The myth of the American Indians says that humans are kneaded by the great god from the clay. It is said that the great god kneads many small people out of the clay and then bakes them in the furnace to make them alive. Due to impatience, the third The clay figurines that were taken out of a batch had not yet been burned, and the fire was not enough. These people are the ancestors of the white race. The clay figurines that were taken out from the second batch were burned just right, and they were golden and pleasing to the eye. The master looked at them for a long time and couldn't put them down. This batch of people included The ancestors of the yellow race, including Indians. The golden little figures were so perfect that the master forgot the time because he was enjoying them. Suddenly he smelled a burning smell, and then he remembered that there were clay figures in the furnace. These clay figures had been burned due to the barbecue. , all dark, became the ancestors of black people.
The origin of human beings can be said to be the most vexing academic issue, whether it is anthropologists, archaeologists, or historians Scientists, biologists, chemists, and even philosophers and religionists have all conducted research on the origin of human beings from various angles. However, so far, there is still no most convincing explanation.
Ethnic groups have quite a lot of myths and legends about the origin of human beings. Some of them are quite similar, but of course there are also many differences. Among these myths, it is very interesting that we can find that there are differences with the theory of evolution. A place of coincidence.
Summarizing various myths, the origin of human beings can be divided into five types: "called out", "originally existing", "changed from plants", "changed from animals" and "made from soil". Let’s describe them separately.
"Egyptian Mythology" says that humans are called out by gods. Since ancient times, Egypt has been a mysterious place. It is the most self-enclosed of all ancient countries. It has its own way of life. It is difficult for external civilization to affect it. Therefore, its theory of human origin is also different from other theories. The people are different.
The Egyptians believed that long before Egypt appeared in the world, the almighty god "NU" existed. He created everything in heaven and earth. When he called "Subi", the wind came into being. ; Calling "Tefuna", there will be rain; calling "Habi", the Nile River will flow through Egypt. He calls again and again, and all things appear one by one. Finally, he speaks "man and woman", and in a blink of an eye, Egypt and it was filled with many people.
After the work of creation was completed, Nu transformed himself into a man's shape and became the first Pharaoh, ruling the human race on earth and creating peace and prosperity.
Myths that have always existed in human beings are scattered among the North American Indians and the Maori people of New Zealand. Indian myths say that God created the heavens and the earth, and then led humans up from the underground to live on the earth. Maori mythology says that "Ranchi" and "Baba" are heaven and earth, the source of all things. At that time, heaven and earth were not separated, and everything was dark. His son longed for light, so he pushed the heaven and earth away with force, and light appeared. Human beings who have always been hidden in the darkness are discovered. It turns out that they are also born from heaven and earth.
The belief that humans are transformed from plants has become a Germanic myth. It says that the god Odin (ODIN) was walking on the beach with other gods one day and saw two trees growing on the sandbank, one of which looked like a tree. The other tree was majestic, and the other tree had a graceful posture, so he ordered the two trees to be cut down and made into men and women respectively. Odin first gave life to them, and the other gods gave them reason, language, blood, skin color, etc., becoming the ancestors of the Germans.
The myth that humans were transformed from animals is quite common. Australian mythology says that humans transformed from lizards; American mythology says that humans transformed from mountain dogs, beavers, apes, etc.; Greek mythology also says that a certain tribe of people transformed from swans, and a certain tribe of people transformed from cows.
From this myth of "animals turning into humans", we can find something very close to the theory of evolution. Especially in the American mythology, it is said that humans were transformed from apes, which is completely consistent with the theory of evolution. This coincidence , very intriguing.
There are several myths about the origin of human beings in our country. The earlier one is "Huainanzi Spiritual Chapter": "There are two gods (yin and yang) mixed together, and they are in the camp of heaven... Similar to Qi. Insects (turbid gases turn into insects, fish, birds and beasts), and essence becomes humans (pure gases turn into humans). ” This argument did not receive much attention.
