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Macrohistory and Acculturation: Between Myth and History in Modern Melanesian Adjustments and Ancient Gnosticism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

G. W. Trompf
G. W. Trompf
Affiliation:
University of Sydney
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Extract

Historical consciousness has not been a prized possession in most human cultures, and a sense of a time that considers social affairs to have been developing over several hundreds of years [prior to the present] and by agents ⋯μοουσἱος ⋯μîνx(of essentially the same being as ourselves) is actually a cultural oddity. Most of the thousands of the world's cultures are discrete primal societies—many of them small—that constitute the ethnographic panorama of today. They remind us that there once lay hundreds of more regionally confined, more homogeneous and tribal-oriented human groupings. For such a vast array of societies, however, we simply lack long-term histories.

Type
The Foundations of Historical Discourse
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 31 , Issue 4 , October 1989 , pp. 621 - 648
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1989

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References

This article considers the interface between cultures possessing a developed historical consciousness and those long imbued with mythic mentalités that are coming to terms with propagation of historical mindedness. It is in memoriam of Peter Lawrence, a former Professor of Anthropology at the University of Sydney and an exponent of comparative social study.

1 Compare, especially, Vansina, J., De la Tradition orale: essai de méthode historique (Annales, Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale; sciences humaines, no. 36) (Tervuren, 1961)Google Scholar, Vansina, J., “Once Upon a Time: Oral Traditions as History in Africa,” Daedalus, 100:2 (1971), esp. 442ff.Google ScholarDenoon, D. and Lacey, R., eds., Oral Traditions in Melanesia (Port Moresby, 1981).Google Scholar

2 Vansina, , De la tradition, op. cit.Google Scholar, ch. 6, sec. 4(b) (Bushongo); Trompf, G. W., “Kon-Tiki and the Critics,” The Melbourne Historical Jounal, 3:1 (1963), 57f. (literature on Maori Fleet, although the controversy concerning the interpretation of these Maori traditions persists).Google Scholar

3 Eliade, , Das Heilige and das Profane (Rowohlts Deutsche Enzyklopädie) (Hamburg, 1957)Google Scholar, Pt. 2; Levi-Strauss, C., La Pensie sauvage (Paris, 1962), especially 313, 348.Google Scholar

4 Samyuttanikaya, 15, i, 5–6, etc., compare, Sarvārthasisddhi, 418 (Jain); Plato, Leges, III, 676B-C; Critias, 106A ff.

5 Contra Puech, H.-C., “Temps, histoire et mythe dans le christianisme des premiers siecles” (1951)Google Scholar, in his En Quête de la Gnose I. le Gnose et les temps (Paris, 1978), 17 (in which he criticizes E. O. James and R. Bultmann for analyzing Christianity as a mixture of myth and history).Google Scholar

6 Thorough exploration of this valuable point has been made by E. Waters in an unpublished seminar paper (“Oral Tradition as History in Melanesia”) at the University of Papua New Guinea, 17 August 1977; compare, Reay, M., “Myth and Tradition as Historical Evidence,” in The History of Melanesia, Inglis, K., ed. (Canberra, 1969), 463ff. Regarding traditions about great volcanic eruptions, I allude here to the work of P. Mai and others on “The Time of Darkness” (Long Island, off Papua), J. Guiart (on a lost New Hebridean island), etc.Google Scholar

7 For a famous modern example (1858), see The Gospel of Ramakrishna (New York, 1907), 210–1Google Scholar; compare Rolland, R., The Life of Ramakrishna (Mayavati, 1944),41. For a vivid ancient example, Aelius Aristides, Sacred Tales, IV, 11, cf.l.Google Scholar

8 On myths “explaining why things are as they are,” see Trompf, , In Search of Origins (London and New Delhi, 1989)Google Scholar, chs. 5–6. On the Anfang-Ursprung distinction, stated as cautiously as possible here, see especially Gebser, J., Ursprung und Gegenwart, 2 vols. (Stuttgart, 1949–1953)Google Scholar; Friedrich, A., “Das Bewusstein eines Naturvolkes von Haushalt und Ursprung des Lebens,” Paideuma, 6:1 (1955), 53–4.Google Scholar

