by netage | Modern Aspect of Myth, Mediaspeak & Spirituality |
Michael A Rizzotti
When I switched my major from economics to theology at Loyola College in the fall of 1970, the province of Québec was in the midst of a political turmoil. During what is now known as the October Crisis, British Trade Commissioner James Cross and Québec Labor Minister Pierre Laporte were both kidnapped by the Front de Libération du Québec (F.L.Q.). James Cross was later released, but Pierre Laporte was found strangled in the trunk of an abandoned car on the eastern outskirts of Montréal. The Crisis triggered the adoption by the Liberal Government of Canada of the War Measures Act and the army was sent into the province.
The circumstances that led to this dramatic turn of events could be traced back to the British invasion of a small but growing French colony of Nouvelle-France in 1760. The Conquest –la Conquête- was to be the beginning of a people’s ongoing struggle for survival.
In order to maintain peace in the newly conquered colony, the English undertook a policy of laissez faire toward the Catholic Church. As the new spiritual leader, the Church promoted in the minds of the people a distinct vision of its own identity and destiny. Looking back, hardly any political party could have inspired such a collective will to overcome the unforeseeable obstacles of history.
From the time I first left Italy to immigrate to Montreal. I witnessed enormous changes in the people of Quebec in the sixties. The Catholic Church was omnipresent when we first arrived, and had been for at least three centuries. All aspects of French Canadian life was imprinted with the Church’s authority.
In the early nineteen-sixties, two major events were to change the Church’s hold over the people: Vatican II in Rome, and the emergence of the Quiet Revolution –La Révolution Tranquille– in Québec. In a matter of years, the Church’s power rapidly eroded. In less than a decade, the priests and nuns who dominated schools and hospitals were replaced by lay people. The Church was losing an increasing number of its believers. Those who lost their faith embraced the growing nationalist fervor. And as the québecois progressively abandoned the Church, they joined the ranks of the emerging political quest for independence.
It is this quest that is the subject of this chapter. We will try to explain how a desire for spiritual salvation was transformed into a movement for political liberation. As Claude Levi-Strauss observed, nothing in today’s society is more mythical than political ideology. He wrote:
But what gives the myth an operational value is that the specific pattern described is timeless; it explains the present and the past as well as the future. This can be made clear through a comparison between myth and what appears to have largely replaced it in modern societies, namely, politics.1
It is this quest for independence that is the focus of a message of mythical proportions.
*
Ironically, myth and history appear today as conflicting in meaning as in function. They are both stories, yes, but each relates to different aspects of events that are recounted. Both are equally considered to be true stories by those who relate their content. Yet myth is primarily concerned with accounts of the origins taking place in a primordial time, a so called time beyond the realm of history. History, on the other hand, is a chronological compendium of historical data.
One can best differentiate myth from history as two distinct forms of language. Foremost, history is the realm of the historian and his work, whereas the narrative of myth reaches out to all men, women, and children regardless of class, position, and age. All are captivated by myth. Everybody is enchanted by the mythical stories that have been generated by different cultures.
Myth is concise, symbolic, meaningful, and efficient. Its stories relate to events and heroes beyond the ordinary human sphere. These stories are concerned with god(s), super-heroes, and their heroic deeds. What separates myth from history is its description of a special class of beings and their activities. They deal mostly with the powers that rule the world: wherein God or the gods are metaphors for the unfathomable powers -subliminal and inconspicuous hierarchies- that rule the world. For the most part, these stories have an enduring quality that reflects the intrinsic and significant aspects of a mentality derived from the different cultures they emerged from.
Myth relates how a new reality came into being, how a new world was created. It describes the actions of the super-heroes or the god(s) in their creative endeavor. Why are certain things forbidden? What legitimates a particular authority? Why do people suffer and die? To sum it up, myth decodes the meaningful events of the world. These events evolved in a time beyond history; ie, in illo tempore.2 Thus, this ethereal dimension in time and space is the primary gap that separates myth from history. It is a fuzzy boundary between the sacred/supernatural that is set apart from the profane/ordinary world.
History is foremost an exhaustive and detailed account of all significant events that occurred in the past. With the scientific application of historiography, history has been stripped of any mythical content. However, this was not the case of the history books of several decades ago. One look at older history books reveals how they were filled with heroic embellishment which have nothing to do with historical facts. The interpretation of the events surrounding General Custer’s battle at Little Bighorn, for instance, has varied tremendously over time. Some of the earlier versions were, to say the least, mythical, and particularly unfavorable toward the aboriginal people.
The above comparison between myth and history is well illustrated in the example of the discovery of Nouvelle-France (New-France). According to Mircea Eliade, myth is essentially an account that describes the events that are at the origin of a new reality founded and created by civilizing heroes or gods in the beginning of time. The discovery of New-France, for example, has been inscribed in history as the legitimate origins of a new national reality. The new beginnings inaugurate the grounds of mythical significance. The ancestral heroes are the founders of a new national identity at the beginning of a new chapter of history. The founders’ identities are celebrated as heroic and are separated from the mass of historical events. In the U.S., for instance, Columbus day is a national holiday.3 The national event celebrates the hero as the prototype of a new cultural and national reality. The pioneer is not so much famed as a person but as a symbol of a new cultural identity. As history shows, because of Amerigo Vespucci, the New World became known as America on maps as early as 1507.
Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492
Jacques Cartier discovered New-France in 1594
These national heroes were the first to inaugurate a new historical and national reality. They were elevated above ordinary human beings and other historical characters. As a result, society will commemorate these super-heroes by erecting monuments in their honor. These monuments consecrate the significant part they played in the foundation and creation of a new national entity and identity.4
There is an inherent contradiction in the concept of the discovery. How could the New World be discovered when it was already inhabited by native cultures? To validate the Christian discovery, these natives had to be dismissed as having no cultural and moral value of their own. Being labeled as heathen and pagan justified their need for civilization. Therefore, the discovery was strictly an European colonialist imposition upon the native cultures to justify the taking of the biggest piece of free real estate ever discovered. Today, such historical value given to the discovery is debatable, since it is more mythical than anything else. But it shows how the mythical process is a propaganda tool for the justification of any form of colonialism and imperialism.
