[Note: All Basque words are in Italics and Bold-faced Green]
EARLY
HUMAN SOCIETY *
Dr. Erich Fred
Legner The University
of California
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Small figurines
of well-endowed females have been found in many places in Europe and much of
Asia, and some could be dated to ca 28,000 bce. Their exact significance or
what they were used for or how is still not clear. However, Nyland (2001)
thought it is certain that the people using them believed in a supreme
spirit. At the beginning of the Neolithic, about 8,000 bce. we can assume
that this spirit had become a Goddess and that our ancestors believed
absolutely in such a supreme being. It was the time that the glaciers were
fast vacating most of Europe, which therefore became available for
settlement. At the same time the climate of the central Sahara started to
deteriorate, which caused the tribes in the affected area to migrate to the
north and west coasts (see Climate). Archaeological
evidence indicates that this was a time of enormous change in living, travel
and thinking. Before the Neolithic, people had been part of nature and
subject to its whims and dangers.
Nevertheless, a great deal of experimenting had already been going on
in various fields of study from animal husbandry and medicine, to sailing,
construction, navigation, fishing, tanning etc. The domestication of wild
animals such as goats, pigs and sheep and the first agricultural trials with
grains produced a revolution in the way the tribes lived and prospered. The social
anthropologist, Dr. Anthony Jackson of Edinburgh University, studied the society of the Picts in
Scotland in detail. He came to the conclusion that an instructive parallel
could be drawn between the society of Neolithic Scotland and that of the
still existing Society
of the Trobrianders, so ably described by Dr. Bronislaw Malinowski in his book "Argonauts of the Western Pacific",
published in 1922. Edo Nyland has made full use of both Jackson's and Malinowski's writings in the following: The Irish and
Scottish people lived in a matrilineal society, which meant that the
succession of rank, membership in all the social groups, and the inheritance
of rights and possessions descended in the female line. Young people
belonging to the same tribe were not allowed to marry. Instead, the young man would leave his own
tribe and move to the tribe of his new wife, and their children remained part
of the mother's tribe and carried her name. The father had no legal rights to
his own children; instead the mother's brother was the real guardian of them.
The reason for this was that the father belonged to a different tribe,
possibly quite some distance away.
Thus, the nearest man who was able to teach the young child the trade
secrets of his incarnation was the brother of its mother. The child’s real
kinship existed only with its mother's relations. However, the biological
father was expected to give his children gifts and help in time of danger or
need. If a child was sick or in trouble, it would always be the father who
would worry and undergo hardships or expose himself to danger, and seldom the
maternal uncle. The maternal uncle's position of close relation was regarded
as right by law and usage, whereas the father's interest and affection for
his children were due to sentiment, and to the intimate personal relations
existing between them (Malinowski
p.72). This
organization of responsibilities and the respected position of the female in
the tribes were especially irksome to the new Judeo-Christian clergy. Therefore, the first thing to be changed
was the imposition of a patrilineal order, to the detriment of the women. The
new clergy had been used to dealing with patrilineal tribes where the son
inherited the title of his father the chief. Once the chief had been
converted to Christianity, the son and the tribe would quickly follow. Not so
with the Picts, because the son of a chief never followed in his father's
footsteps, and the result was that the missionaries had to start religious
conversion with the members of the tribe itself from the bottom up, a much
more time-consuming and frustrating job. The conservatism
of the early civilization has been commented on by many researchers.
Archaeologists working in the Indus valley found that the original layout of
the cities of Mohenjo
Daro and Harappa
had been meticulously maintained for millennia. The artwork of the
cathedral caves in the region of the Pyrenees was carried on for over 25,000
years. Hand-held images of the Goddess have been made for at least as
long. They were used from Japan to
India to the Sahara and arctic Europe. However, what did cause such
stability? The answer appears to lie
in the periodicity of nature and of the female body. The cyclical nature
of the moon in concert with the menstrual cycle of human females and the
tides, and the gradual shifting in intensity of the sun's radiation causing
the different seasons. It all
dictated that time was to be measured in cycles, in what is now called circular time. In a female directed or Holistic
civilization, time repeated itself year after year. People who
died were reincarnated, i.e. their bones were placed in the barrow tomb (the
womb of the Goddess), and therefore were still the same individuals as those
who had passed away. They inherited
all the achievements, skills and learning of their ancestors. The history of
the ancestors belonged to their individual reincarnations, in other words the
people were history themselves. Women knew no history because events repeated
with the seasons in perfect harmony with nature. This all changed when male
domination arrived, purposely inverting all the characteristics of the
gylanic society. The formerly Holistic society became a Dualistic society,
which brought along controversy. As the male body is not subject to
noticeable cycles, male time is measured linearly; time no longer repeated
itself and change became the order of the new civilization. Consequently,
reincarnation no longer took place. Under the new male regime, the ancestors
suddenly were disposed of, buried and quickly forgotten, except for a few
exceptional leading male figures who received monumental graves. A completely
new mentality took over the earth, which required the writing of history
because history was no longer cyclical and the property of each individual.
In other words, history, but not civilization, started with the coming of
male domination. In the old religion, the women's dances had all been circular,
such as the May Pole
Dance, while the men's dances were linear, such as the Morris (Maurrits) dances.
