Was Earth Repopulated After Noah's Flood?

Alice C. Linsley


Noah lived in the region of Lake Chad (Borno/Benue - "Land of Noah") approximately 5500-4500 B.C, when the Sahara experienced a wet period. Humans had already dispersed globally by 12,000 B.C. 

Some of those dispersed populations were from earlier migrations out of Africa. There have been multiple migrations out of Africa, probably as early as 500,000 years ago. 

Abraham was a descendant of the Kushite kingdom builder Nimrod who established his territory in the Tigris-Euphrates valley. This explains why in the Bible we first meet Abraham in Mesopotamia.

8000-year dugout found in the Sahara

About 4000 years before Noah people were using dugouts to navigate the rivers of the Green Sahara. This is attested by the discovery of an 8000-year-old black Mohagany dugout in Dufuna in the Upper Yobe valley along the Komadugu Guna River in Northern Nigeria. This region was much wetter at the time that Noah and his sons ruled there.

The oldest known zoological collection was discovered during excavations at Nekhen on the Nile in 2009. This royal menagerie that dates to 3500 B.C. and included hippos, hartebeest, elephants, baboons and wildcats. The story of the Proto-Saharan ruler Noah preserving a collection of animals is based on historical reality.

Nekhen is the oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship (4200 B.C.). Noah probably knew of this place.

What was happening before Noah?

The evidence of archaic human industry, religion, ritual burial, and domesticity in Africa, Arabia and China creates a more accurate picture of the earlier populations.

On the Arabian Peninsula, the Qafzeh population was using tools 125,000 years ago at Jebel Faya and burying their dead in red ochre.

Humans were making reed mattresses 77,000 years ago in South Africa. That is where the oldest mattress— made from compacted grasses and leafy plants— was found at the Sibudu Cave site in KwaZulu-Natal. In this same region a stone carving of a python has been found that dates to 70,000 years.

There is the evidence of mining 80,000 to 100,000 years ago. These major mining operations in southern Africa included quarries and tunnels. It is estimated that a million kilos of red ocher ore were excavated from several mines. At one mine half a million stone-digging tools were found. The red ocher was ground to power and was used globally to bury rulers. Anthropologists agree that the red ocher symbolized blood. Apparently, it was connected to the people’s hope that the ruler might rise from the dead and lead his faithful people to immortality.

The Pengtoushan culture thrived along the Yangtze River between BC. 7500–6100, and the Yangshao culture flourished along the central Yellow River between BC. 5000 and 3000. Yangshao nobles wore silk garments. 

Cemetaries were established which reveal ritual burial. Paul Sereno unearthed 10,000-year skeletons at Gobero in Niger. These were buried on the edge of a paleolake on the northwestern rim of the Chad Basin. The Gobero site is the earliest known cemetery in the Sahara and the skeletons found there indicated that some were at least 6 feet tall.

Gobero skeleton (G3B8) measures 6 feet 6 inches
Photo (c) Mike Hettwer, courtesy Project Exploration

At the time of the Gobero populations (9700-4400 years ago), humans were dispersed globally, and during the time of Noah these populations were not destroyed. 

There is no evidence pf a worldwide flood that led to extinction of humans and animals. Human settlements in Europe, the Americas, Asia, and the Near East were along major water systems and prone to flooding. Flood stories often appear in ancient texts. A late source (Deuteronomist Historian) used the Noah story to promote his theology of God's wrath upon sinful humanity. 

Noah's flood was a large regional flood. The term "eretz" which appears in the Genesis flood stories can mean earth, land, or territory. The Lake Chad region was Noah's territory and is the only place on earth claimed to be Noah's homeland by the local populations. The local Kanuri people refer to Lake Chad as "Buhar Nuhu", meaning Sea of Noah.

Noah's three sons were Hebrew clan chiefs whose descendants intermarried (caste endogamy). Those descendants dispersed widely and carried their beliefs wherever they lived. However, they did not repopulate the earth after a catastrophic worldwide flood.

Related reading: The Extent of Noah's Flood; Noah's Descendants; The Animals on Noah's Ark; Abraham's Faith Lives in Christianity; Understanding the Science of Biblical Anthropology; Discovering the Historical Noah

Anglicanism and Spiritualism

Alice C. Linsley



Spiritualism (also called "Spiritism") seeks to connect the living and the dead through practices such as automatic writing and séances. The central belief is that the spirits of the dead reside in the spirit world and have the ability to communicate with the living through the agency of mediums. 

Spiritualism reached its peak growth in membership between the 1840s to the 1920s, especially in England and the United States.  By 1897, it was said to have more than eight million followers in the United States and Europe. It was promoted by such popular figures as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who wrote a two volume "History of Spiritualism." Doyle was President of the London Spiritualist Alliance and President of the British College of Psychic Science.

