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Post by Montezuma on Feb 4, 2023 23:22:03 GMT -5
"Bears and pumas were often conflated in the comments of interwines in this study. This may suggest another way that bears are present in the Andean worldview. This conflation has also been expressed in Venezuela, where pumas were described as a yellow bear with a round face (Herrera et al. 1994). Another mention of a link between bears and pumas comes from Peru, where the role of bears in the Amazonas Province is described thus, "The importance of bears in Amazonas is fundamental. In local Quechua, bears are known as black `pumas' and they share the fearful strength and super-human powers that characterise (the large cats). "(Taylor 1997)."
kar.kent.ac.uk/86278/
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Post by oldindigosilverback on Feb 4, 2023 23:33:25 GMT -5
Montezuma. Sometimes I wonder how you get all this info .
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Post by Gorilla king on Feb 4, 2023 23:38:43 GMT -5
Montezuma. Sometimes I wonder how you get all this info . He is just the expert in all bear cultural importance.
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Post by Montezuma on Feb 9, 2023 18:41:07 GMT -5
"As the two largest carnivore species in South America, bears and pumas do share strength and size, yet a comparison of distinguishing characteristics of these two species provides striking contrasts (Table 3-2). The idea of dynamic dualism, between an internally opposed yet complementary pair (such as exemplified in the yin-yang symbol), is thought to be an ancient and peculiarly South American cognitive cultural style (Poe 1994). Sixteenth century Andeans were described as worshipping bears and pumas alike (de la Vega 1609). This evidence of conflation suggests that what has been interpreted as the almost total absence of bears from pre-Colombian iconography may in fact be a lack of recognition of the group of large carnivores, or at least bears and pumas, being worshipped as one."
"A typical "feline" image from the Pre-Inca Tihuanaco site near Apolobamba. Note stocky body, masked facial markings and flat feet."
kar.kent.ac.uk/86278/
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Post by Montezuma on Feb 9, 2023 18:51:24 GMT -5
"The rituals associated with the worship of bears and ritual of bear hides observed in this study (section 3.3.3) have strong corollaries in other societies. The ritual preservation of the hide, bones or skull is considered a universal feature of how human societies venerate bears (Black 1998). A study in Ecuador describes the syncretism alive in the popular religion of Oyacachi, Ecuador, in which, "bears and virgins share altars and supplication" (Camacho et al. 1999)."
"For the Aymara, bears belong to this last group and are considered shepherds of the other forest animals (Arnold et al. 1992). Another aspect of the Aymara view of bears seems to conflict with this, identifying them as demonic, and arising from the underworld (Schramm 1992). In Huacareta, Aymara people and Quechua people expressed similar attitudes and beliefs about bears."
kar.kent.ac.uk/86278/
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Post by Montezuma on Jan 21, 2024 16:14:26 GMT -5
Note that the author is a journalist and the text here is alreadily explained before (see page 1) but here is some more pertinent information.
"When I had bemoaned the bear's absence to Van Horn at Wayqecha, he told me I should get in touch with Paisley, who had spent years in the forests of South America studying bears. She had since returned to the United Kingdom and was now creating stunning textiles drawn from a career spent in wild places. One pattern even featured the spectacled bear reclining in a tree whilst chewing on a bromeliad.
Paisley believes that the scarcity of South American bear iconography is no coincidence.
Bears, much like jaguars, inhabited a large expanse of the vertical world in primitive times, she told me. Even now, spectacled bears are sometimes seen wandering among the ruins at Machu Picchu. The people of the Andes, she said, would undoubtedly have noticed the spectacled bear traversing the canopy or raiding their crops.
She argues that bears aren't lacking in representation because our ancestors deemed them irrelevant compared with big cats, but because they were so important to the early Chavín civilization that a taboo emerged around depicting bears in any tangible form that wasn't El Lanzón.
Part of the blame for the bias toward the jaguar narrative, she thinks, lies with the circumpolar bear cult tradition, which holds that veneration of the boreal species of bears is a defining characteristic of cultures in the Northern Hemisphere, from the Sami in Scandinavia to the Inuit in Canada. As anthropologist Lydia T. Black put it, "Since Paleolithic times, most ursids have been a source of potent ritual symbols," often offered as a sacrifice so that humans may communicate with the spirit world. Bears in the tropics, however, have been left wanting for attention. The attitude in South America, Paisley relayed, is along the lines of, " "Bears are what the Gringos have. We have cats." She questioned whether this had led to a cultural blind spot. Were archaeologists failing to see the bears right in front of them?
While pondering the invisible bear, Paisley had a eureka moment: "All this time I'd been wondering if there were any early representations of bears, and then I looked down at the book I had on Indigenous South Americans. There was a picture of El Lanzón on the cover. I went 'Holy shit! This is a bear." "She wasn't alone in such an interpretation. Van Horn had told me that nearly every other bear biologist who had seen a photo of the sculpture agreed with Paisley that it bore much closer resemblance to a bear than a jaguar. But the big-cat enthusiasts had already deemed the case closed.
Paisley eventually traveled to Chavín de Huántar to inspect the central deity. She took note of its erect posture-bears are fairly unique among the large mammals in being able to walk on their hind legs. Cats can only move through the forest on all fours, and most jaguar art reflects this quadrupedalism. Moreover, as Paisley observed, the monolith was reminiscent of the bear totems made by Indigenous tribes in the Northern Hemisphere. One paw up. One paw down.
Archaeologists note that this position symbolizes a duality revered by ancient cultures-but it's also oddly similar to the waving bear motif. And yes, the deity did have two protruding fangs that might indicate a jaguar. But plenty of circumpolar bear cult art pieces also depict bears with two gleaming canines. When I reviewed photos and drawings of the sculpture".
books.google.com.pk/books?id=MQWUEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT29&dq=bear+in+andean+mythology&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&authuser=2&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwib07rksLKDAxUiVPEDHYRDDvQQ6AF6BAgIEAM#v=onepage&q=bear%20in%20andean%20mythology&f=false
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Post by Montezuma on Jan 21, 2024 16:38:41 GMT -5
A few next pages of the above book tells us a more about the ukukus and other aspects on bear reverence in andes, which a reader can read at will.
El lanzon is a Chavin Bear deity, alreadily explained minutely in first pages by the same bear biologist Susan. But here we get some more interesting things to note.
First of all, its not just Susan who thinks that lanzon is a bear, but its affirmed by everyother bear biologist to whom it has been shown as Van horn says. Furthermore, whays interesting to note is that susan says that the chavin civilization made a taboo of bear art, a sort of high reverence paid to a being as evident in various cultures across the globe; noteworthy, the taboo of calling bear by its name in various north american indian tribes.
However, what surprises me more (which i emphatically highlightened) is the biasedness of archeologists. As susan says that she is quite astonished that despite many bear-like characteristics, the archeologists gave no such time to revision it, and simply declared it as jaguar which she sorrowly express as "whether this had led to a culturally blind spot?" It reveals that jaguar-cult relative to bear-cult is exaggrated due to prejudice against bear. Is the missionary bear hatredness still living inside archeologists? Can we imagine that how many ancient andean bear-representation misinterepted by felines? Another good example is Lambayeque, a high deity long thought as feline turned out as a spectacled bear (detail in previous pages).
So, what we need actually to know the truth, filtered by unbiasedness, is a more detailed study on new things and a revision of past ones.
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