Andy White Anthropology
  • Home
  • Research Interests
    • Complexity Science
    • Prehistoric Social Networks
    • Eastern Woodlands Prehistory
    • Ancient Giants
  • Blog
  • Work in Progress
    • The Kirk Project >
      • Kirk 3D Models list
      • Kirk 3D Models embedded
      • Kirk 2D images >
        • Indiana
        • Kentucky
        • Michigan
        • Ontario
      • Kirk Project Datasets
    • Computational Modeling >
      • FN3D_V3
    • Radiocarbon Compilation
    • Fake Hercules Swords
    • Wild Carolina >
      • Plants >
        • Mosses
        • Ferns
        • Conifers
        • Flowering Plants >
          • Grasses
          • Trees
          • Other Flowering Plants
      • Animals >
        • Birds
        • Mammals
        • Crustaceans
        • Insects
        • Arachnids
        • Millipedes and Centipedes
        • Reptiles and Amphibians
      • Fungi
  • Annotated Publications
    • Journal Articles
    • Technical Reports
    • Doctoral Dissertation
  • Bibliography
  • Data

Images of the "Relics of Mu"

2/10/2016

2 Comments

 
Jack Churchward, grandson of famous Mu proponent James Churchward, kindly sent me some good-quality images of the "relics of Mu" that he discussed in the video I referred to in this post. These may be available elsewhere online, but I wanted to make them available here in any case. I thank Jack Churchward for giving me permission to publish them.

The "relics of Mu" apparently all hail from India.  India was also the source of the Dorchester Pot, another classic OOP-Art.  If I had to guess I would also implicate India as the possible origin of the "bell found in coal" that is hawked by Young Earth Creationists as evidence of a 6000-year-old Earth.

Here are the the photographs of the "relics of Mu:"
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
2 Comments

Oahspe: When Matings with Angels Don't Produce Giants

2/8/2016

19 Comments

 
As I mentioned in yesterday's post about the "ancient relic of Mu" (a modern copper alloy pot from India), I have just come across Oahspe (pronounced O as in o'clock, AH as in father, SPE as in speak) for the first time. I'm not sure how I never heard of this before, but I'm finding it fascinating. For those of you ignorant of Oahspe, it is an 1882 book of spiritual revelations reportedly produced by John Ballou Newbrough (1828–1891) through automatic writing. The title page contains this description:
"A New Bible in the Words of Jehovih and His Angel Ambassadors. A Sacred History of the Dominions of the Higher and Lower Heavens on the Earth for the Past Twenty-Four Thousand Years together with a Synopsis of the Cosmogony of the Universe; the Creation of Planets; the Creation of Man; the Unseen Worlds; the Labor and Glory of Gods and Goddesses in the Etherean Heavens; with the New Commandments of Jehovih to Man of the Present Day."
Here it is on Google Books.

Several things interest me about Oahspe.  

First, it contains a tale of human racial history and dispersal from a "lost continent" in the Pacific. I'm interested in how the ideas in Oahspe articulate with political and scientific thinking in late 1800's America. 

Second, it's one of several nineteenth century American religious developments based on received revelations. Unlike the Book of Mormon (1830) and the prophecies of Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) Ellen G. White (experienced from 1844-1863), however, the writings in Oahspe did not develop a large following (I don't know how many Faithists there are today, but certainly many fewer than there are Mormons or Seventh-Day Adventists).

Third, I'm interested in the person and the process. Newbrough was born near where I grew up (Wikipedia says Mohicanville, Ohio, while I've seen other sources online specify Wooster, Ohio, and Springfield, Ohio) and apparently used a typewriter for his "automatic writing." And there are apparently connections between his dental practice and his spirituality.

Anyway, the first thing I did was look for giants in Oahspe.  They're pretty much absent from the Book of Mormon. In SDA and Young Earth Creationist traditions, humans closer to creation were "bigger, better, and smarter" than the degenerated humans of today. What does Oahspe have to say?
Here are the passages from "First Book of the First Lords" (Chapters 1-3) that describe the various interbreedings among animal, human, and spiritual beings:
PicturePlates 3 and 4 from Oahspe. Asu is depicted in the top. From left to right on the bottom are I'hin, I'huan, and Yak.
​"CHAPTER I.
​1. In the beginning God created the heavens of the earth; and the Lord made man upright. And man was naked and not ashamed; neither knew man the sin of incest, but he dwelt as the beasts of the field.

2. And the Lord brought the angels of heaven to man; by his side took they on forms like unto man, having all the organs and attributes of mortals, for it was the time of the earth for such things to be.

