Ways of mankind; Sticks and stones

The ways of mankind. Sticks and stone. A study in religious belief. A program in the serious ways of mankind presented under the supervision of Walter Goldschmidt of the University of California Los Angeles by the National Association of educational broadcasters a series designed to show how human beings live together in different times and places. A study in religious belief sticks and stone. I wonder how it was before I came. Everywhere in the world men wonder about the unknown and the unknowable. Sometimes it is idle wondering like the play of children. Sometimes it is forced upon men by the heavy burden of necessity. Even among the most primitive of peoples This wondering goes on. Take a run to a stone age people in Central Australia. I wonder how it was before my father came around to cultivate no crops and keep no

herds. They live in the plants animals reptiles and insects they find in their wanderings about the countryside. They even eat around it and he'll claim they wear no clothes they have few implements. Stone knives axes and picks digging sticks and wooden crafts in which they carry food water seed and babies. They have few weapons boomerangs clubs spears and spear throwers grooved sticks which increase the leverage of their throwing arm. Yet they wonder about many things. How was it before anyone came out of nothing came number color. He is the greatest ancestor of the Atlanta all the others are less than he heroes in the south alum book and travelled north past here creating rivers mountains flatlands animals and plants as he went. The young man who sought word of the beginning repeated what he had heard to others out of nothing came back cooler heroes in the south at Lambeau and

travelled north past here creating as he went each time it is said it becomes more crew until no one doubts it. And new details are added. Where did we of the old run to try come from. If a question can be asked there must be an answer number created many spit it out of himself and he made for the spirits to dwell in sacred slabs of stone and would dig into this cave and you will find him. The men who were with the wise old man dug and found round and over sticks and stones. Some were wrapped in bark some string made of human hair. Many had simple designs on them to use were put you know by the great equalizer. Some were put here by the men of the a runner but in the beginning that travelled about the country burying them. And as he went he made the landscape look out along the horizon.

There he put his foot down and made a hill. And father along another hill. There he sat down and the mountain range sank under his heavy weight. There he threw his yam stick at a dog and if you go there you will find a heap of white stones to mock replace. Father a long number camped and made the ravine to sleep in. The wise old man circled the horizon and linked every creepy Valley and dome with the exploits of number Kula or other great ancestors of long ago and to and from the cheering from the sacred slabs of stone and wood made by new spirits came forth and became men and each man was linked with an animal or plant or thing. His totem from one job came the first Wildcat man from another. The first kangaroo man from another. The first

man and from another the first witchetty grubs man. Ever since then the places where they came forth have been sacred totem centers places where the totemic spirits dwell and come forth in bodied form one time as men another time as creatures of the totem. This same spirit can become a kangaroo man or a kangaroo. And so it is with all the demi gods the wild get the possum the frog. The Lizard. The rock a lot of banks and all of the obvious. The explanation passed down from generation to generation and became a hard truth which no one dared question. But other questions arose where did I come from. From a cheering guy like all of us how from a frog chatting like all

the other frog people. Oh how much. How did I come from a frog. I do not know my little country I have never seen a cheering they are tabooed to women and boy was I made mama. One day I went for a drink of water near the bluffs where the frog spirits dwell in the churning is buried there and in the trees and rocks. I heard a voice crying Mama mama. I ran away but I did not run fast enough. I frog spirit entered me and in time you were born in a country that is where you came from. That is how you were made among the your own so they believed the man had little to do with their women conceiving they might prepare the way. But it was the spirits entering the women when they went to near the totem centers that gave them babies. I shall not be able to care for this new baby. It has followed too closely the last time

I went to near the hill with the lizard spirit still right after the birth of my daughter. But if I if. Perhaps my Sometimes beliefs can make acceptable the terrible deeds that man must do in order to survive. If I kill this baby its spirit will go back to the Hill and wait a while to be born again. When that latter Yeah ego will be older and I would be able to feed and carry this baby around for how can one woman nurse and carry two babies while wandering over the desert in daily search for food. We have been long without rain. Yes and the plants are scarce and the animals are scarce. The time of rain should be near and we should have some witchetty grubs to eat but there would be grubs do not last long last time after the rains the kangaroo did not come.

