Beyond Geography: the Western Spirit Against the Wilderness (notes) Extracts (after Melville) Moby Dick quote, and extract forward from Moby Dick Saul Bellow referece to "beyond geography" from Henderson the rain king, Eugene Henderson as millionaire "ugly american" type who goes to Africa for redemption. Finds self as healer. Kills part of first tribe, later comes to grip with Walden comment about navigating inner seas Preface to 1992 Notes brazilian version is western spirit against nature Book designed to provoke discussion of our mission and our obligations here in what remains of that new world. Refers to need for new myth that accepts sequoias, spotted owls and snail darters. Preface OW -> NW as a spiritual story Writing on culture as a leap of faith into incompetence Veers from vision in fact sometimes Doesn't like footnotes Acknowledgements The Travels of Turner Curiosity -> generalism Spiritual connections to land are critical: principle error was to sever and pretend these connections do not exist Interdependence of all life Gradual humanistic/anthropomorphic religions replace myth with rationalism and savagery with civilization (compare Weber's Sociology of Religion, Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, metanoia-reversal, dogmaticization follows rationalization) Part One: Loomings Estrangement: Sense of a spirit of place Overwhelmed dutch built small, huddled Listened to western dramas (radio myths?) on the radio Ignorance = estrangement from the land -> rootless, restless people. "There's no there there." Unmet spirit of place divides us from the spoil N.A. as the epitome of the European exploration and conquest An essay in spiritual history Human spirit needs to realize through the body and place Compare to Descartes' Error The Necessity of Myth Middle way, as myth is co-eval with culture as a human expression Myth as strange and strangely familiar We fear to enter the spiritual woods because of fear of losing the bearing of our culture. Those that enter find it familiar. Myths not outdated fictions but instinctual and sure reactions to life Mythology as ultimate technology Excessive Rationality makes us overdeveloped, misshapen Spiritual Possession as profoundly repugnant to west Mythic world as numinous (kant) Paradisical lust as function of technology-aided regret Plow as iron to mothers breast Jung: discontent as function myth dismissal "discontent of civilized with civilization Living myth is vastly interconnected Bearings from the Ancient Near East Estrangment from creation Control as worship v. control as use. History of israelites as spritual matrix for xtianity and W. Civ scripture. City as nexus of us-v. wilderness By time of Discovery, attitudes about wilderness and nature in place, a remnant of near easter struggles. Neolithic rev: containers, abilty to store margin Pastorial/masculine religions v. agricultural/feminine.. Sheperd provide later military force that turns in on the protected. Larger forms of societ as "male-dominated compensatory formations" The People of the Book Security and stability necessary for nostalgia Freud: What has become outgrown and displaced becomes feared and despised; this informs our interaction with primitives Ren pastoral ideals are false Pastorialism fosters dualism? 34 WEBER: studies of ancient judaism Adamic dominion; radically different from the tribal lifes of primitives Curse, estrangement from nature, the adversary, hostile to survival Paradise is closed and guarded. Voltaire: that which is invisible is essential Egypt: god calls people out of wilderness to show them his purpose. Idolatry and pantheism is associated with particular places. Mono tends to work against this. Sacred history v. mythic cycles. Creation -> stories messiah -> second coming end of world. Intolerance and destruction of the ritual artifacts of others. Mono: god made everything but he is not found IN it. Israelites: desert people, desert god, but must come out of desert A Crisis Cult Rome: military stress, declining birth rate, "ethnic suicide", plague Fear of crumbling civilization -> crisis mentality, decadence and loss of older virtues Cults: legalistic tendencees. Mystery cults: from east. Phrugian Mother of the Gods MC: direct commo with lord who redeemed believers through symbolic deat, death was temporary,rites of purification, rebirth. Union through sacraments. Xtianity as a mystery cult that evolved into state religion. Principle of the conservation of cognitive structures Each new religion as ghost dance of the traumatized society Cultic orgainization: assistance in dissemination. 