency was dependent, not on identification with a neuter ‘third’ sex/gender space,’ but rather on identification with the feminine—whether the biological sex was female or male.’ Brewer points out that while there are effeminate male shamans, there are no recorded instances of ‘masculine women’ who take up the role of shamans. This proves that femininity, not any kind of third-gender status, is what is linked to sacred power.” ref
Contestations of Gender, Shamanism, and Sexuality in Northern Religion, Past and Present
“‘Seidr’ is a term used in this paper to describe certain ‘shamanistic’ practices of Northern Europe, mentioned in the Icelandic Sagas. Today, seidr practices are reappearing as ‘neo-shamanism’ in areas of Europe and North America. Both today and in the past, seidr is often thought of as ‘women’s magic’, although it is also practiced by men. In this article, seidr and other ‘shamanisms’ are viewed as dynamic, specific practices framed by community and cosmology, with potential for empowerment and resistance. We examine some accounts of men as sei workers, from ‘saga times’ and from present-day seidmen in North America and Europe, to investigate contestations of gender and sexuality that are implicit in the practice of seidr. The term ‘ergi’, applied as an insult to seidmen and often understood with reference to sexuality, may more reasonably be interpreted as a stock insult based on fear: some seidmen are now reclaiming it to describe their construction of self. Within ‘postmodern’ society, male seidr practitioners may resist conventional definitions of masculinity, thereby creating changes within themselves and their communities.” ref
Norse: “Some Old Norse deities are attested as changing their shape at will, turning into animals or otherwise disguising themselves. For example, the god Loki is attested as disgusing himself as a woman. In Gylfaginning, he transforms himself into a mare and, after being chased all night by a stallion Svaðilfari, he gives birth to Sleipnir, an eight-legged foal. Norwegian archaeologist Brit Solli suggests that Odin may have been connected to a shamanistic cult that viewed gender transgression as a source of power.” ref
“It is curious to see that male gods such as Odin, Thor, and Freyr have accounts where they identify themselves or are forced to become women to contact a goddess figure.” ref
“Loki, a Norse god, also called the trickster god, would many times disguise himself as a woman. Some myths said that Loki was bisexual. Loki was an accomplished shape-shifter and, according to legend, has also appeared as a salmon, a mare, a fly, and of course, a woman.” ref
“Hapi (Ancient Egyptian: ḥꜥpj) (also spelled Hapy) was the god of the annual flooding of the Nile in ancient Egyptian religion. Hapi is typically depicted as an androgynous figure with a prominent belly and large drooping breasts, wearing a loincloth and ceremonial false beard.” ref
“A ceremonial false beard, or postiche, symbol of pharaonic power, divinity, and legitimacy was Worn by the female pharaohs Hatshepsut. Hatshepsut (1505–1458 BCE) was the sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, ruling first as regent, then as queen regnant from 1479 BCE until 1458 BCE. The extant artifacts of the statuary provide archaeological evidence of Hatshepsut’s portrayals of herself as a male pharaoh, with physically masculine traits and traditionally male Ancient Egyptian garb, such as a false beard and ram’s horns. These images are seen as symbolic, and not evidence of cross-dressing or androgyny.” ref
“In the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi of Welsh mythology, Gwydion helps his brother Gilfaethwy rape Goewin, Math‘s female servant. When Math hears of this, he turns his nephews into a series of mated pairs of animals; Gwydion becomes a stag for a year, then a sow, and finally a wolf. Gilfaethwy becomes a hind, a wild boar, and a she-wolf. Each year they must mate and produce an offspring which is sent to Math: Hyddwn, Hychddwn and Bleiddwn; after three years Math releases his nephews from their punishment.” ref
“Siberia, which is considered here to comprise the whole of North Asia, including its northeast and far east, is a territory traditionally inhabited by several dozen indigenous ethnic groups. Water is present in the vast majority of recorded cosmogonical mythological stories. Water is the primary global ocean, from the bottom of which a bird (a duck, loon, swallow, or swan) pulls up the earth, gradually increasing the earth’s size (this story is present among almost all of the peoples of Siberia). Often it is not one but two birds, only one of which meets the challenge while the other is unable to face it. These birds can be associated (e.g., among the Khakass people) with the supreme good and evil deities. The association of a bird, pulling up the earth (or organizing the process of bringing it up from the bottom of the sea), with the celestial deity is characteristic of the Turkic-speaking peoples of Siberia.” ref
“According to the Altai myth: When there was no heaven, no earth, but the bottomless sea all around, one Ulgen futtered and flied above it. He stretched out his wings like a bat and did not know where to land. Then he caught sight of a stone. He sat on it and started creating. Suddenly, Aq ene—white mother—came out of the water. She taught him. Thus, Ulgen created the earth, and then created the heaven. He placed the earth on three fish. The gathering of the earth may not be the act of a bird alone. There exists a mythological story among the Evenki according to which: In the beginning there was no middle world. There was water all around. A man had nowhere to live. The mammoth sheli decided to help a man: it immersed its “horns” into the water and took with them so much nyangnya (mud) out of the water, that it was enough for all the people. The snake dyabdar helped the mammoth to even out the lumps of earth taken out from the bottom.” ref
