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Storytracking Origins of Ancestors
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Texts, Stories, and Histories in Central Australia
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Origin of Ancestors and Human Beings
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Origin of Alcheringa Ancestors (1899) [17]Coming down from their home in the western sky, armed with their Lalira or great stone knives, the Ungambikula took hold of the inapertwa, one after the other. [18]First of all the arms were released, then the fingers were added by making four clefts at the end of each arm; then legs and toes were added in the same way. [19]The figure could now stand, and after this the nose was added and the nostrils bored with the fingers. [20]A cut with the knife made the mouth, which was pulled open several times to make it flexible. [21]A slit on each side separated the upper and lower eye-lids, hidden behind which the eyes were already present, another stroke or two completed the body, and thus, out of the Inapertwa, men and women were formed. [22]These Inapertwa creatures were in reality stages in the transformation of various animals and plants into human beings, and thus they were naturally, when made into human beings, intimately associated with the particular animal or plant, as the case may be, of which they were the transformations--in other words, each individual of necessity belonged to a totem the name of which was of course that of the animal or plant of which he or she was a transformation. [23]This tradition of the Ungambikula only refers to a certain number of totems, or rather to a certain number of local groups of individuals belonging to particular totems; in the case of others such as, for example, the Udnirringita or witchetty grub totem, there is no tradition relating to the Inapertwa stage. [24]The Ungambikula made into men Inapertwa who belonged to the following totems:--Akakia or plum tree, Inguitchika or grass seed, Echunpa or large lizard, Erliwatchera or small lizard, Atninpirichira or Alexandra parakeet, and Untania or small rat. [25]In the case of all except the first they also performed the rite of Lartna or circumcision by means of a fire-stick. [26]The same tradition relates that, after having performed their mission, the Ungambikula transformed themselves into little lizards called Amunga-quiniaquinia, a word derived from amunga a fly and quiniaquinia to snap up quickly. [27]There is no reason given for this, and in no other tradition do we meet with either the Ungambikula or the special kind of lizard into which they changed. |
Francis Gillen's Journal, vol I [1]In the long long ago ancestors of the present race lived in the form of a giant species of porcupine called Inaapwerta which had no limbs or organs of sight smell or hearing and did not eat food. [2]This animal incapable of motion presented the appearance of a man whose legs and arms were doubled up and grown into the shoulders a slight outline of human limbs were visible. [3]A spirit man called Allkappera [perhaps Ullakupera, a little hawk that gives its name to a totem, in NT Spencer substitutes Ungambikulla--western sky, Allkuppera--from east] came from the east (iknurra) & seeing these strange creatures felt a great pity for them & on examination discovered that with the aid of his magic knife he could release from the curious mass of flesh the faintly outlined legs & arms & give these creatures the same shape as himself. [4]Taking up one of the Inaapwerta he quickly released the arms adding fingers by making four divisions at the end of the arm, the legs were now released & toes added in like manner. [5]The figure could now stand erect. [6]The nose was formed and the nostrils bored with the finger one stroke of the knife added the mouth which was pulled open several times to make flexible. [7]Eyes were formed by the simple process of incision another stroke or two of the magic knife provided the new being with genital organs. [8]The Ullakupera continued his operations until all the Inaapwerta were converted into living images of himself both sexes were created with equal rapidity. [9]Having finished his task the spirit called all the men and women together endowed them with the gift of speech and informed the men that the women were made for their use with a view to increase their numbers the men however before taking wives must undergo the operation of Lartna (circumcision) and Arreelta (subincision). [10]These operations were performed on them at once the men and women assembled were then divided into four castes Bultharra Coomarra Panunga & Puroola & instructed in the marriage laws which are observed at the present time. [11]The men were instructed to hide from the women while recovering from the effects of the qualifying operation. |
