ASTRONOMY 9: HISTORY OF COSMOLOGY

Handout #2

J. E. Baker
UC Berkeley, Spring 2000

Origin Myths: Africa

1.

Introduction -- Review

(a)

An Aside: Yesterday's Eclipse

• Anatomy of an eclipse
• Why a lunar eclipse is red (and the sky is blue)
• Scientific uses of eclipses
• Eclipses in mythology

  i.

  Asian dragons

  ii.

  Fon: The Great Gods: celestial hanky-panky

(b)

``Truth''

i.

Science

• No experiment/observation contradicts predictions of theory
• Proof vs. dis-proof; science must be falsifiable
• Domain of applicability
• Ockham's razor: Plurality should not be assumed without necessity
• Expt. results transcend culture, religion, ...

ii.

Myth

• Truth is existential, not theoretical
• Effectiveness of myth
• ``Fingers pointing at the Moon''
• Culturally and temporally specific
• Conflicting meanings sometimes coexist

iii.

Science and myth are ``Masks of the Universe''

iv.

Note: we read stories of the origin in translation

(c)

Myths from Africa

• ``Positive being'', creator(s)
• Theme of gods' retreat from the world

  i.

  Lozi (Barotse): God Retreats to the Sky (also Yao)

  • Kamonu (man) disrupts creation through hunting
  • cf. Western myths: expulsion from paradise

  ii.

  Krachi: Separation of Gods from Man

  • Women knock and cook bits of him
  • Used as a towel, annoyed by smoke from cooking fires

  iii.

  Ngombe: Quarrelsomeness of Man

  • Man's fighting drives the creator away to unknown realm

• Gods often fallible

  i.

  Lozi god can't flee his creation without Spider's help

  ii.

  Khoikhoin (Hottentot) Supreme Being is vulnerable, defeated at first by evil chief $\Rightarrow$ ``Wounded Knee''

  iii.

  Nandi: When God Came to Earth

  • Dorobos precede even ordering of the world
  • Thunder god fears their ability to turn while sleeping!
  • Elephant laughs at this but is killed by man: hunting destroys the natural harmony

• The Fall

  i.

  Ngombe: Woman is cast from heaven

  • Incites incest, and is the root of evil
  • Ultimate fate: gods who hold up the sky via East/West poles will get tired, sky will fall, man will regress to a lizard!

• Man's inability to be reunited with the divine
  • Lozi log tower (cf. Babel) collapses
• Creation as a struggle of dualities
  • Khoikhoin: battle of two good/evil chiefs; good fights because evil kills ``his'' people
    • History of tribal warfare
    • Displacement and enslavement by Dutch (c. 1650)
  • Fon: Sun (male, day, east) / Moon (female, night, west) gods
• Creation as procreative
  • Dogon: The First Words
    • Cosmos as granary/woman/womb
    • Sexual relations of heavens/earth gods
  • Mande: The Creation
    • Cosmic Egg created by God
    • Evil arises through leaving the egg prematurely
  • Bushongo: Bumbu Vomits the World
• Creation through divine sacrifice

  i.

  Mande

  • Primal man must self-sacrifice to atone for leaving the Cosmic Egg prematurely and to restore fertility

• Creative power of speech

  i.

  Mande: Revelation of sacred words, divine wisdom

• Water as the primal element
  • Pottery also important (Dogon: sun, moon and stars)
  • Dogon: Grasses clothe the earth, cosmic order
• Influence of the West

  i.

  Swahili: Making the World and Man (Islamic)

  • Creation out of nothingness/not-being by eternal, omnipotent, omniscient god; 7 creations
  • Ordering the universe, 7 heavens/hells (medieval cosmos)
  • Man as angel manifest in clay; purpose to be revealed in thousands of years (apocalyptic)

  ii.

  Domination by Europeans

  a.

  Bulu: How Zambe Created Man, Chimp, and Gorilla

  • Chimp, gorilla, white/black man have equal origin and opportunities
  • Only white focuses on the Book $\Rightarrow$ understanding, power, dominion over nature and blacks

  b.

  Bushongo: Bumba is white, perhaps signifying Euro domination

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