12 apostles + paul. Charismatic lord power binds the cult at this point. Webers Emotional commune. Must grow, though. Early ecstatic following prohibits others from joining. Impossible demands. routinization and traditionalization. Esotericism and gnosticism must be limited by choking speculation and revelation. If the cult can change into more defined less personal terms, then it is a church How much routinization is too much? Self conscious move from mythology to History, christ as historic figure. "Mid point of salvation is entry of Jesus into historical time christ message betrayed by church, because of their focus on his historical existence submit body to the development of the spirit crisis cult rescued xtians from roman decadence and delivered them to the "terror of history" 1st consequence (inward): xtianity holds anxiety about special destiny. Mythic peoples are relieved of this; collective destiny myth and ritual arrest time - tomorrow is another name for today xtians unable to reattach to great events in history, thrust into the future time as a function of monk bell time. Pueblo clowns with clocks Benedictine monasticism turned monks into missionaries, explorers, cultivators and preservers History as mass neurosis 2nd consequence (inward): Slow starvation of the soul due to inadmissibility of new revelations Montanus, Tertullian Holy Ghost as a hazard Inquisition nails spain, mystic central Desecration of the body Boehme as positive solitaries, Francis of Assisi Jung: must use myth to reclaim original religion Hecatombs Third consequence (outward): aggresion against the Other and hopes of winning back the lost paradise. Classic reaction of those who have lost faith. Acts/Romans division along Pauline lines. Divorce between body and soul, nature and religion that is the essence of faith Pauline violence-as-regeneration found in Desert Fathers Must avoid temptations and terrors of unhallowed lands. Hair shirts, flaggellation, heavy chains, castration of origen Crusades as external manifestation of this violence Crusades discovery violence, tenoctitlan Pope Urban initiated Crusades, but there was already a perception of decadence of xtianity Crusaders forgiven of sins, and take over property rights Prelimary strikes agains Jews in Worms, mainz, and Trier. Massacres in Antioch, Nicaea, Jerusalem Still did not have spiritual results, ending by Shepherds Crusade of 1320. Heretics often accused of sexcrimes Changed physical environment, and psychic geography of the world. Xtianity removed divinity from the world, leaving the believers as existential castaways Inquisition; fear of violent vacuum., retreat to formalism Loomings Inquisition as nadir, but indispensable as the cornerstone of civilization Lully, lusty after pauline cancerous woman prosely Polo and crusades added geo knowledge, enabled expansion Polo financed by desire to pros Great Kahan for Gregory X Polo as motivating lit for Henry the Nav, Columbus "Gold Silver and stones, like tech technology, are pathetic subs for a lost world, a lost life, and to the extent that they rule a culture we may infer its spritual health." 90 Technology as "an answer to a dwindling faith" 90 Xtians took tech from other civs and did not fear like Arabs and the "green sea of gloom" Primitive peoples have maps which provide mythic/spiritual info as well as geo QUESTIONS: What is the importance of the melville-derived Extracts in the front matter? (compare moby dick) Would the treatment of xtianaity as a cult limit this work's appeal to the public? Part Two: Rites of Passage Spanish and English encounters, both spiritually failures. Both placed in abundant edens, despoiled them Mythic Zones (1. Show nw as full of life, Mythic zones at the edge of known geo; must push these back NW as OW, and encounter with the lost, primitive, mythic self Completely unprepared for this collision with self Ensuing conflict still unplumbed and misunderstood NW teeming with native life (florid, abundant), humans as participants and celebrants of natural and mythic cycles MYTH SERIES, evidence of fullness and spirituality Myth: Antillean