[1]Amunga-quinyirquinya Flycatching lizard [2]Earliest alchiringa [3]In the early days of the Alcherina this country was all covered with salt water qualch [Kwatcha] alia which has gradually withdrawn to the north Yerira by the people of that country who always wanted to get it & keep it in their own country to which it is now confined. [4]At this period there dwelt in the Western Alkirra (sky or heavens) two men who were Ungambikulla that is out of nothing or enough in themselves [5]they could see from their elevated position Inaapertwa creatures (vide Horn vol [iv] Anthrop page 185 where the term is printed Inaapwerta & erronously translated as meaning Echidna aculeata [i.e., a porcupine like creature] its real meaning is rudimentary [the term "rudimentary" is written above the term "incomplete" which is crossed through] men - partly men - or men unable to walk) dwelling on the shores of the salt water but they were afraid to go to them owing to the water. [6]The Inaapertwa dwelt in various places & when the water was withdrawn the Amung quinyirquinya [fly catching lizards] came down and made with their knives [i.e., by circumcision] some groups into Ulpmirka [word "men" crossed out and replaced by "Ulpmirka" i.e., by means of circumcision groups were made into men or Ulpmerka (Gillen's Ulpmirka)] and some into Arakurta [young men between circumcision and subincision], but they did not perform Ariltha [subincision]. [7]At Quiurnpa they formed a group whom they made into Ulpmirka only & this is how the Ulpmirka of that place originated [written between lines "then they originated in two other places in the ???"] [8]They intended to return and make Arakurta of them but they were annoyed with Oruncha devils who dwelt at a big quartz Blow called Atnuraquina near Temple Bar & who killed and eat a lot of Echunpa [large lizarad] & Entinaichara[?] men & women whom the Amunga quinyirquinya had made from Inaapertwa [9]There these Oruncha also eat up a lot of Atnin piriechara[?] (Alexandra parakeet) & Untaina (small rat) people whom the Amunga made out of Inaapertwa creatures [10]- two Achumpa [perhaps Echunpa] men brothers escaped in this way one [above the space following word "the El???"] was with his wife was away down south [word "upon" marked out] when the Oruncha made their raid & upon returning he saw their heads & being frightened placed his lubra in the center of his ilpilla (large bunch Eagle hawks feathers worn in Uleara[girdle made of human hair] above hips) & thus carried her about concealed from view [11]he looked about for his brother & presently found his head which he spoke to & from his brother at once arose again saying the oruncha killed us all but they threw away my head [12]they will come again take care of yourself [13]then he pointed to the track they had taken & the men arming themselves with an Urumpirra (large spear made of one piece of wood & used at close quarters only) each - heavy & strong - took up positions one on the west the other on the eastern side of the gap [14](Stone arose to mark exact spots where they stood) & when the oruncha appeared again they rushed out and killed them all with their Urumpirra [15]they fell close together near the mouth of the gap (Simpsons) & this accounts for the great jumble of boulders at that spot - [16]The Okilea[?] sat down altogether & the Walia[?] journeyed away to Aurnpira[?] south west of Goydors[?] Springs Erldunda[?] where he sat down altogether --- PS [17]It was the Amunga quinyirquinya who made the Ulpmirka [boy before circumcision, also group of men during Alcheringa that were not circumcised] totem. [18]later on it will be shown that the Ulakupera [little hawk] who followed operated upon some of these Ulpmirka groups & they became Arakurta [referring to circumcised boys before subincision?] only those Ulpmerka who were in the first instance operated upon by Amunga [lizards] to & thus made Arakurta by the Ullakupera are now designated as the latter totem -- [19]Having accomplished their mission these men of the heavens turned themselves into little lizards of two species both called Amunga-quinyirquaiya from Amunga (a fly) |
in Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes (1899)
with Gillen's field journal sources:
"Traditions of Origin" (1894) &"
Amunga-quinyirquinya Flycatching lizard" (1897)
1 Alcheringa denotes period when mythical ancestors existed. Comment: Gillen's journals use statements such as "In the long long ago..." and "In the early days of the Alcheringa..." 2-5 "In reality the traditions of the tribe recognise four more or less distinct eras in the Alcheringa. ..." Comment: An important perspective that guided Spencer's editorial work, though it is unsupported in the journals and field notes of both Gillen and Spencer. It is Spencer's interpretation that these stories can be made more sensible if arranged into a chronology of four periods. Having established this principal, he directs his attention in the "early wanderings" foremost to finding a story of creation. 6 "The earliest tradition with which we are acquainted is as follows." 7 "In the early Alcheringa the country was covered with salt water (Kwatcha alia)." Gillen 1897 [3] "In the early days of the Alcheringa this country was all covered with salt water qualch alia ..." 8 "This was gradually withdrawn toward the north by the people of that country who always wanted to get it and to keep it for themselves." Gillen 1897 [3] " ... which had gradually withdrawn to the north Yerira by the people of that country who always wanted to get it & keep it in their own country to which it is now confined." 9 Footnote: Spencer's comment 10 Spencer's embellishment extending Gillen 1897 [3] 11 "At this time there dwelt in the Alkira aldorla, that is the western sky, two beings of whom it is said that they were Ungambikula, a word which means "out of nothing," or "self-existing." Gillen 1897 [4] "At this period there dwelt in the Western Alkerra (sky or heavens) two men who were Ungambikula that is out of nothing or enough in themselves" Comment: Spencer's editing leaves this sentence very close to his source in Gillen. However, whereas Gillen clearly has these figures identified as lizards--Gillen's sentences [1], the title of the section, and [6] where he refers again to these beings as lizards--Spencer never identifies them as such. Spencer's omission thus allows the term Ungambikulla to take the form of a proper noun rather than an adjective as it is in Gillen. 