Мифы заселяют Америку: ареальное распределение мотивов в мифологиях Сибири и Нового Света
Peopling of America and the Areal Distribution of Motifs in Siberian and New World Mythologies

Summary/Abstract: My aim is to explain patterns in the areal distribution of sets of motifs selected from traditional mythological texts. I am concerned with distributions over very wide geographic areas. I claim that these patterns contain evidence on the distant past, and can be correlated with information provided by archaeology. I offer particular hypotheses concerning plausible causes of some of these patterns, but am ready to accept any hypotheses other than mine which would provide cogent explanations. Traditional narratives contain ready-made elements which I call motifs. Motifs are reproduced when people retell their texts. Motifs preserve their form during very long periods of time, while the mythological texts which are composed of them change their meanings more rapidly. The database consists of more than 25,000 abstracts of texts (on disc), mostly American and Siberian. There remain no significant gaps in the database, but more and more publications do become available with time. With a such a volume of information already accumulated, additional data do not change major conclusions. But some new, previously unrecognized, minor patterns are revealed. The differences between areal mythologies become visible thanks to comparison of statistical indexes which characterize mutual correlation between the motifs. Motifs with the largest but sharply restricted areas of distribution influence the overall picture more than others. Sets of motifs demonstrate territorial correlation not with the ethnic cultures and separate languages but with big culture areas. Any culture area is a historical product of particular environment and technology. The statistically significant similarities between mythologies of distant areas must go back to the time when the corresponding populations shared similar culture. This could hardly be later than in the Terminal Pleistocene – Early Holocene times. Most of the motifs that have been checked are neutral in respect to any forms of economic activity, social organization or environment. The Principal-Components Analysis is computed. It reveals major patterns in the distribution of about 1000 motifs across 165 selected areas. Separate patterns correspond to each of the principal components (PC). The program assesses pairwise the degree of similarity or dissimilarity between sets of motifs recorded in each area and assigns a value for the contribution of each motif to the overall pattern. The greater the number of elements (motifs, in our case), the more axes (PC) will be meaningful and the smaller the percent of information (general dispersion) which is accounted for by each PC. The combination of all principal components which have been analysed here together account for slightly more than one fifth of the total information. The remainder corresponds to distributions of motifs on a local and subregional level. Every PC axis is independent and has two extremes for the most different complexes of motifs. The 1st PC reveals the difference between North American mythologies from one side, and Central and South American ones (Amazonia at the extreme), from another. The greatest number of «North American» motifs in Latin America contain mythologies of the South Cone. Geographically, just they are the farthest from North America. This picture correlates well with distribution of Clovis derived fish-tail (Fell) type stone points in South America. Australian mythologies contain more «Amazonian» than «North American» motifs. The Amazonian parallels are even more characteristic for Melanesia. The Melanesian data have not yet been statistically processed but available publications suggest this conclusion. It is plausible that a particular set of motifs was brought to New World 12,000 bp or slightly earlier (along the Alaskan coast?) and that it was similar to one that was carried from the East Asia to New Guinea. In the Asian Pacific rim, the percent of «Amazonian» motifs increases along from Chukchi Peninsula to Kamchatka and further to Japan. «North American» motifs dominate in Siberian mythologies. In North America the Inuit Eskimo share the largest number of common motifs with Amazonia. The mythologies of Alaska Eskimos contain more «North American» motifs than the Inuit, probably because they have been subject to longer and more intensive interaction with Indian and Paleoasiatic traditions. Other traits, however, place the Eskimo as well as the groups of the Northwest Coast nearer to Siberian clusters than to most of the Amerindian ones. The 2nd PC differentiates areal clusters according to the number of motifs from the check list. The 3rd PC sets mythologies of Mexico, Central America and most of the inner North America («Pueblo-Mesoamerican», or «Midwestern» complex) against the mythologies of the Northwest Coast and American Subarctics («Alaskan» complex). The plausible way to interpret these data is to see here traces of two routes of early movement of people. One along the Mackenzie corridor entering Plains. Another along the Pacific Coast entering California, Plateau and Great Basin. On the NW Coast, the last and the most securely reconstructed migrational episode was the spread of the microblade-microcore industry related to Denali. This industry could be connected with the appearance of Na-Dene languages (Eyak-Athabascan, Tlingit, and possibly Haida). Some non-adaptive ethnographic traits (types of baskets and fishing hooks) distinguish Tlingit and Haida from the more southern people of the NW Coast. There are also motifs common to both northwestern part of North America and eastern South America. The Asiatic clusters nearest to Mesoamerica and the Southwest are Buryat (with Mongol) followed by South Siberian Turks and Tungus. The Southern Siberian and Mongolian mythologies are saturated with South Asian, Iranian and Near Eastern elements. American analogies for this region demonstrate not so much particular Transbaikal or Altai but general Central Eurasian links to the New World. Northern Siberia and the Far East are mostly outside of the respective set of parallels. The 4th PC contrasts «Western» and «Eastern» sets of motifs. The first unites mythologies of the NW Coast (Coastal Salish at the extreme followed by Tlingit) and Mesoamerica. In South America, this complex can be traced down to Northwest Amazonia and Central Peru. «Eastern» complex is best represented across northern Plains. In South America it finds parallels in Central and Eastern Brazil. According to the 5th PC, mythologies of Plateau and Great Basin, on one side («Plateau» set of motifs), and northern Great Lakes region, on another («Canadian» set of motifs) are the most different. The «Plateau» complex can be connected with caution with Penutian language stock. Its core area coincides with distribution of Early Holocene stemmed stone points. In South America «Plateau» motifs are recorded mainly in Chaco and Patagonia. This pattern fits well the suggestion about western United States as a region from where «North American» motifs had been introduced into South America. The precise set of motifs brought to New World by the Clovis people is difficult to select because once established, contacts across Beringia and then across the Bering Strait probably never ceased. Two types of distributional patterns with all possible intermediate variants in between can be distinguished within the North American complex. Some motifs are absent in the Northeast Asia or are known exclusively in the New World where they are recorded not only in North America but also in South America. Others (probably spread later in time) demonstrate extensive Siberian parallels but are unknown in South America or recorded there rarely and only in the areas not too distant from Panama Isthmus. All sets of motifs selected by the 3rd, 4th, and 5th PC are local manifestations of the «North American» complex. The opposition between «North American» and «Amazonian» complexes is the basic one. The «Amazonian» mythology can be assessed as the relic of earlier situation which was characteristic for the Eastern Eurasia in Late Pleistocene and survived in the isolated refugia such as Eastern South America, Australia, Melanesia and to much lesser extent, American Arctic and Japan. The «North American» mythology is the product of further change and differentiation. This scenario basically coincides with results of recent research in craniology, odonthology and populational genetics.

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