“Where dyabdar crawled with its long body rivers started flowing, where the land remained uneven mountains formed, where the mammoth rested and walked deep basins (lakes) were left. The mammoth as an important character of the creation of the terrestrial relief is also known to other northern peoples (e.g., Dolgan and Nenets). The motif of diving under water and taking out earth is not unique. The creation of the world out of an egg is also known. According to the Tofalars: “In the beginning there was nothing. The first duck was flying solely. It landed and laid an egg. The egg hatched. The liquid from her egg poured out and turned into a lake. Its shell turned it into the earth. So, the earth was created.” The Nganasan people have a particular record of creation, according to which “when the earth was being created,” it was all covered with pure ice, like with bark. A white man lived in a rawhide tent in the middle of the ice, and he married the Mother of Life.” ref
“He produced vegetation, which gradually covered the ice and formed tundra. Meanwhile, the deer of the earth struggled with winged deer, which sought to destroy the earth. An analog of this story was found in southern Mansi mythology, in which Kalm (a spirit-messenger) on the orders of Numi-Torum (a deity) strikes a “bark-covered earth-mother” three times with a “live snake-whip” in order for a surface suitable for human life to appear. A number of indigenous groups, particularly in the far north and the far east (e.g., Asian Yupiks, Chukotka, and Koryaks), have no records of holistic cosmogonic myths; however, beliefs about a creator or deities appear everywhere, and such divinities are said (with the help of birds) to create light, then create people, animals, and birds, and to teach people to multiply, sew clothes, and make fire. The world is not seen as perfect in these stories. Laying riverbeds and roads, creating mountains, building bridges across rivers, and fighting with the original evil forces are all associated with cultural heroes, appearing in the image of a person (e.g., Sartaqpay in the Altai) or a bird (e.g., a raven named Kurkyl, Kutkh, or Kutkynyaku among the Chukotka, Kereks, Koryaks, and Itelmens).” ref
“Nor is the world seen as eternal. Tere exist widely known eschatological myths, according to which the earth and all life on it are going to face a food or in which the food has already happened. People (righteous men and/or deities) survived after the food and re-created the earth and all living things (as believed by, e.g., the Altai people). According to some beliefs, the universe is associated with a living being and identified with images of animals. A good illustration of this is a drawing by Savely Hatunka, an Oroch shaman, depicting the universe. A hornless moose, embodying the middle world of the universe, is placed in the center of the drawing; in the lower right corner of the drawing there is a bear—the master of the animals. The mouth of the river, which leads to the upper world, links to the rump of another moose. The head of this river rests on the upper earth of the universe. A salmon, symbolizing the island of Sakhalin, is drawn to the east of the middle earth. The most common scholarly understanding of indigenous views of the world involves a tripartite structure that is believed to be inherent in almost all nonindustrial cultures, in particular in those where shamanism is present. Tere must exist the upper, middle, and lower worlds, connected by an axis (this may be the world tree and/or the world mountain), with an almost mandatory habitation of heaven by the supreme deity and other good deities, the middle earth by people, and the underworld by the evil deity and its assistants as well as the “souls” of dead people. Into this standard description fall the cosmologies of the majority of the peoples of Siberia.” ref
“A typical example is the belief of the Khakas people, according to which the universe is divided vertically into three worlds. The upper one, chayan chiri, is located in heaven and is the home of nine creators (chayans), whose head is Chalbyros-Chayachy. The creators represent a good beginning. They created the earth, vegetation, a man, and cattle. The Khakas put an emphasis on the goddess Umai: she dwells among the heavenly white clouds and is invisible to the common people. It is in her “temple” of Mount Ymay-tas (or Amay) that baby soul-embryos are kept. The lower world, aina chiri, is ruled by seven underground deities (irliks), whose head is Irlik-Khan or Chinges-Khan. They represent evil and are the creators of creeping reptiles, insects, mountains, diseases, and shamans. The middle world (kÿnnig chir) is inhabited by people. This worldview has many local variants, sometimes considerably differing from each other not only between different territorial groups of the same ethnicity but also between different shamans within a group. Some Tuvan shamans believe that there are three worlds of the universe (the upper, lower/earth, and underground), while others believe in only two (the upper and lower/earth); furthermore, according to some shamans the land of the dead is in the underworld, while others believe that it is located on the edge of the earthly world, in the far north.” ref