The later theory refers to the fact that when Pangu was dying and transformed into all things, the parasites on his body turned into humans. Yishi Volume 1 quotes the Five Movement Calendar Years: "The insects in (Pangu's) body turned into humans (people) due to the influence of the wind." ” This statement has not spread.
Another theory is that human beings were created by the Yellow Emperor, and then were given limbs and five senses by other gods, Shang Pian and Mulberry. See Huainanzi's chapter on Lin: "The Yellow Emperor gave birth to yin and yang, and Shang Pian gave birth to ears and eyes. Sang Linsheng’s arms and hands…. "This statement is very interesting and very similar to what Germanic said. Unfortunately, what kind of gods Shang Pian and Sang Lin are are not described in other ancient books, leaving only a mystery.
Among all the myths, the theory of "creating man from clay" is the most common and the most popular. For example, the New Zealand myth says that man is made of red clay and his own blood by the god Tiki; Mera The Nicene people also said this; Greek mythology said that God took out earth and fire from the inside of the earth, sent the two brothers Prometheus and Epimetheus to create animals and humans respectively, and endowed humans with various personalities and wisdom.
The Maidu Indians in western North America believe that after the "founder of the earth" created trees, birds and beasts, he said, "I am going to create humans." ” Then he took some dark red soil and mixed it with water to make a man and a woman.
Where did the Chinese originate?
Where did the Chinese originate?
According to paleoanthropological research, ancient people more than two million years ago Apes had evolved into Homo habilis; two million years later, Homo erectus evolved. According to the latest genetic research, Australopithecus afarensis in East Africa 3 million years ago is the direct ancestor of humans. At the latest, 1.7 million years ago, traces of Homo erectus reached mainland China.
Nuwa is the ancestor of mankind in ancient Chinese mythology. According to legend, she married her brother Fuxi and had descendants. There are also legends that she made human beings out of loess, made five-color stones to mend the sky, broke off the feet of turtles to support the four poles, calmed floods, killed wild beasts, and made the people healthy.
How did humans originate? This is one of the questions that people are most interested in. There are many beautiful myths and legends spread among all ethnic groups in the world. The Bible says that after God created the sun, moon, stars, plants, and animals, he created Adam, the ancestor of mankind, out of clay in his own image, and injected his soul into Adam's body, so Adam came to life. God took out a rib from Adam while he was sleeping and created his spouse, Eve. After Adam and Eve tasted the forbidden fruit and were expelled from the Garden of Eden, they reproduced and became the ancestors of mankind.
The Hopi tribe in India has a popular saying that people all over the world originally had the same skin color. One day, a god came to the earth and said to humans, I will send you to the four directions and gradually turn your skin into four colors. So the red people in the east, the Indians, became the guardians of the land; the yellow people in the south became the guardians of the wind; the black people in the west became the guardians of the water; and the white people in the north became the guardians of the wind. Seed and become the guardian of fire.
The issue of human origins is debated endlessly among all nations in the world. In the 19th century, Darwin's theory of evolution emerged, which proposed a new view on the issue of human origins. Darwin believed that humans evolved from monkeys. He also believed that the development of nature was from inorganic matter to organic matter, and plants, animals and humans appeared through continuous evolution. In 1856, a 100,000-year-old human skull fossil was discovered in Neanderthal, Germany, and then an even older ape skull fossil was discovered in Africa. Therefore, paleoanthropologists have painted a picture of the origin of human beings: the origin of human beings has gone through four stages. The first stage is the Australopithecus stage, which dates from 3 million to 4.4 million years ago; the second stage is Homo habilis stage, from 1.6 million to 2.5 million years ago; the third stage is the Homo erectus stage, which lasted from about 1.6 million to 1.8 million years ago to 200,000 years ago; the fourth stage is the Homo sapiens stage, the late Homo sapiens form has reached the level of modern people. Since the first and second stages of humanoid fossils are currently found only on the African continent and not on other continents, some scientists believe that Africa is the unique birthplace of mankind.
So how did the Chinese originate?