12 "From their elevated dwelling-place they could see, far away to the east, a number of Inapertwa creatures, that is rudimentary human beings or incomplete men, whom it was their mission to make into men and women." Gillen 1897 [5] "they could see from their elevated position Inapertwa creatures ... dwelling on the shores of the salt water but they were afraid to go to them owing to the water." Comment: whereas Gillen's account has the lizards afraid to go to these creatures because of the waters, Spencer gives the figures the mission to make the Inapertwa into men and women. 13-14Spencer follows Gillen in including this correction of the rendering of the term Inapertwa here even to the placement of the comment in the middle of the same sentence. 15 "In these days there were no men and women, and the Inapertwa were of various shapes and dwelt in groups along by the shores of the salt water." Spencer follows Gillen 1897 [5] quoted above, but adds that men and women did not then exist and that the Inapertwa were of various shapes, neither point supported by Gillen. 16 "They [the Inapertwa] had no distinct limbs or organs of sight, hearing or smell, and did not eat food, and presented the appearance of human beings all doubled up into a rounded mass in which just the outline of the different parts of the body could be vaguely seen." Comment: At this point Spencer abandons Gillen's 1897 account of the lizards and draws on Gillen's first journal (1895?) in an account he titled "Traditions of Origin." Perhaps Spencer in seeing Gillen's note of the erroneous rendering of Inapertwa looked up this earlier account and found elements of it to his liking. It is also notable that in Gillen 1895 the Inapertwa were transformed by a being called Allkappera, perhaps a little hawk, and came from the east (not specifed as the sky). Clearly Gillen's two accounts are not two versions of the same story. Gillen 1895 [1] "In the long long ago ancestors of the present race lived in the form of a giant species of porcupine called Inaapwerta which had no limbs or organs of sight smell or hearing and did not eat food." 17 "Coming down from their home in the western sky, armed with their Lalira or stone knives, the Ungambikula took hold of the inapertwa, one after the other." Comment: Spencer draws upon Gillen's lizard story for the "coming down" and perhaps from Gillen 1895 [4] for "took hold." Gillen 1895 [4] "Taking up one of the Inaaperwerta ..." 18 "First of all the arms were released, then the fingers were added by making four clefts at the end of each arm; then legs and toes were added in the same way." Comment: Here Spencer shifts fully from Gillen's 1897 lizard story which centers on the initiatory operations of circumcision and subincision to Gillen's 1895 story "Traditions of Origin." The shift is from a story that makes the uninitiated into the initiated, that is, adult males, into a story of the creation of human beings, men and women, from embryo-like creatures. Gillen 1895 [4] "Taking up one of the Inaapwerta he quickly released the arms adding fingers by making four divisions at the end of the arm, the legs were now released & toes added in like manner." 19 "The figures could now stand, and after this the nose was added and the nostrils bored with the fingers." Comment: Taken directly from Gillen 1895 [5] & [6]. 20 "A cut with the knife made the mouth, which was pulled open several times to make it flexible." Comment: Taken directly from Gillen 1895 [7]. 21 "A slit on each side separated the upper and lower eye-lids, hidden behind which the eyes were already present, another stroke or two completed the body, and thus, out of the Inapertwa, men and women were formed." Comment: Spencer takes the origin of eyes directly from Gillen 1895 [7], but, interestingly, elects to exclude the creation of genetalia. Gillen 1895 [7] "Eyes were formed by the simple process of incision another stroke or two of the magic knife provided the new beings with genital organs." Importantly, Spencer ignores Gillen's account [9] through [11] of the origin of circumcision and subincision, "castes," and the decorum between men and women. It appears that these would distract from Spencer's interest in presenting a story of human creation. This intent is seen in his following sentences in which he generalizes the story as representative of all totem origins. 22 "These Inaapertwa creatures were in reality stages in the transformation of various animals and plants into human beings, and thus they were naturally, when made into human beings, intimately associated with the particular animal or plant, as the case may be, of which they were the transformations--in other words, each individual of necessity belonged to a totem the name of which was of course that of the animal or plant of which he or she was a transformation." Comment: Spencer's interpretation. 23 "This tradition of the Ungambikula only refers to a certain number of totems, or rather to a certain number of local groups of individuals belonging to particular totems; in the case of others such as, for examaple, the Udnirringita or witchetty grub totem, there is no tradition relating to the inapertwa stage." 