*
The chronicle of the origin of a new reality has an important mythological significance in history, yet the struggle for the nation’s identity is also essential.5
sacred vs profane
the colonialists vs the natives
the Christians vs the pagans
The opposition establishes the sacredness of the colonial endeavor, especially in respect to the belief of the mission to civilize and to convert the savage heathen who represented an obstacle to the development of the new nation. We have typified elsewhere the Zuni as the heathen reality to be converted. As a profane reality, they were seen as an obstacle to the development of the New World.
Christian civilization vs the heathen
British civilization vs the pagan
French civilization vs the savage
New-France will evolve dramatically from the time of its foundation. Its historical discovery allowed the consecration of its origin as a legitimate nation regardless of the fate of the aboriginal cultures who lived in their ancestral lands.
*
The discovery of New-France that fills the first pages of history books of that nation was to be undermined by a tragic turn of events. In 1760, the colony was conquered by the British army and abandoned by France. In the process, the conquerors set their own political rules while recognizing the authority of the Catholic Church so as to appease the population.
The defeat and the abrupt change in the political allegiance left a deep scar in the collective memory of the French people. The result was to imprint ambivalent feelings of being a nation of colonized-colonialists, and to mark a Lord-victim approach in regards to their history and their fate. The people were in political exile in their own land. The French, who were originally the Lords and colonialists in the New World, had become themselves the victims of colonialism imposed by the British. This turn of events will have enduring effects in the development of their destiny and history. It will set off the beginning of a peoples’ struggle for survival.
The British conquest of New-France also reinstated the old rivalry between England and France and exported to North America the ancestral antagonism between Reformed Church/Protestantism and Catholicism that had endured in Europe for several centuries.
The political struggle that emerged because of the conquest clearly outlined two distinct and rival cultural entities.
English vs French
Reformed/Protestants vs Catholics
Abandoned by France, the people congregated under the leadership of the Catholic Church. From then on the French mentality would be shaped into a Catholic mold. With her new found authority the Church became preoccupied with the redemption of its people. The hierarchy promoted the principles of obedience to the Church as the only visible sign of salvation: extra ecclesiam nulla salus; ie, there is no salvation outside the Church. The Church encouraged students to shun the evils of business and commerce and to embrace liberal professions such as law, medicine, and the priesthood. The clerics preached to the population the benefits of agriculture as a privileged way of salvation. They urged women to marry young and have numerous children.
Meanwhile, by the end of the XVIIIth century, signs of the Industrial Revolution were visible all over England. The Kingdom was in a rapid transition from an agrarian to an industrial society. The roots of the cultural and economic development of capitalism had Protestant ethical overtones. Individual responsibility, freedom, industry, and success were believed to be visible signs of salvation. Max Weber described the ethic in terms of a “secular asceticism”.6 This spirit of capitalism would soon spread to all the British colonies of North America.
Suddenly, Canada became a battleground for two rival cultures, two languages and two religions originating from two rival European colonial powers. On one hand, we have the French culture led by the Catholic Church whose authority lay in the hierarchy and in the assembly of believers as a visible sign of its invested power, described in terms of collective asceticism. This belief implied a faithful obedience to the principle of the Church as the only way toward salvation.
On the other hand, we have the English culture influenced by the Protestant ethic, described in terms of secular asceticism. The ethic favored individual initiative, industry (hard work), responsibility, and financial success as a sign of election.
Hence, two cultures and two visions of the world inspired an antagonism that put the two collective entities against each other. Each was living in their world of sacred beliefs, opposing the other as a profane reality.
French Catholics vs English Reformed/Protestants
collective asceticism vs secular asceticism
other-worldly vs this-worldly
*
Not until the first half of the 18th century did the French-Canadian people begin to challenge the political rules set by the English and the Church.
During 1837-38, a movement emerged that began to question the authority of the Church and the political advantage of the English. A growing number of people from the French middle-class, as well as intellectuals, expressed their unhappiness with their share of political power. Louis-Joseph Papineau, the leader of the Parti Canadien, succeeded in rallying a majority of French people against the Catholic Church and the English. The nationalist outburst was brief. In 1838 the English crushed an armed insurrection and dispelled the leader and its followers.
As a result, the people were left in a political limbo. In time, the French-Canadians rallied back to the Church for guidance. The majority of the people who were tempted by the political solutions proposed by the nationalists returned to the Church’s promise of collective salvation. Redemption would not be won through political means, but through obedience to the Church and through faith.
By the end of the XIXth century, the rapid changes brought by industrialization and urbanization began to undermine the Church’s control over the faithful. Priests began to preach to people to have large families in order to overcome the English by number.7 The policy of la revenge des berceaux -the revenge of the cradle- worked. As the population grew rapidly, people left the farm for the city. The cities were unable to handle the increasing number of people moving in. And because of the high level of urban unemployment a great deal of the people emigrated to the U.S. In order to limit the exodus, the Catholic hierarchy pioneered the development of agricultural lands in the northern parts of Quebec. These policies were devised to keep the people away from the evils of industrial cities controlled by the English. But despite the courage and endurance of the inhabitants, the harsh climate and poor economical benefits failed to keep the people on their farms.
Urbanization was seen by the clerical elite as a threat to their authority. They had complete control over the farmer who lived in relative autonomy and isolation on his land. Not so for the people living in the cities who were being hired by the English industrialists and traders.
The rapid industrial development, which was out of the Church’s control, was perceived as threatening the integrity of their flock. The economic power of the English was seen as an incursion in their clerical jurisdiction. Especially in light of the overwhelming presence of the Anglo-Saxon culture of Canada and the U.S.
