"Creation Road" - The Origin of Origin

"The dreamlike spell of this contemplative, metaphysically oriented tradition, where light and darkness dance together in a world-creating cosmic shadow play, carries into modern times an image that is of incalculable age. In its primitive form it is widely known among the jungle villages of the broad equatorial zone that extends from Africa eastward, through India, Southeast Asia, and Oceania, to Brazil, where the basic myth is of a dreamlike age of the beginning, when there was neither death nor birth, which, however, terminated when a murder was committed. The body of the victim was cut up and buried. And not only did the food plants on which the community lives arise from the those buried parts, but on all who ate of their fruit the organs of reproduction appeared; so that death, which had come into the world through a killing, was countered by the opposite, generation, and the self-consuming thing that is life, which lived on life, began its interminable course."

- The Masks of God, Vol. 1: Primitive Mythology - Joseph Campbell

Considering what anthropology understands in regards to the continuation of social ideals through related peoples of dissimilar cultures by traversed relation, I'd like to draw attention to the locations listed above.

"extends from Africa eastward, through India, Southeast Asia, and Oceania, to Brazil"

To fully appreciate this, I feel we have to see this drafted out on a map (I accidentally got B and C backwards on the map in their order, I'll fix it eventually):

https://sites.google.com/site/hebrewpeo ... onroad.png

First of remark is the importance of shared origin stories between Brazil and East Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and Oceania.

That in itself is rather fascinating considering the on-going debate regarding the diffusionist theory (look at the diffusionist theory on a map regarding the cultural Oceanic travels [click for map]).

However, remarkable as this may be, more of my fascination personally is a bit less controversial (diffusionist theory is rather a "sensitive" subject in the museum/academia circuits).

I would like to focus back to Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and India, and read back through the passage above.

Then start reflecting on the Hebraic tale of creation with which we are familiar with.

Then take note of the timeline (so far as we are able to determine) for the Hebrew peoples anthropologically.

While the above citation from Campbell doesn't give us a timeline for this (what I'm now calling) "Creation Road" (like the "Silk Road"; which should be noted as similar in route) propagation, one time-frame that we are given is that of 2350 BCE (shortly listed after the above citation) in regards to Sumer and human sacrifices within context of the creation story tangent of discussion within the section.

We know the Indus Valley Civilization (also sometimes known as Harappan Civilization), begins around the mid 3000 BCE period, and became rather matured and grown by mid-2000 BCE range.

This area is the Pakistan/India region.

The Hebraic peoples are just north-west-ish of this location and about ~100 years after the "fall" of the Indus Valley Civilization, rising from the already established Canaan civilization, which rose (not counting "proto-Canaan" populations, which were around 3000 BCE) around 2000 BCE.

To gather where these peoples come from, we do have to look at the proto-Canaan organization which can be summarized as wikipedia puts it:

"The first cities in the southern Levant arose during this period.[22] These "proto-Canaanites" were in regular contact with the other peoples to their south such as Egypt, and to the north Asia Minor (Hurrians, Hattians, Hittites, Luwians) and Mesopotamia (Sumer, Akkad, Assyria), a trend that continued through the Iron Age."

Now, why this is of interest is that the Hebraic peoples formed out of the Canaan peoples as highland people; specifically, they appear to first form (the Hebraic peoples) during around 1200 BCE when the "Sea Peoples" (unknown origin and demographic at this time) invaded the Levant region and laid waste to the lands of Canaan, disrupting the economic trade between the lowland farmers and the highland shepherds; thereby causing the highland shepherds to recede up to their highlands of the Levant region (of which there are plenty) and there we begin to see the rise of tribal organization putting down more permanent settlements for the first time and eventually links between these groups beginning and eventually rising to the more commonly understood Hebraic lands around 900 BCE time frame (by 930 BCE we see a distinct Israel from Judah [anthropologically and archaeologically, we are not certain about the Hebraic claim of Solomon's unified Kingdom around 1000 BCE; it may be possible, but it would have been somewhat more humble than imagined, or, at least, that's what the evidence so far suggests]).

Why this is of interest (yes, I keep using that phrase, but it's appropriate in tangent) is that the Hebraic culture has always remained somewhat of a fascination to me as just look at the timeline I supplied.

This culture rises from highland shepherds, and within 400 years, we have Judea creating the majority of what we have in the Torah and much of what would become the full Tanakh (~late 900 to early 800 BCE is the range for J and E sources of the documentary hypothesis [see the right-hand side of the timeline I supplied]).