There should be some way of making the kangaroo abundant. Is there not some way. Oh look angry men of our tribe the time of Reign is near the time of the hunt. You are kin to the Kangaroo you are born of the same spirit the guru is the same as us. We have grown lean in the long time without rain we need a good hunt for our tribe. We must talk to the current gurus but I do not know long ago I was a great can't go rule. I set out for the place to carry to pass on the way I came upon some wild dogs with their mother. They chased me and though I hopped away very fast they caught me on the Chilean a plane and ripped me open. They chewed my liver and pulled off my skin and ate all the meat from my bones. Then they lay down but I was not done with my skin gathered up my bones and I hopped away again. Again the dogs chased me and caught me and get me open. This time they did not eat my liver. Doc he'll likely live in a box for a spot.

Once more my skin gathered up my bones and I hopped away. Again I was caught and again. This fourth time they cut off my tail and buried it. Yeah here it changed into a stone. Let us honor see it and throw it speak to it that can go to get it. The man went to the spot with the sacred stone like. The head man uncovered it. It was triangular in shape like the tail of a kangaroo buried with it was a smaller flat stone. The leader rubbed the flat stone on the kangaroo's tail the other man walked solemnly. In the kangaroo's tail was lifted up for all to see. The men crowded around to examine it and many an emotion in their stomach so they did. The sacred stone was buried again. Now come with me. They followed him past the watering hole where they drank and then moved around the

base of a cliff. Look up those two rocks sticking out from the cliff. One is an old kangaroo and the smaller one a woman can go to. Two of you climb up and rub them with stones. Two of the men did the ancient kangaroo man's bidding. A feeling a belief possessed them that what they were doing would increase the number of kangaroo in the land of the odometer. The two who were up the cliff descended now paint the Rockledge painted with red clay and white clay painted red stripes on white Let the red stripes be the red fur of the kangaroo. Let the White Stripes be the bones paint them broad and paint them bright the youngest of you climb on the ledge catch your arms with Flintstone let the blood spurt out and run down over the sacred stone.

They did as they were bid. And the men remaining below them saying the abundance of kangaroo that was sure to follow it was faithful in there were safe in the manner in which they chanted and it began to rain. Young men go now go out on the rocks in the plains and hunt the kangaroo only return to camp and await the return of the young men with their bounty. It became a ritual repeated each year and essential to the hunt. When the hunt was small. The ritual was not a hostile spiritual forces working against it. Rituals developed for the increase of the witchetty grubs and the honey and the wild turkey and the plum tree and the K of flour which soaked in water provided they are armed with their favorite drink. Rituals developed for the increase of most of the totem

animals and plants even for flies and mosquitoes. Not that these pests were desired but with them came valuable rainfall and further instructions were added mane of the kangaroo told him to kill of the kangaroo that had been killed. All your power for the kangaroos had a money next year would be gone and the kangaroo will not increase. We get some kangaroo spirit that way. Yes but only eat a little. And the little you eat let it not be a good part of the kangaroo. Give all the rest to those who are not can go to man. There was something wrong in eating the animal or plant born of the same spirit as oneself. Each totem group handed over its plant or animal to those outside but the totem groups were mixed up in every family and band there were members of several totem groups. They hunt of the totem animals and gather the totem insects and plants for one another. What each one hunted or gathered he gave to others what the others hunted and

gathered. They gave in part to him beliefs lead to rituals or ceremonies beliefs lead to special kinds of group relationship. Why do you keep falling behind in the paper. The mystery of sickness and death. Imagine two men of the run to tribe walking along the trail one clutching at his middle moving with difficulty. It will be dark before we reach camp we must move fast. I have a pain in my belly and I feel weak but it is like a sharp stick or stone. I cannot walk over my shoulder you know on me. No let me lie down. What is hurting you. A sharp stick or stone in my belly. You have swung. You know we have not eaten for to day. And how did it get him to your grave.

