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related_stories_form_2.docxRelated Stories
African Unit:
MAP of AFRICA
Lesson #11 (African Mythology: Ananse, Humans, and Gods)
Ananse Stories
How Spider Obtained the Sky-God’s Stories :
Like Native American characters, Ananse is both human and a spider, due to the interchangeability of humans and animals. Ananse is a trickster figure. He is also a culture hero (in this story) in the sense that he obtains the stories (“spider stories”), which will be passed on to humans. He makes the divine stories accessible to humans. He also demonstrates that the power of intellect (or trickery) can defeat the physical strength of larger, stronger animals (leopard, python). Like Coyote, Ananse causes trouble, but often brings good things (e.g. the stories) in spite of it. However, Ananse seems to plan out full schemes in advance, whereas Coyote acts more spontaneously.
Note the fact that there is assumed to be power in the stories (language), and this is why they are closely kept by God. Ananse challenges God’s power/authority. The stories represent the power of language, which Ananse “buys” and gives to humans. Note also that this gives Ananse the power to change the stories, sometimes to present his own perspective.
Note the part about Ananse catching the fairy. This same basic motif appears in the Br’er Rabbit/Tar Baby story, which you may already know. Many African stories travelled to the Caribbean and the Americas through the slave trade. In the Caribbean, some of the "Ananse" stories became "Aunt Nancy" stories.
How Disease Came to the Asante:
Ananse promises to send God a beautiful girl in exchange for the sacrificial sheep, but he does not send anyone until the hunter tells God that he has seen Ananse with all of the women. Who is to blame for the negative outcome of this story? Ananse? God? Both, in some sense. Ananse, who has the power of the stories, suggests that it is often God’s fault. God is often tricked by Ananse. Is this a characteristic of an “imperfect” deity (as we saw in Native American myths)? Similarly, humans can also be responsible for their own problems, as well as manipulate “fate” in their favor.
God is jealous of Ananse’s wife (anthropomorphic qualities). He also sees it as Ananse’s attempt to usurp his power. Ananse is always challenging God. The dance ritual belongs to God, not to a spider. Does Ananse plan all of this?
Ananse and the Ear of Corn:
Ananse seems to imply that he can change the ear of corn through magic. But he does it entirely through trickery. Ananse is not generally endowed with magic power. His “power” is in his ability to trick both humans and Gods (as Coyote tricked the Giant).
Ananse “creates” men from “seed” (corn), but it is a false “creation” through deceit. Ananse “trades up” from corn eventually to humans (slaves). He doesn’t actually create anything. Ananse also provides a false “resurrection” by creating “life” (the slaves) out of “death.” He does not admit the limits between life and death. (cf. Coyote). Ananse also manages to always blame problems on everyone else. He is a liar. Notice how even in the last story, God gets the blame for the outcome of Ananse’s trick. Ananse takes advantage of the villagers' gullibility in religious matters when he uses the threat of God's anger to "trade up."
CONCLUSIONS:
Ananse is selfish, greedy, dishonest: not exactly a good role model. Ananse is also very cunning and is able to use trickery to defeat power and strength. He represents the less than admirable qualities present in all people. The fact that Ananse is not magical but cunning indicates that people can also "win" through cunning, without any superhuman power. However, Ananse most often does not use his cunning to good purpose.
Ananse, like Coyote, is a trickster figure, and somewhat marginal socially. However, he is not the total outcast that Coyote is. Ananse continually challenges the power and authority of God. Do humans do this in any way? Is Ananse
Gods and Humans
The Separation of God from Man : (Krachi in Togo/Ghana)
Note the familiar, close (both literally and figuratively) relationship between humans and God . This is typical of many African traditions. However, the distance eventually created between God and humans is the fault of humans becoming too “familiar” with the Divine. This is reflected in not respecting God in the daily domestic activities of humans, i.e. cooking and cleaning.
“We” refers, not to “us,” but to the Krachi pantheon of deities.
Again Ananse challenges God’s power and authority. God asks him to bring “something” without naming it because he wants to prove that Ananse cannot “read” the mind of the divine. Ananse is not all-powerful or all-seeing.
Ananse’s disguise as a bird suggests his (Ananse’s) ability to travel, or “fly” between earth and sky, a trickster who is not divine but manages to reach the realm of the divine (sky) through his cleverness. The unusual, flashy bird distracts the crowd and appears to underscore Ananse’s absence so that Wulbari feels free to share the “joke” he has played on Ananse by asking for “something.”