Think about that.

America is where it is today within roughly the same time frame largely because the global economy accelerated the growth of technology during the growth period of America, and America was started by aristocratic and wealthy individuals from other nations who borrowed heavily from other nations (mostly France) to fuel the early growth period.

Now, again, think about that.

The Hebrew peoples had, not one, but two sovereign Kingdoms, and a schism of the Samarian people (not of Sumer, but Samaria), which is its own focus and consideration [which I hope to incorporate more fully into that timeline], but are a people whom the Hebrews considered part of their own peoples, yet fallen away from the true path of their culture and so were disowned.

ALL of this within 400 years time without any real solid economic aid or strong aristocratic core (so far as we know, but that may be part of the key; perhaps "Solomon" and "David" were aristocratic Canaanites who factioned off with other Canaanites to make the Hebraic peoples; we don't know yet).

The remarkable realization is that we must be compelled to wonder how such a growth rate was possible in such an incredibly finite range of time!

So you may now appreciate my elation when I read the passage from the Mask of God that I started out with in citation.

Suddenly, I have a key to this paradox.

I have long looked at the Indus Valley peoples as suspicious in influence for the Hebraic peoples, but I had no real solid indicator that this was likely or plausible (despite their incredibly close proximity) because I lacked solid information regarding what belief systems were in place for creation tales within this region (it's a mess looking that far back).

I greatly look forward to the rest of this book as a result, and eagerly await the Near East chapter specifically, as right from the beginning, this book has already granted me an incredibly solid lead on how the growth of the Hebraic peoples was possible: it is possible, now, for me to posit that they were heavily influenced by the Canaan creation stories, which were themselves heavily influenced by the Indus Valley creation stories, which were themselves related to creation stories which migrated out of East Africa and moved eastward across Southern Asia.

This also helps me understand culturally unique relationships; for instance, as Bob really likes to point out, there are multiple similarities between the Hebraic philosophies and views of time and ontology and Vedism of India.

Many propose that Jesus traveled to India, and this is how the influence got in.

However, in just this first chapter's first few paragraphs, it has been made incredibly clear that such shared relationships, yet while maintaining fascinatingly distinct iterations in the Hebrew culture, are because of a very closely shared older and powerful cultural connection!

As an example of the shared relationships philosophically and ontologically in which I refer to; we are all rather familiar with India's Karma philosophies.

Less known to most folks is the Hebraic variation of "Karma", or the ontological considerations which produce a very strangely similar Indian Karma-like viewpoint.

To the very old (not so much today, but it's still kind of there a bit today) Hebrew culture (we're talking circa 1200-maybe 600 or 500-ish BCE range, with 500 as kind of the extreme date), there was a Karmic-like view.

I find it difficult to articulate in words, but this is the best way that I've come to be capable of explaining it:

Think of pouring water from a pitcher into a cup.

Think of the water on a molecular level.

Think of each molecule as one human being.

Think of pouring the water in two separate instances; once for breakfast, and once for lunch.

Now, clearly, the water that was poured into the cup at breakfast is not the same as the water poured into the cup for lunch.

However, the same "placements" of the molecules and the same relative "motion" of the molecules are consistent.

The "actors" changed, but the "characters" remained. 

Each replacement "actor" molecule conducts the same ontological movements as a previous "actor" molecule, and thus, the "character" is perpetually and cyclically preserved.

The view was that humans and society were, to use some modern concepts, like clocks; mechanisms that tick over time, and though the physical parts change, the essential representative "characters" or conceptual parts are preserved.

As such, they viewed time as if I took a spiral staircase and placed it lengthwise on the ground, rather than through some stairwell; like a giant screw.

For a moment, put the staircase back upright and walk from floor one to floor three.

As you go each round of the stairs, you will repeatedly pass, let's say, the three o'clock position.

Each time you pass that position, it won't be the same round of stairs, but it will be the same "motion" you are doing.

They saw time this way (as well as they saw time backwards from us, "past" was in front of now, and "future" was behind now; based on what you could see and what you could not see).

The Sabbath is, in part, actually one of the earliest cyclical marking points for this way of viewing time: the rituals were performed with the above ideas in mind (regarding characters and actors), and prophets and messiahs were thought of in the same light; that, for instance, a messiah is a reoccurrence of Moses, and Moses was a reiteration of a previous.

This is what (among others, but this is an example) I am referring to when I refer to the ideologically shared, yet unique, relationships between these cultures.