“An image of the world in a horizontal plane is characteristic of those Siberian groups that are settled along the banks of major rivers that generally flow from south to north. For example, the Khanty believe that the upper world is the southern part of the world, from where the Ob River originates, and that the lower world is the part of the world somewhere in the northwest, near the sea, to which the Ob River flows. At the same time the sunset side—where the spirits of diseases come from—is also considered to be the lower world. This side is opposed by the south and east, where light, warmth, and health come from. However, the same Khanty also describe a vertical model of the universe with a division into the upper world (inhabited by deities and ancestors), the middle world (inhabited by people of the second generation of deities and spirits), and the bottom world (where the creatures hostile to people live alongside the souls of the dead). A unique worldview can be found in the beliefs and ritual texts of the Teleuts. According to this people, the universe is divided vertically and horizontally into five worlds. Our earth (pu jer)—in the form of a plate—rests on the backs of four gray bulls and is populated by humans and spirits (yiyq) of the ground, rivers, lakes, and forests.” ref
“The “earthly way” (jer joly), extending between the horizon and the real earth, surrounds this land in a wide ring. In the east and south of this land live a few tens of spirits (payana), who are generally sympathetic toward humans. The real earth and the “earthly way” are covered from above by the heavenly sphere (temir qapqaq—an iron cover). Far to the east of the earth, “beyond the empty space,” there are two lands of truth (ˇ cyn jer), on which live the mighty deities Adam (Ada-kiži) and Jöö-Qaan. Adam is considered a particularly powerful deity who is not only able to give a baby to a childless couple but also to create heavenly deities at his own wish. The heavenly world for this group consists of sixteen spheres or layers, on each of which, except the first two, live one or another deity whom Teleuts designate by the general term ulgen. However, Ulgen (Pai Ÿlgen) is also a proper name. “Mother Pai Ulgen” is at the top of the universe, but at the same time is not considered very strong and powerful in comparison with other ulgens. Ulgens are considered to be the patrons of particular Teleut clans.” ref
“The underground area, the so-called lower world, the land of evil (t’er-alys), or “hell” (Taamy), is known the least of all. It consists of nine layers under the ground. To designate the inhabitants of this land, Teleuts use the collective names such as körmös, edü, and aina as well as proper names. These worlds are believed to have been interpenetrated by spirits and deities as well as by hamans and their helpers, various ritual specialists (exorcists, those who see, those who hear, etc.), storytellers, and also ordinary people, who can sometimes reach the otherworld. The path that connects the worlds of the universe is usually imagined quite clearly in the form of a hitching post, a ladder, or a tree with notches (“steps”); it can also be seen as the tree of life or a mountain. The door leading into the mountain is believed to have served as the entry point into the otherworld—a special world of mountain people. After rising to the top of the mountain, one could find oneself in groves of paradise, but also, oddly enough, in the underworld. A striking image of the world tree, the tree of life, is known in the cosmology of the Yakuts.” ref
“This tree, aal luuk maas, sprouted through all the heavens and its roots went through the ground, thus connecting all three worlds of the universe. Beliefs about the structure of the universe sometimes exhibit significant differences not only between shamans within the boundaries of one ethnic group but also between storytellers (in spite of the significant closeness of shamans and storytellers in many traditions). The names and functions of the supreme or underground deities and spirits may differ, as may the ideas about the structure of the universe, the number of layers of the upper and underground worlds, and ways for a human to enter them and come back.” ref
“There is also the question of the correlation between the traditional ideas about the world held by shamans, storytellers, and lay people, but this issue has not been properly studied in relation to Siberian materials. It is known, for example, that most of the Altai people cannot name the deities of the upper world but can talk confidently about the spirit master of Altai and even tell of their own experience of meetings with the reincarnated spirits of one or another area. Information about everyday life and everyday ritual practices collected from many Siberian groups allows us to speak about an extraordinary diversity in ideas about the world, as well as ritual practices in which the (apparent) ease of communication with the otherworld and ignorance of the details of the ritual are the norm rather than the exception.” ref