worshippers of moon goddess, given by old god Yocahu manioc and led from plains to these islands. Planted, fished, and flourished. Myth: Orinoco myth of disease and death. Wife from the sea, menstrual hut Myth: Amazonian following friend to feast of dead/battle with birds, returned to tell others Myth: zuni, NM. Arrogance and waste. Food fight, Priest of the Bow. Maidens of white corn and yellow corn appear to allow humble redemption. Widow's mite lady. Squirrel and Mouse lead animal hoarding. People leave to beg, leave children who become priests of corn. Myth: Plains. Buffalo bride who learns buff songs and dances Myth: Appalachian Seneca and the orphan boy with the story stone. Tell your stories to each other! These are hero myths in the Joseph Campbell sense. Hero of a thousand faces. Seperation, initiation, return. Can stumble out, blunder out. This heroism is submission to environment of the Other. Willingness to work with repugnant guardians and guides (LD), not adversaries. Hero realizes that the journey is an inward one, as xtians need to Read 116: the seeker and the found are one Hero cycles indicate societies ability to adapt to new things Defloration - why Discovery is Bad News for OW Others Symbolic load of cristoforo columbus, christ bearer who does good works Columbus as christ-bearer to Asia, or New world, retro- Polo Columbus washes up on HtNavigator's Lagos HtNav as Col;'s spiritual anscestor , read polo, Order of Christ HtNav encourage sailors to sail in unknown like Cape Non HtNav as pragmatic dealer in slavery, with Transatltantic ramifications HtNav glad to save souls of his slaves (save who's soul??) 121 read: TONE CHANGES HERE: outpost of progress appear like leprous sores. BEGIN SPANISH ENCOUNTER WITH NW/THEMSELVES Col's wife daughter of man who rabbitted Porto Santo in the Madeiras. Strange flotsam arrive on west beaches of Madeira SHIFT: Western impulse as way to outflank Islam in east way to get to the east for it's own (commercial) sake. Xtian structures still in place, but spiritually emptier. Col's early failures to get Joao to fund because Col was Jungian fully-realized and considered weird and dangerous. Wife dies spain Factors in conditions of columbine expeditinos that were dangerous for the Other: 1. expulsion of moors (spanish intolerance along race lines), 2. Men at arms everywhere 3. Fate of unbelievers/jews Hubris: khans and orientals would naturally convert to xtianity Mood of West during Cols 1st voyage "profound dissillusionment, cynical pessimism and black despair" 126 Canaries as an idyllic-mythic zone (isle of the blessed) with was demytholigize and deflowered Columbus continues on, religious formalities of dawn, dusk Got wind after lull, felt delivered like Israel from egypt Saw land, encountered arawaks; encounter with their own mythic past Arawaks touched swords on the blade (dramatic) ReAD 130: Mythic, initiatic richness gold Cols first island journal notes how arawaks will be useful servants Arawaks are to be destroyed, and soldiers sqander the possibilty of spiritual rehabilitation (not all, note defectors later). Colum believed enslavement and exploitation would revitalize xtianity (more of the same; insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results). 2nd voyage returned to La Navidad on Hispanola; colony had selfdestructed out of lust and greed; slaughtered by native chiefs Caonabo Isabela colony: search for gold, and to stamp out idolatry by burnig effigies: misunderstanding native religion evidence of hubris and western divorce from myth. Isabela "fatal ignorance of the land" malarial and bog (how could they have known), columbus sick Mounts campaign to enslave arawaks Later columbine claims of eden a symptom of madness Low-caliber colonists, mortality. Slaves died of hunger. First spanish word was "hambriento" Slaving spreads like a stain to include portugese style importation "dead reckoning" of dead flotsam Las Casas begins to suspect indians are human with souls superiour civilization (lush renewal possible in NW) Existence of Las Casas is the indictment of columub, or of the entire West. Penetration (another sexual metaphor. Rape?) (example of victorian virgins and STDs) Starts out with perception-=conception chicken egg progblem (O'Gorman again!) Col invented NW out of inherited cognizant structures Really invented when it was