Ananse does bring back the sun, moon, and darkness, but he has not created them. Instead he has just “found” them, another indication of a “false” creation. This false creation has negative consequences for humans, since it causes blindness. The possible positive aspect of this story is that even a small spider, through his cleverness alone, can partially rival the power of God.
God Retreats to the Sky: (Barotse of west Zambia)
Nyambi fears Kamonu because he (Kamonu), as a human, is attempting to imitate God. This is an indirect challenge to God’s power and authority. Kamonu gets a second chance to live in harmony with God and nature. When he violates the taboo against killing the animals, his dog and child die, his pot breaks. This is direct punishment for acting against the divine rules (cf. the birth of monsters in the Diné bahane’ because of the violation of the taboo against masturbation). The broken pot symbolizes the violation of social order. The death of the child will not allow Kamonu to “live” forever through his descendents (denial of immortality of a sort).
Nyambi refuses to give Kamonu the “medicine” to revive his child and his dog because this would give Kamonu divine powers – the power to resurrect the dead. Nyambi feels threatened by the increasing numbers of humans (in spite of the dead child, humans are procreating). Kamonu continues to try to find and challenge Nyambi.
Spider creates an axis mundi (the spider web), allowing Nyambi to escape Kamonu and climb to the sky. Spider’s function as the connection between the human and the divine is short-lived – he is blinded so that he cannot connect with the divine again. Kamonu’s tower fails because it is an attempt to create a “false” axis mundi to connect humans with the Divine. Only God has this creative power (here by proxy via Spider).
Nyambi becomes associated with the sun. Kamonu cannot become Divine; the best he can do now is to worship the Divine from afar (ritual in the “shouting and clapping.”) Humans are responsible for the distance between them and God because, like Ananse, they tried to challenge God’s authority and power (cf. power struggles in Near Eastern myths).
The Chameleon Finds (Yao of northern Mozambique)
Mulungu is the supreme deity in many Bantu traditions (Bantu, like Semitic, refers to a group of related languages). Chameleon is the “agent” of the creation of humans (he finds them in the water). His “changeable” qualities allow him to act as a connection between the Divine and the earthly. By “fishing” the little humans out of the water, he is acting as an agent for Mulungu.
Notice the origin of people – from water in an almost birth-like motif. Humans grow not only literally, but they develop from a cultural standpoint. They learn to hunt and to cook (make fire). This cultural advancement violates the “standards” of nature. Humans are considered cruel. Spider again provides the axis mundi (the spider web) for God to use to retreat to the sky.
Comparisons:
· These three stories deal with the connection between the Divine and the earthly.
· All suggest an original closeness between the Divine and the earth (either literal or symbolic), which are eventually separated by the various types of challenges to God’s authority or lack of respect.
· Spider and Chameleon act as connections between the Divine and the earth. Ultimately, they are called upon to help separate the two.
Humans begin to annoy or challenge God as they develop culturally and socially, represented by fire, cooking (as in the “pot”) and hunting. The development of these social structures is, ironically, responsible for the permanent separation of the earth and sky.
Yoruba Myths
The Descent from the Sky:
Yoruba mask (artist unknown)
Notice that in this myth, Obatala descends from the sky to create a more interesting landscape on the vast earthly ocean. He descends via the golden chain (axis mundi) to which all of the deities have contributed some gold. Obatala wants to create humans to be companions for him, since he is lonely. He is not interested in worship or in servitude from his human companions. The relationship between the deities and humans in Yoruba tradition is close, immediate, and sympathetic.
When Obatala accidentally creates deformed humans, he admits his mistake and regrets his actions. He resolves to take special care of these humans. Therefore, people who suffer congenital problems have an especially close relationship with God. Although this creator figure is imperfect, he is a sympathetic and responsible God.
As in many other myths you have read this semester, The Descent from the Sky concerns a power struggle among deities. Olokun, Goddess of the sea, resents the fact that Obatala created land on her ocean without her permission. She floods the earth. When humans appeal for help, Eshu becomes the messenger who requires some kind of "payment" to carry the human complaints to God. Thus Eshu establishes the notion of ritual in communicating with divinity. Orunmila causes the flood to recede, and humanity is saved. When the various Gods visit earth, they are reminded of their responsibility to teach and take care of humans.