In America Harry Houdini set out to debunk several acclaimed mediums in the 1920s. His debunking exploits were chronicled in his book, A Magician Among the Spirits. He was a member of a Scientific American committee that offered a cash prize to any medium who could successfully demonstrate supernatural powers, but the prize was never collected. Houdini debunked the mediums George Valentine and Mina Crandon. His activities cost Houdini the friendship of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Unfortunately, Houdini's wife Bess lent popularity to spiritualism by attempting to contact her dead husband every Halloween for ten years. Before Houdini died, he and his wife agreed that if Houdini found it possible to communicate after death, he would communicate the message "Rosabelle believe." This was a secret code they agreed to use. It was reported that Bess had a contact with her dead husband through the medium Arthur Ford in 1929, but Bess later claimed the incident had been faked.

In September 1967, Episcopal Bishop James Albert Pike participated in a televised séance with Arthur Ford, a Disciples of Christ minister. Pike detailed these experiences in his book The Other Side. Today a number of American mediums have association with the Episcopal Church. Margaret Duke and Psychic Joanna were both raised in the Episcopal Church. The Philadelphia Medium and Psychic Development Group meets on Sundays at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Levittown, Pennsylvania.

Spiritualism had early activist tendencies.  Since many of the leading spiritualists were females who felt resistance to women speaking in public, they also championed women's rights. These included Sarah and Angelina Grimke (sisters) and Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. Spiritualist speakers Amelia Colby Luther, Cora Richmond, Moses and Mattie Hull, and Wallace Hibbits spoke against slavery. Many of these were associated with Camp Chesterfield in Indiana.



Spiritualism and Anglicanism

In April 2002, Richard J. Mammana, Jr.'s review of Rene Kollar's book Searching for Raymond: Anglicanism, Spiritualism, and Bereavement Between the Two World Wars appeared in Touchstone Magazine. Because the English Reformers largely condemned any form of Prayer for the dead due to abuses in the Roman Church, the age old practice (still observed in the eastern churches) was mostly lost. This led to a pastoral crisis during the great wars when so many lost their lives. Mammana sets the stage for the review with this explanation:

Despite the heroic actions of dedicated priests in the trenches, a spiritual vacuum haunted many of the men who returned from the Great War. This vacuum likewise haunted the homes whose hearths they left empty when they died “over there.” Into this void stepped a series of religious fads, loosely based, as all heresies are, on some aspects of the Christian faith bent out of shape. Prominent laymen—among them Sir Arthur Conan Doyle—promoted the idea that spiritualism and Christianity were not by any means at odds, but rather were complementary and even essential to one another. Hungry audiences devoured the deception, and clergymen weak in their own understanding of Christian doctrine willingly adopted the relation as well.

The first Lambeth Conference after the Great War addressed itself in earnest to the challenges raised by “Some Movements Outside the Church,” including spiritualism, Christian Science, and Theosophy. This conference, the same one that condemned artificial methods of birth control, said that these movements “are clearly shewn to involve serious error” when “tried by the doctrines of the Incarnation and the Cross.” It “urge[d] strongly that a larger place should be given in the teaching of the Church to the explanation of the true grounds of Christian belief in eternal life, and in immortality, and of the true content of belief in the Communion of Saints as involving real fellowship with the departed through the love of God in Christ Jesus.” (Read the full review here.)

Archbishop William Cosmo Gordon Lang established a committee in 1937 “to discuss the relationship, if any, between spiritualism and the traditional teachings of the Anglican Church.” As Archbishop of Canterbury during the abdication of 1936, Archbishop Lang was faced with crisis upon crisis, not the least of which was the popularity of spiritualism. Although Archbishop Lang took a strong moral tone toward the failure of duty of Edward VIII in abdicating the throne, he reopened the question of spiritualism by forming the committee. One of the committee members was Evelyn Underhill, who later withdrew, stating that she was “very strongly opposed to spiritualism... especially to any tendency on the part of the Church to recognize or encourage it.”

The committee delivered its report in 1939, but its findings were not made public until 1979. A similar delay took place with the 1922 publication "Doctrine in the Church of England" which was not published until 1938. As Mammana notes, "The “Conclusions of the Majority” reveal a shocking discovery of inherent value in spiritualist practices. One paragraph merits quotation without comment:

It is often held that the practice of Spiritualism is dangerous to the mental balance, as well as to the spiritual condition, of those who take part in it, and it is clearly true that there are cases where it has become obsessional in character. But it is very difficult to judge in these cases whether the uncritical and unwise type of temperament which does undoubtedly show itself in certain spiritualists is a result or a cause of their addiction to these practices. Psychologically it is probable that persons in a condition of mental disturbance, or lack of balance, would very naturally use the obvious opportunities afforded by Spiritualism as a means of expressing the repressed emotions which have caused their disorder. This indeed is true of Christianity itself, which frequently becomes an outlet, not only for cranks, but for persons who are definitely of unstable mentality.

The committee closed with the recommendation of a sort of ecumenism between the Church of England and the spiritualist movement: “It is in our opinion important that representatives of the Church should keep in touch with groups of intelligent persons who believe in Spiritualism.”