Even though the French-Canadians renewed their allegiance to the Church in the years following the rebellious outburst, their vision of salvation underwent some fundamental changes. Out of the defeat arose a new kind of collective mysticism, more patriotic in tone. A national messianism began to take shape.8
Between the end of the 19th and the early 20th century, a new form of collective mysticism with messianic overtones emerged among the clerical elite. Mgr. Laflèche and later to a lesser extent, Canon Lionel Groulx, prophesied a messianic role for the French Catholic people of North America. They proclaimed that the French-Canadians were destined to be the chosen people of God. They exhorted the population to obedience to the Church in return for a glorious call to the promised land. Mgr. Laflèche compared the plight of the French-Canadian people to Israel. For him “American France…is nothing other than the New Israel of God since it is the heir of the Old France and therefore the heir to the promises made to the Church, and the promise made before that to Israel.”9
As we have seen already, colonialism has broad and sometimes ill effects on the culture it is imposed upon. Extensive ethnological studies show that when cultures are oppressed by a foreign power they instigate movements of messianic salvation, some with revolutionary goals.10 In some cases, the revolt takes the guise of a religious movement but ends in violent outbursts. The conquest and later the defeat of the Rebellion of 1837-38 inhibited the “normal” evolution of the national identity. The strong sense of religious conviction inspired by the Church led the people to shift their desire for national freedom into a mystic vision upheld as a national messianism.
As a result, the ideological boundaries that usually exist between what is believed to be strictly nationalistic and religious fade. National aspirations become intertwined with deep expressions of collective mysticism. The messianic movement described above reinforces the distinct calling of its people and polarizes even further the gap between the French and the English mold of cultural differences and divisions.
collective asceticism vs secular asceticism
French language vs English language
Catholics vs Reformed/Protestants
farmers vs merchants
labor vs industrialist
At this point, it is crucial to stress the importance of the dynamic of opposition in the development of a national identity. The antagonism separates and reinforces the cultural differences and identities on both sides of the dynamic. As we have explained already, the stronger the opposition, the greater the belief in being set apart and of sacred identity.
*
Although the Catholic Church imposed on its believers a stoic acceptance of the political reality of the British rule, it nevertheless fought any form of assimilation. While the Church was preaching a passive submission to the English rule, it maintained a strong sense of cultural identity. Since the Conquest of 1760, the Church had promoted among its faithful the urgency of its collective survival. Under its guidance the people were kept together by two things: la langue et la foi; eg, the French language and catholic faith. Both were instruments of social unity and a barrier against foreign intrusion. They became the two main vehicles for social integration. They were the two major components of contemporary nationalism.
*
Language and a desire for emancipation have been vital forces behind the renewal of nationalism that began in the nineteen sixties. As the nationalist movement began to spread, the Quebec society underwent rapid cultural changes. The Quebec people perceived themselves as other and apart from the rest of Canada. It is this perceived sense of distinctness that allowed the separatists to make political headway among le peuple québécois.
As the Spirit of renewal and openness swept Vatican II, Quebec society as a whole was undergoing its own la Révolution Tranquille -Quiet Revolution. In less than a decade, the power of the Church eroded. Meanwhile, political changes were spreading throughout society. The educational system, formally the stronghold of the Church, was rapidly becoming secularized. The medical system, under the control of the clerical hierarchy, was nationalized. Little by little, Quebec society became more secular. Secularization was undertaken so swiftly that it appeared as if the people wanted to be rid of the heavy moral burden the Church had imposed on them during the last two centuries.
Simultaneously, from the late fifties and throughout the sixties, television took center stage in a majority of homes. People indiscriminately plugged into the power of its message. TV began to shatter the mold of the insular mind as it opened a window to the outside world. Inadvertently, this medium began to challenge the old religious and cultural models by the power of its images. Its mass appeal precipitated even further the secularization of society. The images presented on TV eventually supplanted the ethical models preached by the Church. The Chapel was no longer the center for the preaching of the Word.
Until the 1960s, business signs in Montreal were predominantly in English, reflecting the Anglo-Saxon economic control over the city. It revealed the disproportionate supremacy of the minority over the French majority. Things would rapidly change.
As the desire for emancipation grew, a new wave of radical nationalism arose. The new breed of nationalists demanded more control of their political and economical destinies. They felt, with reason, that their language and culture were threatened by the overwhelming Anglo-Saxon presence in North-America.
An alarming decrease in the French birthrate and a dramatic increase in the immigration of people who would rather learn English sparked fears of assimilation. Quebec, the only bastion of French language and culture in America, was threatened. In the late sixties and early seventies, radical movements like the F.L.Q. –Front de Liberation du Québec– undertook to promote social awareness about such threats. The radical movement advocated complete political control over the province’s destiny. Among their demands was the separation of Quebec from the rest of Canada. To show that they were serious, they planted bombs in the mail boxes, a symbol of the Federal Government, of the affluent English section of Montreal.
From the more radical Rassemblement pour l’indépendance nationale (R.I.N.), emerged a moderate indépendantiste party under the leadership of René Lévesque, a former Liberal provincial cabinet member.11 The movement appealed to the masses as it revived memories of broken dreams and shattered hopes. The promise of independence rang out as a clear message of liberation. To implement these goals, the Parti Québécois (P.Q.) proposed the option of “sovereignty-association” with the rest of Canada.
Quebec vs Canada
Parti Québécois vs Federal Parties of Canada
French vs English
The idea of independence rekindled memories of lost aspirations. It captured the hearts of the people who longed to transcend their past. It allowed them to hail their own future. As such, the movement inspired what the more radical nationalist detractors derisively called “the religion of René”.12
To promote the idea of independence, the P.Q. used metaphors like “paradise” and warned against “old demons” and “abortionists” that opposed their goal.13 People who were close to Rene Levesque were called the “evangelists”. One of his closest ministers was even described as “the disciple that Rene Levesque loved”. These quasi-messianic references consecrated even further the cause in which they believed. The leader himself became the embodiment of a sacred mission of quasi-religious proportion.14 The collective passion among its members became vivid and intense as the nationalists became spirited by its crusade. The quest for independence became more and more mythical in meaning and function as the movement grew more popular among a greater segment of the population.