Instability, change, and upheaval became the order of the new society, a
state of affairs which is still with us today. SEAFOOD WAS OF GREAT
IMPORTANCE The extension of
the Goddess religion into an environment where the main food supply came from
the ocean, instead of from herding domestic animals, required some adaptation
to the traditional thinking, but this was easily done. In both the herding
and fishing environments the men had to be away from home for many months at
a time and the women were left in total charge of the home front. In the
Sahara, the society had compared itself with the elephant family structure in
which the tribe was led by an older female while the mature males, roaming
the country side as rogues, were only allowed back in the family at breeding
time. The male clergy of the priestess, The Abade, long ago had adopted an Elephant tattoo which
they brought with them to Scotland and which still can be seen on many of the
symbol stones scattered around the countryside. After copying this symbol
over many centuries without ever seeing a real elephant, it had become a
funny looking beast which appears to be more at home in the water than on
land, but it is a recognizable elephant just the same. In Denmark, the Order of the
Elephant is still the highest order the king can bestow. The Danes
are unable to explain why the elephant was chosen for this honor. The development
of reliable ocean navigation had opened up the world around 10,000 bce. and
gave our ancestors contact with other peoples they never had heard of before.
The many tribes had invented a variety of ingenious means to produce their
own reliable food supply. Some of
these had the technology to exploit the unlimited food resources of the
ocean. In fact, our word ocean, the Greek word okeano, comes
from the Basque/Saharan words oke-ano, okerrezin (infallible,
unfailing) ano (food supply): "an unfailing food supply".
Without this dependable and abundant food supply from the ocean and its
shores, increasing the populations and permanent living in the Hebrides, in
spite of the better climate then, would not have been possible. The sacrament of
the Sacred Marriage shows
us that fertility in nature was not taken for granted in the Goddess
religion. The first of certain products were offered ritually to the
priestess by the harvester during the growing season, starting with the first
egg of an important wild bird. This
tradition is continued in Holland, when the Queen is presented with the
first-found lapwing egg of the spring,.
It culminates in the Thanksgiving celebrations after the main harvest
was safely stored. Frymer-Kenski wrote:
"... in performing these rituals,
the celebrants acknowledged their dependence on fertility and their desire to
participate in assuring the continuation of the natural cycle." (p.92) In the Bible, this dependence on human
interference was taken away from the people. In Genesis 1: 10-13 we are told
that on the third day God created dry land and on the same day He put forth
trees and plants yielding seed and trees bearing fruit. Inherent in this
statement is that fertility was given to the earth by God and that "there
is no need for humans to focus concern on the creation or continuation of
this fertility. Just as people do not have to think about helping the sun to
rise..." (Frymer-Kenski 1992 p.93).
The writer of Deuteronomy 26: 1-10 re-focused
the traditional awe inspired by the ability of the priestess and Tammuz (human sacrifice) to bring back the season's fertility, by thanking the Lord for
his gift of the land of Israel: "When
you come into the land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance,
and have taken possession of it, you shall take some of the first of all the
fruit of the ground, which you harvest from your land that the Lord your God
gives you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall go to the ....
priest who is in office at that time and say to him: 'I declare this
day to the Lord your God that I have come into the land which the Lord swore
to our fathers to give us. Then the priest shall take the basket and set it
down before the altar of the Lord your God. "There
is no awe, reverence, or gratitude for the fertility of the soil and its
bountiful harvest. Indeed the ability of the earth to grow harvest is assumed
rather than celebrated" (Frymer-Kenski p.94). A sincere
celebration of the wonderful gift of fertility of the earth was re-written
into something that was a characteristic and automatic state, such as the
rising of the sun. By 8,000 bce.
many changes were taking place which effectively created a very different,
even vibrant society. Life had become much more centrally directed,
specialized trades had continued to evolve, and people started to grow older
than before. The one truly outstanding feature in their religion was that the
wonder of the human female had become the revered center of their
civilization. The realization that the peoples' survival depended entirely on
the productivity of the earth and the life-creating, nurturing and
food-gathering ability of the women meant that the women had become highly
regarded. The Goddess represented the abundance of the living earth and she
was portrayed in a large variety of personalities, all doing different good
works. These many personifications of the one supreme Goddess were the cause
of the oft repeated fallacy that there were many Goddesses in the early
religion, when in fact there was only one. The Great
Goddess' original abode appears to have been in the Ahoggar Mountains of southeastern
Algiers, a location just west of the center of the Sahara, where an
incredible display of rock art may still be seen at the 2000+ m. level.
Reverence for life, expressed in the careful conservation of all living
things in all their forms, became enriched by mysteries, legends, taboos,
magic, sacred springs and groves, special festivity days etc. The basic
language, which had naturally developed up to then, was no longer adequate to
accommodate the needs of the developing sciences such as astronomy and
medicine or to describe the new thoughts, processes and inventions. Probably
around 5,500 - 6,000 bce. some scholars were assigned the task to organize
and develop the language to bring it up to date to allow the teaching and
memorizing of all knowledge, and to prepare it for future expansion with new
words. This then created a highly
organized and extremely logically arranged language, the first highly evolved
invented language on earth. The greatly enhanced
language was finished and introduced just before the great exodus from the
Sahara began. Consequently, this
language was carried with the migrants to the Near East and Europe. The invention of
a fully developed language came about in a time of severe stress, caused by
the failing of the rains in the central Sahara. This was followed by an orderly evacuation of the
drought-affected areas. The religious center in the Ahoggar mountains,
located in the drought area, was no longer central to the needs of the people
and had to be moved. As the Sea Peoples on the coasts had taken charge of the
placing and transport of the displaced tribes, the most likely site for a new
religious center was in the Central Mediterranean, and the islands of Malta and Gozo were
selected. Astonishing megalithic temples were constructed, which may still be
seen in close to the original condition. Those tribes
that had moved over land to regions like Mesopotamia and who had no sea
access to Malta, built their own imitations of the Ahoggar mountain sanctuary
and called them Ziggurats.