9 For Fijian conceptions I rely on the good offices of Sevati Tuwere, Vitu Levu, Suva; on Maya thought, see especially Alva, J. de, “Introduction to Mexican Philosophy” (Ph.D. disser., Philosophy Department, California State College [San Jose], Santa Cruz, 1972), chs. 1–3. The allusions to the Dreaming above, of course, are to Australian aboriginal myth and ritual.Google Scholar

10 Auerbach, E., Mimesis: dargestellte Wirklichkeit in der abendlandischen Literatur (Bern, 1964), chs. 1–2.Google Scholar

11 For some of these points I am indebted to Prof. Goldman, R., see his translation of The Ramāyāna of Valmiki (New Haven: Princeton Library of Asian Translations 1–2, 1984–1986).Google Scholar

12 For an excellent example covering the “dichotomy” between savagery and social order, etc., see Tamoane, M., “Kamoai of Darapap and the Legend of Jari,” in Prophets of Melanesia, Trompf, , ed. (Port Moresby, 1981 ed.), 107–21Google Scholar; cf. Levi-Strauss, , Le cru et le cuit (Paris, 1964),Google Scholar esp. Pt. 2; Du miel aux cendres (Paris, 1966), especially 240–2Google Scholar, 404–5. For an older, Western example, see, for example, Phillpotts, B., Mermaids (London, 1980), 43Google Scholar. On the loss of immortality and original perfection, see, Gen. 2–4; Gilgamesh, xi, especially 280–302, in Ancient Near Eastern Texts, Pritchard, J. B., ed. (Princeton, 1955 ed.), 37–44ff. Cf. alsoGoogle ScholarStaudacher, W., Die Trennung von Himmel und Erde(Tubingen: doctoral disser., Theology Department, University of Tubingen, 1942). On rules and legitimation, A. MacLachlan's forthcoming book on the uses of history (especially the chapter on Mythic Past, Mythic Present and Mythic Future as Historical Legitimation) is eagerly awaited.Google Scholar

13 This sphere is not already history, however, prior to any reflection upon it, if I may here pinpoint the fundamental conceptual error behind Godelier's, M. article “Myth et histoire, réflex-ions sur les fondements de la pensée sauvage,” in Les Annales 10, 1971 (special issue), especially 542–3, 564–6Google Scholar; although note his later qualms in Perspectives in Marxist Anthropology, Brain, R., trans. (Cambridge: Cambridge Studies in Social Anthropology, no. 18, 1977), 239Google Scholar, n. 4. For a sidelight to my distinction, see, for example, Heidegger, M., Sein und Zeit (Tubingen, 1967), 372Google Scholar

14 For most of the above (including Dubuy's life story), see Trompf, , ‘“Bilalaf, ’” in Prophets, op. cit., Trompf, , ed., 16–17Google Scholar, 30–60; and on archaeology, White, J. P., Crook, K. A. W., and Ruxton, B. P., ”Kosipe: a Late Pleistocene Site in the Papuan Highlands,“ Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 36 (12, 1970), 152CrossRefGoogle Scholarff On missionaries as innovators, see especially Whiteman, D., Melanesians and Missionaries (Pasadena, 1983)Google Scholar; and for basic texts on acculturation in anthropological theory, especially Thurnwald, R., “The Psychology of Acculturation,” American Anthropologist, 34:4 (1932), 557CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Herskovits, M. J., Acculturation (New York, 1938)Google Scholar; Baal, J. van, Mensen in Verandering (Amsterdam, 1957), ch. 3. The term Deo used in the text above is the euphonic mixture of Latin and Romance terms for God used by Catholic missionaries.Google Scholar

15 For the most detailed overview, see Steinbauer, F., “Die Kargo Kulte als religionsgeschichtliches und missionstheologisches Problem” (doctoral disser., Theology Department, University of Erlangen-Nurnberg, Ntimberg, 1971)Google Scholar; cf. also P. Worsley, , The Trumpet shall Sound (London, 1970 ed.). The language in the text is tok pisin.Google Scholar

