++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
ARCHIVE. For a list of all my published posts:
http://www.sammackintosh.blogspot.com/
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This is the 14th in the series of blog entries I began with #101-- a collection of notes and essays (and book reviews, I'm just realizing) from my files all dealing in one way or another with the emerging new religious consciousness. They are mostly things I've written over the last decade or two to clarify my own thoughts but which I would like to make available for anyone who might be interested.
ARCHIVE. For a list of all my published posts:
http://www.sammackintosh.blogspot.com/
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This is the 14th in the series of blog entries I began with #101-- a collection of notes and essays (and book reviews, I'm just realizing) from my files all dealing in one way or another with the emerging new religious consciousness. They are mostly things I've written over the last decade or two to clarify my own thoughts but which I would like to make available for anyone who might be interested.
Post
#114 is a collection of notes from late 1995 on books focused in various ways on
the Paleolithic roots of religion and spirituality.
If
you have questions and think I might be of help, you're welcome to send me a
note: sam@macpeno.com
===
SACHA
RUNA: Ethnicity and Adaptation of Ecudorian Jungle Quichua, by Norman E. Whitten, Jr (U of
ILL Press, 1976)
This is
written in a heavy and almost unreadable style, with lots of native terms
(Spanish, too). It's about peoples who live a bit south of Coca and Sacha Lodge
on the Rio Napo where I visited [with the Dodge Foundation rain forest studies
group]. Lots of talk of shamans and spirits, but not in a form that makes it
useful or even graspable. Too academic, alas.
===
The
Spirit and the Flesh, Sexual Diversity in American Indian Culture by Walter L. Williams. Beacon
Press, Boston 1986.
A few
years ago, in the summer of ‘92 when I spent some time taking a course in
Environmental Chemistry at Bar Harbor, Maine, I came across a book by a Jungian
analyst from San Francisco, Robert Hopche. I can’t remember the title, but it
dealt with gay culture from a Jungian viewpoint, and was surprisingly helpful
for an understanding of the differences between patriarchal and non-patriarchal
manhood. It’s interesting that it was that recently that we were still
formulating such a distinction!
2012
Note: It's been 20 years now, but it helped me to see that "the
masculine" could be expressed in other than the most conventional terms of
American culture. I once (in the early 1970s) heard Alan Watts say there were
12 basic sexes, but he didn't expand on it at the time. We've come along way
since all that!
This
book, The Spirit and the Flesh, is similar in value to Hopche's. It’s about Native
American berdaches (Sioux: winkte), as known from past historical documents and
contemporary Native Gay movements. The author is an “ethnohistorian” from the
University of Southern California. The first several chapters are of great
interest. A summary of the things I found most interesting (in no special
order).
1. From a
native point of view, biologically male persons may have a male spirit, or a
female spirit, or a mixture of the two, or a spirit that is neither. (This
contrasts greatly with Western Judeo-Christian culture which sees only an
either/or possibility.)
2. In
terms of this study, berdaches are always male. But their spirit is either male
and female together, or something other than either. With very few exceptions,
they are known and honored in most native cultures, world-wide.
3. Many
myths tell of a time when people existed prior to any sexual differentiation.
Berdaches may be embodiments of that pre-differentiation androgyny. They tend
to be of great power. Myths characterize them as particularly inventive
(creative).
4.
Berdaches are not necessarily shamans. Shamans and berdaches have different
functions, but there are a number of similarities. For example: a berdache
becomes such because he is fated to, “by his nature and his dreams,” usually
around age 10-12.
5. One of
main functions of berdaches is ceremonial roles, acting out performances; the
author notes the cross-cultural tendency of gays toward theater, stage, acting
roles.
6. He
says shamans do a lot by way of performance too, but they are therapists more
than actors. The comment on status is especially interesting: shamanic status
in native cultures is determined by how well the individual shaman can relate
to the spirit world for the benefit of the community. The author notes that
there is still male-male competition, as in “civilized” cultures, but that the
content is not concerned with putting others down so much as seeking honor as
one who most helps “the people to live”.
7.
Although berdaches are not necessarily shamans, most have some shamanic power,
a “speciality.” They are often sought after by shamans for advice. One of their
major roles is that of naming young boys, with lucky and funny/gross secret
names, which confer great future power on the youths. (Alas, no examples are
given.)
8. The
basic NA attitude towards berdaches is one of respect, as toward any other wakan phenomenon, and there is also a
fear of their potentially destructive power. But neither attitude prevents
egalitarian joking relationships on the part of relatives. And even though the
berdache’s gayness is naturally an object of the jokes, it does not mean any
disdain for him for that reason.