Related reading: The Crisis of Authority in Anglicanism; The Tradegy of James Pike; Why Not Leave Anglicanism? by Dr. William G. Witt

The Episcopal Church Circus

Alice C. Linsley

I use the word "circus" as one who served in Episcopal orders for 18 years. I left on the Sunday Gene Robinson was consecrated a bishop in the Episcopal Church (TEC). Since then TEC's downward spiral into the ridiculous has gained velocity. The Episcopal flock is led by clowns!

The Church of England approved women bishops in July 2014 and those who hold to the catholic faith in that body will have to lump it. The provision to accommodate them will never hold. The Church of England learned nothing from the debacle of the The Episcopal Church. Some clergy of the Church of England will migrate to the Roman Ordinariate or to the Free Church of England.

The Episcopal Church pushed women to be priests as part of the diversity agenda. I personally experienced that pressure. I sought to serve the Church, and though my gifts indicate that I should have been encouraged to pursue Theology or Church History as an academic, I was told that I should be a priest. Bishop Lyman Ogilby, who at first resisted the innovation, came to embrace it. This was the message coming across loud and clear in the Diocese of Pennsylvania in the 1980's. This Diocese delivered to the Anglican world bishops Barbara Harris, Geralyn Wolf, Mary Glasspool, Frank Griswold, and Charles Bennison.

Later there were more dubious ordinations in TEC, including a Muslim woman (who was later defrocked by Geralyn Wolf) and two Wiccans (also later defrocked). As far as I know, no partnered homosexuals have been defrocked, so one wonders about the nature of TEC's diversity. Diversity and equality have become terms of tyranny for many in the Anglican Communion. These high-sounding ideals have been employed to break catholic orders and to forever change the Church. Louie Crew's "Changing the Church" tells the sordid history. Now there remains but one impediment to ordination in TEC: refusal to accept this new religion. The descent down the slippery slope gains speed. Non-celibate homosexuals, transgender, bisexual, pedophile... anyone can be a "priest" in TEC if they bow to the circus master.

“When one is required to preside over the Church, and be entrusted with the care of so many souls, the whole female sex must retire before the magnitude of the task, and the majority of men also.” – St. John Chrysostom

“The divine law indeed has excluded women from this ministry, but they endeavour to thrust themselves into it; and since they can effect nothing of themselves, they do all through the agency of others.” – St. John Chrysostom

Related reading: The TEC Clergy Hit List Grows Daily; Women Priests by E.L. Mascall; What is Lost When Women Serve as Priests?; C.S. Lewis on "Priestesses in the Church"; Why Women Were Never Priests; God as Male Priest; What is a Priest?;  Women Priests: History and Theology by Patrick Henry Reardon

The Tragedy of James Pike

Alice C. Linsley


Has occult involvement by Anglicans contributed to the spiritual decay of the Episcopal Church? That question came up in response to "The Crisis of Authority in Anglicanism."

Many bishops have been lax in upholding the doctrine and discipline of the Church and this has turned Anglicanism into a schismatic brand of modernist Christianity. In this tragedy, the Episcopal Church bears a large portion of the shame, beginning at least as early as James Albert Pike.

Pike was charged with heresy three times, though the charges were dropped. Apparently, it was politics as usual in the Episcopal House of Bishops. In October 1966, he was formally censured by his fellow Bishops. This was the year his son James Jr. committed suicide.

Pike was never deposed by the House of Bishops though he rejected the Virgin Birth, the Trinity, and the doctrine of Hell.  He also supported the ordination of women and the acceptance of homosex. In December 1960, Pike had an essay published in Look in which he argued that the Church was no longer relevant for contemporary life.  He became a severe critic of the Church, her Tradition and the Bible.

Pike met the Christian apologist Elton Trueblood at a conference in Alaska and there was correspondance between the men in 1955. Trueblood taught Philosophy at Earlham College and mentions Pike's apostacy in his book The Company of the Committed.