16 Wilhelmina, Queen of Holland 1890–1948.

17 See Nevermann, H., Worms, E. A., and Petri, H., Die Religionen der Siidsee und Australiens (Stuttgart, 1968), 108 (my translation).Google Scholar

18 Lawrence, , Road belong Cargo (Manchester, 1964), 22–3Google Scholar. For the full geographic spread of the Manup-Kilibob myth cycle, see Schmitz, C. A., Historische Probleme in Nordost Neuguinea (Huon-Halbinsel) (Wiesbaden, 1960), 319–38, but the nearest Madang components of the cycle were in the possession of the Sengam, Som, and Yam peoples.Google Scholar

19 We are dealing here with a “cargo cult” ideology. Cargo stands here for significant (if not unlimited) quantities of (desirable) European-style goods that symbolize European power, and for which Melanesians hold out hope. In a deeper symbolic sense, then, Cargo (Kago) also stands for redemption or salvation from the unwanted colonial (or neo-colonial) order. Compare, for example, Burridge, K., New Heaven, New Earth; A Study of Millenarian Activities (Oxford, 1969), 48Google Scholar; Strelan, J., Search for Salvation (Adelaide, 1977), especially chs. 3–4.Google Scholar

20 Lawrence, , op. cit., 76–7, 100–3 (and cf. 101 for the quotation). My italics. The last motif of great expectation is, of course, a basic ingredient in so-called “millenarian movements,” of which some cargo cults may be considered a subspecies.Google Scholar

21 a, “The Theology of Beig Wen, the Would-be Successor to Yali,” Catalyst, 6:3 (1976), 166Google Scholar ff.; Trompf, , “Independent Churches in Melanesia,” Oceania, 54:1 (1983), 67–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

22 See for example, Hoka, J. P., in Pacific Protest: the Maasina Rule, Solomon Islands, 1944–1952, Laracy, H., ed. (Suva, 1983), 124;Google ScholarTrompf, , “Independent Churches, etc.,” loc. cit., 62Google Scholar; Ouou, E. R., History of South Malaita, Origin of Livings, Centre and Diameter of the Universe (Honiara, 1980)Google Scholar, especially ch. 4. On parallels to Levi Moses Solomon in a mythological macrohistory of the West propagated by the Mormons (or Church of Latter-Day Saints), see Trompf, , “The Cargo and the Millennium on Both Sides of the Pacific,” in Cargo Cults and Millenarian Movements; Transoceanic Comparisons of New Religious Movements (Religion and Society Ser.), Trompf, ed., (Berlin, 1989)Google Scholar, ch. 1. For relevant theoretical reflection on “fresh mythologies,” see Durand, G., “L'exploration de l'imaginaire,” in Méthodologie de l'imaginaire, I: études et recherches sur l'imaginaire, Burgos, J., ed. (Paris, 1969), 17.Google Scholar

23 See Nevermann, H., “Indonesische Einflusse auf Neuguinea,” Mitteilungsblatt der Gesellschaft füb. Völkerkunde, 8:1 (1938), 24Google Scholar (on the Kapaour); Schwartz, T., The Paliau Movement in the Admiralty Islands 1946–1954 (Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, 49:2) (New York, 1962), 252–60Google Scholar; and more recently Maloat, Paliau, Kalopeu; Manus Kastam Kansol; Stori (Lae[?], 1982) on material from the Admiralties. Bricolage is a technical term made famous by Lévi-Strauss and means artfulness in myth-making and the adaptation of stories.Google Scholar

24 See Saunana, John (“The Relevance of Retaliation for the Black Man,” Nilaidat, 1:2 (1972), 19ff.),Google Scholar who has sketched out history as a series of “paybacks” by whites and others against the oppressed blacks, with the anticipation that blacks will rise to dominance and retaliate in the future. Despite this futuristic dimension his picture is so much more palpably de-mythologized than other black macrohistories which reflect similar hopes, perhaps the most famous mythological one of all being a black Muslim schema. Cf. Goldman, P., The Death and Life of Malcolm X (New York, 1965), 38–43, coupling a resume of Malcolm X's Autobiography on the matter with other information.Google Scholar