“As is typical of many peoples, the Ket regarded the sky as a sacred realm and considered the mysterious underworld to be an abode of the dead. Both sky and underworld contained seven layers. Between these stood the tangible world inhabited by humans, which the Ket referred to as ilbang, or ordinary earth, as opposed to the extraordinary realms of the heavens and the underworld. The earth itself was believed to float upon a vast sea, with seven seas surrounding its perimeter on all sides. The underworld was a mysterious place, only fuzzily conceptualized. The sky itself was the abode of Es, the all-powerful male creator deity, who tended to keep aloof from humans on earth. It was assumed that the sky contained rivers and lakes and mountains mirroring those of the earth. The stars and planets were regarded as the roots of heavenly trees. In Ket graphic design, black was the color associated with the land, whereas red symbolized the sky. Domestic dogs or reindeer sacrificed to the earth had dark fur, while those sacrificed to the sky were white.” ref
“The Ket believed that the polar star was anchored to the earth in the precise vicinity of where they camped and roamed by a sort of cosmic umbilical cord. Humans too were believed to have developed their navels from a similar connection with the earth. Legend has it that the first humans created by Es were not subject to death. When one man became old and tired and lost consciousness, Es sent down his son to instruct the Ket to place the body on a platform raised above the ground and leave it undisturbed until it revived. The son mixed everything up and told the people to bury the body in the ground. As punishment, Es turned his son into the first dog, doomed ever after to serve humans and eat the scraps they left behind. As for the people, they began to die and return to the earth. Ket sky burials, on raised wooden platforms, came to be reserved for shamans, while most people were simply buried in the ground. Dead newborns were laid to rest inside a cavity in a tree trunk or stump.” ref
“Burial grounds were traditionally set inland, away from campsites. The Ket had seven souls, unlike animals, who had only one. The seventh human soul was immortal and thought to return in the body of a child born soon after the person’s death. This endless process of reincarnation continued humanity, linking underworld with earth in a temporal-geographic union symbolized by the person’s navel. The navel and umbilical cord were symbolic of the connection between mortal humans or animals and Mother Earth. When a person died, the oldest woman in the family group stripped the leather cords from the deceased’s clothing, reserving them for incorporation into clothing made for the next child born. These strips of reindeer hide symbolized the umbilical connection between the body and its earthly life force, or ulvej, thought to be immortal. Both were renewed and reinvigorated through the earth in the cycle of dying and rebirth. The earth was the source of both life and death for all living beings.” ref
“The cosmic connection between underworld, earth, and sky was also conceptualized in the form of a giant tree. Images of this World Tree appear on the backboard of a woman’s snow sled. Trees in general were regarded as powerful forces. In the Ket language, tree words belong to the masculine noun class, usually reserved for positive, useful, or powerful objects as well as for male humans and animals. Trees were anthropomorphized to some degree and even thought to possess their own language. The crown of branches was the ‘head’. The thinner bark on the south-facing side was referred to as the tree’s ‘stomach’, while the opposite, northfacing bark was called the ‘back’. Trees that grew on higher land, such as the Siberian pine (Pinus sibirica, commonly referred to as ‘cedar’), the larch, and the white birch were the most revered. The alder or aspen, as trees that grew in low swampy areas, were thought to be closer to the underworld and associated with negative forces. Alderwood was called ‘blood wood’ and an alder branch could be used to disperse evil spirits when entering an abandoned dwelling.” ref
“The most beloved and most useful tree was the birch. Its wood and bark, which cannot become waterlogged, provided covering for the qu’s, a type of conical summer tent constructed on a frame of poles. A young birch was cut and stood near the tent as an offering tree upon which were placed scraps of cloth and other small sacrifices. After the camp was broken, this tree was carefully laid away from areas where it might be trampled. Birch branches provided a favorite perch for benevolent spirits. Evil spirits preferred to nestle in spruce and fir. Pinewood (i.e., cedar wood) provided all of the shaman’s wooden attributes as well as most images of the allel, or Ket family guardian spirit doll. These dolls were usually about 6 inches long and clothed in scraps of cloth or fur, with beads for decorations. Allels were carved out of living trees so they would be ‘alive’. “Cedar” wood was also used for coffin planks. In certain key rituals, trees were even transformed into spirits and other beings. An ancient larch growing on high ground near a river was typically chosen as a place for the holai, or ancestor veneration site.” ref
“Preparing this site required fashioning numerous pillars with conical anthropomorphic heads, called dosn. These were regarded as children of the holai, and were leaned against the living larch trunk. The holai ancestor spirit itself was carved in the form of a face into the growing wood of the larch that formed the center of the site. Because its spirit was thought to inhabit the mouth of a river, the holai site with its dosn normally occupied a hill nearby. Offerings of food were brought by successive generations to such a hill and spread before the roots of the larch. Holai sites tended to be located at a distance from the summer encampments and were off limits for hunting. The holai sites of other clans were off limits entirely, especially to women, lest they be spirited away as brides for the dosn. Similarly, before some important undertaking, Allel dolls were ceremonially given food and drink by the women in a family to gain their advice or protection. These objects, invested with cosmic power, watched over the family or clan and protected it from the ill will of alien spirits.” ref