decided to be non-Asia, church sidesteps theo ramifications CORTES as unemp man-at-arms. Source of trouble. Was to adventure and got injured in amorous adventure and missed ships. Might have been exposed to psycho columbus; laid low Governor Velasquez chose Cort to lead small expedition to find missing groups; Cort arms massively beyond the scope of the commission Crusading banners This expedition proof of the aversion to lostness in the wilderness Found survivors, one who wanted to stay and abetted natives "How could this be understood? How could a Christian refuse deliverance out of the darkness" 148. Wanted to forcibly extract him (like Inquisition) REQUEIRMIENTO: xtian and spanish declaration of their place in the universe. Will kill for delays in subjection Read 149-150. Subjection of caciques Santa Maria del Victoria Terrified natives with horses and cannon, gold seen Must go to Mexico 'disease of the heart" READ 153. Confrontation with Moctezuma and the Aztecs who had (parallels) "superficially assimilated" and perverted traditions. Seed of it's own destruction READ: 156, 158 Returning quetzlecoatl god is a trap for aztecs, and omens of destruction. Moc ran. Religiousity: Cort attempts to prosytletize natives allies first. Cortez pushes down battle resistance and iconoclasts. Later First day with Moc, denigrates their gods in front of warriours Moc yields up gold and jewels from the temple of Quet, this gets translated. Drang nach Tenochtitilan; bored own ships Massacre at cholula, unknown why but last reserve Overwhelmed by the city, Moc gives them access to the city Cortez wants to build a church, Moc dissillusioned War! Attacked during holy rituals busted water supply 93 days. Moc dead. Looting, raping Invent New Spain out of old city with slave labour Hard to run soldiers; Cortez was captive READ 170. The Lost Colony (ENGLISH ENCOUNTER) Starts with theatrical depiction of Roanoake colonists wanting to defect to indians Tragedy is not loss of colony, but English missed opportunity for spiritual redemption, as Spanish were not equal to their encounter Nations of the West had similar spiritual failings (foretold "essential cultural unity"), instead of only rivalry To face outward from the Americas was to see the same thing Restate the assumptions: co-option and improvement of technology, christian dominion over the natural (earth-as- thing) , and rationality over mythos: Weberian disenchantment of the world. Neutrality the god-artifact world as a stage to please a removed god. Erosion of classical and then religious authority: religion is not objectively (positivistically) verifiable Spirits must be denied: mystic pantheism of Bruno who said the divine spirit was in everything mechantic operation of a physical universe free from interference from god Bacon considers myths as limitations and delimitors of the unknown Mumford: More spiritual cost: deformation of the whole towards rationality,at the cost of religion Spanish wanted to protect claims Privateer plunder: Drake and John Hawkins. Returned to colonize for greater profitablity of profiteering, or maybe find more treasure Letters patent deliver all non-xtian price claimed lands to the finders. Notice that warring nations observer claims of others. One Western culture again. Gilbert (halfbrother to Raleigh) unsuccessful despite early service in Ireland. Loss of ships, death. But yielded Peckams "a true report of late discoveries". Was not on ships. Concerned with justness of Gilbert's expeditions. Expeditions as xtian callings by the people How could a nation turn away from its spiritual duty? WEBER: Justice of a calling, and rights to the profits as heart of calvinism Peckham: trade won't work while force will. Requiermiento again."Plant, possess and subdue" Raleigh succeeds gilbert; again no mention of natives Barlowe describes lands as "a delicate garden" Trading, indians want weapons. Savvy., Manteo and Wanchese return to england, taught english by scientist Thomas Herrriot. Learned Algonquin and noted this; sourcebook. Return; Lane burns native village over a cup. Requeirmeiento Pemisapan alleged conspiracy against colony. Estrangment, disruption of tribute. Slow supply shiips. Pem trying to get whites to abandon? Lane attacks. Kills Pemisapan, cuts himself off from native assistance Whites had misinterpreted sacred rites, like spanish