These mountain-like monuments were covered with bitumen, to protect the
mud-dried bricks from erosion. Soil
was deposited on top of the monuments in which the same trees and lesser
vegetation was planted as had been growing in the Ahoggar region. Even the
basaltic columns of the Ahoggar were imitated in the sides of the Ziggurat by
constructing vertical flutings. In the "Hanging Garden" on top of the
Ziggurat, a small temple was built for the priestess, a place where the
sacred marriage continued to take place annually or periodically. In order to
spread and stabilize this newly developed language and promote the language
arts, it was decided to create different types of schools. All knowledge had
to be memorized which was taught by teachers called Gogomaisu (memory teacher). These would
endlessly repeat the knowledge they had to offer, until the students could
quote it faultlessly. In addition, in Ireland and Scotland there were several
schools in places still called Tarbert,
from tartar-bert, tartar (talkative) bertsolari (troubadour) where the teachers were instructing in the art of
creating poetry, set to song. This
art was socially and intellectually superior to the work of the Gogomaisu. A
similar form of literary expression is still thriving in the Basque country.
For a beautiful description of this ancient art, see Aulestia's book "Improvisational
Poetry". After writing arrived, the Olerkari
produced another type of literary expression, the poets, whose art only
depended on writing not on song. Although some symbols to express certain
religious ideas and thoughts had long existed, the clergy of that period did
not allow the common people to use them. Strong and very conservative oral
traditions evolved that were responsible for the fact that this invented language became the most stable on
earth. It has been maintained in
almost the original form until this day in the Basque Language. It is still spoken in the Basque country as Basque/Euskera, and
in considerably modified form in southern India as Dravidian.
The Basque name for their language, Euskera tells us that the age of the Goddess is not forgotten: eu - us. - .ke - era The eminent
system of oral education was rigorously maintained for many millennia until
the coming of Proto-Judaism, Judaism and Christianity, which totally inverted
the original faith, encouraged writing and discouraged memory training. These
new religions became a serious threat to the stability of the civilization of
the Goddess religion, its ancient language, and its diversity of oral
traditions. These traditions had stood in the way of the acceptance of the
new, very different patriarchal laws of the new sky-gods, which had been
created by turning many aspects of the Goddess religion upside down. However,
in the Basque country the shepherds and their families in the mountains
remained illiterate although orally proficient until early the 20th
Century. Now that literacy is being taught to everybody, the oral traditions
could become eroded so that the language and its dialects will start to
change. This has already begun with the creation of Euskera
Batua (Unified
Basque). Here one language
has been created out of seven dialects and is being taught in schools. It is
now up to the popular Bertsolari
to keep up the ancient traditions. MOTHER GODDESS
ARRIVED IN IRELAND The seafarers
from Morocco, today called Berbers, explored and controlled the Atlantic
coast and islands of Europe. Those
people who left Morocco for lands to the northwest had brought their Goddess
along. (This northwestern extension of the ancient religion is discussed by Joseph Campbell in "Primitive
Mythology" pages 427-434, but Edo Nyland does not take his
references to Irish mythology too seriously). The many megalithic monuments
that can still be seen in Ireland and Scotland are proof that the Goddess
traveled with these migrants from Morocco. The religious monuments these people
built in both Morocco and Ireland are so startlingly alike, that they should
be regarded as textbook cases of diffusion or direct cultural contact. For
instance, take the passage tomb of Newgrange (Ireland) and the tumulus of M'Zora
just south of Tangiers, Morocco, of which Bob Quinn (1986) writes: Coming
nearer, we could see the circle of stones, some of them trespassing on
gardens. It was true. It was the remains of a tumulus. Most of the central part
had been gouged out, probably for the stones and gravel, just as similar
tombs had been in Ireland. There were 167 stones in the circle according to
our count. The pillar dominated the landscape. Newgrange once boasted such a
stone. It was last seen in 1770.... I managed to take two pictures of what
was, to me, unmistakably a first cousin of Gavrinis and Newgrange. I
learned that the site had been mentioned by a Roman historian, Sertorius. It
was also described as being the grave of a native god, Antee; this coincided
with the tradition of Newgrange being the grave of an Irish god, Aonghus.
(Quinn p.72-73) The American
James Mayor had written an article about the M'Zora monument, but it
attracted little attention. There are
innumerable such similarities with Ireland in northwest Africa. For instance,
the many hundreds of stone circles in Senegal are identical to those in
Cornwall. The individual tribes brought along the same Goddess and the same
language and oral traditions. Their religious structures, although certainly
different from their neighboring tribes in Africa, were being built exactly
the same in their new homeland. Any remarks suggesting a link between Ireland
and Morocco have up to now been put down by historians as 'unsubstantiated'.
