[1] If not otherwise specified, all dates are to be considered BCE (before contemporary era)
[2] The American ethnologist L.H. Morgan (1818-1881) divided human history into three blocks: savagery, barbarism and civilization.
ELIADE Mircea (1976): Histoire des croyances et des idées religieuses. I. De l’âge de la pierre aux mystères d’Eleusis. Paris, Payot, 10 (tr. by the author)
[3] In this work, I use the term “procreation” that accounts for the adaptive character of the human sexual system, feature that is absent from the system by reproduction.
MCLENNAN J.F. (1865): Primitive Marriage: An Inquiry into the Origin of the Form of Capture in Marriage Ceremonies. Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black
LEACH Edmund (1966): Virgin Birth. Proceedings of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, No. 1966, 39-49
MONTAGUE Susan (1971): Trobriand Kinship and the Virgin Birth Controversy. Man, New Series, 6, 3, 353-368
[4] References on this subject are gathered under Virgin birth in the bibliography.
[6] “In the first place it is essential to remember that there is no such thing as a virgin amongst the women of the native tribes from one end of Australia to the other. As soon as a native girl reaches puberty, she is handed over to her allotted husband and has continuous intercourse for the rest of her life. In that respect there is no difference between any two native women, and yet the native sees that some women have children, some do not. The intercourse is continuous, the bearing of children is sporadic. It is long after a woman has had intercourse before she becomes aware that there is a child within her. Seeing then that every woman without exception has continuous intercourse; that some have children, some do not; that those that have them bear them at varying intervals which have no relationship to the time of intercourse, and that the woman only knows she has a child when the quickening takes place, which, again, has no reference to intercourse, it is not a matter of surprise that the savage man, who is, according to his lights, a very logical being, should seek some other explanation of the origin of children than that of sexual connection.” [Spencer, 1914, 25]
EYRE Edward John (1845): Journals of expeditions of discovery into central Australia and overland from Adelaide to King George's Sound in the years 1840-1. London, Boone (Sydney, 2002)
[7] Claude Meillassoux [1977] describes the prehistoric band as a multitude without intentions other than that of the most immediate needs, and as a group without lineage, since affiliation is imposed and represents a lack of choice.
HERODOTUS (1850): Histoires trad. du grec par Larcher. Paris, Charpentier, I, 216
HERODOTUS (2010): The Histories. An account of great and marvelous deeds through the 1920 translation of A. D. Godley. Pax Librorum, IV, 180
PETHERICK John (1861): Memorandum of a Journey from Khartum by the White Nile, Bahr el Gazal, and in the lnterior of Central Africa, during the year 1857 and 1858. London, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society
GODELIER Maurice (2003): Un homme et une femme ne suffisent pas à faire un enfant. Analyse comparative de quelques théories culturelles de la procréation et de la conception. Ethnologies comparées, No. 6, Printemps 2003 – Texte de la conférence prononcée le 14 novembre 2002 à l’université de Virginia (Charlottesville), 5-6 (tr. by the author)
MOSKO Mark (1998): On "Virgin Birth," Comparability, and Anthropological Method. Current Anthropology, 39, 5, 685-687, 685
[8] The few people around the world that do not recognize physiological maternity practice sexual totemism: dividing the community along gender lines, each gender is “mystically” linked to an animal. When Alfred Howitt observes this phenomenon for the first time in 1834, he notes that women having the magpie for totem consider this animal as being their ancestor. All the women of the community are bound with the life of that animal: protecting the magpie means protecting the life of all women who share the same totem. Members of the other sex are obliged to respect it as well, any violation giving place to bloody battles between the two sexes. [Durkheim, 1912; Frazer, 1922]
SPENCER Baldwin (1914): Native Tribes of the Northern Territory of Australia. London, Macmillan, I
MOUNTFORD C.P. & HARVEY A. (1941): Women of the Adnjamatana Tribe of the Northern Flinders Ranges, South Australia. Oceania, XII; in Montagu, 1942, 156
MONTAGU Ashley (1937/1974): Coming into being among the Australian aborigines. London, Routledge; in Spiro, 1968; in Delaney, 1986, 8
ROTH W.E. (1903): North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin 5: Superstition, magic and medicine. Brisbane, Gouvernment Printer
SPENCER B. & GILLEN F.J. (1899): Native Tribes of Central Australia. London, McMillan, 265
BADINTER Elisabeth (1992): XY. De l’identité masculine. Paris, Odile Jacob, 83
[9] Strangely, the idea that all children belong to the female sex has been proven correct: if the SRY gene producing testosterone loosens this hormone during the formation of the fetus, it will be a male; otherwise, it will take the "default" configuration, that of the female sex.