Oh all a great mystery and more questions. What has made the young man sick. How many times people must have watched as sickness ravaged them at some time. The question was asked what is this what makes this hurt. What makes this weakness and wasting away. How did this stick or stone get up and avenge the one who put it there. Would you tell me who I do not know. Many of the old unter with the help of spirits could influence plants and animals in the wind and the rain. Why not one another. Why couldn't men with the aid of the spirits cause one another to grow weak and waste away. And so they are hunter used spirits and magic to cause the death of those they would destroy. Leiber has stolen my wife she is with him no he is better with the spear in the club than you and I would fight him but there are men in his camp. Many more than in ours. They would all come out to fight. So you have lost your wife.

No I am going to kill him. How ambush him. But he is clever yes and he will be very wary now that he has taken my woman. I have made something I will fix him with this tiny spear and spear thrower. I painted red with white yellow and black stripes to make him sick and now I have to charm it with an evil spirit come with me to the other side of those rocks where no one goes and help me sing over it. They climbed over the rocks to a secluded spot and set the miniature spear and spear throwdown pointed toward the camp where the wife Steve I was. They left it there several days each day. They came and sang over it. Go straight go straight and killing go Leiber go straight go straight ahead killing go LIBOR goes straight goes straight killing get leave or the last day after singing over to one of the men huddled down with his father touching the ground. The second the injured husband picked up the evil Laden weapon and standing between the feet

of his friend hurled it as far as he could toward his enemy. Then he had to know. Down with his head between his friend's feet and waited to hear the evil spirits speak several hours they waited motionless and silent and then they were sure they heard it. They returned to the camp still silent still listening and there was a second sign. A noise like thunder which meant that their weapons in the form of a great spear had gone straight to their victory or that cut through when he's dead or badly hurt he will die. The device worked often enough to continue being used pointing sticks and Bones also became popular like the tiny spear. They were sung over charmed and pointed at the victim backbone be split

open and your ribs torn apart. Maybe our backbone based bread open and all ribs. Real weapons were sometimes sung over too and the slightest blow or wound from such a weapon was fatal particularly if the man so injured knew or suspected that the weapon had been charmed. The ranter could not accept any human death as natural every illness and death was caused by someone using evil magic. Every death must be avenged. A life for a life. Medicine men could sometimes overcome the evil magic the patient lines on the ground the medicine man rubs and sucks and where the pain is and occasionally spits out the supposed bits of bone wood or stone that are doing the damage. If this method doesn't work another one has tried to pull an old fellow as the shark Bob stick him. That is why it is so hard to get out. Oh it has a string attached to it. It is the evil spirits pulling it that makes the pain

go away. Then support it. Now give me room. The medicine man stands looking intently down at the patient. Great skill is required to remove a biped stick. He walks some distance away bends forward a little and jerks his arms sideways a number of times I have heard some magic stones into his body to work against the evil spirits. Several times he runs back and forth out of towners knees high and hurls more stones into the patient. Then he comes up to the patient and examines him carefully with his hands finally making a cutting motion with a stone knife. I have cut the string stick. The bad stick he's not coming back in bits. Now he will get better and then call in too late.

What is death. What happens when a man dies. Among the Atlanta like everywhere else the terrible question has been eternally asked. It's blown away it's a little back now to the cave where the cheering now Betty. It has joined its doldrums and appalling like that. And I'm up against his chest and let us carry him to his grave the grave is a round hole. The man's hair is cut off by one of his songs and he is lowered into the grave in a sitting position facing toward the camp of his ancestors. Air Bowling Green Yes but it will come soon to take his body. Don't pile the earth so high on the side to at the camp so the spirit can go in come out. Take the head of their bowling arena and weave that girdle for his son then down at Bowling Green Yes camp.

Destroy everything. Let his family take up a new site. A period of mourning follows the dead man's name is never spoken except in a whisper. Occasionally when necessary. The dead man's spirit must not be disturbed by references to it. His widow smears white pipe clay over her body white being the color of mourning among these ducks skinned people and for many months she does not speak but communicates with a sign language. After a year or year and a half the morning with the ceremony trampling the twigs on the grave. Mourners jump up and dance wildly about on the grave trampling the twigs covering it. The widow and the younger sister where pieces of human hair the bones of small animals which they can tear to pieces near the end of the ceremony

and place it in a hole which they take in the top of the grave. The man and then the women prostrate themselves on the grave and then the widow standing on the grave rubs the white pipe clay from her body. I still sort of spirit you have watched this ceremony from the bottom of the grave. Your window has been painted white all this time and she has worn the headdress of bone. You have been properly mourn the gay feathers of the Ring neck told you the mourning is over with the headdress. Your widow has buried all our sorrow. The loud shouting you know the Spirit of Radio what that means. You would tended many a trampling as on the grave before this one of yours. We do not wish to be frightened by you.

