Newsletter No.9 Autumn's sweet decay |
|
|
Harry Opstrup (1922-2005), Fugletræk The Royal Library: The National Library of Denmark & Copenhagen University Library CC BY-NC-ND. https://www.europeana.eu/ |
|
|
While the death of maybe the most famous woman in the world, Queen Elizabeth, is all over the news, a less known man passed away recently. No one knew him. He was a man without a name (he most likely had one, but only he knew it). Man of the Hole, he was called. Maybe you have read about the last member of an indigenous tribe in Brazil, who passed away some weeks ago after living alone for 26 years, deep in the Brazilian Amazon. Laying in a hammock, he had prepared himself for death by adorning his body with colorful feathers from the beautiful macaw parrot. Authorities have known about him for years, but he resisted all attempts to be contacted. This is perfectly understandable. His tribe had been the victim of genocide by Brazilian settlers in the 1970s – 1990s. Nearby peoples were also massacred in this period. In 1995, he lost the last remaining members of his human community and have lived alone ever since. He did not choose voluntarily to retreat from the world but was forced to. Imagine that. Being the only survivor, the only one to remember a whole culture. Instead of seeking the company of enemies (the surrounding world), he rooted himself deeply in the ecosystem he knew better than anyone. In his tribe’s territory, in his straw huts with deep holes in them. He lived in reciprocity with the land, no doubt. The holes gave him his nickname: Man of the Hole. The holes may have functioned as hiding places, as traps, or they may have had spiritual meaning, some say. He was a hunter, a gatherer, and a farmer. He planted corn and papaya; he collected fruit and honey. Maybe he spoke to other species, I wonder. Macaws, the world’s largest parrots, are intelligent birds that quickly pick up our tiniest whispers and thoughts using speech, a magical quality, especially because macaws have no vocal cords. Parrots are rated among the top five in the animal world for intelligence and cognition. Macaw feathers have been traded and used for many adorning purposes, as well as for burials. I hope he had several companions from the natural world. The macaw may have helped him take off and leave his land behind. |
|
|
A scarlet macaw (Arara macao). Colour lithograph, ca. 1875 Wellcome Collection, United Kingdom - CC BY. https://www.europeana.eu |
|
|
BEING ONE WITH THE SKY, THE TREES, THE SILENCE ______ |
|
|
In many cultures, the corpse has been perceived as an empty vessel that birds can have. We all know about the term incarnation where the soul settles in a new body after death. Excarnation is leaving the flesh to the elements for decomposition before burial. Sometimes the flesh is removed by hand first, sometimes the whole body will be exposed. Excarnation has been practiced throughout the world for hundreds of thousands of years. The earliest archaeological evidence is from Ethiopia, 160.000 years ago. Parts of Asia have practiced ‘sky burials’, and it is still practiced in Tibet, believing it is the most generous form of burial. Native Americans practiced ‘air burials’ where scaffolding in trees held the corpses, and the Moriori people of the Chatham Islands, New Zealand, placed their dead either in a sitting position looking out to sea, or strapped them to young trees in the forest. In time, the tree grew into and through the bones, making them one. The Zoroastrian (one of the oldest, living religions from Persia, based on the prophet Zarathustra), a dakhma, 'Tower of Silence’, was a circular structure onto which the dead were placed to be eaten by vultures. Wow! The Man of the Hole’s world may have been devoid of human speech, but not been silent. I feel like adding an important ‘w’ to his nickname. I prefer to not describe him by a negative space, a hole, but by his being and practice in the natural world. So, Man of the Whole, farewell. I’ll send you a thought when the birds start migrating. |
|
|
Lorenz Frølich, Ydun, 1884, SMK collection |
|
|
I have talked long about death! Autumn is the alchemistic season of decay and transformation, but it is also sweet. The season is full of berries, fruits, nuts, and honey. Apples are abundant now. The Norse goddess of youthfulness, love, and fertility, Ydun or Idun, was keeper of the apples of immortality. She supplied the other gods and goddesses with (commonly assumed to be) apples to keep them young and beautiful forever (epli was applied to all sorts of fruits and berries). She was once kidnapped, and then turned into a nut in order to be flee with Loki in his hawk disguise. While she was away, the gods aged. Apples play huge roles in many mythical defining moments, both in the hands of Eve, Snow White, Wilhelm Tell, Isaac Newton, and many more. I once held a couple of thousand years old charred tiny prehistoric apple in my hands, found on an archaeological excavation in Denmark. It was the size of my thumb nail. I felt lucky. Autumn greetings, Birgitte |
|
|
|
|