*
The historical development of nationalism outlines the desire to be distinct. It prompted opposition to whoever challenged this assumption. The dynamic opposition to the other cultural entity reinforced the Quebecers’ sense of conviction in their own separate identity. What existed outside the periphery of the linguistic and religious boundaries –la langue et la foi– was considered a threat to the social makeup. As we have already explained, the stronger the antagonism to the outer cultural reality, the greater the inner identity. This opposition first began with the profane reality of the heathen, which was an obstacle to colonization, and eventually, it was transposed into the struggle against the English adversary.15
The French language became the main bond among the people. It also became a communication barrier against les anglais. Religion, on the other hand, further consolidated the conviction of being set apart and of having a distinct identity as Catholics. The mythical quest for independence became the noetic integrator of the Quebecers. These thematic symbols captured the core of the historical experience of the people. It originated from a legitimate desire to recreate a golden age, a Paradise Lost, if you will, that was denied to them by history. Independence became the rallying quest of that legitimate desire.
It is one of history’s paradox that as soon as the secularization took hold in Quebec, nationalistic concerns arose. What was unique about the people of Quebec prior to the nineteen sixties was the strength of their separate religious identity as well as their language. The province was the only bastion of French Catholicism in North America. The ensuing spiritual vacuum that came as a result of people leaving the Church propelled the faithful quest to be distinct in a secularized world. As a consequence, the collective mentality was politicized. Yet the advent of the political and cultural emancipation of French society also increased the danger of assimilation into the greater North American melting pot. As a remedy, a dose of nationalism was embodied by the quest for independence.
As we have tried to show above, the mythical aspect of history thrives in the minds of the people who are deeply affected by its significance. The quest for independence embodies the collective spirit of the people in search of their own integrity and identity.
_______________
1. Claude Levi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology, New York, Basic Books Inc., 1963, 209.
2. Mircea Eliade, Myth and Reality, New York, Harper & Row, 1963.
3. Although it was soon found out that Columbus did not find his way to India, the inhabitants he met on the continent are still referred to by the wrongful appellation of “Indians”.
4. My work on the inauguration of monuments shows that the fine line between historical figures and mythical heros disappears at the dedication; L’Interpretation Religieuse de l’Origine Mythique de la Nationalite, Montreal, UQAM, 1978. More on the subject in the next chapter.
5. The connection between nationalism and the principle of opposition was first proposed by Maurice Lemire, Les Grands Themes Nationalistes du Roman Historique Canadien-Francais, Québec, PUQ, 1970.
6. Of course, when Max Weber talks about capitalism it is in terms of the “spirit” of capitalism, which implies an ethical and spiritual dimension to it. Not to be confused with the capitalistic anomalies of greed, speculation, and corruption we have witnessed. Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, New York, Scribner, 1958.
7. From a mere sixty thousand French-Canadians in 1760, their number grew to six million in 2000.
8. Gabriel Dussault, L’Eglise A-t-Elle “Oublie” ses Promesses?, in, Relations, 386, 1973, 264-267.
9. G. Dussault, Ibid. 266.
10. See reference on messianism and bibliography, p.78.
11. Under the leadership of Liberal Prime Minister Jean Lesage.
12. See Peter Desbarats’, René, Toronto, Seal Books, 1977, 192.
13. Political Pamphlet, Quand Nous Serons Vraiment Chez-Nous.
14. Paul Tillich, Christianity and the Encounter of the World Religions, New York, Columbia University Press, 1963.
15. Ironically, at the time of this writing, Quebec with only a quarter of the country’s population turns out 40% of the business school graduates of Canada. In 1988, the province yielded half of the 50 fastest growing, publicly-held companies in the nation. It is a characteristic of antagonist acculturation for cultures to finally embrace whole heartidly the cultural principles that they opposed at the outset. See George Devereux on “antagonist acculturation” in, Ethnopsychanalyse Complementariste, Paris, Flamarion, 1972, 201-231.
by netage | Modern Aspect of Myth |
Michael A Rizzotti
The article entitled The Mythical Quest for Independence was written several years ago. I decided to post it here because I consider it pertinent information in regards to the current quasi-religious emergence in our cultures. I added some additional personal observations about Montreal.
*
As a young immigrant living in Montreal I saw Quebec’s cultural development through the eyes of an alien and an outsider. In retrospect, I realize the impact it had on my own personal life as I eventually picked the fields of theology and religious studies in order to make sense of the religious zeal and nationalism that pervaded in Quebec during my youth. The province’s historical development became a fertile groundwork for my research in religion and mythology.
When I first moved to Montreal I was 5 years old. At that time the bulk of my relatives lived in Friuli, Italy. I also had relatives living in Argentina, Belgium, France, Germany, Holland, Morocco and the United States.
As soon as we moved to Montreal I was of age to enroll in school. Contrary to all other European and Italian immigrants who sent their children to English school, I was sent to French school. The small northern Italian city where I came from had many immigrants living in France. Maybe that explains why my parents had no objections sending me to French school. However, for most other immigrants in Quebec, English was considered to be the language of business and they made sure their children learned it. This caused an increasing amount of resentment from the Québécois who felt betrayed and threatened by the overwhelming Anglo North-American continent. Eventually the politicians would change the laws to direct all non English speaking immigrants’ children to French schools.
I was an alien in a predominantly French school, but I was also an outsider in respect to other Italian children enrolled in an English school. In addition I was living in a French speaking culture that was a minority within an English speaking majority in Canada as well as a minority within an even larger dominant North American Anglo culture.
At the time of my arrival, the québécois had been religiously sheltered from the outside world by the Catholic Church and had lived in relative isolation for almost two centuries. One of the triggers that led to the political upheaval in Quebec and the emancipation of its people was the incursion of television in people’s living room. The québécois were no longer captives to their religious leaders or Church. In a matter of years the medium was systematically implanted in all homes feeding them the culture made in New York and Hollywood. Marshall McLuhan who is famous for stating that the medium is the message, forgot to add that who owns the medium owns the message.