25 Trompf, , “The Future of Macro-Historical Ideas,” Soundings, 62:1 (1979), 70.Google Scholar

26 See, for example, Trompf, , “Secularization for Melanesia?” in Point, 1:1 (1977), 215–6.Google Scholar

27 See, for example, Rad, G. von, Genesis (Alte Testament Deutsch, Z:4) (Göttingen, 1956)Google Scholar, Introd.; M. Noth, Exodus (Ser. Idem.) (Göttingen, 1959), 45–65.1 have placed the movement of proselytization earlier than some might have expected, yet compare Dalbert, D., Die Theologie der hellenistisch-jüdischen Missionsliteratur untur Ausschluss von Philo and Josephus (Theologische Forschung, no. 4) (Hamburg, 1954), Pt. I.Google Scholar

28 For background to these points, see Barrett, D. B., ed., Encycl. cit. (Nairobi, 1982)Google Scholar; White, H., Metahistory; The Historical Imagination of Nineteenth Century Europe (Baltimore, 1973)Google Scholar; Nisbet, R., History of the Idea of Progress (London, 1980)Google Scholar; Hofstadter, R., Social Darwinism in American Thought, 1860–1915 (New York, 1944)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Tucker, R., Philosophy and Myth in Karl Marx (Cambridge, 1972).Google Scholar

29 Cf. Ricoeur, P., The Reality of the Historical Past (The Aquinas Lecture 1984), (Milwaukee, 1984), 21 (for quotation and pertinent discussion).Google Scholar

30 For background, see Alet, V., La France et le Sacre Coeur (Paris, 1889 ed).Google Scholar

31 On Mexico, see especially Keen, B., The Aztec Image in Western Thought (New Brunswick, 1971), 198–9, 240Google Scholar, 304 ff; Muchembled, R., Culture populaire et culture des elites (Paris, 1978), 83–4.Google Scholar

32 On the western medieval authors, see especially Trompf, , The Idea of Historical Recurrence in Western Thought (Berkeley, 1979), 1:207–14, 217–22. On Muhammad, see Sura 2:208–11 (my commentary on this remains as yet in a mimeograph form but is intended to be part of a future publication), cf. also 7, 10:20ff, 37, 38, etc.Google Scholar

33 Josephus, Antiq., XIII:320, 405–32. XX:242, cf. Bell. lud., 1:76–77, 85, 107–9. On Alexandra as sister to the influential rabbi Simeon ben Shetah, see especially 5.15 ket. 1 (reproduced in Bowker, J., Jesus and the Pharisees [Cambridge, 1973], 160). Concerning Sim-eon's decree about bet sepher (elementary schooling), see Aboth, 1:8–9, Sanhedrin 6:4, Shabbath 1:3, Kiddushin, 4:13, Vay R., xxxv, 10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

34 See esp. Russell, D. S., The Method and Message of Jewish Apocalyptic, 200 B.C.-A.D. 100 (London, 1964), ch. 8.Google Scholar

35 Cf. especially, Dodds, E. R., Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety (Cambridge, 1965), ch. 2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

36 Cf. especially Grant, R. M., The Formation of the New Testament (London, 1965), ch. 1.Google Scholar

37 Trompf, , Recurrence, op. cit., 1:175–.Google Scholar

38 For central issues, Bultmann, R., Jesus Christus and die Mythologie (Stunderbuch, no. 47), (Hamburg, 1967)Google Scholar; Bultmann, , Geschichte der synoptischen Tradition (Göttingen 1958).Google Scholar

39 On the debate, cf. especially the recent work by the Norwegian scholar: Fossum, J.E., The Name of the God and the Angel of the Lord. Origins of the Idea of Intermediation in Gnosticism (Utrecht: doctoral disser., Church History Department, Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht, 1982),Google Scholar esp. ch. 2; yet, compare Kippenburg's, H.G. (somewhat strained) review of Fossum's work in Nederlands Theologisch Ttjdschrift, 38 (1984), 73–4.Google Scholar

