The Origins Of The World’s Mythologies

Description

This book is an ambitious work on mythology. Focusing on the oldest available texts, buttressed by data from archeology, comparative linguistics, and human population genetics, this book reconstructs a single original African source for our collective myths, dating back some 100,000 years. Identifying features shared by this “Out of Africa” mythology and its northern Eurasian offshoots, this book suggests that these common myths—recounted by the communities of the “African Eve”—are the earliest evidence of ancient spirituality. Moreover these common features, the book shows, survive today in all major religions. Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 20 1.1 What Is Myth, and How Do We Study and Compare It?......Page 24 1.2 Definition of Myth and Its Study in the Past......Page 29 1.3 Comparative Mythology......Page 31 1.4 Laurasian Mythology......Page 38 1.5 Earlier Explanations of Myth......Page 43 1.6 Ur-Forms, History, and Archaeology......Page 49 1.7 Summary......Page 56 2.1 Theory and Practice of Comparisons......Page 60 2.2 Reconstructing Laurasian Mythology......Page 73 2.3 Enhancing the Reconstruction......Page 88 2.4 Reconstructing the Laurasian Mythological System and Inherent Problems......Page 98 2.5 Structure and Content in Some Macro-Areas of Laurasian Mythology......Page 103 2.6 Some Objections to the Approach of Historical Comparative Mythology......Page 118 2.7 Conclusion......Page 124 3.1 Primordial Creation......Page 128 3.2 Father Heaven, Mother Earth......Page 151 3.3 Separation of Heaven and Earth, the Prop......Page 154 3.4 Creation of Land......Page 160 3.5 The Demiurge or Trickster......Page 161 3.6 Generations, Four Ages, and Five Suns......Page 183 3.7 The Creation of Humans......Page 190 3.8 Descent of “Noble” Lineages......Page 197 3.9 The Flood......Page 200 3.10 Heroes......Page 203 3.11 The Final Destruction......Page 204 3.12 Summary......Page 206 4. The Contributions of Other Sciences: Comparison of Language, Physical Anthropology, Genetics, and Archaeology......Page 210 4.1 Linguistics......Page 211 4.2 Physical Anthropology......Page 225 4.3 Genetics......Page 230 4.4 Archaeology......Page 264 4.5 Other Items of Comparison......Page 291 4.6 Conclusions Resulting from the Comparison of the Sciences Involved......Page 295 5.1 Possible Ways to Countercheck......Page 302 5.2 Beyond Laurasia......Page 311 5.3 Gondwana Mythologies......Page 315 5.4 Individual Gondwana Myth Types and Their Common Characteristics......Page 347 5.5 Secondary Influences on Gondwana Mythology......Page 363 5.6 Conflicting Myths in Gondwanaland......Page 364 5.7 Counterchecking Laurasian Mythology Based on Gondwana Mythology......Page 370 6. First Tales: Pan-Gaean Mythology......Page 380 6.1 Beyond Laurasia and Gondwana......Page 382 6.2 Our First Tales......Page 393 7. Laurasian Mythology in Historical Development......Page 398 7.1 Late Paleolithic Religion......Page 401 7.2 Changes from the Late Paleolithic to State Societies......Page 424 7.3 Dating Gondwana and Laurasian Mythology......Page 433 8.1 The Meaning of Laurasian Mythology......Page 444 8.2 Beyond Laurasia, Gondwana, and Pan-Gaea......Page 453 8.3 Epilogue......Page 461 Notes......Page 464 Bibliography......Page 604 A......Page 648 B......Page 651 C......Page 653 D......Page 656 E......Page 657 F......Page 659 G......Page 660 H......Page 662 I......Page 665 J......Page 666 K......Page 667 L......Page 668 M......Page 670 N......Page 673 O......Page 675 P......Page 676 R......Page 678 S......Page 679 T......Page 683 V......Page 685 W......Page 686 Z......Page 687