We should be angry if you do not rest. We want you to watch over a spirit of air pulling getting your goddess from harm and visit us in our dreams. But you must not come in a way that will frighten us. Return to the wild capturing return to the ancestral place of the wild cat totem. Wait for the time when you will be born again a wild cat or a wild cat man. Always with the around. There is a return to the cheering. The sacred stone no wooden object which gives each individual a link with his ancestors in the past link with his world today and link with the spiritual world and link with his group his totem and his own hereafter. The Tingler provide a focal point for the add on to tribe ceremonies connected with the two to bring the tribe together and provide a means for passing on the culture of the tribe. A culture in which there is no division between religion science and medicine.

They're all one may only be seen by the initiated men of the tribe. The punishment for any woman or uninitiated boy who by chance sees a touring that is death or blinding with a fire stick. Great indeed is the day when a young man has become fully initiated. My young man can tell you that you have gone through all the tests that are being thrown up in the air and painted that of being circumcised and cut a second time lying upon it. You have the strength courage and wisdom of the man you have learned to obey the old man and you will be shown the sacred secrets about. The sacred secrets linked with the truth and the totems and the ceremonies performed with patience and

reverence and frequently with deep emotions. Tears come to the eyes of some of the old men. So many associations went up for them as they caressed these stones and pieces of wood. They know the power and sacredness inherent in them. They know that as long as they possess these children the loved ones taken by death are not really lost to them. The old men have a great storehouse of crudes. They are on to religion to pass on to the young men and they have questions still unanswered. Did not make the white men too. Why does the white man wear clothes. What kind of touring does he have. One white man told me the only cheering that he knows the clock ensuring good NC pocketbook jetting. But they must have more than just to know. We have many many.

To run to are among the world's most primitive people they live very nearly in an old stone age culture. Yet even they had an elaborate system of religious belief and this must have been built upon the still earlier ideas. But we must not think that the run to where the first to seek answers about the world in themselves around to religion does however provide an answer to the eternal questions asked by man whence we came and where do we go. How is the world and its creatures made. What causes illness and death. To run to belong to a totem group and this made him kin to some one species of plant or animal. The Totem species it gave him a special set of ancestors from the age of spirit. It gave him special rituals and sacred tales. Above all it made him a member of a group responsible for preserving through ritual.

Some part of the necessary world. Each person also had a sacred sticks and stones. How is his own spirit and also the spirit of deceased ancestors and of those deities that dwelt upon earth before man was created. The Totem groups in the personal Taronga gave each person a tie with the supernatural being with the world of nature and with his fellow man. And what did a run to religion do for its people. It gave support to Iran to action it sanctioned a philosophy of justice that we know as an eye for an eye. It supported such actions as infanticide which the harsh realities of a nomadic desert life forced upon them. It supported as with us the customs of marriage and the systems of authority. Like most people we are going to try to influence the real world through the supernatural right incantation. They tried to make rain and to increase game and plant

foods and to cure the sick. The encroachment of rights brought about the destruction of a Ranta culture and the death of most of the people. The story is built upon the writings of anthropologists. It has therefore been impossible to get music from the around to believing it would provide the appropriate spirit. We have borrowed music from an Australian group to the northwest collected in the field by Ken of the University of Sydney expedition. It is not feasible for any one individual to define fully the meaning of the word religion. Each of us has his own definition as each culture has its own religious beliefs but we may say that everywhere in the world people have sought and found answers to basic questions about themselves and the world around them the answers they find constitute their religion. A system of understanding supported by sacred feelings and group rituals. The Department of anthropology and sociology of the University of

Styx a study in religious belief in the series of human beings lived together in different times and places. This was written by Peterson produced in the studios of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. These programs are presented and distributed by the National Association of educational broadcasters. The program has made education. An independent organization established by the Ford Foundation.