James Albert Pike

Pike's Demise

In August 1969 Bishop James Pike and his third wife who he married in 1967, went to Israel to gather material for a book Pike was writing. The book was to present Pike's version of the origins of Christianity. On September 2nd they set out in a rented car for the wilderness where Jesus was tempted by the devil. After passing Herodion, Pike turned off on an unpaved track which he believed led north to Jericho. In fact, he was at the beginning of Wadi Mashash, leading east towards the Dead Sea. Soon the unpaved road ended where it had been washed out by flash floods. The Pikes tried to turn around, but the rear wheels of the car dropped into a deep rut. They couldn’t free the car and didn’t know how to use the jack. The Pikes abandoned the car after trying unsuccessfully to get it out of the rut. Then they walked for two hours until Bishop Pike was too exhausted to go on. They found a relatively flat rock under a bit of an overhang that gave them some shade. As the sun was setting, Diane Pike left her husband and continued walking. After some ten hours of climbing steep canyons in the moonlight, she stumbled onto the road being built between Ein Gedi and Ein Fashha. A security guard found her and she was taken to police authorities in Bethlehem. When they returned to the place where Diane had left her husband, they found the map that Diane had left with her husband but no clue as to where he had gone. Pike's Apostacy Pike was raised as a Roman Catholic and became an agnostic while attending the University of Santa Clara. After earning his Law degree, he worked in Washington D.C. After WWII, Pike and his second wife, Esther Yanovsky, joined the Episcopal Church.  He had met Esther while she was attending his law class at George Washington. He entered the Virginia Theological Seminary and then the Union Theological seminary. He was ordained in 1946, though he never renounced his agnosticism. In 1952 he became Dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, where he used the pulpit to proclaim social reform. In 1958, following the death of Bishop Karl Morgan Block, Pike was consecrated the fifth Bishop of California.  Though he was originally from Oklahoma, Pike was never comfortable with the values of America's heartland.  He lived most of his adult life in the urban centers of the East and West and was clearly out of touch with the average Episcopalian. Pike's third marriage was to a woman about half his age.  He was 56 and she was 31. Diane Kennedy Pike was the executive director of a foundation that conducted research into life after death and paranormal experiences.  James and Diane collaborated on the book, "The Other Side: An Account of My Experience with Psychic Phenomena." The book tells of  Pike's dabbling in necromancy in an effort to establish contact with his son, James Jr., who committed suicide in a New York hotel in 1966. James Jr. was Pike's son by Esther Yanovsky. After three days of temperatures above 100 degrees, the hunt for Bishop Pike was called off. At a news conference, Mrs. Pike reported that the seer who had put her husband in contact with the spirit of his son had had a vision of him alive in a cave near the place Diane had left him. Off duty army scouts and local Beduoin searched for him, but his body was not found. On September 7th, James Pike's body was found. Pike was climbing a steep ascent in Wadi Mashash when he slipped and fell to his death.  He was buried in St. Peter's cemetery in Jaffa under a tamarisk tree.  Before his death in 1969, Pike announced that he and Diane were ending their affliation with the Episcopal Church and with all forms of organized religion.

Related reading: The Crisis of Authority in Anglicanism; The Modernist-Traditionalist Divide in Anglicanism; Impressions of the New American Anglicanism; Anglicanism and Spiritualism; Why Not Leave Anglicanism? A Followup by William G. Witt

Kushite Gold

Alice C. Linsley


A Nilo-Saharan ruler by the name of "Kush" (Cush) is first mentioned in the Bible as the father of Nimrod and Ramah. Kush and his sons were rulers who controlled the water ways in their territories. The rivers were used to transport cargo and supplied the necessary water for mining industries. Kush was famous for gold, a fact to which Genesis alludes when speaking of the river Pishon that flowed through the land of Ha'vilah, where there is gold (Gen. 2:11). Another African river is the Gihon which wound through the land of Kush (Gen. 2:13).

For the Kushites gold symbolized the Sun, the emblem of the Creator. The Creator's appointment of rulers is depicted by a solar image on or over their heads, as seen on this bust found in Nigeria.

Hathor is depicted as being overshadowed by the Sun. This indicted that she is appointed to bring forth Horus, the son of Ra. Ra was sometimes referred to as a "mountain of gold." Horus is called the Golden One" and is depicted as a falcon perched on the mast of Ra's solar boat or with golden rays of the Sun on his head. Similar solar imagery is found wherever the Kushites dispersed.

The gold mines of Kush were described by the Greek author Diodorus Siculus. He mentions fire-setting as a method used to break down the hard rock. The same method is used today in Africa to extract gem crystals from the hot rock over which buckets of water are poured repeatedly and in quick succession to cause rapid cooling.

The ore was then ground to a fine powder before washing. The process required a substantial source of water, such a river. Mining operations found in desert areas suggest that there was more water during the time of the Kushite expansion.

Genesis 10 speaks of the migration of the Kushites into Mesopotamia, Anatolia and Bactria where they are called "Kushan." This is one of the later migrations out of Africa, between 4000 and 1500 BC.

Nimrod is noted in Genesis 10 as one of the Kushite kingdom builders. He and his brother Ramah were the sons of Kush. Both moved out of the Nile Valley to establish territories; Ramah in Arabia and Nimrod along the Euphrates in Mesopotamia.

The Kushite rulers were a highly organized and militaristic. They ruled of territories consisting of numerous clans and castes. The marriage and ascendancy pattern of their rulers drove their expansion into new territories. They were skilled in hunting, combat, sailing, astronomy and metal working. Their rulers controlled the major water systems and founded early mining industries along the Nile and in southern Israel.

As Robert Morkot notes in his book The Black Pharoahs, the Upper and Lower Nile regions were first united by sub-Saharan Nilotes. The Subsequent history of Egypt was largely based on the religious and social practies of the Upper Nile. We see this as late as Amenhotep III. He ruled Nubia, Libya, Gaza and Syria in the 18th Dynasty (BC. 1382 -1350).  His name means "peace of Amen." In the Upper Nile,
Amen, a name for God was favored over the name Set, which was favored in the Delta. It was during the 18th dynasty that the title 'King's Son of Kush' was first used.