The power struggle between Obatala and Olokun is raised to another level when Olokun challenges the authority of Olorun, the supreme deity. (Remember, however, that there is the sense of the overarching Divine, so the division of divine power into separate deities is not absolute). Unlike the power struggle between the generations of Gods in the Enuma elish, for example, the power struggle between Olorun and Olokun is resolved with the proposal for a weaving contest (a test of skill, not physical strength). Olorun ends up "winning" the competition through default and trickery, when Olokun believes she cannot compete against the God who (she assumes) can weave cloth more variable and striking than the messenger Chameleon (Chameleon often functions as a messenger between the earthly and the Divine). So this "conflict" is resolved through a combination of trickery and compromise, typical in many African myth traditions.
How Shango Departed from Oyo
Olokun, goddess
of the waters
(Yoruba sculpture
from Nigeria)
This myth describes the way in which Shango, the king, becomes one of the Orìsà. As a king, Shango is not an exemplary ruler, because he is jealous of his two warriors, Timi and Gbonka. He tries various ways of reducing their acclaim and their power, to no avail. Finally he has the two fight to the death. Notice Gbonka's power in using a verbal spell (language) in "overpowering" Timi.
Shango is finally driven from Oyo. He hangs himself on a tree outside of the town. When the townspeople hear the news and come to see, the body of Shango has disappeared; he is "resurrected." (Does this remind you of another figure from a different religious tradition?). Shango becomes the Orìsà of thunder and lightning. So how does such an apparently unworthy character such as Shango merit a position among the divinities? The character of Shango may reflect the typical African ambivalence towards nature. Nature is of course the source of all the nourishes humans, yet it is also dangerous. While rain is needed to grow crops and sustain human life, storms and floods can result in death and destruction. You might think of Shango as a part of nature in all of its complexities.
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Africa Geology
AFRICAN MYTH THEORY
Africa and Orality by Liz Gunner (excerpt)
The continent of Africa can be viewed as a site of enormous, long, and ongoing creativity in relation to orality as a vector for the production of social life, religious beliefs, and the constant constituting and reconstituting of society, idealogy, and aesthetics. If it is language which has a crucial role in the production and reproduction of society, then in the case of orality it is often language combined with the performativity of the body, and enacted in both the public and the private space. If it is justifiable to call the African continent “the oral continent par excellence,” we need to ask why this is so. What precisely might it mean and what conclusions could flow therefrom? Orality needs to be seen in the African context as the means by which societies of varying complexity regulated themselves, organized their present and their pasts, made formal spaces for philosophical reflections, pronounced on power, questioned and in some cases contests power and generally paid homage to “the word,” language, as the means by which humanity was made and constantly refashioned. Orality was the means by which African made its existence, its history long before the colonial and imperial presence of the west manifested itself. In this sense, orality needs to be seen not simply as “the absence of literacy,” but as something self-constitutive, sui generis [of its own kind]. (67)
Orality, Literacy, and African Literature by Abiola Irele (excerpt)
…when one considers the African situation, it is possible to affirm that, in the area of imaginative expression, the advantage may not be altogether on the side of literacy. It needs to be appreciated that orality has preeminent virtues as an expressive modality within the symbolic universe that all forms of social participation require for their full and proper mobilization. And as far as the African situation is concerned, if it illustrates anything, it is the impossibility of isolating language from the total field of social and cultural experience that orality conditions. Indeed, it is in this area that I am inclined to look for what may well constitute the distinctive contribution of African orality to the experience of literature: the reminder it provides that the use of language for imaginative purposes represents a fundamental component of the symbolic structures by which the individual relates to society and by which society itself relates to its universe of existence. (77)
This brings us to a direct consideration of the oral literature itself. There is an obvious sense in which it can be considered as the “true” literature of Africa. It is the literature that is still the most widespread and with which the vast majority of African, even today, are in constant touch, and it represents that form of expression to which African sensibilities are most readily attuned. The reason for this is not far to seek, for despite the impact of literacy, orality is still the dominant mode of communication on the continent, and it determines a particular disposition of the imagination of a different order from that conditioned by literacy. (79)
Above essays excerpted from:
Olaniyan, Tejumola and Quayson, Ato, eds, African Literature: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory. Blackwell Publishing, Malden, MA, 2007
Myth, Literature, and the African World by Wole Soyinka (excerpt)
[In reference to Yoruba myths:]
They [Obatala and Sango] are represented in drama by the passage-rites of hero-gods, a projection of man’s conflict with forces which challenge his efforts to harmonize with his environment, physical, social and psychic. The drama of the hero-god is a convenient expression; gods they are unquestionably, but their symbolic roles are identified by man as the role of an intermediary quester, an explorer into territories of ‘essence-ideal’ around whose edges man fearfully skirts. Finally, as a prefiguration of conscious being which is nevertheless a product of the conscious creativity of man, they enhance man’s existence within the cyclic consciousness of time. These emerge as the principal features of the drama of the gods; it is within their framework that traditional society poses its social questions or formulates its moralities. They control the aesthetic considerations of ritual enactment and give to every performance a multi-level experience of the mystical and the mundane. (1-2)
The nature of Yoruba music is intensively the nature of its language and poetry, highly charged, symbolic, myth-embronic…
Language in Yoruba tragic music therefore undergoes transformation through the myth into a secret (masonic) correspondence with the symbolism of tragedy, a symbolic medium of spiritual meaning within the heart of the choric union…The senses do not at such moments interpret myth in their particular concretions; we are left only with the emotional and spiritual values, the essential experience of cosmic reality. (147, 148)
Soyinka, Wole, Myth, Literature and the African World. Cambridge UP (Canto edition), 1976.