24-25Spencer enumerates some of the totems groups followed by a rather unconnected statement about circumcision being performed with stone knives. Then Spencer picks up the mission he gave to these two sky beings who are now referred to as "the Ungambikulla" and describes what happened to them when they completed their mission. 26 "The same tradition relates that, after having performed their mission, the Ungambikula transformed themselves into little lizards called Amunga-quiniaquinia, a word derived from amunga a fly and quiniaquinia to snap up quickly." This sentence is obviously based in Gillen 1897, but Spencer's understanding of the term Ungambikulla portrays sky beings with the proper names "Ungambikulla" acting throughout the story who, in the end, turn into lizards. Gillen's 1897 story is about lizards who are described as ungambikulla. Spencer's inclusion of the lizards here, his shift back to Gillen 1897, presents a confusion that Spencer himself seemed puzzled by as suggested in the next sentence. 27 "There is no reason given for this, and in no other tradition do we meet with either the Ungambikula or the special kind of lizard into which they changed." General Comment: Note that Spencer ignores much in Gillen's account of the Flycatching Lizards, indeed everything after sentence [5]. He connects the beginning of this story that is about making adult men of a totem by means of circumcision and subincision with a fragment collected several years earlier by Gillen (and I suspect that this particular fragment may hae significant Christian influence based on a comparison of it with accounts in C. Strehlow's work) and construes it as a story of human origins, i.e., a story of the earliest period when, obviously, Gillen's 1897 story would more certainly fit the middle period, as Spencer defines it, if left as Gillen presents it. In all of Gillen's journals these two stories are the only evidence Spencer can draw upon to document what he has defined as the earliest period, the period of creation. The effect of Spencer's account, pp. 387-9, is to give the Arunta a period of creation, an earliest period. Peculiarly Spencer even confounds this with his conclusion about the lizards. In fact the only field data Spencer had in 1898 on which to establish his early period was Gillen's 1895 account. Spencer's motivations to find a human creation story of the earliest period seem clear in that he does not include the circumcision and subincision elements from either of his field sources, Gillen 1895 [9] and Gillen 1897 [6]. And he skews the knife cutting actions of the lizard story, which are clearly related to circumcision and subincision, to the actions of creating humans from rudimentary forms. The term inaapertwa is key. While in Gillen's 1895 account the term refers to rudimentary forms, in Gillen's 1897 journal it simply refers to those who have not been initiated. Gillen's 1897 journal account concludes with the creation of the pile of stones at Simpson's Gap which is common in the totem stories. Spencer's interpretive statements [22-25] confound his purpose though in some senses they may be more connected with his sources. Here he acknowledges that the account he has given is not a generalized human creation story, but a representative of the genre of so-called totem ancestor stories--that is, stories that tell how the ancestors make the humans in their lineage. The effect of presenting the story as general human creation is that in doing so, ungambikulla (which is but an adjective for any and all these ancestral figures who simply jumped up of themselves) becomes a proper noun referring to creator sky gods, a kind of figure otherwise completely absent from Aboriginal thought and religion. And, importantly, a figure sought after by missionaries and turn-of-the century students of religion. It is significant that within the first forty pages of Gillen's first notebook, he includes a passage on "Spiritual Beings" and "Traditions of Origins." It would be expected that Gillen would inquire about these aspects of Arrernte life, though this was before Frazer and Spencer would be dictating his research agenda. Notably, Spencer uses the same technique as does Eliade (or really vice versa). What they do is to creatively construct an illustrative example intermingled with their own comments fairly clear: Eliade presented an example of center with an earth-sky connection to support his understanding of religion; Spencer needed an example of "early wanderings" that would show first creations to support his morphological typology. Neither necessarily hides his motivations. Both, through a process of selection, organization, omission, conflation, and most especially subtle contextualization, construct documents that are construed by others as primary texts or that accurately reflect primary texts. Both texts when compared to their sources are found to be different in fundamental ways from their sources. The major difference is that Eliade cites his source, Spencer does not. The texts from Gillen's journal for other sections of the tjilpa ancestral journey stories follow.
Francis Gillen - Journal, Volume III, p. 349
November 12, 1896
Francis Gillen - Journal, Volume III, p. 353
November 18, 1896
Francis Gillen, Journal, Volume III, p. 355
November 18, 1896
Francis Gillen, Journal, Volume III, p. 355
November 18, 1896
Francis Gillen - Journal, Volume III, p. 421
November 26, 1896
Francis Gillen - Journal III, p. 492
After April 17, 1897 and before May 15, 1897
Column I
