Post by hopeful on Jan 7, 2008 20:51:45 GMT -5
www.bigfootproject.org/articles/mayak_datat.html
An Excerpt from Mayak datat:
An Archaeological Viewpoint of the Hairy Man Pictographs by Kathy Moskowitz Strain
Gayton (1976:89) was one of the main ethnographers of the [Native American] Yokuts. She studied their traditional stories and came to the following conclusion:
The prehuman era was that of a world created and occupied by birds and animals of superanimal and superhuman powers. To Eagle, with his bird and animal assistants and companions, was attributed the building of the world, the institution of certain cultural, social, and physical features of man and his way of life. This prehistoric period, described in a fairly full but not elaborately detailed stock of stories, came to an end with the creation of mankind by Eagle and the subsequent transformation of these bird-and-animal people into their present known forms. All this happened beyond the memory of man, but the past continued into the present in the immediate ubiquity of the animals themselves. Beliefs about them were being constantly reinforced by daily happenings in the circumjacent wilds.
Simplified, this means that when the Yokuts observed animal behavior in the wild, they incorporated those observations into their traditional stories. The more they observed, the most elaborate the stories and details. Following are several examples of traditional stories, collected by the author (Kathy Moskowitz Strain) unless otherwise noted, and the observed animal behavior represented in the story.
[...]
The Ste-ye-hah' is a dangerous creature that lives in the Cascade Mountains. It is nocturnal and whistles to lure people away from their path. As noted before, the Yokuts also believe that Hairy Man is nocturnal and will whistle to lead Indians into his grip. Here is a story that closely resembles the story of the Yayali. [...]
The Ste-ye-hah'
It is the delight of the Ste-ye-hah' to carry away captive children who may become lost or separated from their people. Many snows ago two little ones, a brother and a sister, were missing from a hunter-village in the mountains. The parents and friends instituted a wide search and found their trail. Small footprints showed between the imprints of adult tracks,... Long afterwards, perhaps twenty snows, the parents of the lost children were camped in the mountains gathering huckleberries. One night while sitting in their lodge, a stick was thrust through a small crevice in the wall. The old man immediately called out, "You need not come around here bothering me, Ste-ye-hah'! I know you! You took my two children."
The Yokuts, Miwok and Cascade stories are separated by hundreds of miles, yet are very similar. Since most, if not all, Penutian stories are extremely similar, with slight differences based on regional details and the passing of time, there must be a common source within the language itself. It could be suggested that at some time in the past when the language stock was still mostly confined to a single area, which researchers such as Dixon and Kroeber (1919) believe was around 6000 years ago, that a creature with the described behaviors was observed and noted in a source or "root" story. Over time, the groups in the language stock moved to different areas, took the root story with them and added to it as they observed more of the creature. The Yokuts stories may be more elaborate due to the presence of the Hairy Man pictograph, which is a constant reminder of the original story.
An Excerpt from Mayak datat:
An Archaeological Viewpoint of the Hairy Man Pictographs by Kathy Moskowitz Strain
Gayton (1976:89) was one of the main ethnographers of the [Native American] Yokuts. She studied their traditional stories and came to the following conclusion:
The prehuman era was that of a world created and occupied by birds and animals of superanimal and superhuman powers. To Eagle, with his bird and animal assistants and companions, was attributed the building of the world, the institution of certain cultural, social, and physical features of man and his way of life. This prehistoric period, described in a fairly full but not elaborately detailed stock of stories, came to an end with the creation of mankind by Eagle and the subsequent transformation of these bird-and-animal people into their present known forms. All this happened beyond the memory of man, but the past continued into the present in the immediate ubiquity of the animals themselves. Beliefs about them were being constantly reinforced by daily happenings in the circumjacent wilds.
Simplified, this means that when the Yokuts observed animal behavior in the wild, they incorporated those observations into their traditional stories. The more they observed, the most elaborate the stories and details. Following are several examples of traditional stories, collected by the author (Kathy Moskowitz Strain) unless otherwise noted, and the observed animal behavior represented in the story.
[...]
The Ste-ye-hah' is a dangerous creature that lives in the Cascade Mountains. It is nocturnal and whistles to lure people away from their path. As noted before, the Yokuts also believe that Hairy Man is nocturnal and will whistle to lead Indians into his grip. Here is a story that closely resembles the story of the Yayali. [...]
The Ste-ye-hah'
It is the delight of the Ste-ye-hah' to carry away captive children who may become lost or separated from their people. Many snows ago two little ones, a brother and a sister, were missing from a hunter-village in the mountains. The parents and friends instituted a wide search and found their trail. Small footprints showed between the imprints of adult tracks,... Long afterwards, perhaps twenty snows, the parents of the lost children were camped in the mountains gathering huckleberries. One night while sitting in their lodge, a stick was thrust through a small crevice in the wall. The old man immediately called out, "You need not come around here bothering me, Ste-ye-hah'! I know you! You took my two children."
The Yokuts, Miwok and Cascade stories are separated by hundreds of miles, yet are very similar. Since most, if not all, Penutian stories are extremely similar, with slight differences based on regional details and the passing of time, there must be a common source within the language itself. It could be suggested that at some time in the past when the language stock was still mostly confined to a single area, which researchers such as Dixon and Kroeber (1919) believe was around 6000 years ago, that a creature with the described behaviors was observed and noted in a source or "root" story. Over time, the groups in the language stock moved to different areas, took the root story with them and added to it as they observed more of the creature. The Yokuts stories may be more elaborate due to the presence of the Hairy Man pictograph, which is a constant reminder of the original story.