9. B’s
are often called seers: they can see things from both male and females points of
view, and are especially valued for that (just as anything different is valued
as wakan in
native cultures).
10. They
see themselves as different, too, precisely in that they see things differently
from others. (They emphasize that this “difference” is a separate thing from
their being attracted to other males.) Their ability to “see” often allows them
to be prophetic (in the narrow sense of being able to predict the future).
11. “When
nature burdens a man it also gives him a power.” Besides naming and predicting
the future, other common powers include having a central role in blessing
ceremonies (as for example blessing the tree-pole for a sun dance) and offering
spiritual protection. (That last I wasn’t clear about. I hope to go back to
it.) (Later: No luck.)
12. In
childhood, he experiences himself not so much as feminine as other, unique,
more individual in his interests and concerns: more androgynous than feminine.
13.
Westerns ask: “How did this kid get that way and what can we do to help him? ” Native
peoples ask: “What has this wakan person to offer for the benefit of all of us?”
14. B’s
tend to be highly intelligent, make good teachers (of older kids) and good
care-givers of adults, the elderly, etc. They are better at most female work
roles than woman (stronger, tire less quickly, not interrupted by monthly
periods, etc.) Often make very good parents (of adopted children). Not good at
early child care.
15. In
terms of sexual activity, they always have the role of the “insertee” (rather
than the “inserter”); they consider sex with another berdache to be
(unacceptable) incest.
16. They
are biologically male but female in many non-biological ways. They often
emphasize cleanliness, personal looks, quality clothes, and interior
decorating, “just like urban gays.” But they do not abandon the male
competitive drive for prestige: they just seek it in ways other than hunting
and raiding. At death they may be buried in female clothing, but on the male
side of the cemetery.
17. Their
non-macho form of manhood is greatly honored. They are in fact recognized as a
“third gender,” while in our culture it leaves the individual open to
tremendous stress. As does-- my whole point-- having a vocation to a shamanic
personality.
===
The
stone age present: how evolution has shaped modern life: from sex, violence,
and languages to emotions, morals, and communities / by William F. Allman. (Simon
& Schuster, c1994.)
SUBJECTS
Genetic psychology. * Behavior evolution. * Human evolution.
This is a
popular-audience book by a science writer. A good intro to a lot of important
ideas. The section on “evolutionary medicine” is especially interesting.
===
The
moral animal : evolutionary psychology and everyday life / Robert Wright.
SUBJECTS
Sociobiology. * Genetic psychology. * Human behavior. * Behavior * evolution.
This is
an extremely interesting set up: Contemporary Darwinian-social biology ideas
explained by examples from the life of C. Darwin. I enjoyed this book a lot.
===
The
evolving self : a psychology for the third millennium / Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly.
(HarperCollins Publishers, c1993.)
SUBJECTS
Genetic psychology. * Behavior evolution. * Social evolution.
Lots of
good clear ideas here about memes.
===
AUTHOR
Lappe, Marc.
TITLE Evolutionary
medicine : rethinking the origins of disease PUBLISHER San Francisco : Sierra Club Books, c1994.
SUBJECTS
Diseases -- Causes and theories of causation. * Environmentally induced
diseases. * Environmental health. * Human evolution.
This is
written in unnecessarily clinical/academic-- and unreadable-- style. A big
disappointment. Just not fun.
===
THE
TRANSITION FROM SHAMANISM TO RUSSIAN ORTHODOXY IN ALASKA, by S.A. Mousalimas (Berghahn
Books, 1994)
Despite
the lack of even the slightest evidence of editorial responsibility on the part
of the publishers, and the utterly atrocious style of the author, this is a
fascinating book. Indeed, I think it might be said to be an important book.
I know of
no other text which has tried to deal with shamanism and Orthodoxy. And beyond
that, of no other text which has attempted, as this one has, to set out so
explicitly Patristic texts concerning the early (pre-dualistic and Augustinian)
Christian perspectives on nature and the created world.
Alas, I
can’t tell what the author’s purpose is. I think this is essentially a
sociology text, but I’m not really sure. Certainly it is a demonstration of
erudition, and I guess we can’t expect much more in terms of
reader-friendliness from an Oxford PhD thesis. And the author’s typical Orthodox
xenophobic hostility (extended here even to the Orthodox Church in America) is
laughable. But there’s gold in this pile of bullshit!
What
struck me most was that, with some reference to Jungian perspectives on images
and archetypes, the core of this book could be a major contribution to 21st
century understanding of religious experience. It could go a long way toward
the recovery, both inside and outside the churches, of what once was the
experience of “everyone, everywhere.”