This is similar to the words of the Moroccan Ibn Khaldoun, known in the west as Averrous, the Father of Sociology. "Historians
have committed frequent errors in the stories and events they reported. They
accepted them in plain transmitted form, without regard for its value. They
did not probe them with the yardstick of philosophy, with the help of the
knowledge of the nature of things, or with the help of speculation or
historical insight. Therefore they strayed from the truth and found themselves
lost in the desert of baseless assumptions". The Neolithic
view of female sexuality was death denying and life affirming. In contrast,
the Judeo-Christian view was and still is life denying and death affirming.
Consequently, the civilization and religion of our Neolithic ancestors was
very different from the society we experience today. Death meant something
very different to our ancestors because it was always followed by
reincarnation in a newborn babe.
Death was not the end of a person's life, but it was recognized as a
serious setback and as such was mourned because a productive and needed loved
one was gone. However, in time
everybody knew that this would be followed by a joyous return. People
believed absolutely that they were the reincarnation of someone who had
passed on. They accepted the same
name of the deceased and all associated achievements. They learned all the special knowledge of
the predecessor. They were also
brought up to follow closely in his/her footsteps. This belief provided the
highest degree of stability for the society, but was also the foundation of a
form of caste system that at times created different social classes. When
such a presumed reincarnated person was interviewed by an anthropologist in
modern societies, he/she would sometimes tell of happenings in a life that
was known to have occurred centuries ago. The first anthropologists doing
such interviews among contemporary societies were incredulous and did not
know what to make of such sincere testimony.
It finally was realized that this was typical of the Neolithic faith.
These people had no history, they were history themselves; it was the
time-less society. A newborn child
was never named until it was certain to survive. In addition, it would not be
known whose reincarnation this child was to be, a weighty decision to be made
by the Abade of the tribe. In the meantime, the child was given a temporary
descriptive name such as 'sickly' (Erik,
from erikoi), 'forgetful' (Hans,
from hantzkor), 'having fun' (Olga,
from olgau), 'lovable' (Meta, from maita), 'nervous' (Larry,
from larri), 'lacking' (Gabi, from gabe izan), 'capable' (Alison,
from alizan), 'gossip' (Merran, from erran merran), making excuses
(Haiko/Heiko, from haiko maiko), breaking things (Lorry, from lorrinaldi), go to sleep (Lotte, from lotaratu), etc. Most of
these names are still in use today and a long list can be drawn up, but this
will suffice. As times went by a nickname often replaced the original
descriptive name when there was reason to do so. Later in life,
when the individual had done honorable or special things in a particular
field of endeavor, a new name was agglutinated from a sentence or descriptive
term and a special ceremony was held to install the name, such as Odysseus,
Homer etc. To have such a special name was a great honor and brought with it
enormous respect. The new Judeo-Christian clergy was intolerant of this
system, especially as related to reincarnation. Instead they insisted on giving newborn children their
life-long names shortly after birth. Life on the Hebridian Islands throughout
history was difficult and often dangerous. The population at first increased
slowly until the limits were reached which could be supported by the
environment. The stability shown by these people over so many millennia must
be due to a high level of sustained well-being. Well-being of a population
could be measured by, or expressed in, such items as happiness, a full
stomach for everyone, a warm dry place to live, longer than usual
life-expectancy, low infant mortality and high (especially female) oral
literacy or exchanged knowledge. In spite of the high mortality among the
sea-faring men, the Irish and Scottish societies appear to have been happy
and delightful. There was a
great deal of comforting solidarity within a tribe. This was partly based on the vague feeling of communal affinity
to the totem animal with which all were to be tattooed. Much more so was the
influence of the many social duties, such as the performance of certain
ceremonies, especially those related to the ancestors, which banded the
members of the tribe together. However, the firmest solidarity was only found
in the smaller tribes where everyone was closely related and attached to the
locality where the ancestors were revered in their own stone-built tomb. Men and women in
general had different roles to play in the production and handling of goods.
Men were prone to focus on knowledge of how to efficiently input their skills
into goods, that is to use the least amount of effort to produce the most goods. Women conventionally apply knowledge
of how to efficiently distribute goods, that is how to use the least amount
of goods to create the greatest well being. It took a great deal of skill and
cooperation on the part of both men and women to live successfully in this
harsh but healthy land. MAGIC
IN SOCIAL ACTIVITIES Magic is the art
of achieving seemingly supernatural control over nature. It is an attempt by
humans to govern the forces of nature directly, by means of special lore.
Everything that vitally affected the people was accompanied by magic, because
it was involved in all communal and industrial activities and especially
those associated with danger, chance or the ancestors. The rules of magic had
to be followed exactly or the results were likely to be disastrous. Malinowski described it in this way: "Magic
is not built up in narrative style; it does not serve to communicate ideas
from one person to another; it does not purport to contain a consecutive,
consistent meaning. It is an instrument serving special purposes, intended
for the exercise of man's specific powers, and its meaning, giving this word
in a wider sense, can be understood only in correlation to this aim. They are
expressions fitting into one another and into the whole, according to what
could be called a magical order of thinking, or perhaps more correctly, a
magical order of launching words toward their aim" (p.432). Magic was
indispensable in organizing and motivating the workers involved in building
megalithic structures or other stone monuments such as barrow tombs or roads,
and other large construction projects like ocean-going ships, storehouses,
piers and docks. Communal labor was important in the local economy and each
type had a different name. It is important that the reader understands what
magic meant to the people of the tribe and the role it played in all their
vital pursuits. First of all it
must be realized that the people firmly believed in the value of magic, and
that this conviction, when put to the test of their actions, was quite unwavering.
