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.