MONBERG Torben (1975): Fathers Were Not Genitors. Man, New Series, 10, 1, 34-40
[10] As we will see in Part Three, polyandry was still practiced at Sumer until the different code of laws came to forbid it, condemning woman practicing it to death. A case of polyandry appears in the Old Testament with the story of Onan [Ge 38:8-10].
SCHNEIDER D.M. & LEACH E.R. (1968): Virgin Birth. Man, New Series, Vol. 3, No. 1, 126-129
[11] These differences can also be noted with regard to inbreeding. The fact that many communities have tried to reduce its consequences does not imply that they understood the laws of procreation. The Agta for example (Philippines) forbade all alliances between families that were previously connected by marriage. A young man with many brothers had to cover great distances to find a woman, since his eldest brothers had already cleaned out the surrounding villages. The interdiction to marry into the family of a sister-in-law indicates an attempt to control inbreeding without understanding its principles. In his survey on kinship terminology by the Truk and the Ponape of Caroline Islands, J.L. Fisher noticed that the same term designates the wife and the sister-in-law. For the Lamalera (Indonesia), the man who wants to marry must offer an elephant tusk to the woman he chooses. The fact that there are no elephants on the island obliges him to leave. An effective way to make sure that the young man will look somewhere else for a wife, in places where they are less expensive, or where elephants are more common. [See also Appendix Spencer, Totemism]
[12] During the 2012 presidential election in the United States, the Republican candidate made the same assertion, alienating many women.
[13] The German missionary Carl Strehlow wrote that it was impossible for the Arunta (Australia) to establish a relationship between sex and procreation, since they could hardly count until five and were unable to measure the time between two events.
DIAMOND Jared (1999): Guns, Germs, and Steel. The Fates of Human Societies. New York, Norton (1997)
[14] These communities are too numerous and scattered to consider the possibility that this knowledge could have been forgotten.
BREBEUF Jean de (1636a): Relation de ce qui s'est passé en la Nouvelle France, en l'annee 1636. Part II being Brebeuf's Relation of the Hurons for this year, originally published as an appendix to Le Jeune's Relation of 1636, and thus completing the document; in The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents. Travels and Explorations of the Jesuit Missionaries in New France 1610-1791, Edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites. Vol. X, Hurons 1636. Cleveland, 1897
DU PERON François (1639): Lettre au P. Joseph-Imbert du Peron. Ossossané, April 27, 1639; in The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents. Travels and Explorations of the Jesuit Missionaries in New France 1610—1791. Vol. XV, Hurons and Quebec: 1638 -1639. Cleveland, The Burrows Brothers Company, 1898, 183
BREBEUF Jean de (1636a): Op. cit., 17
[15] Just as it was the case for the
Trobrianders and many Aboriginal populations, the totem of the Algonquin was
the mythical animal after which the clan was named. This animal formed the
genealogical origin of the clan, and was considered as its ancestor. Similarly,
father François Du Peron mentions that every Huron family (Canada) “has also its various armories [coat of
arms], one a deer, one a snake, one a
raven, one the thunder, one they estimate to be a bird, and other similar
things.” [Du Peron, 1639, 180]
Besides North America and Australia, one finds totemism in Africa and in South
America, in Peru for example, where, to be honored, an Indian had to come from
a lake, a river or a fountain, or even from the sea, or from wild animals such
as the bear, the tiger, the eagle or the condor.
Found most of the time in matrilineal systems, totemism affiliates the
individual to a group whose name is determined by its totem, be it that of an
animal, of a plant, of an object, etc. To carry the name of one’s totem was
used to avoid inbreeding, for it was forbidden to all individuals to marry a
person of the same totem. In addition, compelling the group to adopt specific
taboos towards animals, plants, and other totem sources, instigated a concerted
relationship with its environment.