40 Compare especially Bowman, J., trans. and ed., Samaritan Documents Relating to Their History, Religion and Life (Pittsburgh Original Texts and Translation Series 2), (Pittsburgh, 1977), 46Google Scholar, 49, 61–2, 88, 91–103, 117 (although a redaction history is not attempted). On Baba Rabbah, see Cohen, J. M., A Samaritan Chronicler; A Source-Critical Analysis of the Life and Times of the Great Samaritan Reformer Baba Rabbah (Studia Post-Biblica, no. 30), (Leiden, 1981), 224Google Scholarff. (cf. esp. p. 75, sect. 10.11.1–10 for the events well before Baba). See also Stenhouse, P., “Samaritan Chronicles”, in Crown, A. D., ed., The Samaritans (Tūbingen, 1989), ch. 4, for some of these issues.Google Scholar

41 For the Time of Favour (as against the subsequent time of God turning away), see McDonald, J.Samaritan Chronicle 2 (Beihefte zur alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 107) (Berlin, 1969), 69Google Scholar. Cf. Tolidah (fourteenth century) on the 3,500-year period between Adam and the time the Lord visits his Tabernacle (see also Bowman, op. cit., 49). On the discussion of Jewish and early Christian acculturation vis-à-vis Hellenization, see especially Sierksma, F., Een nieuwe Hemel en een nieuwe Aarde (Groningen, 1978), 280ff.Google Scholar

42 See esp. the Samaritan tract Memar Marqah, I, 9 (fourth century), cf. The Samaritan Liturgy, Cowley, A. E., ed. (Oxford, 1909), 42Google Scholar, 11. 10; etc. Later lists single out Kenan, Mahalel, Jared, Methuselah, and Lamech as well (for example, Tolidah, Bowman, op. cit., 46), and another again adds Joshua, Caleb and the Seventy Elders, cf. Gaster, T. H., “Samaritans,” in Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible (New York, 1962) IV: 193Google Scholar. Some might also argue that there are tendencies in intertestamental Judaism toward an (over-) preoccupation with pre-Possession events; see Böhlig, A., Mysterion und Wahrheit (Arbeiten zur Geschichte des spateren Judentums und des Urchristentums, no. 6) (Leiden, 1968), chs. 1–4.Google Scholar

43 On shifts towards the glorification of Moses in earlier texts, see Memar Marqah, 11:12, V:3, VI:4, 8 (MacDonald's interpretation on these last passages in The Theology of the Samaritans [London, 1964], 168, cf. 135f., 158f, etc. being too incautious; so Fossum, op. cit., ch. 3, n. 36). On Gerizim, see Memar Marqah, especially II:10, cf. IV:9–10, etc.Google Scholar

44 For an attempt to analyze the social background of Gnostic groups, especially Kippenburg, in the most recent number of Numen (as yet unavailable to me), see below.

45 Puech, , loc. cit., 20.Google Scholar

46 For a sound overview (helpful in filling out qualifications space does not allow here), Broek, R. van den, “The Present State of Gnostic Studies,” Vigiliae Christianae, 37:1 (1983)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 4961, especially on Ophism. On Marcion's teacher Cerdo, see Irenaeus, , Adversus Haereses, I, xxxvii, 1.Google Scholar

47 Nag Hammadi Codices (hereafter NAC) II, 2; 11, 3:63, 66; II, 7:138; III, 5:120; etc.; yet see I, 2:16.

48 The significant attacks against the Gnostics by Plotinus, and Porphyry help bear this out; e.g., for Plotinus, see Paideia Anti-Gnostica, Cliento, V., ed. (Florence, 1971)Google Scholar, cf. Sinnige, T. G., Plotinus; Over Schouwing, en Tegen de Gnostici (Antwerp, 1981)Google Scholar; Porphyry, , Vita Plotini, 16. Here I value comments by Prof. G. Quispel, in discussion, 18 May, 1984.Google Scholar

49 Note that one of the Nag Hammadi texts is a quite appalling translation of Plato's Republic 588B–589B. Other allusions and quotations to koine Greek and Aramaic (such as lingua franca) sources have to be reckoned with, although it bears acknowledging that the case for the non-Coptic origin of most of the Nag Hammadi texts has still not been clinched.