“Kept in a safe place away from the eyes of strangers, these dolls were carefully preserved from loss or wear. New clothing and footwear was fashioned for them periodically, and any damage to them was thought to bring down misfortune onto the family they guarded. Allels were handed down over the generations to each family’s youngest son or newly carved by an older son beginning a family. Other upright objects, such as poles, posts, ships’ masts, and pillars, likewise belonged to the masculine gender. The upward direction represented the sacred sphere of shamanism. The sky was inhabited by sundry esdeng – heavenly spirits capable of coming to the aid of shamans when called. The name of the legendary first shaman, Doh, possibly derives from a homonymous morpheme meaning ‘to fly’. In one Ket version of the cosmos, the Milky Way is referred to as Doh’s trail, Dohara qo’t. Shamans, whose training involved seven stages, each of which lasted three years, were able to fly up into the seven layers of the sky with the assistance of increasingly powerful spirit allies.” ref
“The Ket also practiced a sort of divination in which a spoon would be thrown into the air and a question asked. If the spoon landed face down, toward the underworld, the answer was negative; if it landed face up, toward the open sky, the answer was positive. Family members used their Allel dolls in the same way. The same sort of ritual was also performed using a bear’s paw during the Bear Ceremony when the Ket asked the spirit of the slaughtered bear to reveal its former human identity. Analogically parallel to the vertical axis was an opposition based on the horizontal direction of south to north. Because the Ket had lived so long in the vicinity of the Yenisei River, which flows from the Altai due northward to the Arctic Circle, the direction ‘south’ was conceptualized as upriver, and ‘north’ as downriver. The north was a land of darkness, cold, and death. There was no clear division between it and the underworld. The mysterious downriver portion of the Yenisei and the frozen seas beyond it were inhabited by the evil witch Hosedam, the former wife of Es, who had been thrown down from the sky by Es for committing adultery with the moon.” ref
“At first she lived in the south, where she and her servants, evil spirits called kyns, preyed upon the Ket, sending them all manner of misery and devouring their souls. When the great Ket culture hero Alba drove her northward, he established the course for the Yenisei in the process by breaking through a narrow place in the hills, the scene of today’s Osinov Rapids on the upper course of the Yenisei. The rapids themselves are thought to be the remains of Alba’s elk and reindeer. The relentless Alba pursued Hosedam past the mouth of the Yenisei into the frozen seas of the Arctic, where he burned her up. Unfortunately, the smoke and ashes from her spilt blood generated the endless swarms of biting insects that plague the taiga during the brief period of summer heat. Analogous myths exist among native peoples of the Pacific Northwest of North America. Unfortunately, Hosedam herself regenerated and remains in the north to send afflictions upriver to the Ket in their taiga home. One Ket myth identifies the Milky Way as the path left by Alba in his pursuit of Hosedam. Another tells that Alba dripped blood on his journey south from Hosedam to the land of the Ket. From each drop of blood grew a red lily. The absence of this plant farther south is explained by the fact that the Ket staunched Alba’s wounds as soon as he entered their territory.” ref
Many people think they understand religions or mythology, but have a flat or limited concept, not grasping the true depth or evolution in the world of mythological beings labeled deities or gods and goddesses…
When many people think of Zeus (Chief deity/King of the gods/All-Father/Father of many gods) or even Odin (Chief deity/King of the gods/All-Father/Father of many gods) they think of father or the gods or king of the god/deity motifs. At the same time, there may be a connection to such thinking: in reality, these are actually younger gods in a mythological sense, part of a third generation in a larger genealogical god evolution mythology mindset. Religion and its gods are an evolved product, moved through cultural migrations, and are more related to a larger mythological dynamic that most grasp.
But is Atlantis real?
No. Atlantis (an allegory: “fake story” interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning) can’t be found any more than one can locate the Jolly Green Giant that is said to watch over frozen vegetables. Lol
May Reason Set You Free
There are a lot of truly great things said by anarchists in history, and also some deeply vile things, too, from not supporting Women’s rights to Anti-Semitism. There are those who also reject those supporting women’s rights as well as fight anti-Semitism. This is why I push reason as my only master, not anarchist thinking, though anarchism, to me, should see all humans everywhere as equal in dignity and rights.
We—Cory and Damien—are following the greatness that can be found in anarchist thinking.