We may speak of the sociological weight of tradition that is of the degree to
which the behavior of the community is affected by the traditional commands
of tribal law and customs. The general injunction of always building boats
under the guidance of magic was obeyed without the slightest deviation, for
the tradition weighed very heavily. Not one single boat was being constructed
without magic, indeed without full observance of all the rites and
ceremonial. The forces that kept the people to their traditional course of
behavior were, in the first place, the specific social inertia that obtains
in all human societies and was the basis of all conservative tendencies.
Second the strong conviction that if the traditional course were not taken,
evil results would follow. A boat built without magic would be unseaworthy,
heavy and slow in sailing, unlucky in difficult circumstances. Thus, no one building or using a boat
would dream of omitting the magic rites. So strong was the belief in magic
that the right wording of the incantation would even be able to make the boat
fly if the necessary magic had not fallen into oblivion. It is also important
to understand rightly the peoples' ideas about the relation between magical
efficiency and the result of craftsmanship. Both were considered
indispensable, but both were understood to act independently. The people
understood that magic, however efficient, would not make up for bad
workmanship. Each of these two had its own province: the builder by his skill
and knowledge made the boat stable and swift, and magic gave it an additional
stability and swiftness. If a boat was obviously badly built, the people
would know why it sailed slowly and was unwieldy. If two boats were equally
well built but one sailed better, it would be attributed to magic on the part
of the boat or the crew. What is the
economic function of magic in the process of boat building? Is it simply an
extraneous action, having nothing to do with the real work or its organization?
Is magic from the economic point of view a mere waste of time? By no means.
Magic puts order and sequence into the various activities, and it and its
associated ceremonial was instrumental to securing the co-operation of the
community, and the organization of communal labour. It inspired the builders
with great confidence in the efficiency of their work, a mental state
essential in any enterprise of complicated and difficult character. The
belief that the magician was a person endowed with special powers made
him/her a natural leader whose command was always obeyed, who could fix
dates, apportion work and keep the worker up to the mark. When all
craftsmanship and magic had been done correctly and the boat was finished,
the female magician, or the priestess herself, conducting the benediction
ceremony, would invite the Goddess on board and she would become part of the
boat. It was then that the eyes were carved and painted on the bow so she
could look out for danger. Thereby the boat was instantly transformed into an
object of miraculous achievement and admiration, a living thing with its own
personality. Around the world, many fishing boats can still be seen with such
eyes. Such may be found in the
Mediterranean, India and Polynesia, including the very large cedar dug-outs
on the British Columbia coast of Canada. Magic, far from
being a useless appendage, or even a burden on the work, supplied the
psychological influence, which kept people confident about the success of
their labours and provided them with a sort of natural leader. [E. Legner suggests that this is akin to modern day
prayer] Thus the organization of labor in boat building rests on the one hand
on the division of functions, those of the owner, the expert and the helpers,
and on the other hand on the cooperation between labor and magic" (Malinowski p.115-6) Ownership,
giving this word in its broadest sense, is the often very complex relation
between an object and the social community in which it is found. In
ethnology, it is extremely important not to use the word
"ownership" in any narrower sense than that just defined, because
the types of ownership found in various parts of the world differ widely. It
is especially a grave error to use the word ownership with the very definite
connotation given to it in our own society. For it is obvious that this
connotation presupposes the existence of very highly developed economic and
legal conditions, such as they are among ourselves, and therefore the term
"own" is meaningless when applied to a Neolithic society. What is
worse, such an application smuggles a number of pre-conceived ideas into our
description, and before we have begun to give an account of the local
conditions, we have distorted the reader's outlook. Each type of
ownership has customs and traditions attached with different sets of
functions, rites and privileges. Moreover, the social range of those who
enjoy these privileges varies. Even with regard to one object, a number of
people may lay claim to ownership. People having the full de facto right of
using an object, might not be allowed to call themselves the owner of the
object. The use of this title is highly valued because it is the social
psychology of the people with their ambition, vanity and desires, to be
renowned and well spoken of. Sailing expeditions were extremely important and
the name of the boat was always associated with the name of the owner, which
in turn was identified by his magical powers and assured good luck in
sailing. It is a
widespread fallacy that the primitive 'Golden Age' was characterized by the
absence of any distinction between thine and mine. If we consider the
numerous theories that see nothing but primitive economics, or simple
pursuits for the maintenance of existence, it must be made clear that the
tribal life is permeated by a constant give and take. Every ceremony, every legal and customary
act is done to the accompaniment of material gift and counter gift; that
wealth given and taken, is one of the main instruments of social
organization, of the power of the chief, of the bonds of kinship and of
relationship in law (Malinowski p.167) Sorcery is the
bringing about of destructive or harmful events in the near future with the
help of evil spirits. Minor ailments can be brought about by a variety of
causes such as bad food, exhaustion, exposure, colds. However, if a person sickens for any
length of time and the strength is draining away, then black magic or sorcery
is certainly the cause. Even accidents such as drowning are not believed to
happen without cause. To become a sorcerer does not take any special
initiation except knowledge of the spells. The special spells and
incantations can be obtained for a high price from a recognized sorcerer, or
can be taught by the mother's brother to her son. He will then continue the matrilineal tradition of powerful
sorcery spells and the use of special paraphernalia. When a sorcerer attacks
someone, his first step is to cast a light spell over the habitual haunts of
the victim which, for instance, will affect him with a slight illness, and
keep him in bed where he will try to cure himself by staying warm near a
fire. The sorcerer then can proceed in a great variety of ways, one of which
is that he will approach the house of the victim at night, accompanied by
night birds such as owls, which keep guard over him. He is surrounded by a halo of legendary
terrors that make all neighbors shudder with fear, just from the thought of
meeting him on such a nocturnal visit. The sorcerer will then impregnate a bundle
of secret herbs with deadly charms, place these at the end of a long stick
and thrust these through an opening into the fire near where the sick person
is lying. The fumes of the burning herbs will then be inhaled by the victim,
whose name has been uttered in the charm, and he/she will contract one or the
other deadly diseases, of which the people have a long list. (P.75-6).