The first rulers of a unified Nile Valley were Upper Nilotes. The Biblical prophets group Mizraim (Egypt) and Kush (Upper Nile/Sudan/Ethiopia) together because the Lower and Upper Nile regions were first unified by the Kushite ruler Menes (Meni) around 3000 BC. Whether Menes was Narmer or Ahauiti, his unification of the Upper and Lower Nile established him as the founder of a new House/Dynasty. This remained the case even after Mentuhotep II reunited Egypt after the 1st Intermediate Period. Instead of being recognized as the founder of a new House, Mentuhotep II was considered a ruler of the 11th Dynasty.

Another Kushite ruler was called K-ash-ta, meaning "the Throne of Kush." The Saharan origins of the rulers of Egypt has been well documented by the Canadian archeologist Mary McDonald.

Biblical Kush was a vast region that included Egypt, Sudan, Nubia, the coastal areas of the Horn of Africa, and the Afro-Arabian populations living in Ramah, Sheba and Dedan. DNA studies show "genetic unity and linkage" between the Sudanic, Egyptian, Nubian and other Nilotic peoples, as well as some populations of the Horn of Africa. (Yurco (1996), Keita (1993, 2004, 2005) Lovell (1999), Zakrewski (2003, 2007). The Copts are one of the oldest Egyptian populations. This is based on the relatively high frequency of the B-M60 marker, indicating early pre-dynastic colonization of Egypt by Nilotes.


Kushite Mining Operations

In 2007, archaeologists from the Oriental Institute discovered a 4000 year gold-processing center along the middle Nile in the Sudan. The site is called Hosh el-Guruf and is located about 225 miles from Khartoum. More than 55 grinding stones made of granite-like gneiss were found at the site. The ore was ground to recover the gold and the water was used to separate the flakes from the particle residue. Similar grinding stones have been found in Egypt and at Timnah in southern Israel.

The oldest mines at Timnah are at least 6,000 years old. The miners at Timnah recovered turquoise and copper. They followed ore veins underground and created shafts with stone chiseling tools. These galleries spread in all directions, following the ore. The mines were worked by Kushite metal working clans between 2000 to 1500 BC. Ancient rock carvings showing Kushite warriors in chariots, holding axes and shields have been found in the area. A temple dedicated to Hathor was discovered at the southwestern edge of Mt. Timnah by Professor Beno Rothenberg of Hebrew University. In his book Timna, Rothenberg concluded that the peoples living in the area were "partners not only in the work but in the worship of Hathor." (Timna, p. 183)


The Kushites Reflect Proto-Saharan Burial Practices

Workmen clear the surface of a second-millennium cemetery discovered by Geoff Emberling's team. The site is now flooded by a massive dam. 
(Oriental Institute Nubian Expedition)

Geoff Emberling, Director of the Oriental Institute Museum and a co-leader of the expedition that discovered the gold working operation at Hosh el-Guruf, reported that his team also discovered a cemetery with Kushite artifacts at the nearby site al-Widay. These included high-status pottery vessels that appear to have been made at Kerma, about 225 miles away.

Kerma was one of the most important centers of ancient Kush. Excavations at Kerma have uncovered a walled town surrounding a monumental mud-brick temple. In a royal cemetery to the east, four massive grave tumuli contained several hundred human remains. The remains were surrounded by thousands of cattle skulls. This was a common burial practice among to the Proto-Saharan peoples.

The cemetery near Hosh el-Guruf included 90 closely packed stone circles. The covered shafts were circular and lined with stones, a typical feature of the Pan Graves of Proto-Saharan nobility. Pan Grave cemeteries have been found at a number of sites in Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia. These graves are associated with the Beja, an ancient metal working people of the Sahara. The Egyptians called them "Medjayu." They brought gold to Egypt from mines deep in the heartland of Nubia and Kush. At the Temple at Dendur in Nubia the sons of a local Beja chieftain, Pedisi and Pihor, are honored. Ped-isi refers to Hathor who was later called Isis, and Pi-hor refers to Horus.

In the first room of the Dendur temple, reliefs show the ruler praying. The middle room was used for offering ceremonies and the inner most room was the sanctuary of Hathor. The only carvings in these two rooms are around the door frame leading into the sanctuary and on the back wall of the sanctuary. These show Pihor worshiping Isis and Pedesi worshiping Horus.

The Kushite Cities of Kerma, Nekhen, and Akkad

Temple precinct of Kerma

The oldest layer of occupation at Hosh el-Guruf dates to the later Neolithic period (ca. 4000-3000 BC.) and corresponds to the urban center at Nekhen, the shrine city of Horus. His mother, Hathor, was venerated as the patroness of metal workers. The Kushite center at Kerma, by comparison, dates from 2450-2000 BC.