During the nationalist upheaval in the early 1960s, I was amazed to realize how people could so readily surrender their will to a cultic or political belief system. After years of research I came to the conclusion that the hierarchical system, symbolically represented by a pyramid, is at the core of all power schemes. The Catholic Church is built on it and all political systems either from the left or right are based on it. These systems are now being replaced by the tribal corporate body.
For those who have never visited the city, Montreal is an island that is surrounded by the majestic Saint-Laurence river. To the north of the city lies another slightly smaller island of Laval. At the time of the Révolution Tranquille the city was linguistically divided between east and west. To the east lived the French people and the great majority of catholic immigrants. To the west lived the English speaking population joined by the other religious denominations. The dividing line between the two solitudes was ironically Blvd. Saint-Laurent, baring the same name as the river.
The French portion of Montreal located east of the Blvd. Saint-Laurent was called la ville aux cents clochers or the city with one hundred bell-towers. In contrast, the most prominent and imposing buildings in the English west side were banks and tall commercial buildings.
On the southern part of Montreal stood Mount Royal, a lone mountain overlooking the downtown’s city scrapers. On the eastern section of the mount was a park on which stood a huge cross that could been seen from miles away. Saint-Joseph oratory was perched high on a slope overlooking the French the city, competing for prominence and height with the University of Montreal also located close by.
The western section of le Mont-Royal was the area appropriately named Westmont. The richest Anglo population lived there. Reinforcing the cultural and linguistic wall between east and west.
Mayor Jean Drapeau who ruled Montreal with an iron fist for 26 years, best personified the city and the era of which we are talking about. He was responsible for the World Fair held in 1967 that opened up Montreal and the province to the world. The fair was held on a man-made island built on the Saint-Laurence river just south of downtown. In 1976 the Olympics where also held in Montreal. The extravagant and uncompleted Olympic stadium was located in the eastern section of the city in close proximity to Mayor’s modest residence of Rosemont.
I admit that I am as fascinated by the current subliminal corporate doctrine that has permeated our cultures, that is quasi-religious to say the least, as I was by the nationalist fervor that took hold of the more radical québécois.
by netage | Modern Aspect of Myth, Mediaspeak & Spirituality |
Michael A Rizzotti
This short essay allows us to display the splendor of Zuni mythology. In many respects, the Zuni represent a beautiful example of the aboriginal cultures that thrived in North America. It allows us to disclose the Zuni’s conception of the world which was inaugurated long before the so-called civilized world made its imprint on the whole continent.
The metaphorical aspect of Zuni language is at the core of its cosmology. In their rituals and their everyday life the Zuni use numerous metaphors to depict how “everything” is related to the “same thing”. Language is a dynamic principle of the whole Zuni spirituality.
Finally, among the many native cultures of North America the Zuni still live by the word of a compelling cosmology. Their self-enclosed cosmos is a typical example of what Emile Durkheim calls sociocentrism.1 The composition and arrangement of their collective order is typical of many other native cultures. But what is particular to Zuni mythology is some analogies it shares with the creation myths of Genesis. While the Bible describes the creation of the world in terms of time; namely, seven days, the Zuni relate the creation of the world in terms of space; namely, seven orientations. In Genesis the seventh day is sacred. For the Zuni the seventh space is also sacred. The etymology of the Hebrew word to swear, for instance, literally means to seventh oneself.2 In Zuni mythology the seventh space is referred to as the sacred Center: it is described as the Middle Place, and the Middle Time. In Zuni Mythology the center is a metaphor of Earth Mother.
*
Zuni is the name of a people. It is also the name of their small Pueblo ─village─ located on the Indian Reservation in the McKinley county of New Mexico.3 Zuni is situated thirty miles south of Gallup, and about the same distance west of the Continental Divide.
The Zuni Pueblo are noted for their skills in making silver and turquoise jewelry. They are also famous for the ceremonial dance of the Shalako.4
The Pueblo lies in a small valley of the Zuni River which takes its source from the Little Colorado. It is one of the oldest farming communities in the United States. They are the descendants of the people of the Seven Cities of Cibola. They were given that name by a Spanish expedition led by the Franciscan Friar Marcos de Niza in 1539. His embellished accounts of the Seven Cities of Gold lured another expedition led by Francisco Vasquez de Coronado the next year. The first expedition of the Spaniards apparently mistook the golden reflection of the mica, the material that the Pueblo used to cover their windows, for the precious metal.
The Spaniards didn’t find any gold, but nevertheless they tried to impose their rule until 1680. At that time a Pueblo revolt tentatively liberated them from the colonial rule. Since, they have earned a reputation for being a fiercely independent people, deeply religious, loyal to their traditions and proud to speak their language. This is one reason why the Zuni survived through the centuries despite the attempts made by the missionaries to convert them.5 Of the seven cities that the Spaniards discovered in the sixteenth century, only Zuni remains today. The village, as seen today, bears the marks of acculturation and modernization.
Zuni cosmology is closely akin to its environment. Their whole culture reflects the beauty of nature that is all around them. Like many other native people of the continent, the symbolic representations of their fauna and flora are omnipresent in all their art and rituals. What makes Zuni cosmology particularly noteworthy though, is their semantic description of space. The movement of the sun, the moon, and the stars, altogether with changes in the winter and summer solstices, have inspired a dynamic conception of the world.
The beauty of the surrounding landscape is overwhelmingly present in all of their artistic endeavors. Not surprisingly, Zuni cosmology reveals that the beautiful is dynamic.6 This dynamism is also revealed in their lore and in every other aspect of their collective life. Everything in their social arrangement reflects the aesthetic and kinetic aspect of nature. Zuni cultural life is in effect a metaphor of the dynamic in nature, and everything is symbolically arranged in its image. Their art, their elaborate rituals, their dances and their pantomimes, everything is a mimetic expression of their perception of the cosmos as one and the same thing.
Zuni society is based on a system of symbolic classifications described by Frank Hamilton Cushing as mytho-sociologic.7 Zuni mythology and cosmology are so closely intertwined with their social and religious order that they are in effect the same thing.
