When you speak of myths spreading via a phylogenetic type descent (vs. horizontal diffusion), my mind jumps to the familiar tree structure splaying out over the generations. But then I remember how genomics has revealed how much people move around and admix, with separated lineages rejoining. Each time there is a new model of what went on in Africa in the few hundred thousand years leading up to modern Homo sapiens, it looks a bit less like a tree and a bit more like a network.
That makes me think that when the question is whether common myths propagated phylogenetically or via horizontal diffusion, maybe the answer is “Some of both”. Someone looking for evidence of phylogenetic type descent can find it, and someone else looking for evidence of diffusion can find it as well.
Yeah, I think of it like a bush: periods of isolation and then a merger. One of the most interesting examples, to me, is the New Testament. I think that both Greek mystery rites and the story of Adam and Eve recall the discovery of consciousness. Plato and other philosophers then built on those foundational ideas/abilities, and the New Testament announces that it will update the meaning of Genesis, with "In the beginning was the Logos." On some level, Christian missionaries in Australia were also preaching an updated version of the Dreamtime rites.
IMO crazy to think of cultures as isolated for 100,000 years
When you speak of myths spreading via a phylogenetic type descent (vs. horizontal diffusion), my mind jumps to the familiar tree structure splaying out over the generations. But then I remember how genomics has revealed how much people move around and admix, with separated lineages rejoining. Each time there is a new model of what went on in Africa in the few hundred thousand years leading up to modern Homo sapiens, it looks a bit less like a tree and a bit more like a network.
That makes me think that when the question is whether common myths propagated phylogenetically or via horizontal diffusion, maybe the answer is “Some of both”. Someone looking for evidence of phylogenetic type descent can find it, and someone else looking for evidence of diffusion can find it as well.
Yeah, I think of it like a bush: periods of isolation and then a merger. One of the most interesting examples, to me, is the New Testament. I think that both Greek mystery rites and the story of Adam and Eve recall the discovery of consciousness. Plato and other philosophers then built on those foundational ideas/abilities, and the New Testament announces that it will update the meaning of Genesis, with "In the beginning was the Logos." On some level, Christian missionaries in Australia were also preaching an updated version of the Dreamtime rites.
IMO crazy to think of cultures as isolated for 100,000 years
“Christian missionaries in Australia were also preaching an updated version of the Dreamtime rites.”
Oh wow! That is the most novel and interesting perspective I’ve heard in a while.