As an Anarchist Educator, Damien strives to teach the plain truth. Damien does not support violence as my method to change. Rather, I choose education that builds Enlightenment and Empowerment. I champion Dignity and Equality. We rise by helping each other. What is the price of a tear? What is the cost of a smile? How can we see clearly when others pay the cost of our indifference and fear? We should help people in need. Why is that so hard for some people? Rich Ghouls must End. Damien wants “billionaires” to stop being a thing. Tax then into equality. To Damien, there is no debate, Capitalism is unethical. Moreover, as an Anarchist Educator, Damien knows violence is not the way to inspire lasting positive change. But we are not limited to violence, we have education, one of the most lasting and powerful ways to improve the world. We empower the world by championing Truth and its supporters.
Anarchism and Education
“Various alternatives to education and their problems have been proposed by anarchists which have gone from alternative education systems and environments, self-education, advocacy of youth and children rights, and freethought activism.” ref
“Historical accounts of anarchist educational experiments to explore how their pedagogical practices, organization, and content constituted a radical alternative to mainstream forms of educational provision in different historical periods.” ref
“The Ferrer school was an early 20th century libertarian school inspired by the anarchist pedagogy of Francisco Ferrer. He was a proponent of rationalist, secular education that emphasized reason, dignity, self-reliance, and scientific observation. The Ferrer movement’s philosophy had two distinct tendencies: non-didactic freedom from dogma and the more didactic fostering of counter-hegemonic beliefs. Towards non-didactic freedom from dogma, and fulfilled the child-centered tradition.” ref
Teach Real History: all our lives depend on it.
Damien sees lies about history as crimes against humanity. And we all must help humanity by addressing “any and all” who make harmful lies about history.
Dylan Violette (CopperViolette) (in Maine) and Damien Marie AtHope (in Texas) seek to learn more about the indigenous peoples of the Americas (First Nations/Native Americans) where they both live.
Native Americans in Maine are: collectively known as the Wabanaki or “People of the Dawnland.” Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians (Maliseet/Wolastoqiyik), Miꞌkmaq Nation (concentrated in Northern Maine, specifically Aroostook County), Passamaquoddy Tribe (with communities at Motahkomikuk/Indian Township and Sipayik/Pleasant Point), and Penobscot Nation (headquartered on Indian Island).
Native Americans in Texas: More than 30 organizations claim to represent historic tribes within Texas; however, these groups are unrecognized, meaning they do not meet the minimum criteria of federally recognized tribes and are not state-recognized tribes. There are three federally recognized tribes in Texas, each with their own reservation:
- Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas: Located near Livingston in the Big Thicket area, the reservation is the oldest in Texas.
- Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas: Based in Eagle Pass, the tribe maintains strong cultural ties and resides on a reservation along the Rio Grande on the U.S.-Mexico border.
- Ysleta del Sur Pueblo (Tigua): Located in El Paso, this is one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in Texas, established in 1682.
Before European settlement, numerous tribes lived across the varied Texas landscape, developing distinct cultures
Southeastern & East Texas: The Caddo built large, permanent villages and elaborate ceremonial mounds, developing extensive trade networks. Other groups included the Atakapa and Wichita peoples.
Gulf Coast: Tribes like the Karankawa and Coahuiltecans were semi-nomadic, adapting to the coastal environment through fishing, hunting, and gathering.
Plains (North & West Texas): The powerful, horse-mounted Comanche and Kiowa dominated a vast territory known as the Comanchería, hunting bison and conducting trade and raids. The Apache, including the Lipan and Mescalero groups, were also prominent in West and Central Texas before being pushed out by the Comanche and later by Anglo settlers.
West Texas: The Jumano people lived along rivers and practiced farming and extensive trading before eventually joining Apache groups.
Damien and Dylan live around a 33 hr. drive apart.
Dylan Violette (CopperViolette) (in Maine) is close to the Mi’kmaq. He passes by their reservation whenever he heads south (the nearest city is that way; He is almost in the middle of nowhere).
Damien Marie AtHope (in Texas) lives in Corpus Christi, which is in the Gulf Coast Tribes area, like the Karankawa and Coahuiltecans. (I was living in Florida, but moved to Texas)
My favorite “Graham Hancock” Quote?
“In what archaeologists have studied, yes, we can say there is NO Evidence of an advanced civilization.” – (Time 1:27) Joe Rogan Experience #2136 – Graham Hancock & Flint Dibble
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 impede 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.