Social life was originally divided into regions according to a four-cornered world.8 The number and orientations of these spaces reflect the basic composition of their cosmological perception of the world. All the members of the Zuni Pueblo belong to one or the other of these respective regions. The divisions involved all of the Seven Cities of Cibola. These areas are systematically parted into clans, which are split into totems depicted as animals. These totems are then separated into parts or attributes of the animal. Each member of the Pueblo belongs to a clan, and each member of the clan assumes the name of the part or attribute of the totem. Through this intricate classification, which they believe is made according to the mirror image of nature, each Zuni participates in the cosmological and social life of the Pueblo.
Zuni society is matrilineal and matrilocal. The mother’s household is the basic social unit. The children have to marry outside their parents’ clans and when they marry they live in the household of the bride’s mother. This pattern was the traditional norm in the past.9
What impressed the Spaniards during their first expedition to the Seven Cities was the architecture of the villages: the multi-story dwellings were harmoniously built one on top of the other. The only access was an opening on the roof accessible through a ladder that leaned against the outside wall.
Although invisible to the visitor, these villages were divided into several orientations. These partitions have an important significance to the inhabitants since they position each member in relation to the whole community. Each quarter is placed according to a spatial direction. They reflect the four fundamental orientations of the sunrise and sunset of the summer and winter solstices: namely, the north-east to the north-west, and, the south-east to the south-west. In addition, two other orientations complete the foursome order of the world: the zenith -the above- and the nadir -the below. The whole cosmic reality is finally rounded out by the seventh point described as the Middle. The Center, for the Zuni, acts as a synthetic metaphor for all the orientations.
This classification is meant to reflect the dynamic movement of the planets in harmony with the Zuni’s whole cosmological perception of life. This kinetic movement of the planets inspired the concept of directionality. The four orientations represent the daily movement of the sun in concert with its seasonal change on its axis during the winter and summer solstices. In addition, the zenith and the nadir become a six-fold directionality, and, finally, with the seventh point at its center, the whole arrangement inspires a dynamic multi-dimensional quality of space.10
The beautiful and the dangerous
Zuni mythology does not escape the dichotomy between the sacred and the profane. These two principles are categorized as the beautiful and the dangerous.11 Their interaction reflects an aesthetic and dynamic vision of nature, and numerous metaphors are used to portray the balance of nature:
the sacred vs the profane
the beautiful vs the dangerous
the dynamic vs the dull
the colorful vs the dark
the clear vs the indistinct
the multi vs the plain
The duality is also expressed in terms of time and space:
morning vs evening
summer vs winter
above vs below
Furthermore, according to Zuni beliefs, there are two types of beings:
the cooked vs the raw
The cooked ─or ripe─ are called the daylight beings because they live on cooked food and live under the special protection of the Sun Father. The second group of beings rely on the raw food as well as the cooked food prepared by the daylight people. The daylight people are also split into:
the valuable vs the poor
Women are valuable by virtue of their gender, whereas men have no value until they are initiated into the religious Kachina Society. To the Zuni, poor literally means without religion.12
The Water Skate
The number four is a key number in Zuni mythology. It is central to the origin and foundation of Zuni. According to their creation myths, the first people traveled through the darkness of the four underworlds before they reached the surface of our present world. At that time, they were blinded by the light of the sun. They spent four time periods ─four days or four years, depending on the version─ searching for the Center. The Center Place was finally found when the Water Skate, with the magical powers given to him by the Sun Father, stretched out its four legs, one on each of the four directions of the sunrise and sunset of both the summer and winter solstices. The place where he rested his heart and navel marked the Center Place. This point also identifies the heart and navel of Earth Mother.13 The Cente revealed by the Water Skate is the site on which the Zuni village is built.
The numerical sequence of number four becomes, with the extension of the zenith and the nadir, number six. The number six, with the addition of the Middle, finally adds up to the sacred number seven. The arrangement completes the spherical balance and dynamic directionality.
All six orientations are centered around the Middle place where Zuni is built. Yet under the center of the village itself is another center. In the fourth underground, in the house of the chief priest, below the altar, lies a heart-shaped rock, which is described as the heart of the world. Its arteries reach out toward the same four directions as did the Water Skate when he stretched his four legs to find the Center.
The significance of the center remains in effect equivocal. More specifically, polyonymous, since the Center has many different names. It is, simultaneously, the middle, the center, the heart, the navel of the Water Skate, and the center of Zuni and the world. The middle is all these things because, as the Zuni say, they are all the same thing.14 This way of thinking is quite characteristic of the Zuni. The words describe different things, yet they are all ─related to─ the same thing.
At the beginning of the world there were both the spatial center and the temporal center: the Middle Place and the Middle Time. They may appear as two different concepts, but to the Zuni they are the same thing. Accordingly, the Zuni name for the village is ‘itiwana, which means Center but also winter solstice. The first is the Center in space, while the second is the Center in time. Therefore, all the symbols that relate to their cosmological world are a succession, a repetition, and a substitution of metaphors into a whole dynamic asymmetry that reveals ─or relates─ that everything is the same thing.15
This polyonymous aspect of Zuni symbolism is best depicted by the dynamic relation between the beautiful and the dangerous. The beautiful is described as having a multi quality as opposed to the plain and indistinct aspect of the dangerous. The beautiful is multilayered, multicolored, multitextured, multisensory, and multilingual.
Although the tautology of Zuni language may appear redundant at first, a closer look reveals that the repetition suggests the idea of relatedness. It is not the expressions by themselves that are meaningful, but rather the connection between them in relation to the whole cosmological outlook.
