Standing alone, eyes outward toward a dark, cloudless, country sky scattered thick with stars, our minds fill with questions. What are we in this immensity? We call ourselves intelligent. Two urgencies tug at our being: the beauty of what we behold overwhelms us; but we feel so tiny within this vastness. What can we do? Do we have responsibility? Can we make a difference in this reality? Yes, we are an example of the universe being able to contemplate itself. What more might be expected of us? A voice seems to echo from those distant walls of space and time as the thought enters upon our minds. “Are you ready? Are you willing to accept the awareness that YOU are the conscience of the cosmos?” The concept of Mother Earth and Father Sky seems to go back as far as we can go in sorting out the origins of human thoughts and beliefs about ourselves, about our planet, and about the inspirational canvas revealed overhead at night. Indeed, it seems likely that the inception of concepts of Earth as mother and Sky as father came from the deepest feelings and knowledge of earliest humans long ago and that this is now moving, back again, into our most advanced and provocative philosophical human understandings. This movement of conceptualization can be illustrated by a selection of three stories of origin that compose this essay. The first two emerge from primitive philosophy and here we select examples from Native America: The Mother Earth example is from the American Southwest (Navajo (Diné)); the Father Sky example comes from the American Plains (Pawnee) The third story, provided by discoveries of contemporary scientific exploration and discovery, ties it all together, testifying that we do, indeed, inherit our existence from Earth and sky, that we truly are children of Mother Earth and Father Sky. This realization leads us to the thought that we should accept the premise that humans can be and should be the conscience of the cosmos.
| Published in | International Journal of Archaeology (Volume 10, Issue 2) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ija.20221002.11 |
| Page(s) | 31-37 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Mother Earth, Father Sky, Cultural Astronomy, Navajo (Diné), Skidi Pawnee, Astronomical Traditions
| [1] | Chamberlain, VD (1982) When Stars Came Down to Earth: Cosmology of the Skidi Pawnee Indians of North America. Ballena Press, Los Altos, CA and Center for Archaeoastronomy, College Park, MD. |
| [2] | Chamberlain VD (1983) Navajo Constellations in Literature, Art, Artifact and a New Mexico Rock Art Site. Archaeoastronomy: The Journal of Astronomy in Culture 6: 48–58. |
| [3] | Chamberlain VD (1989) Navajo Indian Star Ceilings. In Aveni AF (ed) World Archaeoastronomy. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK, pp. 331-340. |
| [4] | Chamberlain VD (2004) Father Sky on Mother Earth: Navajo Celestial Symbolism in Rock Art. In Matheny RT (ed) New Dimensions in Rock Art Studies, Occasional Papers Series No. 9, Museum of Peoples and Cultures, Brigham Young University, pp. 195-226. |
| [5] | Chamberlain VD (2005) The Sky is an Ethnographic Treasure Trove. In Chamberlain VD, Carlson JB and Young MJ (eds) Songs from the Sky: Indigenous Astronomical and Cosmological Traditions of the World, Ocarina Books Ltd, UK, pp. 1-8. |
| [6] | Chamberlain VD and Rogers HC (2001) On the Trail of Dinétah Skywatchers: Patterned Dots and Scattered Pluses. American Indian Rock Art 27: 49-58. American Rock Art Research Association, Tucson. |
| [7] | Chamberlain VD and Rogers HC (2005) Tracking Stars in Dinétah: Astronomical Symbolism in Gobernador Phase Rock Art. In Fountain JW Sinclair RM (eds) Current Studies in Archaeoastronomy: Conversations Across Time and Space, Carolina Academic Press, Durham, pp. 221-242. |
| [8] | Chamberlain VD and Rogers HC (2006) On the Trail of Dinétah Skywatchers: Sun and Moon. In Bostwick TW Bates B (eds) Viewing the Sky Through Past and Present Cultures, Pueblo Grande Museum Anthropological Papers No. 15, City of Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department, Phoenix Arizona, pp. 155-167. |
| [9] | Chamberlain VD, Rogers HC and Walters H (2010) Sonsela Buttes; Where Stars Fell Down to Earth. Archaeoastronomy: The Journal of Astronomy in Culture 23: 19-26. |
| [10] | Chamberlain VD and Schaafsma P (1993) The Origin and Meaning of Navajo Star Ceilings. In Ruggles C (ed) Archaeoastronomy in the 1990s, Group D Publications Ltd, Loughborough, UK, pp. 227-241. |
| [11] | Chamberlain VD and Schaafsma P (2005) The Origin and Meaning of Navajo Star Ceilings. In Chamberlain VD, Carlson JB and Young MJ (eds) Songs from the Sky: Indigenous Astronomical and Cosmological Traditions of the World, Ocarina Books Ltd, UK, pp. 80-98. |
| [12] | Chamberlain 2018 Children of the Sky, Leightpn Press, Los Angeles. |
| [13] | Curtis, Natalie 1968 The Indians’ Book: Songs and Legends of the American Indians. Dove Puvlications. |
| [14] | Dorsey, George A. 1904 Traditions of the Skidi Pawnee. Memoirs of the American Folk Lore Society, vol. VIII. Published for the American Folk Lore Society by Houghtton Mifflin and Company, Boston and New York. This contains the story “The Boy Who Disobeyed the Stars,” pp. 65-68. |
| [15] | Dorsey, George A. 1906 The Pawnee Mythology (part 1). Washington, D.C. Carnegie Institution of Washington publication no. 59. Republished by University of Nebraska Press, 1997. This contains the story about the young man who found Mother Corn, pp. 58-61. |
| [16] | Griffin-Pierce T (1992) Earth Is My Mother, Sky Is My Father: Space, Time and Astronomy in Navajo Sandpainting. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque. |
| [17] | Haile B (1947) Star Lore Among the Navaho. Museum of Navajo Ceremonial Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico. |