And it
could be invaluable for supplying the foundations of a 21st century
environmental spirituality that would be simultaneously both
Christian/Patristic and human/paleolithic.
Personally,
I especially enjoyed the description of the hunter’s reverence for the bones of
the game animals as atonement, “restoring harmony” (pp 120-121). And the
author’s quotes: of M. Eliade’s observation that sighing and tears are a
central motif of Pascha: “All nature sighs, awaiting the Resurrection;” and of
Dostoyevsky’s “all creation, all creatures ... weep to Christ.” (Helps me to
make a little better sense of my present calling.)
The
author’s mention of English terms used to translate “ecstasy” is enlightening.
In Psalm 115, when David exclaims, “I said in my ecstasy...”, the King James
bible says “haste,” and the Revised Standard Version uses “consternation.” Both
say “madness” in place of ecstasy in translating Zachariah 12:4, and Peter’s
ecstasy in Acts 10 and 11 becomes “a trance.” The author does an excellent job
in spelling out what ecstasy really means, and does it-- remarkably-- without
any reference to Jungian functions of consciousness or intuition. I especially
like his definition of shaman as one who is in touch with the powers of the
world and so can do extraordinary things.
===
AUTHOR
Angela, Piero, 1928-
TITLE The
extraordinary story of human origins / Piero and Alberto Angela; translated from the Italian by
Gabriele Tonne ; illustrations by
Valter
Fogato.
PUBLISHER
Buffalo, N.Y. : Prometheus Books, 1993.
SUBJECTS
Man -- Origin. * Human evolution.
This
contains some neat drawings. I shared them with the HS Science Club.
===
The
tribal self : an anthropologist reflects on hunting, brain, and behavior / Ron Wallace. University Press
of America, 1991.
This is a
gem of a book: barely 150 small sized pages, large type, each essay hardly more
than three or four pages maximum, each dealing with some aspect of human
behavior from the point of view of brain functioning and anthropological data
about human evolution. No jargon; just down to earth comments and thoughts.
A few of
the ideas that stayed with me:
1.
Focusing one’s attention and classifying or categorizing things is a
pleasurable, possibly even addictive, behavior. The brain actually releases
opiates when we do such things. (Reason seems to be the need for quick
attention to calls for scavenging in humanity’s early pre-hunting phase, and
competent and quick classification of other creatures also competing for the
same scavenging opportunity.)
2. In
contrast to feminist views, male are indeed different and in fact fragile (as
the more expendable sex, more subject to evolutionary experimentation; thus,
for example, there are more male geniuses but also more retarded males, etc.)
“Sperm is cheap.”
3.
Related: males have been split within themselves for millions of years by the
need to be “gentle at home but tough ‘out there.’”
4. Woman
tend to fight a lot among themselves, and because they tend to focus on family,
even when they have positions of power do not contribute much socially.
(Biological reason seems to be that females in hunting cultures-- and earlier
anthropoid societies-- come from outside the small hunting band and thus do not
instinctively promote the survival of genes found there, other than their own.
In contrast, the males in the band have to be biologically related and stay
together to know one another well, for success/survival in the hunt.)
5.
Clearest description I’ve ever seen of biological cause of gayness. The fetal
transformation of the basic female-form into male, which takes place around 6th
week of fetal development, and which is determined by presence of
male-chromosomes in zygote, is clearly distinguished from the process by which
drive for mating with opposite sex is established, around 3rd month of pregnancy.
The hormones which affect this instinctive drive are suppressed in fetuses of
women exposed to major environmental stresses; the result is a normally
care-giving, but non-reproducing male: an evolutionary survival strategy. (The
process is verified by animal research, and studies of mothers of gay sons
indicate a large proportion indeed claim to have been subject to major stresses
during the pregnancy.) Fascinating!
6. Of
great personal interest are the author’s comments concerning the shamanic world
view. Just as we have the capacity for language wired into our brains, with the
details (of given languages) coming from our cultural situation, so he says we
also have wired into our brains basic myth patterns, again with the specific
forms (particular spirit-powers, gods) coming from our cultural situation. The
“patterns” emerge into consciousness during “ceremonies” (specifically via
drumming, he notes) and are thus available for healing, etc. He conclusion is
amazing: “While all this no doubt really works, we should leave it alone. We
should honor it by having nothing to do with it, because it requires a sacred
world view, from which we have come too far to go back. We should stick with
our sterile secular stethoscopes.” [Note added 2012: What an amazing example
of the modern world's fear of the sacred!]
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