In Chinese myths and legends, there is a saying that Pangu opened the world. The giant Pangu split the chaos with a sharp ax and separated heaven and earth. After death, his breath turned into wind and clouds, his voice turned into roaring thunder, his left eye turned into the sun, his right eye turned into the moon, his hands, feet and limbs turned into the four poles of the earth and famous mountains in the five directions, and his blood turned into rivers , tendons pave roads, muscles form fields, hair and hair become stars, teeth and bones become metal, pearls, and jade, and sweat becomes the rain and dew that nourish the growth of all things.
After Pangu, Nuwa appeared. She "made a human being out of loess" in her own image. One day, Nuwa came to a clear pool, squatted down by the pool, picked up the yellow mud, and made a clay figure according to her own appearance. When she lowered the clay figure to the ground, the clay figure came to life. Nuwa worked tirelessly to create many men and women. These naked people cheered and jumped around Nuwa, thanked her devoutly, and then dispersed to various places. But people are bound to die. In order to prevent human beings from becoming extinct, Nuwa established a marriage relationship for human beings and ordered men and women to find spouses for each other so that they could have children and reproduce from generation to generation.
Although the legend of Nuwa creating human beings is so beautiful, people today are influenced by Darwin’s theory of evolution. Most people believe that humans evolved from apes. Specifically, when it comes to the origin of Chinese people, there are currently two There are debates on opinions, one is the "Peking Man theory" and the other is the "African Eve theory". Peking Man is referred to as "Peking Man". The fossil was first unearthed in 1920 in a cave in Longgu Mountain in Zhoukoudian, southwest of Beijing. Six skulls, 6 facial bones, 15 mandibles, 157 teeth, and 12 skull fragments were finally excavated. There are 3 humerus segments, 7 limb bone segments, 1 tibia segment and 1 clavicle. After research by paleoanthropologists, they belong to 40 individuals. Studying the stratigraphy of the Zhoukoudian site, it was found that Peking Man lived as early as 700,000 years ago and as late as 230,000 years ago. For a long time, various human fossils discovered in China, such as Yunnan Yuanmou Man and Shaanxi Lantian Man fossils, have similar characteristics to the Peking Man fossils: a relatively flat face, a low nose bridge, rectangular eye sockets, and shovel-shaped incisors. Therefore, many scholars insist that the Chinese people originated from the same race in China and are named "Peking Man".
In 1987, geneticist Cann and others from the University of California, USA, studied the mitochondrial DNA of 148 women from Africa, Europe, Asia, Papua New Guinea and other places, and found that among all continents, the African Humans have the most mutations, which proves that Africans have the longest history on all continents. Calculations have found that modern Africans have a history of 200,000 years. The history of modern humans in Eurasia is only 130,000 years old. From this, it is concluded that modern humans originated from the same African ancestor, which they called "African Eve".
In 1999, about 20 Chinese geneticists studied the genetic markers on the Y chromosome of the DNA of 28 human groups in China and concluded that the Chinese originated in Africa. It is believed that about 60,000 years ago, some Africans migrated north from southeastern Asia to China and became the ancestors of the Chinese.
Other archaeological discoveries are increasingly puzzling. For example, the footprints of four people were found on Triassic rocks in Fuyuan County, Yunnan, China. According to research, these rocks are 235 million years old. If according to the "African Eve Theory", Africans came to China 130,000 years ago, how could there be human footprints 235 million years ago? According to the "Peking Man theory", humans did not exist until 700,000 years ago. In addition, the ape-man fossils discovered in Yuanmou, Yunnan and Lantian, Shaanxi are no more than 2 million years old. There are many such surprising discoveries around the world. At present, some bold scientists have proposed the concepts of prehistoric civilization and prehistoric culture, believing that there were other human civilizations on the earth before this human civilization. Although it sounds like a fantasy, with the development of human science and technology, archaeological discoveries have Going deeper, sooner or later, human beings will be able to get the correct answer to their own origins.