Sorcerers are regarded with great fear and apprehension, and avoided by
non-family members. A large collection of sorcery lore has been collected and
is available in many books such as those by James Fraser and Joseph Campbell. It has been
traditional among early writers to depict the 'heathens' as happy-go-lucky,
lazy children of nature who shun as much as possible all labor and effort,
waiting until the bounty of nature falls in his/her lap. No one who believes
in this attitude will be able to understand the aims, motives and enthusiasm
involved in carrying out the often-enormous enterprises. Some semi-popular
economic literature will tell us that primitive humans, the common savages,
are prompted in all actions by a rationalistic conception of self-interest,
and achieving aims directly with a minimum of effort. Instead, work and
effort, rather than being merely an end, is collectively a way an end. The
truth is that the Neolithic population did work extremely hard and
systematically, with endurance, pride and purpose, and did not wait until
pressed into action by immediate needs. This is proven by the impressive
archaeological remains of barrow tombs, stone circles, processional ways,
menhirs, corpse-exposure monuments etc. The so-called 'Protestant Work
Ethic' is simply a continuation of good work habits from
pre-Christian days. Gain, such as is often the stimulus for work in modern
communities, never acts as an impulse to work under Neolithic conditions (Malinowski p.156). The real force that binds
all the people and ties them down in their tasks is obedience to custom, to
tradition. In carrying out
a project, whether boat or tomb construction, there always was one person in
charge. If it were a religious project, the priestess would first come and
dedicate the site with the appropriate magical words. Detailed planning had
preceded this dedication. This
included optimizing road access, the most appropriate location with respect
to the village, the availability of stone quarries, need for decoration etc.
The head person overseeing the operation could be male or female, depending
on the involvement of the community council. In case of heavy stone
construction, the leader would usually be a man. This person would take
responsibility for the whole undertaking. The people doing the work were
often full time employed and needed to be paid, usually in the form of food,
which was the duty of the project leader. This meant that everyone in the
community was involved in providing the leader with large supplies of
whatever was required, from garden produce to fish, berries, dairy products,
meat etc. Under the head
person or chief worked the experts. These were the real technical leaders,
people who knew how to work the quarry, how to transport the building
materials, the master builder, those who were to do the artistic work etc.
All were experts in their own fields and had been carefully chosen for their
skill and experience. Depending on the complexity and scope of the work there
may have been several experts involved. Thirdly, there
were the workers, divided into different groups. The smallest group of
workers was formed by the core workers who would be more or less steadily
engaged in the different stages of the work, often people directly related to
the person in charge of that particular specialty. The largest group was the
entire community. It was called in
occasionally to help with those tasks that required all available hands,
including the moving of huge rocks. In case of construction of a processional
way such as the 'smooth road' which Odysseus saw at Killary Harbor in Ireland, this
required the help of all hands of several tribes for extended periods,
because such projects usually served several communities. The task of
finding, breaking, and transporting the millions of stones needed was a good
excuse for regular 'working bees' which must have been extremely tiring
tasks. However, they were also
followed by joyous affairs when each stage was completed. Even so, it must
have taken years and great persistence to complete such mammoth tasks. A good
example is the Grianan
of Aileach monument on the top of the high hill near Letterkenny.
In this case all the stones had to be carried up the long processional road,
which, except for the top portion, is still in use today. Stages in
construction were always blessed with magic. Magic only worked properly with
the best of craftsmanship, and it was up to the workers to make sure that the
best possible results were obtained. No magician or priestess would proceed
with the blessings if the work had been below standard. Magic was interwoven
into all the activities involved in the project, from catching the fish in
the sea, the seeding of the gardens, the making of dairy products, the
sacrificing of the animal offerings, the splitting of the rocks, to the final
dedication of the product. Even the Leprechauns were part of the effort and
had tasks to perform, for which they were rewarded with dishes of milk and
special places to live. ANIMAL CRUELTY It was generally
accepted that animals were incapable of feeling pain and consequently, the
cruelty done to living animals often was abhorring. The squeals of pain from
a pig on the spit being roasted alive were the cause of hilarious laughter.