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)
ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref
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
ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref
“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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“In Australian Aboriginal mythology, Baiame (or Biame, Biami, Baayami, Baayama, Byamee) is the creator god and sky father, and Birrangulu, or Birrahgnooloo, a “fertility spirit” with powers over water (can send floods if properly asked), maintenance of the earthly landscape, and one of his two wives, can be seen as the mother from the sky, often being identified as an emu. By coming to earth (and possibly staying on earth), she may have become the earth mother and is said to be the mother of Daramulum. Daramulum (variations: Darhumulan, Daramulan, Dhurramoolun or Dharramaalan), a sky hero shapeshifter associated with an emu-wife. In other stories, Dharramalan is said to be the brother of Baiame. The Baiame story tells how Baiame came down from the sky to the land and created rivers, mountains, and forests in all the lands. When he had finished, he returned to the sky, and people called him the Sky Hero, or All Father, or Sky Father. He then gave the people their laws of life, traditions, songs, and culture of several Aboriginal Australian peoples of south-eastern Australia, such as the Wonnarua, Kamilaroi, Guringay, Eora, Darkinjung, and Wiradjuri peoples.” ref, ref, ref
“There are Australian Aborigines who believed that the Sun Mother created all the animals, plants, and bodies of water on earth upon the urging of the Father of All Spirits. These two divine beings did not actually have children. Only their names reflected the mother-father theme. However, the Sun Mother was portrayed as one who gives life to the sleeping spirits. A human mother also gives life to a spirit.” ref
“A supreme deity, supreme god or supreme being is the conception of the sole deity of monotheistic religions or, in polytheistic or henotheistic religions, the paramount deity or supernatural entity which is above all others. Supreme god or Supreme being: in many religions, it may be a Creator deity, King of the gods, Supreme god, or the singular deity of monotheistic religions.” ref, ref, ref
Of the many Supreme Deities in Africa, 14 are Bantu-related, 7 are Niger-Congo-related, 6 are Afroasiatic-related, and 3 are Nilo-Saharan related. And as Bantu (Niger-Congo B) and Niger-Congo (Niger-Congo A) are related, that makes 21 Supreme Deities in Africa related to the Niger-Congo family A and B subcategories.
1 Chukwu in Igbo religion, Niger-Congo related
2 Mwari in Shona religion (a Bantu ethnic group) and Nyambe god in Bantu religion
3 Bakongo people/Lele people, Bantu ethnic groups, Nzambi god in Bakongo religion
4 Bassa people, Ngambi/Nyombe god, Bantu related
5 Chokwe people, Nzambi god (similar to the Bakongo god, Nzambi Mpungu), Bantu related
6 Fang people, Nzeme god, also called Mebere, Bantu related
7 Nyoro and Toro people, Nyamuhanga god, Bantu related
8 Hambukushu people, Nyambi god, Bantu related
9 Herero people, god Njambi Kurunga, whom they also refer to as Omukuru, Bantu related
10 Lozi people, Nyambe god, Bantu related
11 Akan people, god Nyame (also Oyame), Bantu related
12 Ọlọrun in Yoruba religion / Ashanti of Ghana: How Spider Obtained the Sky-God’s Stories, Niger-Congo related
13 Ruhanga god in the Rutara religion, Bantu related
14 Mbombo of Bakuba/Kuba mythology, Niger–Congo and Bantu related
15 Unkulunkulu, a god in Zulu mythology, Bantu related
16 Bemba god, Bambara people of Mali, Niger–Congo related
17 Ngewo god, Mende people, Niger–Congo related
18 Waaq (also Waq or Waaqa) god, Cushitic languages (Afro-Asiatic related)
19 Kushite religion, god Amun (also called Asha Renu, Amen, Aman, and Gem Aten), Afroasiatic related
20 Serer religion, god Roog (or Rog), Niger–Congo related
21 Chadian classical religions, Ra sun god/sun spirit, (Afroasiatic language family), and Nilo-Saharan related
22 Khonvoum (also Khonuum, Kmvoum, Chorum), Mbuti (Bambuti) mythology, Bantu related
23 Many different names for God in Lugbara mythology, Nilo-Saharan related
24 Ndzambyaphuungu, Suku people, Bantu related
25 god Gomwa: Gomwa, Gbaya people, Niger-Congo language related
26 Enkai (also called Engai), an androgynous god, Maasai people, Nilo-Saharan related
27 Kamba people, Mulungu/”Nyàmbé” god, Bantu related
28 Berbers of North Africa, sun (Tafukt in Tamazight) and oon (Ayyur in Tamazight), and for some Ancient Egyptian god Amon, Afroasiatic related
29 Chiuta god, Tumbuka group of Bantu peoples, and god Amazigh for Libyan and Tehenu tribes of the Western Desert, Berber related: Afroasiatic related
30 Amun-Ra and Aten, Ancient Egypt, Afroasiatic related
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.