3. And it came to pass that a new race was born on the earth, and these were called I'hins, because they were begotten of both heaven and earth. Hence it became a saying: The earth conceived of the Lord.

4. And the name of the first race was Asu (Adam), because they were of the earth only; and the name of the second race was I'hin (Abel), because they were capable of being taught spiritual things.

5. And the Lord said: Of all that live on the face of the earth, or in the waters thereof, or in the air above, that breathes the breath of life, man only have I delivered unto knowledge of his Creator.

6. And the Lord spake unto the I'hin, through his angels spake he to them, saying: Go hide thy nakedness, for it is the commandment of God.

7. And The I'hins were afraid, and they clothed themselves, and were no longer naked before the Lord.

8. And the Lord commanded the angels to give up their forms, and to be no more seen as mortals. And it was done. And the Lord said unto them: Because ye brought forth life, which is in flesh and blood, ye shall minister unto man for six generations on the face of the earth. And it was so.

9. And that man may continue to walk upright, ye shall teach him the law of incest, for man of himself cannot attain to know this.

10. Neither shall ye permit the I'hins to dwell with Asu (Adam), lest his seed go down in darkness.

11. And man was thus inspired of the Lord, and he walked upright, and prospered on the earth.

12. But after a season man became conceited in his own judgment, and he disobeyed the commandments of God.

13. And he strayed out of the garden of paradise and began to dwell with the asu'ans (Adams), and there was born into the world a new race called Druk (Cain), and they had not the light of the Father in them, neither could they be inspired with shame, nor of heavenly things.

14. And the I'hins were grateful to the Lord, and they gave sacrifice in burnt offerings. And they said unto the Druks: Go ye and sacrifice unto the Lord, and he will prosper you. But the Druks understood not; and they fell upon the Lord's chosen, and slew them, right and left, taking their possessions.

15. And the Lord said unto the Druks: Because ye have slain your brethren ye shall depart out of the place of God; and that ye may be known to the ends of the earth I put my mark upon you.

16. And the mark of the Lord put upon the Druks was the shadow of blood, which, being interpreted, is WAR.

17. And the Lord God said: By this sign shall the tribes of Druk and their descendents be known unto the end of the world.

18. And woman, being more helpless than man, cried out with fear, saying: O Lord, how shall I bring forth unto thee, and not unto the sons of death?

19. And the Lord said: Because thou hast brought forth in pain, and yet called on my name, behold I will be unto thee as a shield and protector. For I will also put a mark upon the I'hins, my chosen, so thou shalt know them when they come unto thee.

20. And the Lord commanded the male I'hins, old and young, to be circumcised, that woman might not be deceived by the druks. And the I'hins circumcised one another, old and young; for it was the testimony of the Lord unto woman that seed of their seed was born to everlasting life.

21. And the druks (Cain) went away into the wilderness, and dwelt with the asu'ans and with one another.

22. God said: A boundary line will I make betwixt the tribes of druks and the I'hins; and this is the line that I the Lord God make betwixt them:

23. The I'hins shall labor and clothe themselves, and I will abide with them; but the druks shall wander in the wilderness, neither laboring nor clothing themselves.

24. And it was so. 

CHAPTER II.

1. The time of the habitation of Asu was eight thousand years; and they survived two thousand years after the time of the birth of the I'hins, which is to say: Asu dwelt on the earth six thousand years, and then conceived of the chosen of God; and after that survived yet two thousand years.

2. And Asu (Adam) disappeared off the face of the earth.

3. And there remained on the earth the sacred people, the I'hins; and the carnivorous people, the druks.

4. The I'hins were white and yellow, but the druks were brown and black; the I'hins were small and slender, but the druks were tall and stout.

5. Now, because the druks had not previously obeyed the Lord, but went and dwelt with the asu'ans, there was a half-breed race born on the earth, called Yak, signifying ground people; and they burrowed in the ground like beasts of the forest. And the Yaks did not walk wholly upright, but also went on all fours.

6. God said: Because the Yaks cannot be taught the crime of incest, behold they shall not dwell forever on the earth. So also shall it be with the druks, save wherein they cohabit with the I'hins, whose seed is born unto everlasting life. But with the druks, and their heirs that spring from the Yaks, there shall be an end, both in this world and the next.

7. And the arms of the Yaks were long, and their backs were stooped and curved. And the Lord said: Because they are the fruit of incest, and not capable of speech, nor of eternal life in heaven, the I'hins shall make servants of them.