The priestess Kirke thought nothing of cutting the throat of a piglet so the
blood could flow over the hands of a murderer, to expiate the foul deed. At a
religious feast steaks might be cut off a wretched living animal, as was
reported by the early Scottish explorer James Bruce in his book "Travels
to Discover the Source of the Nile" published in 1790. He was
studying the Falashas,
the Proto-Jewish people of Ethiopia, who had retained many of the habits of
the original Goddess religion. Even today in many countries the 'sport' of
catching wild pigeons, hunting foxes, coyotes, wolves and other animals is
associated with much unnecessary cruelty. Roosters have their spurs removed,
and replaced with vicious steel dagger-like spurs to cut up the opponent
better in cockfights. In our own times, the people of Societies for
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals deal daily with examples of criminal
indifference to the suffering of animals. The days of the Goddess are still
with us . Being part of
such an energetic community meant a life of hard work and long hours. There were also happy feasts of plentiful
food, with dances, instrumental music and singing. In general, the peoples'
life was secure, happy, innocent but not safe for those at sea. The coming of
Gnostic Christianity of St.
Patrick enriched the life of the local people with different forms
of art and music, and discouraged the human sacrifice. The Gnostic/Irish
priests did not interfere with the Universal Language of the people or their way of life, they just brought the
messages of love spoken by Christ, who had died a voluntary death on the
cross very much like the sacrifice of a young man in the Whirlpool of
Corrivreckan. The evangelists did not criticize the old ways but
brought new religious ideas from North Africa, called Gnostic Christianity.
The combination of the two religions created a vibrant and artistically
creative society, far in advance of anything the continent had ever seen. This
was no foreign religion to the local people, and the male clergy of the
Priestess apparently embraced the new ideas. The monk/missionaries who went
to the continent to spread the words of Christ were mostly converted Abade of
the Goddess, and were recognizable by their purple upper eyelids, the front
half of their heads shaven, and their long white cloaks. The symbol of
Gnostic Christianity from north Africa was the circle in the cross, as is
still to be seen on many churches in Ireland and elsewhere, as well as on the
many Coptic churches in Egypt. Edo Nyland maintains that the coming of
Judeo-Christianity brought about a total upheaval of the ancient values and
religion. It brought much resentment
and violence, which still makes headlines in our daily newspapers. A most unusual
form of "artistry" in Ireland is found associated with old
Roman-Catholic buildings. The "sheela na gigs" are an enormous
embarrassment to prim and proper Ireland and Britain. Close to 200 are known
to exist, built into church and convent walls, in castles, in stone walls
separating fields, displayed on roofs, even found in streams and used as
corner stones under buildings. They are impossible to date. However, judging by the age of the
buildings, in which they are found, they were installed roughly from 900 to
1200 AD. They are carved out of stone and are found mostly in southern
Ireland, but a few are also found in England and on the European continent. A
famous one may be seen in its original location in the church of St. Mary and
St. David, Kilpeck, Herfordshire, England. They have been described as crude,
lewd, most obscene female exhibitionist figures, fertility figures with the
legs apart, drawing the attention to enormous genitalia held open with the
fingers of both hands. There is absolutely nothing of beauty in them and can
hardly be called art, they don't even look like women because most have no,
or only tiny flat, breasts. They certainly do not look anything like the
healthy round Goddess figurines of the Neolithic. With their large round,
often bulbous eyes they look defiantly at the world. Many more of these
repulsive things must have been destroyed as they became accessible, when
puritans and clergymen got their hands on them. Some of the best were stored
in the cellar of the National Museum in Dublin and neither pleading nor money
could bring them out. That was until Bob
Quinn wrote his little paperback "Atlantean, Ireland's North African
and Maritime Heritage". The last chapter of his book is devoted to
these 9 to 12 inch high little creatures. The Museum was subsequently deluged
with requests to see them, so they relented and two of the less ugly ones
were then reluctantly displayed in the entrance to the Treasury of the
Museum, where the staff hoped that the sight of masses of gold objects would
draw the attention away from the loathsome objects. Only one bookstore in
Dublin, very near Trinity College, carried a supply of Quinn's book. At
another, Edo Nyland was told that the book was not recommended reading and
therefore was not available in that store. The fact that
the Sheelas are
mostly found on Roman Catholic churches, monasteries and convents means that
they were somehow associated with religion and that they were intended to
address a problem. On the continent of Europe, many somewhat similar types of
carvings were found. Quinn writes that these continental exhibitionist "carvings
were common on the pilgrim routes to places like Sanitago de Compostella. The
object of these carvings was to warn the pious away from occasions of lust.
They featured angels, devils, men and women in the most imaginative possible
range of acrobatic positions. Indeed, what strikes one is the sheer
'dirty-mindedness' of the medieval carvers. In the most splendid Gothic and
Romanesque cathedrals you have an impressive array of male and female anal
exhibition, phallic display, genital assault, beard pulling (a euphemism),
androgyny, breast display - all of the practices we associate with
pornography. Is it possible that these activities reflected the amusements of
the ordinary people of the time, including clerics, and which a mediaeval
Church - inspired by St. Augustine - wished to eradicate? (Quinn: p. 166-7) It has been
suggested that the Irish carvers were slavishly copying a continental
example, but would they have confined themselves almost exclusively to this
grotesque female form? Quinn looked into this question and said that Ireland
rarely has an example of the continental acrobatics, rarely a decent phallus.
