Don't Know Much About Mythology - Kenneth C. Davis [206]
For the forming of the earth they said “Earth.” It arose suddenly, just like a cloud, like a mist, now forming, unfolding…
—Popol Vuh
Screaming the night away
With his great wing feathers
Swooping the darkness up;
I hear the Eagle bird
Pulling the blanket back
Off from the eastern sky.
—invitation song of the Hodenosaunees
From the beginning of creation,
We were placed here…we are
This holy land…
—from a Navajo prayer
While I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being. And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy.
—Black Elk Speaks (1932), as told through John G. Neihardt
In the 1990s, Indian religions are a hot item. It is the outward symbolic form that is most popular. Many people, Indian and non-Indian, have taken a few principles to heart, mostly those beliefs that require little in the way of changing one’s lifestyle. Tribal religions have been trivialized beyond redemption by people sincerely wishing to learn about them. In isolated places on the reservations, however, a gathering of people is taking place and much of the substance of the old way of life is starting to emerge.
—Vine Deloria Jr., God Is Red (2003)
How did Native American myth go up in smoke?
Is there an “American” mythology?
What is the Popol Vuh?
Who were the Mayans who produced the Popol Vuh?
Which gods like a good ball game?
Who’s Who of Mayan Gods
What sets Mesoamerican myth apart?
Did the Aztecs really think the Spanish were gods?
What is the “Day of the Dead”?
Who’s Who of Aztec Gods
Was the “lost city” of Machu Picchu really a “sacred place”?
Did the Incas have a foundation myth?
Who’s Who of Incan Gods
Is there a “North American” mythology?
Who’s Who of North American Native Gods
Which goddess gets her own “planet”?
What famous poem contributed to the “myth” of the Native Americans?
Do Native American myths still matter?
Which mythic character created the Pacific Islands?
What is Dreamtime?
MYTHICAL MILESTONES
The Americas
c. 12,500 years ago Monte Verde sites in Chile include dwellings and stone tools; earliest evidence so far for people in the New World.
c. 11,500 years ago “Clovis culture”: the earliest evidence of human habitation in North America, based on spear points found in Clovis, New Mexico, first discovered in 1932. Earlier dates have been suggested for the Meadowcroft Rock Shelter near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and other sites in Virginia and the Carolinas, but they remain controversial.
C. 9,200 years ago “Kennewick man”: the evidence of oldest known skeletal remains in North America.
Before the Common Era (BCE)
c. 5000 Corn cultivation begins in Central America.
c. 4750 First evidence of animal domestication in Central America.
c. 4500 Corn cultivated in eastern North America.
c. 3500 Cotton cultivation in Central America; used to make fishing nets and textiles.
c. 2600 Large temple complexes built along the Andean coast of South America.
c. 2500 Large permanent villages appear in South America.
c. 2200 Earliest known pottery in South America.
c. 1750 Large ceremonial centers built in Peru.
c. 1500 Earliest evidence of metalworking in Peru.
c. 1200 Olmec, the first major pre-Columbian civilization, emerges in
Yucatan lowlands. Olmec civilization is destroyed around 400 BCE.
c. 1000 Adena culture develops in middle Ohio River valley. The people in this village culture are famous for their large burial mounds, which begin to appear around 700 BCE.
c. 850 Chavin culture, based in Peru, with worship of part-human, part-animal beings, reaches its height.