MYTHS OF ORIGIN

MYTHS OF ORIGIN

Have you heard of the psychologist/anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss of last century?

He (I think in conjunction with Freud) coined the term "Myth of Origin".

Every group / society has a "Myth of Origin" - not necessarily true, but the group's explanation of how they came into existence. Even most families have one and that's the driving force behind the genealogy hunters - they try to separate fact from fiction.

According to some experts, Jews actually have 3 (can you believe it?) Myths of Origin. - Adam & Eve; Noach; and Moses.

Over time, the 3 got compressed into a single composite narrative. We are a long-standing people!

Psychologically, many societies have a Myth of Origin which starts with the ancestors coming out of the sea (eg. the Maoris say the ancestors were carried out on the backs of dolphins. As for us, "Ve ha'aretz haya tohu vavohu, VERUACH ELOHIM MERACHEFET AL PNEI HAMAYIM" - couldn't be more clear.

White South Africa allegedly began with THREE SHIPS THAT CAME FROM HOLLAND.

American history began with the Mayflower.

All these myths ignore the fact that other adventurers came before them - but that's why these examples are called "myths".

Carl Jung says that the sea is symbolic of amniotic fluid, hence the "sea" component in these myths.

Scientists have pointed out that the salt content of the sea is the same as in mammalian blood - suggesting that all that happened when we crawled out of the sea to come and live on land (Darwin's theory) is that we internalized the sea so that our organs could continue to receive the nourishment, chemicals and gasses which it got in sea water.

I wrote about some of this in a poem, https://hjfriedland.blogspot.com/.../the-sea-at-hermanus...

I believe it.

______________________

(c) HARRY FRIEDLAND, MARIMBA

HJFRIEDLAND.BLOGSPOT.COM

THE SEA AT HERMANUS

The walk from our hotel to the town centre of Hermanus ran along the shoreline and as we walked there, in the dark and the silence, which seemed so novel to us after the noise and bustle of Sea Point, we could pretty much navigate by the lights of the town square ahead and the sound of the sea off...

4Leonie Nel, Michael Oboler and 2 others