According to Mythologist Joseph Campbell the earliest art forms of the male always represent them dressed or in some sort of a costume.  Women are found in these little figurines (meant to be displayed on a shrine at home) completely naked.  "This says something about the psychological and consequently mythical values of, respectively, the male and the female presences.  The woman is immediately mythic in herself and is experienced as such, not only as the source and giver of life, but also in the magic of her touch and presence.  The accord of her seasons with the cycles of the moon is a matter of mystery too.  Whereas the male, costumed, is one who has gained his powers and represents some specific, limited, social role or function.  In infancy --as both Freud and Jung have pointed out--the mother is experienced as a power of nature and the father as the authority of society.  The mother has brought forth the child, provides it with nourishment, and in the infant's imagination may appear also (like the witch of Hansel and Gretel) as a consuming mother, threatening to swallow her product back.  The father is, then, the initiator, not only inducting the boy into his social role, but also, as representing to his daughter her first and foremost experience of the character of the male, awakening her to her social role as female to male.  The paleolithic Venuses (figurines) have been found in the precincts always of domestic hearths, while the figurines of the costumed males, on the other hand, appear in deep dark interiors of the painted temple-caves, among the wonderfully pictured animal herds." (J. Campbell, Myths to Live By, p36)  The men were further put into roles of shaman, hunter, and conductor of initiation rites.  These people come from a grazing culture where there is spacious room.  "These nomadic tribes , living by killing, have been generally of a warlike character,  Supported and protected by the hunting skills and battle courage of their males, they are dominated necessarily by a masculine psychology, male-oriented mythology , and appreciation of individual valor." (J. Campbell, Ibid, p.41)

It is important to point out that geography plays a major factor in the development of myths.  In tropical jungles a totally different order of nature prevails. As a result we see a different psychology and mythology emerge.  More on that in the next blog.

Myths are important to human beings. They give shape or form to our world. The late great anthropologist and mythologist Joseph Campbell gave a series of lectures in New York between 1958 and 1971. In these he shared what he had learned regarding his scholarly pursuits. He learned that humans have had a particular pattern to their myths and geography impacts the form the myths appear. Around 250,000 and 50,000 b.c. we find evidence of burial graves made by the Neanderthal Man. There were two kinds. The "first, burials with food supplies, grave gear, tools, sacrificed animals, and the like; and second, a number of chapels in high-mountain caves, where cave-bear skulls, ceremonially disposed in symbolic settings, have been preserved. The burials suggest the idea, if not exactly of immortality, then at least of some kind of life to come; and the almost inaccessible high-mountain bear-skull sanctuaries surely represent a cult in honor of that great, upright, manlike, hairy personage, the bear. The bear is still revered by the hunting and fishing peoples of the far North, both in Europe and Siberia and among our North American Indian tribes; and we have reports of a number among whom the heads and skulls of the honored beasts are preserved very much as in those early Neanderthal caves." (Joseph Campbell, Myths to Live By, pg. 31) The operating theme being that we take life to perpetuate life. We esteem that which helps us survive. We honor those things.

This life perpetuating life through a process of killing, death or sacrifice is further demonstrated by the Ainu of Koshiru (Southeastern coast of Hokkaido). They have a legend of a Bear-god who was entranced by a lovely lady's song by the stream. She ran away when she saw him. She was so terrified, she left her baby behind. The bear nurtured and cared for the baby. Hunters arrived and witnessed the care and saw the Bear-god run off. 'He took care of this lost baby. The bear is good. He is a worthy deity, and surely deserving of our worship.' So they pursued and shot him , brought him back to their village, held a bear festival, and offering good food and wine to his soul, as well as loading it with fetishes, sent him homeward on his way in wealth and joy." (Carl Etter, Ainu Folklore, pp55-57) Apparently, the powers of the bear survive death and are effective in the preserved skull. Rituals link these powers to the community and fire is associated (perhaps the first carne-asada?).

Speaking of fire. Anthropologists believe fire was not necessarily used for cooking. Peking man cannibalized his comrades dining on their fresh, raw brains. Heating could have been a primary use but the Neanderthals passed away with the ice age. However, there seems to have been a fascination with fire--fire as a fetish, something to be kept lit in the home and observed. "Fire, then may well have been the first enshrined divinity of prehistoric man. Fire has the property of not being diminished when halved, but increased. Fire is luminous, like the sun and lightning, the only such thing on earth. Also, it is alive; in the warmth of the human body it is life itself, which departs when the body goes cold. It is prodigious in volcanoes, and, as we know from the lore of many primitive traditions, it has been frequently identified with a demoness of volcanoes, who presides over an after world where the dead enjoy an everlasting dance in marvelously dancing volcanic flames." (J. Campbell, Myths to Live By, p. 35). Today's fireplace and romantic candles, are they a connection to our primitive ancestors?

Homo sapiens, our direct ancestors, appeared after the ice age. They are associated with the cave paintings in France and in Spain. These are considered works of art. This is not the same as a burial site or cave-bear skull. Little figurines of women were also found. They were made from stone, mammoth bone or ivory. They had no feet because they were meant to be displayed standing up with the figure pressed into a surface. These women are all naked with no adornments. There is no male counterpart. The males are seen in cave paintings and they are always clothed. More on what this means later.