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I came across this just now and it gave me goose bumps. I guess that must mean it is the truth.
There is a commonly held belief that thousands of years ago as the world today counts time, Mongolian nomads crossed a land bridge to enter the western hemisphere, and became the people now known as American Indians. The truth of course, is that the raven found our forefathers in a clam shell on the beach at Naikun. At his bidding they entered a world people by birds, beasts, and creatures of great power . . . At least that’s a little bit of the truth.
— Bill Reid, Haida —
This does raise deep questions, you know. If there were no Adam and Eve, or Arthur and Geneviere, or all the oher mythological personna woven into the cultural construct of Western Civilization, would it still be Western Civilization, or would it be a different culture on many layers?
This is pretty heavy stuff, Linda! Mythology not only serves the purpose of explaining the universe and it’s origin but also Man’s relation to the world and the Creator. I think that myth defines a culture by it’s very definition. They are mutually interdependent and cannot be seperated. One cannot exist without the other. A culture without mytholigy would be sterile and robotic, dead in a very real emotional sense. The mythologies of a culture represent much deeper psychological archetypes, emotional structures at the very heart of who we “are” as a people.
There, I took a shoot at it! I’ll be interested to hear others opinions!
Most mythologies are based on some grain of truth. The Arthur story has been tracked to a couple of possible and real leaders. One being Scotish and the other being Welsh. Adam and Eve are classic archetypes for ancestor worship. All cultures and tribes have an “Adam and Eve”.
Most, if not all, of the old stories are meant to convey a message. They may not add up in a modern sense of realism and science, but they contain truths just the same.
Myth has been thought to be tied to inner enlightenment by providing creation a direct link to the Creator. In a sense regardless of race or culture we all are striving to find God, comfort, and connection.
Myth in this sense helps aid spiritual growth and keeps societies sane. Even science has myths that help keep the science community from unraveling, i.e. “The Big Bang Theory” and “Evolution”. Some things can be proven while some things can not. Thus the mystery that drives human imagination.
The story of the Raven and the clamshell is possibly an elaboration of conception. The Raven representing the spirit guardian guiding souls to their bodies here on Earth. The clamshell representing a kind of womb giving birth to the humans. Where do clamshells come from?, the ocean. The ocean is often times representive of the Earths womb. In a sense the Earth gave birth to the bodies of these ancestors and the Raven a being of the sky guided the souls to their place. The Sky father and the Earth mother creating humans. This is a commonly held belief among Native Americans that of Earth mother and Sky father, Adam and Eve. The story may be elaborated, but the common thread is still there.
Just a thought.
Is the latest “Arthur” movie about one of those leaders you just mentioned? I thought the movie to be pretty plausible, except the half naked girl painted blue going into battle. Although, I did see a History channel story about an actual warrior princess in Britain about that era, so my incredulity may be unfounded. If anybody get a chance to see it, it was interesting. The blue Brits had a huge army, but it was sliced up by the Roman killing machine. Just like pushing carrots into a food processor.
I think you gave a pretty good analysis of what is being represented and why an account like that can create a response like goose bumps, when the alternate account of wandering Nomads, however logical, is relatively sterile in its impact.
I just wish we could get to a point where we’d all see that nobody’s mythology is any better than anyone else’s. It’s all true.
Collins,
An excellent interpretation of the meaning of myth! I might add that in Chinese philosophy, the Father Sky and Mother Earth principle is manifested by Yin/Yang, the male/female principle. Both being equal and opposite, the Yin is the Mother principle, the nurturing and receptive aspect, the Yang being the Father principle, the creative aspect of life.
Jim
I love the stories of the Northwest Coastal tribes and their art is so wonderfully articulate. The stories do put goose bumps on ya. I always equate goose bumps with the touch of the sacred. If something is hair raising or gives me goose bumps I take notice of it in the moment for meaning that spirit is trying to say this is important and of consequence, full of meaning. In a sense it is like one persons soul touches yours in a way that conveys their thoughts or concepts. Kind of like an emotion shared.
Linda you are so right. Everyone has their story. It is important and meaningful for those that have them. The connection that we feel goes beyond cards, someone saying we are scraping blood, or people labeling us something other than that which we identify with. This is at the heart of self determination. We are who we say we are not what outsiders decide we are, based on their mythologies or beliefs. A hobby is sewing, knitting, collecting stamps. Connecting to our ancestors is spiritual and deeply personal. It hits home because it is home, our home and our people. If it were but a hobby then it wouldn’t elicite an emotional response nor cut as deep as those types of comments do.
There is a line in a song that says “nobody is right if everybody is wrong”.
There is another saying that is new to me, “if what is right is wrong then what is left is right”. Although this saying is used on a left wing themed radio station in regards to political parties it also can have a deeper meaning as well. Here is that Yin/Yang, Adam and Eve, Mother Earth/Father Sky. Truth and myth is in the eye of the beholder and the beholder is in the eye of the myth or truth.
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