Lesson #12 （African Epic）
African Epics
Gassire's Lute:
This myth establishes the history of the Fasa people, who were the ancestors of the later Soninke people. Wagadu is the central city of the Fasa people. When Wagadu "disappears," it refers to the invasion of the city by neighboring cultures. Wagadu's disappearance and reappearance over time represents the rise and fall of the Fasa culture, repeated over time, which evolved into the Soninke culture.
Gassire is upset that his father has lived so long because he (Gassire) wants to inherit the throne. He is told by a wise man that he will not inherit the throne. Although he was angry at first, when he returns from success in battle, he hears a partridge sing his praises. Gassire decides that it would be better to live forever in song (Dausi) than rule as king: "Hoooh, that I may sing the Dausi! Wagadu will be lost. But the Dausi shall endure and shall live." He realizes immediately that he will attain a kind of immortality through the songs. He is willing to be the griot because he is the subject of the songs. (Talk about blowing your own horn...)
The lute, when first made, will not "sing" because it has no history to sing about: "The wood may no longer be like the wood of a tree, but must be penetrated by and be a part of your people." Gassire is willing to send his eight sons into battle, to be killed and spill their blood on the lute, for the sake of his own fame. The loss of all of his sons in battle and the death of the king will lead to the defeat of Wagadu. But Gassire responds, "'Wagadu can go to blazes.'" He is only interested in fame. Even though his motives are self-serving, Gassire will preserve the history of the Fasa/Soninke people with his songs.
This epic is about the establishment of a cultural history and identity through the oral tradition. Gassire is the griot who preserves the history of the Fasa people, thereby establishing an identity for the Soninke people.
The Epic of Askia Mohammed:
This epic describes the evolution of the Songhay empire and the influence of Islam. The resulting culture is a hybrid of African and Islamic traditions and beliefs.
Si (Sonni Ali Ber) is the ruler of the empire who, it is foretold, will be killed and succeeded by his nephew. In an attempt to avoid this prophecy, Si has all of his sister's children killed. However, as is most often the case, the prophecy cannot be avoided. When Kassaye (Si's sister) gives birth to Mamar (Askia Mohammed), she switches her son with the newborn daughter of her slave (a Baragantché woman who was captured from a neighboring group as a result of war). Mamar's real father is a water deity, whom Mamar meets when he becomes a young man. Mamar lives in the royal household as a servant.
Mamar's father gives him a "really, really, really...white stallion" who gallops "swiftly, swiftly, swiftly..." The repetition of these adjectives/adverbs indicates not only a sense of drama in the oral repetition of this epic, it also indicates that the stallion is of divine origin. It is a gift from the water God to his son, so it is no ordinary horse. The whiteness indicates purity and divinity.
Mamar rides up to his uncle Si, the king, and kills him. Mamar (Askia Mohammed) becomes king and atones for the murder of his uncle by traveling to Mecca, spreading Islam as he went. Askia Mohammed brings Islamic culture, beliefs, and learning to the Songhay culture. Timbuktu, in present-day Mali, becomes a great center of commerce and learning, with one of the largest libraries of its day (early 16th century).
