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Re: Is the Swastika evidence of a common origin?
Stephen Ballard (joeoak@flash.net)
Thu, 09 Jan 1997 19:44:29 -0600
Profoundess wrote:
>
> "Gord Bowman" <gbowman@atlsci.com> wrote:
>
> >The Swastika (the original, not the flipped Nazi version) is an ancient
> >symbol of unknown origin that has been employed for thousands of years as a
> >religious sign and a decorative emblem. This symbol appears in such
> >cultures as ancient China, Egypt, India, old Norse, Ancient Crete, Mayan,
> >Aztec, American Indians, and the list goes on.
>
> >Some of these cultures supposedly had no contact with each other, yet the
> >general consensus of the scientific community seems to be that "There is no
> >reason to suppose that all of these have been derived from a common
> >source...." (Gough & Parker--"A Glossary Of The Terms Used In Heraldry").
> >The Swastika could be just a clever Sun calendar illustration found all
> >over the world (see The History of the Swastika at
> >http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/oldtown/designs/ud-25-ic/swastika.html ).
>
> >Now, I understand that finding just one such commonality between different
> >cultures is not proof that they had contact with each other, however I
> >don't understand why the idea of a common source is so far fetched. Isn't
> >it a common theory that the native peoples of North, Central and South
> >America at some point in the past crossed either a land or ice bridge
> >probably between Siberia and Alaska? If this is true, then why could the
> >symbol not have been in existence before such a crossing? Shouldn't this
> >common symbol at least be viewed as evidence that such widely separated
> >cultures (such as the Mayans and the Egyptians) MIGHT have a common origin?
>
> >Just wondering...
> >--
> >Gord Bowman (gbowman@atlsci.com)
>
> The swastika is not the only symbol of this sort. I have been
> studying the petroglyphs of the Southwest region of the united States
> and have found the following common symbology between primitive Native
> American petroglyphs and ancient Near East depictions. The outlined
> cross (all four sides equal not the christian cross), the step symbol
> resembling a step pyramid or ziggurat, a double eye outlined, the
> serpent and the horned serpent. There is also a prevalence of figures
> depicted with horns, these are believed to represent shamans or
> dieties as in Eastern art.
I have read in ancient Babylonian literature of an incantation for
a toothache where the toothache was thought to have been caused
by a worm eating at the gums. The exact same cause for toothache is
cited int the Popoh Vuh, the ancient holy book of the Mayans.
Carl Jung (Freud's younger contemporary) had said that their are
certain expression of archetypal images which appear in world cultures
independent of any historical connection. He believed this to be
caused by our common, inherited, and unconcious mental facilities
which he called archetypes. This archetypes were created in the depths
of our evolutionary past according to Jung.
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