With my book If These Fists Could Talk coming out this month, I’m starting research for my next book on the mythology of violence.
We have a story we tell in our science: that as primates left the jungles of Africa, they underwent the trials of the environment, which evolved their component parts – brains, communication capacity, group size, aggression – until they became hominins. Agricultural societies, especially the Aryan ones, all tend to share in myths that the gods were essentially those of the weather. In Iran, Marduk the sun god beats Tiamat the dragon. In almost all originary myths, the dragon is associated with water; it’s the Nile crocodile, which devours humans and cattle, prohibiting the crossing of water. The Great Yu in China is remembered as establishing “the flood plan”, creating an irrigation system to resolve flooding. So, the sun beats the floods. This is recorded as gods competing over control of the weather.
In essence, Aryan mythology appears to be primarily a mythology of agriculture. Gods of technology and domestication factor into the agricultural process. There are gods of war, like the Iranian Mithra and Indian Indra, but these are more like mascots or champions. There is no “founder” of war or violence itself; rather, there is a patron god who helps his or her people win wars, or engage in incessant warfare in the heavens. There are often gods of metals too, which factor into these wars.
I would challenge scientists to think more concretely about their own cosmogonies (theories of origin). Do they descend from agricultural myths which claim that humans were fashioned by the environment? Because such a belief completely obscures the origin of violence. There is now a Mandela Effect where people (and all the AI I’ve interacted with) think that chimpanzees fight with clubs and rocks.
When pressed, they realize that the “weaponized ape” is utter mythology. It’s a convenient mythology – it justifies the belief that our aggression only differs in degree, not in kind – but it is a mythology nonetheless.
There are older myths which appear to predate the agricultural myths. Often these are totemic myths of origin. There are often myths of the origin of fire, hunting, etc. But again, I’ve yet to see an origin of violence. It’s shocking to think that even the oldest myths could conceptualize the origin of humanity, but not our violence. It really has been a blind spot forever.
My book If These Fists Could Talk releases January 2025, be sure to get it at Amazon. Your purchase will help fund my continued research.
Also I welcome anyone who would like to have a friendly debate on violence, evolution, anthropology, mythology, or any related topic. We can set a time and date, record it live, and release it on my channel.