The rulers of Nekhen had access to sub-Saharan the mineral resources of the eastern desert. The high quality of the gold work at Nekhen is evidenced by the discovery of this gold plumed falcon representing Horus.

The mining center at Hosh el-Guruf and the nearby cemetery document the sub-Saharan kingdom of Kush, but the book of Genesis provides the most significant information about the Kushite expansion into Arabia, Canaan and Mesopotamia. It tells us that Kushite rulers moved out of Africa and became established in distant regions. Nimrod, a son of Kush, is mentioned as a specific example. The center of his kingdom was Akkad in Mesopotamia and the script of his kingdom was Akkadian.

Genesis helps us to connect the dots historically.  Unfortunately, many archaeologists ignore such valuable information. The result is a great deal of mis-information such as this statement by Emberling: “The Kingdom of Kush was unusual in that it was able to use the tools of power—military and governance—without having a system of writing, an extensive bureaucracy or numerous urban centers.”

Emberling adds to this distorted picture with this statement: “Studying Kush helps scholars have a better idea of what statehood meant in an ancient context outside such established power centers of Egypt and Mesopotamia.” Statehood would have been a foreign notion to the Kushites.  They were empire builders and the evidence points to the power centers of Egypt and Mesopotamia as owing a great debt to the Kushites.


The Linguistic Connection

The Afro-Asiatic languages have four geographical groups: northern peripheral, northern central, southern central, and southern peripheral. Akkadian and Amorite are in the northern peripheral group. The northern central group includes the ancient Canaanite, Ugaritic, ancient and modern Syriac and Hebrew, Moabite, Old Aramaic, Amorite, and Phoenician and its Punic dialect. The southern central region includes Arabic, Maltese, and the archaic Oasis North Arabian dialects, some of the earliest attested belonging to the group. The southern peripheral region includes South Arabian dialects and the languages of northern Ethiopia.

GOLD

Ancient Egyptian - nub
Akkadian - dahh-ubu
Arabic - dha-hab
Hebrew - za-hab

Gold was associated with Horus, whose emblem was the sun. This is evident in the Babylonian word for gold hur-asu.  The Egyptian hr means "the One on high." The Turin Canon, which provides important information on Egypt's early history, describes the Predynastic rulers as "Followers of Horus" and Horus as the "Ruler of the Two Horizons."

The ancient Egyptians observed the death of Horus (Osirus) in a 5-day festival. The first 3 days were marked by solemnity and fasting, as Plutarch noted in Isis and Osiris, 69.  His death on the 17th of Athyr was commemorated by the planting of grain. On the third day, the 19th of Athyr, there was feasting to celebrate Horus’ rising to life. It is no coincidence that Jesus alludes to the ancient Horite myth when informing his disciples of his impending death.  He said, "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." (John 12:24)  In referring to himself as the "Seed" Jesus alludes to the promise God made to Abraham's Edenic ancestors that the Seed of the Woman would one day crush the serpent's head and restore paradise (Gen. 3:15).

Related reading: A Scienific Timeline of Genesis; The Gold of Kush; Biblical Sheba and East African Settlements Linked; Who Were the Kushites?; The Gold of Ophir; Afro-Asiatic Metal Workers; Osiris and Dionysus Foreshadow Christ; The Religion of Tamar of Timnah; Kushites in Mindanao

Ket-Navajo Linguistic Connection

Alice C. Linsley


This 2008 study showed that Ket, spoken in Siberia, and Na-Dene, the language of the Navajo, are cognate languages. Another study that traces the connection based on DNA has been reported at Science Daily.

Linguistic evidence indicates that the Yeniseian family of languages, spoken in central Siberia, is most closely related to the Na-Dene family of languages spoken, for the most part, in northwestern North America. This hypothesis locates the source of one of the three migrations responsible for the peopling of the Americas.

These reports indicate that some native peoples of the Pacific Northwest, Alaska and the American southwest came from Asia. This is not new information among anthropologists or linguists. What is new information is the migration of the Nilotic Annu. The Ainu did not come across the Bering Strait. They came through Finland, Greenland and Labrador to Eastern Canada. Why is this not grabbing media attention?

Many native peoples of the Atlantic coast of North America migrated from the Nile Valley, via Finland, Greenland and Labrador. These are the Ainu, a seafaring people who also went to Japan. The Ainu are at the center of Cavalli-Sforza's genetic distance chart, which is what we might expect from such an early migration out of Africa.

The Ainu are connected to Abraham's ancestors. Abraham's father held the title Tera which meant "priest" among the royal Ainu of the Upper Nile. Tera-neter means priest of  God. The name is associated with Het-u temples. Genesis 10 lists Het as a descendant of Noah. Het and Sidon are indicated as the original inhabitants of Canaan.


Related reading:  The Orign of the Na-Dene; Navajo and Ket are Cognate Languages; The Nile-Japan Ainu Connection; A Kindling of Ancient Memory

False Assumption #3 of Young Earth Creationists

Dr. Alice C. Linsley


This continues the series on "False Assumptions of Young Earth Creationists." To date we have considered False Assumption 1: Genesis is history and should be read as a chronological account, and False Assumption 2: The Genesis “begats” list the first people living on Earth

False Assumption 3:  Bishop Ussher's timeline is reliable and can be used to calculate the age of the Earth. 