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Dylan Violette (CopperViolette)
Psychology Minor and Philosophy Student who’s interested in archaeology, history, and astronomy.
Current Research Interests: The Archaic Era in North America; Long-Distance Trading Across the Americas; Eurasian Prehistory. Current Research Focus: The Eastern Archaic and the Megalithic Builders (10,000 – 1,177 B.C.E.).
Dylan Violette and I decided to blog jointly and will start doing videos together as well. Cory has had to step away from our joint endeavors we did for years, as he has issues he needs to focus on, and my friend Dylan is willing to step in and help me continue making thoughtful videos together.
Our Joint Academia Articles:
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.
Around 10,000 years ago, ideas went into Africa. Around 10,000 to 9,000 years ago, these ideas from the Middle East were in Siberia then moved to China and to the Americas by around 9,000 years ago. Religious ideas also left the Middle East from 9,000 to 8,000 years ago to Europe. Around 8,000 years ago, new ideas got to Ukraine but didn’t spread far. From 8,000 to 7,000 years ago, ideas again entered Africa with evolved beliefs from the Middle East. By 7,000 years ago, evolved deities from the Middle East moved again to Europe and Ukraine. And 7,000 years ago, the Siberian sun god of the sky, with a warrior culture, armed forts, and pre-kurgans, moved from Siberia to Ukraine and then returned to the Middle East around 6,000 years ago, influencing the Sumerian religious ideas. 6,000 to 5,000 years ago, these new Siberian influenced ideas from the Middle East were also in Africa. Then new evolved ideas moved back out of from Ukraine to the East by 5,500 to 5,000 years ago to Siberia, then China, and the Americas. Ideas from Ukraine went into Europe as well. Then, 5,000 to 4,000 years ago, the new ideas, now somewhat evolved again, from Siberia headed back to Europe, and so did ideas from the Middle East. ETC. This is just a rough outline to grasp some of the details, as I feel I understand them. There is a bit more, but this gives a good idea of how complicated it was.
I think the person, snakes, and two birds seen at Körtik Tepe is the oldest known Neolithic archaeological site in Turkey, more than 12,000 years old, were likely related to the Orion constellation as a shamanic figure holding a snake, referencing the use of the Milky Way to communicate with the gods and ancestors, as well as soul travel via the Milky Way. The big snake to me would reference the Milky Way itself and the two birds, either the star Venus and the moon, or some aspect of the sun, and the moon, but the sun aspect was likely not the noon sun by itself, as I see that as gaining prominence at a later date. And I think the other figures, also related to the Orion constellation, either as a deity or a deity of the stars, put Orion there. I assume, as seen at Tell Fekheriye, Syria, 11,000 to 9,000 years old, involving two standing figures on “step stools of power” that by 11,000 years ago were at least two sky deities, such as something similar to both a sky father and a sky mother deity, at this time, related to the stars, or planets (also seen as stars or star-like). But we must remember that planets were seen as star-related in mythology.
High Gods and a Divine Couple (universal mommy and daddy)?
I think high gods started with a divine couple, a sky god (sky father) “Day sky, often the Sun” and a sky goddess (sky mother) “Night sky, often the Noon” around 11,000 years ago or older, associated with pre-pastoralism animal management, early herding, and proto-pastoralism, of big-horned goats, big-horned sheep, both domesticated around 11,000 years ago, and cattle domesticated around 10,000 years ago or a little older, especially so with cattle, the last three. Then, as farming and agriculture grew and the domestication of grains emerged a little after 10,000 to 9,000 years ago, and along came a new Earth goddess (Earth Mother), who then commonly took the place of the older sky goddess (sky mother) as the wife or consort to the sky god (sky father). This younger divine couple, a sky god (sky father) and Earth goddess (Earth Mother), becomes the norm the world over. Spread largely with the spread of farming and agriculture to me.
The myths of (Sky Father) and Earth Mothers in general are found throughout the world, and I think started in the Middle East, with their origins around 11,000 years ago or older. Though totem couple artifacts are seen in Siberia’s Lake Baikal area with the Ancient North Eurasians Mal’ta–Buret’ culture (24,000 years ago) and seem to trace back to at least Russia, above the area between north of the Black Sea and the Caucasus mountains at the Kostenki site 25,000 years ago, a time when Kostenki is related to the eastern Gravettian culture, because the Kostenki site started with Aurignacian culture. I think the couple theme, though it seems to have evidence dating back to at least 25,000 years ago in portable totem pole-like figurines, was not considered deities until they evolved in the Middle East, due to different lifestyles creating a motivation for different thinking, a transition from hunting and gathering to herding and farming.
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