• Contents


• §1 Introduction


• 1.1 What is myth, how do we study and compare it?


• 1.2 Definition; study of myth in the past


• 1.3 Comparative mythology


• 1.4 Laurasian mythology: establishing the common origin of the mythologies of Eurasia and the Americas


• 1.5 Earlier explanations of myth


• 1.6 Ur-forms, history, and archaeology


• 1.7 Summary


• § 2 Comparison and Theory


• 2.1 Theory and practice of comparisons


• 2.2 Reconstructing Laurasian mythology


• 2.2.1 Similarities


• 2.2.2 Regular correspondences and establishment of a unified narrative scheme


• 2.2.3 Oldest texts to be used


• 2.2.4 Geographically dispersed items


• 2.2.5 Reconstruction of the Laurasian common story line and individual myths


• 2.3 Enhancing the reconstruction: local, regional, macro-regional, and subcontinental variations


• 2.4 Reconstructing the Laurasian mythological system and inherent problems


• 2.5 Structure and content in some macro-areas of Laurasian myth.


• 2.5.1 Macro-areas


• 2.5.2 The Four ages in the Eurasian and Meso-American macro-areas


• 2.5.3 Later centers of innovations


• 2.5.4 Late borrowings (diffusion)


• 2.6 Some objections to the approach of historical comparative mythology


• 2.7 Conclusion


• § 3 Creation Myths: The Laurasian Story Line, Our First Novel


• 3.1 Primordial Creation


• 1. Chaos and darkness 2. Water 3. Earth diver and floating earth 4. Giant 5. Bull 6. Egg 7. Combined versions


• 3.2 Father Heaven, Mother Earth


• 3.3 Separation of heaven and earth, the prop


• 3.4. Creation of land


• 3.5 The demiurge or trickster


• 3.5.1 Creation of light


• 3.5.2. The slaying of the dragon


• 3.5.3 The theft of fire and of the heavenly drink


• 3.6 Generations, Four Ages and five suns


• 3.7 The creation of humans


• 3.8 Descent of 'noble' lineages


• 3.9 The flood


• 3.10 Heroes


• 3.11 The final destruction


• 3.12 Summary


• § 4 The Contributions of Other Sciences: comparison of language, physical anthropology, genetics, archaeology


• 4.1. Linguistics


• 4.2 Physical anthropology


• 4.3. Genetics


• 4.3.1 Recent advances in human population genetics


• 4.3.2 Overview of recent developments


• 4.3.3 Out of Africa


• 4.3.4 Movement northward after the last two Ice Ages


• 4.3.5 Genetics, language and mythology


• 4.3.6 Summary and outlook


• 4.4. Archaeology


• 4.4.1 Cave paintings and plastic art


• 4.4.2 Sacrifice in Late Palaeolithic art


• 4.4.3 Food production


• 4.4.4 Domestic animals and pastoralism


• 4.5 Other items of comparison: children's songs and games; ancient music and regional styles; use of colors; gestures and their regional variations.


• 4.6. Conclusions resulting from the comparison of the sciences involved


• § 5 The Countercheck: Australia, Melanesia, sub-Saharan Africa


• 5.1 Possible ways to countercheck


• 5.1.1 Method


• 5.1.2 Criteria for testing the theory


• 5.1.3 Diffusion vs genetic relationship


• 5.1.4 Later additions


• 5.2 Beyond Laurasia: Gondwana mythology


• 5.3. Gondwana mythologies


• 5.3.1 Sub-Saharan Africa, the Andamans, New Guinea, Australia and Tasmania -- an overview


• 5.3.2 Australia


• 5.3.2.1 Tasmania


• 5.3.3. Melanesia


• 5.3.3.1 Negritos and other southern remnant populations


• 5.3.4 Andaman Islands


• 5.3.5 Africa


• 5.3.5.1 Remnant populations: San and Pygmies


• 5.3.5.2 Sub-Saharan Africa


• 5.3.5.3 Northern influences: the western North-South highway


• 5.3.5.4 The eastern North-South Highway


• 5.3.6 Summary


• 5.4. Individual Gondwana myth types and their common characteristics


• 5.5 Secondary influences on Gondwana mythology


• 5.6. Conflicting myths in Gondwanaland


• 5.6.1 Gondwana element in Laurasian myth


• 5.6.2 Laurasian elements in Gondwana myth


• 5.7 Countercheck of Laurasian mythology based on Gondwana mythology


• 5.7.1 Essential features of Gondwana and Laurasian mythology


• 5.7.2 The flood myth in world wide perspective


• § 6 First Tales: Pan-Gaean Mythology


• 6.1 Beyond Laurasia and Gondwana: common myths


• 6.2 Our first tales


• § 7 Laurasian Mythology in Historical Development


• 7.1 Late Palaeolithic religion


• 7.1.1 Late Palaeolithic shamanism


• 7.1.2 Sacrifice


• 7.2. Changes from Palaeolithic to state societies


• 7.3. Dating Gondwana and Laurasian mythology


• § 8 Outlook


• 8.1 The meaning of Laurasian Mythology


• 8.2 Beyond Laurasia, Gondwana and Pan-Gaia


• 8.2.1 Persistence of myth


• 8.2.2 Some reasons


• 8.3 Epilogue

Wales Professor of Sanskrit, Harvard University

Michael Witzel persuasively demonstrates the prehistoric origins of most of the mythologies of Eurasia and the Americas ('Laurasia').