Askia Mohammed has difficulty in trying to conquer the neighboring Bargantché people because he himself was nursed by the Bargantché slave. When he is retreating from the Bargantché, he is protected by the cotton seeds, the egg, and the stone given to him by his mother. When thrown behind him, these items create barriers of bushes, mountains, and rivers for the pursuing Bargantché (as do the items given to the Chief's son escaping from the moon in Native American myth). Because of his "milk" connection to the Bargantaché people, the two cultures end up tolerating each other's presence.
This epic transforms actual history into a mythic context to explain the evolution of the Songhay culture through the introduction of Islam.
The Adventures of Papaju ( Shangaan, or Tsonga ):
Note the first lines establishing narrator and audience (griotte is often the grandmother)
The political situation at the outset of the epic is the question of legitimacy of the heir. The son of the first wife is younger than the son of the second wife; however, the younger son has legitimate claim to the throne. This is similar to the dilemma described in The Mahabharata. The "councillors of the former King" are Papaju's allies. Papaju was also popular with the people.
Papaju is then tricked (cf. Seth and Osiris) by being told that if he swallows a "lucky stone," he will be lucky, and instead becomes mute. Muteness is associated with lack of power (inability to sit on the throne?). Power is in language
Iguana willingly sacrifices himself to cure Papaju, if Papaju follows the prescribed ritual. Iguana asks to have his carcass thrown back into the water and is resurrected.
Papaju's journey through the forest symbolizes possible travel through dream and/or death. Chasing the "honey bird" may imply that Papaju must go through some kind of trial or test of maturity before he can marry at the end of the epic and pass on the kingship. Gilgamesh similarly travels through the mountain tunnel to find Utnapishtim..
Papaju violates the taboo by opening the basket. Think of previous examples of violations of taboos and the consequences. e.g.,Coyote opening the bundle of meat. Gegetsu (the witch) represents famine, disease, old age, death, etc. These are released when the people (here represented by Papaju) do not follow proper rituals and observe taboos. She eats only men because the ills of society seem to be related to lack of food from hunting, lack of political leadership, inability to father children.
During Papaju's absence, the plants in his kingdom wilt and die. This fact suggests that elements of fertility are linked to social order. (This was also the situation in the Diné bahane' when the crops failed because people violated taboos by masterbating and bearing monsters). Papaju’s absence signals a lack of social order, therefore a lack of fertility.
When Papaju returns to the throne, he re-establishes and insures future social order by marrying and bearing heirs. This epic describes the eventual establishment of social order (cf. Rama) through the initial loss and regaining of the throne, the trial through a dangerous journey, and the triumphant return.
The Dahomean Narrative
This myth centers around the ordering of the universe based on the assigning of powers to various deities. Mawu-Lisa, the supreme deity, is both male and female (Mawu is the female part, representing the moon; Lisa is the male part, representing the sun). The term vodun means deity.
The excerpt that you have read centers around the many different versions of the power struggle between the twins Sogbo (also called Hevioso)and Sagbata (also called Azo). Sogbo is given the sky to rule and Sagbata is given the earth.
Sculpture of Mawu-Lisa
In The rule of the sky and earth delimited, Sagbata becomes involved with a power struggle with Death. Sagbata is able to stay awake for seven days, thereby cheating death. Of course, sleep is a metaphor for death, and unlike Gilgamesh, Sagbata is able to avoid sleep. Sagbata proves his divinity by his ability to stay awake, indicating his immortality. He attempts to usurp his brother's power. Sogbo responds with withholding the rain. Sagbata sends various messengers to ask Sogbo to send rain; the chameleon is finally successful (remember chameleon's role in the Yoruba myths?). Sogbo agrees to send rain, but only if Sagbata will make a hole in the ground and put a jar inside. This establishes the significance of ritual, required to get a specific response from a deity. Thereafter, the brothers compromise by agreeing that each should control only his own dominion.
Sogbo becomes master of the Universe is another version of the same power struggle outlined above. Fa (Destiny) and the practice of divination is introduced. Divination is the practice of communicating with the Divine by means of seeds (or shells or similar objects) which are thrown on the ground and the pattern interpreted. This is not stereotypical "fortune telling," but the reading of the will of God. In this version, the messenger is the bird Wututu. When Sagbata left the sky to rule the earth, he took all of the Divine riches, but forgot to take water and fire. The brothers agree again that each should control his own dominion, and the Sogbo allows the rain to fall.