[16] “The
savages are persuaded that not only men and other animals, but also that all
other things are animate.” [Le Jeune, 1636, 1897]
“The Abipones think the Pleiades to be
the representation of their grandfather; and as that constellation disappears
at certain periods from the sky of South America, upon such occasions, they
suppose that their grandfather is sick, and are under a yearly apprehension
that he is going to die: but as soon as those seven stars are again visible in
the month of May, they welcome their grandfather, as if returned and restored
from sickness, with joyful shouts, and the festive sound of pipes and trumpets,
congratulating him on the recovery of his health.” [Dobrizhoffer, 1822, II,
65; see also Appendix Dobrizhoffer Abipone spirit, Christian divinity]
“The natives of Australia not only say
the stars in Orion's belt and scabbard are young men dancing a corroboree; they
declare that Jupiter, whom they call “Foot of Day” (Ginabong-Bearp), was a
chief among the Old Spirits, that ancient race who were translated to heaven
before man came on earth. The Esquimaux did not stop short at calling the stars
of Orion's belt the Lost Ones, and telling a tale of their being seal-hunters
who missed their way home; but they distinctly held that the stars were in old
times men and animals, before they went up into the sky. So the North American
Indians had more than superficial meaning in calling the Pleiades the Dancers,
and the morning-star the Day-bringer; for among them stories are told like that
of the lowas, of the star that an Indian had long gazed upon in childhood, and
who came down and talked with him when he was once out hunting, weary and
luckless, and led him to a place where there was much game.” [Tylor, 1920,
I, 290-291]
“The Karens of Burma say it is a spirit
or demon. “The Rainbow can devour men… When it devours a person, he dies a
sudden or violent death. All persons that die badly, by falls, by drowning, or
by wild beasts, die because the Rainbow has devoured their ka-la, or spirit. On
devouring persons it becomes thirsty and comes down to drink, when it is seen
in the sky drinking water. Therefore when people see the Rainbow, they say, “The Rainbow has come to drink water. Look
out, some one or other will die violently by an evil death.” If children
are playing, their parents will say to them, “The Rainbow has come down to drink. Play no more, lest some accident
should happen to you.” And after the Rainbow has been seen, if any fatal
accident happens to anyone, it is said the Rainbow has devoured him.” The Zulu ideas correspond in a curious way
with these. The Rainbow lives with a snake, that is, where it is there is also
a snake; or it is like a sheep, and dwells in a pool. When it touches the
earth, it is drinking at a pool. Men are afraid to wash in a large pool; they
say there is a Rainbow in it, and if a man goes in, it catches and eats him.”
[Tylor, 1920, I, 294]
[17] In this text, the word "soul" has been replaced by the word “spirit."
DURKHEIM Émile (1907): Cours sur les origines de la vie religieuse. Extrait de la Revue de philosophie, 1907, vol 7, n˚ 5 (pp. 528-539), vol. 7, n˚ 7 (pp. 92-114) et vol. 7, n˚ 12 (pp. 620-638). Reproduit in Émile Durkheim: Textes. 2. Religion, morale, anomie. Paris, Éditions de Minuit (1975), 65-122. Edition électronique réalisée par Jean-Marie Tremblay. Chicoutimi (2002), 35-36 (tr. by the author)
HERTZ Robert (1928): Sociologie religieuse et folklore. Recueil de textes publiés entre 1907 et 1917. Première édition. Paris, Les Presses universitaires de France (1970), 2e édition, 208 pp. Collection: Bibliothèque de sociologie contemporaine. Chicoutimi, Édition complétée (2003), 53 (tr. by the author)
[18] According to the legend, the stream of the Busento (Italy) was temporarily diverted in 412 CE to bury the king of the Visigoth, Alaric the First, in its bed.
[19] These rituals differ from those performed to fend off the vengeance of hostile spirits, as Aborigines do when they cut off the thumbs of a dead enemy to prevent him from drawing his bow.
TYLOR Edward B. (1920): Primitive Culture. Researches Into The Development Of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Language, Art, And Custom. London, John Murray, I, 467
DURKHEIM Émile (1907): Op. cit., 38 (tr. by the author)
[20] A few communities like the Dieri and the Warramunga of Australia had however decided that the spirit changes sex each time it reincarnates into a new body.
[21] Still commonly used today in expression such as “the weather has gone mad.”
[22] Although women have been shaman, I use here the masculine form to facilitate the reading.
[23] Frequently attributed to men, the protection of the camp was not at all one of their expertise, as we will further see. It will become a masculine monopoly with the appearance of the caste of soldiers, during the Chalcolithic [see Part Three]. This monopoly will last until the twenty-first century CE, when women will finally be admitted to share this role.
[24] This ignorance was, in most cases, shared by both sexes: it was just as difficult for women as for men to understand the mechanisms of procreation. Besides, the discovery of these mechanisms did not represent, for women, endowed with an obvious and fundamental procreative function, an absolute priority.
BETTELHEIM Bruno (1952): Symbolic Wounds. Puberty Rites and the Envious Male. New York, Collier Books
MONTAGU Ashley (1937 / 1974): Coming into being among the Australian aborigines. London, Routledge; in Spiro, 1968; in Delaney, 1986, 505
[25] However, the procreative role of spirits will still be used symbolically in later mythologies, such as is the case in the conception of Jesus Christ.
[26] We presume that the warrior invoked the right spirits, applied the necessary rituals, prepared his shield correctly, and that no human mistake has derailed the procedure. Rituals play here an extremely important role.
DELUMEAU Jean (1999): Des religions et des hommes. Paris, Le Livre de Poche, 422 (tr. by the author)
HEGEL G.W.F. (1963): Leçons sur la Philosophie de l’Histoire. Traduction de J. Gibelin. Paris, Vrin, 76 (tr. by the author)