Zuni ritual life is filled with this multi aspect of meaning. This aspect of their culture is equally applied in their profane arena. The Zuni Tribal Fair, for instance, which is considered a mundane activity, is organized in the same manner. The symbolic representations of sacred places, objects, sounds and colors, repeated incessantly during the dance, become a meaningful repetition that links each symbolic part together in one cosmic being, as the same thing. The symbols are parts that are related to the whole order of things.16
To the Zuni, the sun and the moon are living beings. As such, they play a significant role as they move across the sacred space. Some of their rituals and dances duplicate the planetary movement. Every single aspect of the environment is described as a living being. Both the outer and inner spaces are fused together into the sacred ritual. Celestial objects are not seen as external but as active participants in the ceremonial. The cosmos is perceived as one whole intertwined entity. Accordingly, the whole array of symbolic representations operates in connection with the principles of continuity and similarity based on the idea of unity and balance of all life. To the Zuni, the whole world is a dynamic being with a multi facet quality.
The Zuni’s conception of time shares the polyonymous principles also. The world was created in the beginning of time, and the beginning is re-enacted, re-created, and re-lived in the ritual. Past, present, and future coexist. There is no temporal separation between the time of creation and the here and now of the ritual. It accounts for the symbolic presentness of Zuni cosmological life represented in the ‘itiwana, the Center, the here and now of time and space. The creation of the world in the past is transcended into the present and in the future by following the ways of the ancestors.
*
The Zuni Pueblo is a good illustration of the cosmos as a self-enclosed, self-sufficient social and cultural reality, comparable in many ways to the religious reality of Israel. In a similar fashion, the word Zuni stands for the people, the village, the language, the religion, the mythology and social interaction.
_____________
1 “It has quite often been said that man began to conceive things by relating them to himself. The above allows us to see more precisely what this anthropocentrism, which might better be called socio-centrism, consists of. The center of the first schemes of nature is not the individual; it is society. It is this that is objectified, not man…It is by virtue of the same mental disposition that so many peoples have placed the center of the world, “the navel of the earth”, in their own political or religious capital, i.e. at the place which is the center of their moral life. Similarly, but in another order of ideas, the creative force of the universe and everything in it was first conceived as a mythical ancestor, the generator of the society.” From Emile Durkheim & Marcel Mauss, Primitive Classification, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1963, 86-87.
2 See Gen. 21:31. Originally, the Sabbath was apparently related to the Babylonian day of moon cult called shabattu. See Max Weber, Ancient Judaism, New York, The Free Press, 1952, 149.
3 In Febuary 1988 the population was 8299. Data from the Zuni Area Chamber of Commerce 1989.
4 Gregory C. Crampton, The Zunis of Cibola, Salt Lake City, University of Utah Press, 1977, 56.
5 “The Zuni faith, as revealed in this sketch of more than three hundred and fifty years of Spanish intercourse, is as a drop of oil in water, surrounded and touched at every point, yet in no place penetrated or changed inwardly by the flood of alien belief that descended upon it.” Frank Hamilton Cushing, from Zuni, Selected Writings of Frank Hamilton Cushing, edited, with an introduction by Jesse Green, Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 1979, 181.
6 Barbara Tedlock, The Beautiful and the Dangerous: Zuni Ritual and Cosmology as an Aesthetic, in Conjunctions: Bi-Annual Volumes of New Writing no.6, New York, MacMillan Publishing Co., 1984.
7 Frank Hamilton Cushing, Ibid 185-193.
8 Barbara Tedlock, Zuni and Quiche dream sharing and interpreting, Dreaming, ed.by Barbara Tedlock, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1987, 107.
9 This custom is not strictly applied anymore.
10 Jane Young, Signs From the Ancestors, Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 1988. For more insight about the Zuni cosmology see Ms. Young’s book.
11 Barbara Tedlock, Ibid.
12 See Barbara Tedlock, Zuni and Quiche Dream Sharing and Interpreting, in, Dreaming, ed. by Barbara Tedlock, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1987, 108-109.
13 It is interesting to note that the Zuni word for Earth Mother -‘awitelin tsitta- has the same root as the word “four” -‘a:witen’-. Jane Young, Ibid. 99.
14 Jane Young, Ibid. 106.
15 Barbara Tedlock, The Beautiful and Dangerous, Ibid. 259.
16 When Zuni people pray, they ask for “more”; namely, more rain for their crops. All is related to the concern that the Sun Father continues his daily journey and that the rain falls in abundance. The sun’s light coupled with water and Earth Mother are the essence of all life. “More” is also related to the idea of “everything” associated with the desire for the accumulation of things and prosperity. The Zuni pray for more success in hunting, many children and a long life, as well as an increase in jewelry sales.
by netage | Media, Internet and Spirituality |
Michael A Rizzotti
The Linux open-source software is a showcase for the unfolding Age of the Internet. A disk operating system that would not have been possible without the advent of the new medium.
Linux was started in 1991 by a Finnish hacker called Linus Trovalds. A highly intuitive engineer with an uncanny ability for programming simplification. With time, a loose friendship developed between a group of hackers and its center of gravity Linus, also described as a “benevolent dictator”. Through years of development Linux has become unmatched in reliability and performance. This happened with the help of a constellation of volunteer programmers from all over the planet.
The logo for Linux is a penguin. The mere fact that a penguin has been chosen is refreshing, especially in view that the symbol of an Antarctic mammal is now challenging a Goliath like Microsoft.
Needless to say that Linux is not driven by a corporate culture of in-house programmers. Profit and dividends are not its end goal. Its open-source mindset is a welcome challenge to corporate culture. It might be said that part of its popularity stems from the animosity towards Microsoft. Linux’ success was also helped by the endorsement of companies like IBM’s and Oracle’s, Microsoft’s rivals.
The underlying significance of Linux is its culture of emergence. Foremost, this dynamic is based on the divergence of two organizational type of systems. For the sake of simplicity lets call this development a parallel organizational model. One is based on information technology, with its emphasis on technology itself as a tool of progress. The other is tentatively described here as a communication synergy: An undercurrent of the information technologies that also overlaps outside the boundaries of the corporate world by the interaction and self abnegation of its hackers in cyberspace. As Eric Raymond explains:
Linux was the first project to make a conscious and successful effort to use the entire world as its talent pool.” He also added: “I knew from my email that since Bavaria, word about The Cathedral and the Bazaar had spread over the Internet like a fire in dry grass. Many in the audience had already read it, and my speech was less a revelation of novelty for them than an opportunity to celebrate the new language and the consciousness that went with it…
On one hand, the information technologies are based on the gathering, the storing and the control of information data, for the sole purpose of tribal profit. On the other hand, the open-source steps outside tribal boundaries and overlaps into an unhindered linking phenomenon outside the reach of a top-down control.