Sagbata's control fo the earth stablized is yet another version of the power struggle between Sogbo and Sagbata, but in this case, Legba is the cause. Legba is the trickster figure who is also the linguist, and hence is able to communicate and interpret among all of the Gods. Legba tells Mawu-Lisa that there is a drought in the sky, resulting in Sogbo withholding the rain. He then tells Sagbata that he should light a great fire on earth. As the fire is burning, Legba tells Mawu-Lisa that the earthly fire may spread to the sky. So Sogbo releases the rain to extinguish the fire. It is then determined that the rain should be regulated from earth, but controlled from the sky.
Notice that in all three of these versions of the power struggle between Sogbo and Sagbata, the conflict is resolved through compromise. The result is stability in the natural order of the world.
The remaining sections deal with various aspects of the ordering of the world, such as the giving of civilization to humans (through metal implements, represented by Gu), the establishment of the worship of the Gods (the first human family/Agblo), and the establishment of ritual through Cheyi.
Legba gives the power of magic to humans. Notice how Legba tricks people by creating a problem (the serpent), then offering the magic solution (charms). One of the first men to learn magic, Awè, challenges the power of Mawu-Lisa by climbing up to the sky (what is the axis mundi here?). Awè could make human figures, but he could not give them life. Mawu-Lisa demonstrates the planting, growing, harvesting, and preparing of corn, thereby showing the power of the Divine over the puny power of humans with their magic. To preclude any further challenge to Divinity, Mawu-Lisa sends Death to earth, which Awè cannot defeat with his magic. A compromise is reached: Death allows the cooking of food (which differentiates humans from animals, i.e. establishes human civilization) to sustain human life. In return, however, humans are mortal. It is an ironic and yet appropriate trade-off: Death allows humans to eat to live so that later they may die.
Thus this myth deals with the various power struggles involved in establishing the order of the world (among the deities, and between deities and humans). All of the power struggles are resolved through compromise.
Lesson #13 （The Dogon Creation）
This is probably the most complex and in-depth myth you have read all semester. The Dogon Creation underscores the significance of the metaphorical level of myth in all cultures, including those that Western scholars once considered "elementary" or "primitive." The Dogon Creation is understood by the Dogon people to be a metaphor for the creation and ordering of the universe.
The myth begins with the creative powers of the God Amma. The "art of pottery" is the first creation of God because it requires skill and emphasizes symmetry. Anyone who has tried to use a potter's wheel knows how difficult it is to maintain balance and symmetry in the clay. And the creation of the world and society is all about order and symmetry.
The earth is metaphorically represented as a female body. The ant hill is the vagina and the termite hill is the clitoris. When Amma first tries to have intercourse with the earth, she blocks his way with the termite hill (clitoris). God then removes the termite hill (symbolic female circumcision, or excision) so that intercourse is possible. However, God's initial attempt at a sexual union with the uncircumcised earth, even though immediately remedied, results in the birth of Jackal. Jackal represents the violation of order and the introduction of chaos because he is a single, rather than a twin, birth.
The Nummo (traditional sculpture)
God's second intercourse with the earth, properly attempted after the excision, results in the birth of the perfect Nummo twins. The Nummo are depicted as both a single being and as twins, both male and female and genderless. They represent perfection, water, and the germination of vegetation. They go to up to "heaven" (the Divine realm), then return to the earth, bringing with them the fibers they will use to cover the nakedness of the mother earth (the ant hill, or vagina). The fibers, brought in a spiral shape, represent the natural order, the ordering of nature. The spiral shape represents the form of whirlwinds, eddies, etc. This is the FIRST WORD, symbolized by the spiral fiber and representing the ordering of nature. In most creation myths, this is described as God creating the plants and animals. Here, the metaphor of the fiber, called the FIRST WORD, is used to represent this creative act.
Why is language a particularly apt metaphor for the ordering of the world? Language makes sense only when the words are structured in the right way, depending on the language. The words must be in a particular order and used in a particular way. Those of you who have studied another language know that a sentence can become nonsense if you take the words of one language and try to put them in sequence according to the rules of a different language. Language is a system.
At this point you will find the first summary paragraph of what has happened in this myth to this point: "Thus clothed, the earth had a language, the first language of this world...beginning of all things."
Jackal violates natural order by raping his own earth mother. As a result, he gains the knowledge of speech and is able to interpret the intentions of God to humans. In addition, Amma (God) decides to create humans directly rather than through intercourse. He creates two humans out of clay.