8. And that they may not tempt my chosen to bring forth fruit unto destruction, they shall be neutralized in my sight. And the angels of God taught the I'hins to make eunuchs of the Yaks; of the males and females made the I'hins eunuchs of the Yaks, and took them for servants.

9. And the Lord said: The Yaks shall serve the I'hins, and build and sow and reap for them. And it was so.
 . . .

CHAPTER III.
. . .
23. And again the Lord brought the I'hins together in lodges and cities, and he said unto them: Henceforth ye shall live upon the earth as an example of righteousness. And your brethren who have mingled with the tribes of darkness shall no longer molest you, but be your defenders and protectors.

24. And there began to be a new tribe on the earth; and they were called I'huans, because they were half-breeds, betwixt the druks and I'hins. The I'huans were red like copper; and they were taller and stronger than any other people in all the world. And the Lord commanded the I'huans, saying:

25. Protect ye the I'hins, the little people, white and yellow; call them THE SACRED PEOPLE. For ye are of them, and ye are also of the Lord your God. And it was so."

That's a whole lot of inter-breeding going on.  I made a chart so I could keep it straight:
Picture
It appears to me that you can arrange these "races" described in Oahspe on a continuum from "spiritual/angelic" to "animal."  The "sacred beings" that are the products of matings between angels and Asu (apparently some kind of non-spiritual biped) are the I'hin.  The I'hin are rather small, light-skinned people.

In the Oahspe version of prehistory, it's the crossing of spiritual and animal beings that produces "true" humans that are apparently rather small.  This contrasts sharply with the Nephilim-centric view of the past wherein such matings produced corrupt, giant, evil beings.  

When humans (I'hin) go against instructions and mate with the non-human hominds (Asu), they produce something called a druk (druk is equated with "giant" only once that I see in Oahspe -- The Lord's First Book, chapter 1, verse 29). Druks are not fully human. Yaks, the products of matings between druks and the animal Asu, are even worse off. Matings between the not-fully-human druks and the I'hin produce the tall, strong, red-skinned, "half-breed" I'huan, which Faithists apparently take as Native Americans.

I've stumbled across several online attempts to reconcile the racial scheme of Oahspe with the fossil record (druks as Neanderthals, I'hin as Homo floriensis, Asu as Ardipithecus ramidus, etc.). The timing of Oahspe is particularly interesting in that regard. It was written decades after publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) but just prior to the discovery and/or recognition of human fossil remains in Indonesia and Europe in the late 1880's and 1890's. The idea of a sunken continent in the Pacific seemed plausible at the time, and was proposed as a way to account for the geographic distribution of plants and animals as well as the lack of a human fossil record.
19 Comments

Modern Objects as Ancient Evidence: The Example of the Relic of Mu

2/7/2016

12 Comments

 
Picture
I don't know much (yet) about the origin and history of ideas about Mu and other "lost continents" in the Pacific.  I went a little way down the rabbit hole last night, reading a bit online and watching YouTube videos between the time when I got the kids to bed and when I couldn't keep my eyes open. It's fascinating stuff. I owe a thanks to Jack Churchward, grandson of famous Mu proponent James Churchward (1851-1936), for prodding my interest. You can find Jack Churchward's website about Mu here.

To me, the most interesting aspect of the "Mu" stories is how they were/are used to explain human diversity. This is something I'll have to pick apart historically, but it appears that Mu/Lemuria/Pan advocates (including today's Faithist followers of Oahspe) connect population dispersals from a lost continent in the Pacific to the characteristics and geographic distribution of modern human "races." It surprised me to learn that the polygenist ideas of Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919), famous racist anthropologist and inspiration to Nazis everywhere, were tied to the hypothesized existence of Lemuria. If that's not an interesting historical tie between science and pseudoscience, I don't know what is.

For today, however, I just wanted to point you to a short video by Jack Churchward discussing the "relic of Mu" that appeared in his grandfather's (1931) book The Lost Continent of Mu.  The "relic" is a bronze vessel that was said to be 12,500 years old and, therefore, evidence of an advanced civilization pre-dating. The video explains that the vessel dates the 17th-18th century and was manufactured in India.  

There are some important parallels between the case of the "relic of Mu" and the debacle of the "Roman sword from Nova Scotia" through which we are still slogging (Woo Alert: J. Hutton Pulitzer's 200-page document on the sword is reportedly coming very soon). In both cases, we have: (1) an object that is familiar enough to be recognizable but unfamiliar enough to seem strange and foreign; (2) an object with no credible provenience; (3) a tautological tie between the object and its explanation (the vessel is evidence of Mu and Mu provides the reason why the vessel should exist); (4) a retreat to the cry of "conspiracy" when the object is shown to be something other than what it is claimed.
12 Comments

    All views expressed in my blog posts are my own. The views of those that comment are their own. That's how it works.