50 For background, see Knox, W., St. Paul and the Church of the Gentiles (Cambridge, 1961), cf. 1.Google Scholar

51 See, for example, Patterson, L. G., God and History in Early Christian Thought (Studies in Patristic Thought) (London, 1967).Google Scholar

52 Estimates of the Christian population vary from 35 to 75 percent of the Roman Empire's inhabitants at Constantine's time. See Harnack, A. von, Mission und Ausbreitung des Christen-turns (Leipzig, 1924 ed.), II:946ff.Google Scholar

53 See Jerphagron, L., “La Culture philosophique des empereurs de Rome et leur action politique,” in Reason, Action and Experience (Festschrift, R. Klibansky), Kohlenberger, H., ed. (Hamburg, 1979), 149.Google Scholar

54 Note for example, WITT, R. E., Isis in the Graeco-Roman World (London, 1971), 46Google Scholarff; Sanders, G., “Kybele und Attis,” in Die orientalischen Religionen im Rōmmerreich, Vermaseran, M. N., ed. (études Prégiminaires aux Religions Orientales dans l'Empire Romaine, no. 83), (Leiden 1981), 275ff.Google Scholar

55 See NAC, I, S: especially 51–105; II, 1:4–30; V, 5:78f. (Kingdoms become aeons). See Irenaeus, Adv. I: iff. (P.G., vol. 7, cols. 458ff., etc.) (eonic seminations) and I, 5:118ff. (by implication); II, 1:15 and ff., III, 2:60 and ff; VII.2:53, etc. (Genesis). For the special intellectual qualities of the Tripartite Tractate, see Quispel, “Gnosis”, in Vermaseran, op. cit., 431.

56 NAC, IX, 3:48 (Exodus); NAC, VII, 2:62–3 (chain). The Coptic text quoted has a numerical anagram for twelve, and an apparently ungrammatical ending to the substantive, which could mean that a single figure, the eleventh prophet, is being referred to; see the Facsimile edition, (Leiden, 1972), Codex VII, 69.

57 NAG, II, 6:129ff., see also II, 1, 29; V, 5:64ff. (allusions).

58 NAC, V:5:72. The more limited supply of Septuagint or other Greek translations of Old Testament texts can only be inferred on the basis of bulk and on the smaller number of manuscripts referred to by text collectors such as Origen in the relevant area (especially Egypt).

59 NAC, II, 5: especially 115–118, cf. Tardieu, M., Trois mythes gnostiques; Adam, Eros et les animaux d'égypte dans un écrit de Nag Hammadi (II. 5) (Paris, 1974), 100–4, 119–22.Google Scholar

60 NAC 1, 3:26 (Grant's translation), see especially II, 1:27–8 on the importance of ideas and suggestions about fate in Gnostic literature.

61 For myth as “rounding” beginnings and ends, Lévi-Strauss, Du miel aux cendres, op. cit., especially 7, 201, 216. Comparisons with Hindu-Jain-Buddhist Ka1pa theory are ready to be drawn here.

62 Baal, Van, “Erring Acculturation,” America Anthropologist, 62:1 (1960), 108ff.Google Scholar

63 As a sidelight to these points, note Jūngel, E., “Die Wirksamkeit des Entzogenen. Zum Vorgang geschichtlichen Verstehen als Einführung in die Christologie,” in Gnosis (Jonas Festschrift) Aland, B., ed. (Göttingen, 1978), 70f.Google Scholar

64 See Trompf, , Historical Recurrence, op. cit., I, especially p. 184,Google ScholarDanielou, J., Histoire des doctrines chretiennes avant Nicie (Tournai, 1958)Google Scholar; Hanson, R. P. C.Allegory and Event (London, 1959)Google Scholar, Pt. 3; Wilken, R. L., Judaism and the Early Christian Mind (Yale, 1971), 93–161Google Scholar; Smalley, B., The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1952), 83ff., 196ff.Google Scholar