Mythology rules Indigenous knowledge systems
Humans are a storytelling species. Rich, complex narratives stimulate our brains. Mythology includes knowledge in such memorable formats that it must be considered as a mnemonic technology. Story is a great deal more than that but for our purpose here, the role of story in making information memorable is the focus.
Fentress and Wickham express it beautifully:
[A] story is a sort of natural container for memory; a way of sequencing a set of images, through logical and semantic connections, into a shape which is, in itself, easy to retain in memory. A story is thus a large-scale aide-mémoire.1
Is mythology fiction or non-fiction. Is it real or simply imagined?
The problem is the question. In Western culture, we almost entirely separate our literature into fiction and non-fiction. Indigenous cultures don’t. They use story to encode vast amounts of practical and cultural knowledge – as well as being entertaining, layered and complex. Fiction and non-fiction are so intricately interwoven that the distinction becomes meaningless.
We know from contemporary Australian Aboriginal cultures that environmental information was stored in story, sung in their ceremonies and represented in their art. For the Kulin Nation in central Victoria, the wedge-tailed eagle, the largest bird of prey in Australia, is regarded as one of their two moiety ancestors, Bunjil. His stories form the foundation of their knowledge system. [Photo: Damian Kelly]
Bunjil is also represented in his human form in Bunjils Cave Heritage Site, Victoria, a hugely significant sacred site.
[Photo: Lynne Kelly]
The value of anthropomorphism
Are Indigenous mythological creatures examples of anthropomorphism? These mythological characters often take animal form and they almost always display human behaviours, exemplifying our emotions and values. Yet, as an educator, I was often told that anthropomorphism is only suitable for young children. Older children should see plants as plants and animals as their biological selves. I think that the denigration of anthropomorphism comes at a major cost.
We are capable of knowing what is story and what is encoded information. Indigenous cultures the world over demonstrate that every day. But Indigenous knowledge systems integrate story with performance and art. Nothing demonstrates the integral role of mythology as a knowledge source better than Indigenous art.
So why don’t we tell stories about our physics? Encode grammar in mythologies? Give characters to our laws?
I’ll let Indigenous academic and author Tyson Yunkaporta conclude:
In Indigenous culture, narrative pathways through landscapes of knowledge are encoded in stories for the production, transmission and storage of information. This is a profoundly human practice, one which arguably makes us human. Knowledge is more readily transferred into long-term memory in the form of a story. All the experiences of your life are processed through story-making.2
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1 J. Fentress & C. Wickham, Social Memory, Blackwell, Oxford, 1992, p. 50.
2 Tyson’s words here come from a document he wrote for a research team in which we are both involved. He gave permission for me to quote him here.