    I reserve the right to take down comments that I deem to be defamatory or harassing. 

    Andy White

    Follow me on Twitter: @Andrew_A_White

    Email me: andy.white.zpm@gmail.com

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner


    Picture

    Sick of the woo?  Want to help keep honest and open dialogue about pseudo-archaeology on the internet? Please consider contributing to Woo War Two.
    Picture

    Follow updates on posts related to giants on the Modern Mythology of Giants page on Facebook.

    Archives

    January 2023
    January 2022
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    March 2021
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014

    Categories

    All
    3D Models
    AAA
    Adena
    Afrocentrism
    Agent Based Modeling
    Agent-based Modeling
    Aircraft
    Alabama
    Aliens
    Ancient Artifact Preservation Society
    Androgynous Fish Gods
    ANTH 227
    ANTH 291
    ANTH 322
    Anthropology History
    Anunnaki
    Appalachia
    Archaeology
    Ardipithecus
    Art
    Atlantis
    Australia
    Australopithecines
    Aviation History
    Bigfoot
    Birds
    Boas
    Book Of Mormon
    Broad River Archaeological Field School
    Bronze Age
    Caribou
    Carolina Bays
    Ceramics
    China
    Clovis
    Complexity
    Copper Culture
    Cotton Mather
    COVID-19
    Creationism
    Croatia
    Crow
    Demography
    Denisovans
    Diffusionism
    DINAA
    Dinosaurs
    Dirt Dance Floor
    Double Rows Of Teeth
    Dragonflies
    Early Archaic
    Early Woodland
    Earthworks
    Eastern Woodlands
    Eastern Woodlands Household Archaeology Data Project
    Education
    Egypt
    Europe
    Evolution
    Ewhadp
    Fake Hercules Swords
    Fetal Head Molding
    Field School
    Film
    Florida
    Forbidden Archaeology
    Forbidden History
    Four Field Anthropology
    Four-field Anthropology
    France
    Genetics
    Genus Homo
    Geology
    Geometry
    Geophysics
    Georgia
    Giants
    Giants Of Olden Times
    Gigantism
    Gigantopithecus
    Graham Hancock
    Grand Valley State
    Great Lakes
    Hollow Earth
    Homo Erectus
    Hunter Gatherers
    Hunter-gatherers
    Illinois
    India
    Indiana
    Indonesia
    Iowa
    Iraq
    Israel
    Jim Vieira
    Jobs
    Kensington Rune Stone
    Kentucky
    Kirk Project
    Late Archaic
    Lemuria
    Lithic Raw Materials
    Lithics
    Lizard Man
    Lomekwi
    Lost Continents
    Mack
    Mammoths
    Mastodons
    Maya
    Megafauna
    Megaliths
    Mesolithic
    Michigan
    Middle Archaic
    Middle Pleistocene
    Middle Woodland
    Midwest
    Minnesota
    Mississippi
    Mississippian
    Missouri
    Modeling
    Morphometric
    Mound Builder Myth
    Mu
    Music
    Nazis
    Neandertals
    Near East
    Nephilim
    Nevada
    New Mexico
    Newspapers
    New York
    North Carolina
    Oahspe
    Oak Island
    Obstetrics
    Ohio
    Ohio Valley
    Oldowan
    Olmec
    Open Data
    Paleoindian
    Paleolithic
    Pilumgate
    Pleistocene
    Pliocene
    Pre Clovis
    Pre-Clovis
    Prehistoric Families
    Pseudo Science
    Pseudo-science
    Radiocarbon
    Reality Check
    Rome
    Russia
    SAA
    Sardinia
    SCIAA
    Science
    Scientific Racism
    Sculpture
    SEAC
    Search For The Lost Giants
    Sexual Dimorphism
    Sitchin
    Social Complexity
    Social Networks
    Solutrean Hypothesis
    South Africa
    South America
    South Carolina
    Southeast
    Stone Holes
    Subsistence
    Swordgate
    Teaching
    Technology
    Teeth
    Television
    Tennessee
    Texas
    Topper
    Travel
    Travel Diaries
    Vaccines
    Washington
    Whatzit
    White Supremacists
    Wisconsin
    Woo War Two
    World War I
    World War II
    Writing
    Younger Dryas

    RSS Feed

    Picture
Proudly powered by Weebly