The daring range of imagery on the continent does not find its expression in
Ireland. The only conclusion that can be drawn is that the Sheelas are a
uniquely Irish embarrassment. Quinn writes
that the name itself is not understood. If it is Gaelic it would be 'Sileadh
na gCioch', meaning 'shedding (of liquid) from the breasts'. However, as the
figures have no breasts this cannot be the meaning. The name may be
misrepresented as 'Sileadh na Giog, meaning 'shedding liquid from the
hunkers'. "To take this as meaning urinating is a little prosaic.
Could it possibly refer to the activity of menstruation?"
(Quinn p.170). But then, where does the word 'menstruation' come from? The
VCV vowel interlocking formula gives us that answer: .me - en. - .st - .ru
- ati - on. Here we appear
to have the answer to the puzzle of the Sheela na Gigs. The use of menstrual blood was common for
religious purposes in the Goddess religion and this practice was taken over
by some of the Gnostic Christian sects like the Manichaeans, the Cathars, the Mandeans and many other sects that the Roman Catholic church denounced as
heretics. One of these Gnostic groups moved from northern Africa to the
Atlantic coast of Europe. It became
established in Ireland, and eventually it formed the Irish Christianity of St. Patrick. This combined with the diverse indigenous activities of the
Goddess, created a vibrant religious life. Itinerant Irish clergy who later
preached throughout western Europe brought with them from north Africa and
Ireland the most beautiful book artistry the world has ever seen. The
Christian church adopted many of the practices of the Irish Gnostics and the
Goddess religion and adapted them to form the new western Christianity
centered in Rome. These practices included the sacrament of the symbolic drinking
of the blood/wine and the breaking and eating of the bread. But what does
the name Sheela na Gig really mean? (sh is written as x in Basque). It wasn't a Gallic
expression, so it must have been formed out of the pre-Christian tongue: shi - ila ' na ' .gi -
ig. Here we have two
translations, one calling the collection of menstrual blood immoral, the
other vulgar. Both words must have been coined by priests or monks of the new
religions. This is very similar to the meaning of the name of Utnapishtim, the wise priest of Shurrupak, mentioned in the Gilgamesh Epic (2000 bce.): ut. - na - pish - ti -
im. Here again we
find that word 'immoral', and menstruation is called "urine". Quinn
discussed the problem with John Allegro, of "Dead Sea Scrolls"
fame, who pointed out that the male dominated church was, and still is,
afraid of sex. He traced the rise of the Gnostic belief through the Essenes -
the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls - right back to the Canaanites of
Palestine. The name Essene translates to: es. - .se - ene He did not
dispute the relationship between the Gnostics and the Sheelas, and brought to
Quinn's attention the writing of a fourth century bishop who had witnessed
the rituals of a Gnostic group called the Phibionites: "The shameless ones have sexual intercourse and I am truly
abashed to say what scandalous things they practice ... following coitus in
uninhibited lust, they proceed to blaspheme Heaven itself. The man and woman
take the ejaculated sperm in their hands, step forward, raise their eyes
aloft and with the defilement still on their hands, offer up prayers ... They
then proceed it in their infamous ritual, saying: This is the Body of Christ,
and this is the Pascha (Passover Meal) through which our bodies suffer and
are made to acknowledge the passion of Christ. They behave similarly with a
woman's menstrual blood: they collect from her the monthly blood of impurity,
take it, eat it in a common meal and say: This is Christ's blood" (Quinn p.171). Quinn then goes on: Accounts like this were written by Orthodox bishops who would
naturally paint as lurid a description as possible of their opponents
activities. "But there were many such equally disturbing accounts of
"agape". As John Allegro said 'It must have been revolting', but
the aesthetic sense of true believers is not often finely developed. (Quinn
p.172) The word agape means: "An
abundance of impulsiveness" or "a free-for-all". Quinn then
suggests that the Sheela na Gigs must have represented a very deep-rooted
belief for such a bizarre idea to be adopted and incorporated into the
Orthodox Church's own buildings. They must have been installed in a time that
sexual prudery and chastity was not part of Irish morality. It is a rather
bizarre thought that such a time actually existed, even though no living
person can remember it. The Sheela na
Gig sculptures' raison d'être must have been to ridicule and stamp out the
use of menstrual blood in religious observances, which had been practiced
since time immemorial in the Goddess religion, later maintained by some
Gnostic sects including early Irish Christianity. Joseph Campbell writes: "For, as Ruth Underhill has pointed out, the mysteries of
childbirth and menstruation are natural manifestations of power. The rites of
protective isolation, defending both the woman herself and the group to which
she belongs, are rooted in a sense and idea of mysterious danger, whereas the
boy's and men's rites are, rather, a social affair". There was little doubt expressed
by Nyland (2001) that menstrual blood
played an important role in the practices of the Goddess faith and in the
Gnostic-Christian sect of Ireland and Scotland. |