Ussher did not recognize that the Genesis genealogies are regnal, not generational. The begats cannot be used to count generations because they are king lists and some kings ruled simultaneously.

Ussher was unaware of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of the Hebrew rulers whereby the ruler had two wives and two firstborn sons. Ussher's timeline is flawed because he failed to take this into consideration.

The early Hebrew marriage and ascendancy pattern was well established among these powerful rulers, indicating that they had been in power long before Noah's time. The oldest known site of Horite Hebrew religion at Nehken dates to about 4200 B.C. and reflects a high level of technological and cultural achievement. This is 6200 years ago, the time when the earth was created according to Ussher.

Menes is credited with first uniting the Upper and Lower Nile peoples into one Kingdom. He wore the double crown to show that he was sovereign over both regions. The serekh surrounding his name is surmounted by the falcon, the totem of HR (Horus). Horus was called “son of God” and in ancient Egyptian HR means "Most High One".

At the Horus temple of Nekhen, votive instruments were ten times larger than the mace heads and bowls found elsewhere, suggesting that this was a very prestigious shrine. Horite priests placed invocations to the Creator at the summit of the fortress as the sun rose. Likely, this is the origin of the sun blessings in Hinduism (the Agnihotra morning ritual) and in Judaism (the Birka Hachama, or “Sun Blessing” ritual performed every 28 years).

Young Earth Creationists are wrong to use Archbishop James Ussher’s chronology to date the age of the Earth. Ussher assumed that the "begats" of Genesis chapters 4 and 5 refer to the first people on earth and he concluded that the earth's age is between 6000-8000 years. Today the anthropological tool of kinship analysis reveals the flaw in Ussher's approach. The diagram below shows that the lines of Cains and his brother Seth intermarriage according to a long-standing marriage and ascendancy pattern that is characteristic of the early Hebrew ruler-priest caste.

Cain and Seth married patrilineal cousins who were the daughters of a ruler named Enoch. These wives named their firstborn sons after their father, according to the cousin bride's naming prerogative. Lamech the Elder's daughter Naamah married her cousin Methuselah and named their firstborn son Lamech after her father.

This shows that the historical Adam had a contemporary called Enoch, which is a royal title referring to one who ascends to the throne of his father. 

Ussher did not take into consideration is that Kushite rulers, like Egyptian rulers, did not name their biological fathers in their king lists. This explains why many of the names that appear in the Genesis 4 and 5 lists are titles of royal persons rather than proper names.

The Kushites believed that the ruler-priest was the son of Re whose emblem was the sun. (Re in ancient Egyptian means "father".) The Pharaoh was called "son of Re" which is why Egyptian texts never mention the king's earthly father. Kingship was a manifestation of the High God's overshadowing of noble women. 

Sargon the Great claimed not to know his father. He based his authority to rule on the suggestion that he was conceived according to the Horite Hebrew myth of miraculous virginal conception. However, any ruler could make that claim. The true proof of the ruler's deity was resurrection from the dead.  Sargon stayed dead, as did all the rulers of Egypt and Mesopotamia. However, Jesus Christ, a descendant of their royal lines, did indeed rise from the dead and his rising was verified by many eye witnesses. 

Dating more accurately

The early Hebrew rulers of Genesis 4 and 5 lived and reigned within the periods of early Egyptian history.


First Intermediate Period
2475-2445 BC: 7th - 8th Dynasties Noah, Shem, Ham, Japheth and Kush

2445–2160 BC: 9th -10th Dynasties Nimrod, Arpachshad, Salah, Eber and Peleg and Joktan


Middle Kingdom
2160-2000 BC: 11th Dynasty Nahor, Terah and Abraham

2000-1788 BC: 12th Dynasty Jacob, Esau, Joseph


The early Kushite expansion into ancient Sumer/Chaldea has been well-documented. In Sumerian inscriptions the Kushites were called Meluha Kasi. The dispersion of the early Hebrew out of the Nile Valley is evident in Genesis 10 which speaks of the Kushite kingdom builder Nimrod who built a great empire in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley. 


The Pattern of Two Wives and Two Sons

Horite and Sethite Hebrew rulers maintained two wives in separate households on a north-south axis. The ruler's first wife was a half-sister (as was Sarah to Abraham) and the second wife was a patrilineal cousin (as was Keturah to Abraham). The firstborn son of the half-sister wife ascended to the throne of his biological father. As Abraham's proper heir, Isaac ruled over Abraham's territory in ancient Edom (Idumea).

The firstborn son of the patrilineal cousin wife served as a high official in the territory of his maternal grandfather after whom he was named. Joktan, Abraham's son by his cousin wife Keturah, served in the kingdom of Joktan the Elder, his maternal grandfather. The Joktanite clans resided in Arabia.