Now begins one of the most important "issues" of this myth: the issue of gender. When the humans are created, they are imperfect because they are not twins. So the Nummo endow the human male with a female spirit and the human female with a male spirit. They do this by drawing outlines on the ground for each gender, then instructing the humans to stretch out and absorb the spirit from their opposite gender. This makes each human complete, with both male and female elements. For men, the female soul is located in the foreskin. For women, the male soul is located in the clitoris.
The problem, however, is that if humans are both male and female, they cannot reproduce. So, the female part of the male must be removed (circumcision) and the male part of the female must be removed (excision). In one sense, there is no real solution to this dilemma. If each human embodies both genders, then reproduction is compromised. If humans are given one gender, then the perfection of twins is compromised. Therefore, in cultures where female excision is still practiced, it has a powerful symbolic meaning. Without circumcision and excision, humans are not considered fit to reproduce. This ritual is typically a right-of-passage for adolescents when they are initiated into the adult world, i.e., they are ready to bear children.
The next summary paragraph follows: "Here, then, is a Creator God, spoiling his first creation [imperfect creator],...Circumcision and excision are once again the remedy."
The couple created by Amma give birth to the eight Ancestors of the Dogon people. These Ancestors are bi-sexual and self-fertilizing, but they are the only ones to be allowed such perfection. In order to move humans towards a structured society, the Ancestors first purify the earth mother by restoring her original bi-sexual state: the "male" Ancestors guard the earth vagina by replacing the clitoris (termite hill) which God had previously excised. The "female" Ancestors enter the womb (earth). The Ancestors produce offspring who later become the Dogon people.
Eventually all of the eight Ancestors enter the earth. As they do so, they leave on the ground a wooden bowl. This wooden bowl is the beginning of the gift of civilization, symbolizing the civilizing tendency of people to process food, rather than eat it raw as animals do. After the Ancestors have entered the earth womb and purified it, they return to "Heaven" (the Divine realm). However, when the seventh Ancestor enters the earth womb, a change takes place. His lips merge with the earth vagina, and the earth vagina becomes a mouth surrounded by pointed teeth (remember the toothed vagina from the Native American myth? The toothed vagina is a common motif, but the purpose here, however, is different). The pointed teeth become a loom upon which is woven fabric. The spiral fibers which covered the earth mother (the First Word) are woven into fabric. This weaving represents the SECOND WORD, social order. In many creation myths, God creates the plants and animals (the First Word), then creates humans and their social structures (the Second Word). Humans are told to imitate the ant because the ant is part of a highly structured society. Each ant has its role within the larger community. Humans make houses instead of living in caves, they cultivate crops. This is the same process that the early Navajo go through in the Diné bahane' when they are taught by the Holy People to plant crops and use tools. The Second Word becomes "the heritage of mankind and was handed on from generation to generation."
The eight Ancestors are now all in the celestial region. The only part of the creation that needs to be ordered now is the celestial region. For this reason, the eight Ancestors are each given a different grain and are told that they must not eat together. However, this taboo is violated, and some of the Ancestors eat together (a sort of symbolic incest). They decided to return to earth. When they come this time, they bring with them a woven basket. This basket represents the THIRD WORD, or spiritual order. The inverted basket, set on the ground, represents the structure of the universe. On the four sides of the inverted basket are steps, and on each step is arranged the animals of the earth, representing the structure of the natural world. However, the inverted basket does not literally have animals on each step. The Dogon understand that "everything on the steps is a symbol...Any number of symbols could find room on a one-cubit step."
Dogon Granary
This basket is also the form for the granary which stores the crop. This is a symbol of human social structure because humans cultivate and anticipate the future need for food. The granary also represents a woman. Overall, the granary basket represents the order of the entire universe and the Third Word, which is the recognition by humans of the divine intent of this order. In other words, the Third Word establishes the relationship between humans and God, or spiritual order.
So the First, Second, and Third Words represent the different stages of creation:
First Word = the creation of natural order, symbolized by the fibers that cover mother earth
Second Word = the creation of human social structures, symbolized by the woven cloth
Third Word = the recognition by humans of the divine creation of this order and the establishment of spiritual order, symbolized by the granary basket.
What is particularly fascinating about the Dogon creation myth is that it is described as a metaphor within the myth itself. The myth refers to the basket, for example, as symbolic. Everything is a symbol.