| [18] | Matthews W (1897) Navajo Legends, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, reprinted (1994) University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City. |
| [19] | Murie, James R. 1981 Ceremonies of the Pawnee. Part I: The Skiri. Edited by Douglas R. Parks. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C. |
| [20] | Yazzie, Ethelou, Navajo History, Navajo Curriculum Center, Rough Rock Demonstration School, Chinle, Arizona, 1971. |
APA Style
Von Del Chamberlain. (2022). Conscience of the Cosmos: Thinking About Mother Earth and Father Sky. International Journal of Archaeology, 10(2), 31-37. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ija.20221002.11
ACS Style
Von Del Chamberlain. Conscience of the Cosmos: Thinking About Mother Earth and Father Sky. Int. J. Archaeol. 2022, 10(2), 31-37. doi: 10.11648/j.ija.20221002.11
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Download@article{10.11648/j.ija.20221002.11,
author = {Von Del Chamberlain},
title = {Conscience of the Cosmos: Thinking About Mother Earth and Father Sky},
journal = {International Journal of Archaeology},
volume = {10},
number = {2},
pages = {31-37},
doi = {10.11648/j.ija.20221002.11},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ija.20221002.11},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ija.20221002.11},
abstract = {Standing alone, eyes outward toward a dark, cloudless, country sky scattered thick with stars, our minds fill with questions. What are we in this immensity? We call ourselves intelligent. Two urgencies tug at our being: the beauty of what we behold overwhelms us; but we feel so tiny within this vastness. What can we do? Do we have responsibility? Can we make a difference in this reality? Yes, we are an example of the universe being able to contemplate itself. What more might be expected of us? A voice seems to echo from those distant walls of space and time as the thought enters upon our minds. “Are you ready? Are you willing to accept the awareness that YOU are the conscience of the cosmos?” The concept of Mother Earth and Father Sky seems to go back as far as we can go in sorting out the origins of human thoughts and beliefs about ourselves, about our planet, and about the inspirational canvas revealed overhead at night. Indeed, it seems likely that the inception of concepts of Earth as mother and Sky as father came from the deepest feelings and knowledge of earliest humans long ago and that this is now moving, back again, into our most advanced and provocative philosophical human understandings. This movement of conceptualization can be illustrated by a selection of three stories of origin that compose this essay. The first two emerge from primitive philosophy and here we select examples from Native America: The Mother Earth example is from the American Southwest (Navajo (Diné)); the Father Sky example comes from the American Plains (Pawnee) The third story, provided by discoveries of contemporary scientific exploration and discovery, ties it all together, testifying that we do, indeed, inherit our existence from Earth and sky, that we truly are children of Mother Earth and Father Sky. This realization leads us to the thought that we should accept the premise that humans can be and should be the conscience of the cosmos.},
year = {2022}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Conscience of the Cosmos: Thinking About Mother Earth and Father Sky AU - Von Del Chamberlain Y1 - 2022/08/05 PY - 2022 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ija.20221002.11 DO - 10.11648/j.ija.20221002.11 T2 - International Journal of Archaeology JF - International Journal of Archaeology JO - International Journal of Archaeology SP - 31 EP - 37 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2330-7595 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ija.20221002.11 AB - Standing alone, eyes outward toward a dark, cloudless, country sky scattered thick with stars, our minds fill with questions. What are we in this immensity? We call ourselves intelligent. Two urgencies tug at our being: the beauty of what we behold overwhelms us; but we feel so tiny within this vastness. What can we do? Do we have responsibility? Can we make a difference in this reality? Yes, we are an example of the universe being able to contemplate itself. What more might be expected of us? A voice seems to echo from those distant walls of space and time as the thought enters upon our minds. “Are you ready? Are you willing to accept the awareness that YOU are the conscience of the cosmos?” The concept of Mother Earth and Father Sky seems to go back as far as we can go in sorting out the origins of human thoughts and beliefs about ourselves, about our planet, and about the inspirational canvas revealed overhead at night. Indeed, it seems likely that the inception of concepts of Earth as mother and Sky as father came from the deepest feelings and knowledge of earliest humans long ago and that this is now moving, back again, into our most advanced and provocative philosophical human understandings. This movement of conceptualization can be illustrated by a selection of three stories of origin that compose this essay. The first two emerge from primitive philosophy and here we select examples from Native America: The Mother Earth example is from the American Southwest (Navajo (Diné)); the Father Sky example comes from the American Plains (Pawnee) The third story, provided by discoveries of contemporary scientific exploration and discovery, ties it all together, testifying that we do, indeed, inherit our existence from Earth and sky, that we truly are children of Mother Earth and Father Sky. This realization leads us to the thought that we should accept the premise that humans can be and should be the conscience of the cosmos. VL - 10 IS - 2 ER -
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