had. Demonized. Locked themselves into death and failure. Marooned colony. Packed up on drake's ship Second colonizing expedition by John White finds bones like columbuses did. Natives unfriendly, of course. White abandoned 110. Three years until white returned Read 199 Things of Darkness (nature of fledgling civilization in the wilderness) Tempest psychologically set in NW Bermuda shipwreck, and the survivability of civ. READ 200 Bermudans found paradise rather than demons Order as the main virtue for civ in the Elizabethan world-view. Fear of chaos. Again, reference to OT hebrew peoples in addition to english politics Euro Wild Man as Indians? He knew secrets of nature? If you could capture him he'd be virtuous, a hero. Must cease to exist as is, one way or another. PURITANS: Bad start, miscarriages, cold Met two indians, each the last of decimeated tribes. Treaty with the sachem. good indian Hard fare: calvin, augustine, paul. Softened by "Coventant of Grace" in which some of the extra-elect were saved, too. Protestant reliance on the Word, so even more historical Typology: prefigurement in OT -> linear, inescapable Cotton Mather: colonists as israelites going forward into the wilderness Re-enacted earlier negatives: suppression of dissenters and projection of fears onto the perps Revelation and mysticism warrants death as with Anne Hutcheson, Roger Williams discomfort with oppression of Indians off their own land King Philip's War: an assault against the primitive lands and the people who happened to be in it. Target was the helpful Wampanoag, who tired of prosyl and mockery of their practice Philip as instigator, b/c feared extermination. Whacked frozen indians. Land belonge to the colonials even though other skirms and french from the notrh. Sorcery! Needed an enemy? Last gasp of mythos in the land? Victorious colonials consider their victory: read 228 QUESTIONS: Do you accept the spiritual crux for this section? Was the Discovery impulse a function of Western religiosity? Is the inclusion of mythic material instructive or obstructive? Is Turner's comparison of English and Spanish encounters productive? Is the comparison between Aztech spiritual adaptation with that of the spanish productive? Part Three: Haunts Possession Legends of whites captured by natives (compare to black man white woman taboo) Spritual stakes of exploration. Cabeza de Vaca's time in slavery 8 yrs in florida Continually see god in providence Later myths no longer served present situation, but reflected back on heroic claims on the wild lands This change illustrated in cap narrative of Mary Jemmision in 1824. Early factual, later fantastic for those who've never seen an indian As westward expansion, cap narratives move to the plains. Still mythic in form (sublimation?) Hero emerges unaffected. Fear of possession is extreme. Entered, submissive. Devilish vision quests, etc. Must Take possession rather than be possessed The other possibility was apostasy. NE laws agains moving ahead of the civil. Line RENEGADES Miguel Diaz escapes columbus. Also renegades Cortez, navarez, desoto Roanoake as assimilation!?!?!?! Americanization of the English! John Tanner captured, lived 30 yrs. Run off as disease- carrier, rejected by both white and red. White indians as the initiated The Vanishing New World "cancerous stretch" waste,destruction, and frantic spoilation removal of indians, usurpation of lands\ decimation of ppigeons grids laid down on swamps to facilitate commerce. Sham citys railroads in 1830 1857 migrants followed rails gold strike in cali buffallo bill cody, sharps and remington rifles, still- hunt Transcendentalist Emerson, thoreau Powell, John Muir (influences). Awareness of seperation from land they inhabit 271 sublimnity A Dance of the Dispossesed Indian artifacts did not travel well Horse intro Lakota did not want to destroy enemy crowe. Delicate business of managing the margin against nature Ha. Traders created alcoholics. Wrong! Dawes Severalty Act: busteed up tribal lands into private lands. Contentment broken (balance, not happieness) Read 287 Ghost Dancers, murder of Sitting Bull. Slaughter Black elk saw it. Cody show deterioration as parallel to his internals, and to America and it's spirit Buried on the mountain overlooking a city where the wild New World had been. http://www.mousetrap.net/~mouse/uta/transatlantic/