Retrieving Tribal Memory Mantids, Ungulates As Symbols of Death and Resurrection, Shamanism, and DNA |
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Author:
| Schuetz-Miller, Mardith |
Drawings by:
| Schuetz-Miller, Mardith |
ISBN: | 978-1-893646-16-2 |
Publication Date: | Apr 2012 |
Publisher: | Blue Oaks Arts
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Imprint: | Indigo Images |
Book Format: | Paperback |
List Price: | USD $39.95 |
Book Description:
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For generations, scholars of religion and mythology have been puzzled at finding the same, or similar, stories by various ethnic groups of both the Old and New World. Common denominators of the tales are a nebulous-like Oneness before the world was created, the separation of Earth and Heaven, an incest, siblings of opposite disposition, and the flood that destroyed a first world. Retrieving Tribal Memory relies on the oral traditions and ceremonialism of primitive peoples studied by...
More DescriptionFor generations, scholars of religion and mythology have been puzzled at finding the same, or similar, stories by various ethnic groups of both the Old and New World. Common denominators of the tales are a nebulous-like Oneness before the world was created, the separation of Earth and Heaven, an incest, siblings of opposite disposition, and the flood that destroyed a first world. Retrieving Tribal Memory relies on the oral traditions and ceremonialism of primitive peoples studied by ethnographers, “natural histories” written by early historians, and evidence of archaeologists and archeo-astronomers to demonstrate that all those universal themes belong to an epic creation cycle whose origin can be traced to our common Paleolithic Out-of-Africa ancestors.
The common motifs of the creation cycle are first traced among hunter/gatherer peoples stretching across the Old World from the Bushmen of South Africa to various ethnic groups in Sahulland, the continent that initially embraced New Guinea, Australia, and Tasmania. These are “relic” populations whose genetic make-up is most closely related to our common Out-of-Africa ancestors. The themes are then followed into literate societies where vestiges of the old beliefs and world views are still to be found.
While the themes of the creation cycle are common, the forms of the players differ. The players can be understood as avatars of the creating spirit and appear as various animals or plants that sustain life, or sometimes even inanimate objects. Therefore their forms differ from one geographic region to another according to the fauna and flora. This enables us to posit variations in the principals with DNA evidence of population dispersal. In other words, it allows us to trace the route, or routes, by which the fish, insect, reptile, bird, mammal or the plant avatar of the creator spread across Eurasia and the Americas.