More important, the two operating systems represent two organizational forms: one is corporatist, the other is cooperative. One is hierarchical, orderly, secretive and thrives on control. Whereas the other is a vortex pulled by gravity, is open and thrives on chaos. By chaos, we don’t mean disorderly but a complex form of self-adjusting dynamic order not yet acknowledged as harmonious. The reason why chaos has always been perceived as disorderly is because it lies outside man’s comprehension and control.
Proprietary software is based on sources codes that are kept secret from the public. It is secretive, exclusive and tribal. Open-source software exposes its sources codes to public scrutiny, everyone has access and can work on bugs that the software may have. This form of participation is visible to all, is inclusive and cooperative.
In a country famous for its duopolies, i.e., Apple/Windows, Intel/Microsoft, Coca-Cola/Pepsi, Democrats/Republicans, it is refreshing that a new operating system originated in Finland. A place where politics have been influenced by its border with Russian, hence “finlandization”. The cold war expression was meant to signify that Finland was careful not to annoy the Soviet Union by implementing policies that were not disagreeable to its powerful neighbor. Finland borders to Russia but is closer culturally and economically to Europe. Socialism and a mixed economy have been at the core of its social and political development. This runs counter to the more individualistic US form of capitalism. Corporate culture has over the years subverted all aspects of the United States’ social and political life. The result has been a quasi cult like status of CEOs. The consequence of which has produced a disparity between a rich oligarchic minority and a growing indebted majority.
Through ever active net-working, Linux became a prototype of self-correcting and evolving organism. This non-linear operating system was brought forth by a constellation of self negating individuals attracted by a sacred mission. The programmers are induced in participating in a wholly other project bigger than themselves. This brings into play the notion of sacrifice of self for the common good. A spiritual endeavor that has lesser materialistic prerogatives.
Another aspect of this spiritual phenomenon is based on the thriving coalition against a common foe that is perceived as threatening the foundations of Liberty.
When a living organism in nature is threatened by a predator it instinctively triggers a fight or flight for survival. Organism are genetically programmed to do so. When the survival of Liberty is being challenged by oligarchic interests it triggers a spontaneous vital thrust to bypass it. The self negating participation of open-source developers exemplifies such a battle for survival.
by netage | Media, Internet and Spirituality |
Michael A Rizzotti
When he was still working at IBM, Larry Ellison became convinced that a relational database software would be more efficient than a hierarchical one. He came up with an idea for a prototype and proposed it to the corporate brass. His concept was not taken seriously. They rejected the idea on the basis that it would be too slow for the needs of the corporate world. That view was not shared by Ellison. He left Big Blue and with his partner developed Oracle, a database program that would become a leader in the industry.
When Ellison left IBM, the company was the paragon of a hierarchical structure. As we know, the software and hardware industries are changing quickly, and so is the corporate world. Relational types of software now dominate the industry.
Has the Net been altering human forms of interaction as well? With the advent of the Net, hierarchical power structures are being overlooked and supplanted by relational type systems are that more flexible an dynamic.
It appears that the most important innovation fostered by the Net is the transformation of our present power structures. Since the beginning, our civilization has been formed, developed, and maintained by a culture of hierarchy. Etymologically the word means “holy origin”. Its most prevailing image is that of the Church with God in heaven above, with the stratum below divided in order of importance until at its base lay the common mass of believers. The latter example is best illustrated by the image of the pyramid, like the one that adorns the US dollar. Egypt, as it happens, is one of the founding cradles of our western civilization.
There is much to be said about ancient Egyptian religious beliefs and the building of the pyramids as a visual representation of the divine power of the hierarchy. A mysterious power that is yet to be fully revealed and understood.
The word hierarchy was made popular by Denis The Areopagite. He was a Greek citizen who was converted to Christianity by Saint Paul (Acts 17:34). The convert wrote several theological books, among them “Celestial Hierarchies”. In it, he describes the sacred order of angels and holy things. These angelic arrangements in time became the model for the Roman Catholic Church’s own hierarchy. It later became the model for corporations like IBM.
The most important aspect of hierarchy is that the order of persons are ranked in grades one above the other, from top to bottom; from the Pope to the mass of believers. Every layer is divided until a fewer number reach the top of the power structure. Each is parted by their own status and privileges. If you’re at the peak of the pyramid you have total control and access over the whole system. If you’re at the bottom you are limited to your own rank and status parameters. Lower stratum do not have access to the superior ones and communication and order are maintained by top down rules and protocols.
Information and communication does not flow freely. As it happens, order and control is the system’s biggest strength, its lack of free communication and flexibility are its biggest weaknesses.
Theoretically the idea behind relational communication is that information can be accessed randomly and readily. The same principles now apply to relationships. They are no longer limited by locality, handicap, gender, age or race. Space and discrimination are overlooked in favor of affinity and synergy.
Again, theoretically the new frontier in Net communications holds tremendous application for world peace. These forms of communications are the true foundation of freedom. History has shown us that the conquest of space has brought tribalism and war. The free exploration of cyberspace now enables us to contemplate world synergy.
But behind this wonderful advent of the Net Age there lurks the constant danger that this freedom will become pray to hierarchical predators. Controls are already set up to monitor the so-called threats to National Security. Leaders that have benefited from the powers inherent in the hierarchy will not tolerate this freedom to flourish. It is perceived, and rightly so, as a threat to the present oligarchic systems that rule the world.
Governments and mega-corporations will seek to toll and control cyberspace. It would be easy for a cyberstate to monitor and control the cyberspace. The result will be a reinforcement of the hierarchical systems and the New World Order.