There was a hierarchy of Hebrew chiefs, vassals, and kings. Analysis of the kinship pattern of the early Hebrew rulers indicates segmentary lineages. The first loyalty is to the lineage of father and his principal (half-sister) wife and their son, the heir. The second loyalty is to the father and his second (cousin) wife and their son who belongs to the household of his maternal grandfather. The third loyalty is to the household and clan of the cousin.

A Bedouin proverb summarizes the philosophy behind segmentary lineages:

I against my brother
I and my brother against my cousin
I, my brother, and my cousin against the world

 
Sons who were not the firstborn were given gifts of camels, jewelry, flocks, herds, and servants and sent away to establish settlements of their own. The importance of these "sent-away sons" as a driving factor in the Kushite expansion out of the Nile Valley.

This pattern is evident in the case of the Kushite kingdom-builder Nimrod. Nimrod, one of Abraham's ancestors, was sent away from his older brother Ramah whose territory was in northern Arabia. After numerous conquests, Nimrod’s territory was far greater than his brother’s. It extended the length of the Tigris-Euphrates Valley, and the principal cities were Babel, Erech, and Akkad (Gen. 10:10). The language of Nimrod’s empire was Akkadian, the oldest known Semitic language. It has close affinity to the languages of the Nile Valley.


Related reading:  The Hebrew Were a Caste; Hebrew Rulers with Two Wives; Horite and Sethite Mounds; Abraham's Kushite Ancestors; Kushite Kings and the Kingdom of God; Hebrew Names and Titles; The Welcome Demise of American Fundamentalism

The Nile-Japan Ainu Connection

Alice C. Linsley


The following is a fascinating conversation about the Ainu with Judith Hishikawa, a former volunteer for missions with the Episcopal Church in Japan. She graduated from Middlebury College with High Honors in Anthropology-Sociology. Her honors thesis was on North American Trickster Myths.

We began the conversation after she read an article that mentions the Ainu at Biblical Anthropology on “The Bible and the Question of Race.” Judith contacted with some questions about the Ainu. She is familiar with the Ainu of Japan, but was not familiar with the possible connections to Nilotic ancestors, specifically to the Horite Hebrew, a caste of royal priests devoted to Ra and his son Horus.

Parallels between the Ra-Horus-Hathor narrative and the Messianic Faith have been noted here. It is interesting that the Japanese word for Christ is Harisutosu.


Judith,

If Abraham's Ainu ancestors spread far and wide as Genesis 10 reports, we would expect them to be an early stock from which many other peoples come. This has been confirmed by Luigi Cavalli-Sforza's genetic distance studies which places the Ainu at the center.

The Ainu originated in the Nile Valley and migrated eastward as far as Japan and northward to Finland. From Finland, they cross through Greenland and Labrador to the eastern seaboard of Canada. Today many Ainu descendants live in the fishing communities of northeast Canada. They are also known to be excellent hunters.

The Matagi hunters of the Tōhoku region of northern Japan have much in common with the bear cult of the Ainu. When I think of hunting, I recall two of Abraham's ancestors who were remembered for their hunting prowess: Nimrod, the son of Kush, and Esau who was said to be hairy and red.

The Arawa hunters in Niger and of ancient Kush are called maharba. This is the same word used for hunter among the Maori Arawa.

My Ainu friend from Canada tells me that the Ainu have a red skin tone and are bearded. Some have green eyes. The red skin hue may appear as rosey cheeks or a reddish tone over tanned skin like that of Egyptians who work in the sun (I Sam. 16:12; 17:42). King David was described as having this red skin tone. The Hebrew word for red or ruddy is edom. Edom is equivalent to the Hausa odum, meaning red-brown and to the word Adam, the first man formed from the red clay which washed down to the Upper Nile Valley from the Ethiopian highlands.

Abraham means “burnt father” and refers to his reddish skin color. In Arabic, the word ham means burnt. The Nilotic peoples were referred to burnt because they had a reddish skin tone.


Best wishes,

Alice C. Linsley




Alice,

What about a connection with early people living in the north of Europe? The early Finnish were bear-worshippers like the Ainu of Japan.

None of the Ainu I knew seemed reddish in hue, as I recall. Although the Ainu I met in Hokkaido in the 1960's on a church work camp were not pure Ainu. As a volunteer for missions, we were helping rebuild an Ainu church.

In Japan, the Japanese I talked to thought of the Ainu as Caucasian in appearance. Ainu have angular faces, paler skin, deep eye sockets, are hairy, and hunted. Not Buddhist at all. They are often referred to in literature as the "hairy Ainu." Their faces contrast with the smooth, rounded, less hairy Asian faces of southern Japanese, many of whom can't grow a full beard. My brother-in-law, a Shinto Priest at Ise Shrine, was from Aomori Prefecture in Northern Honshu. He didn't look "Japanese" at all. He looked very Ainu with his square angular face, full mustache, sunken eyes and pale skin. I bet he was in that haploid group mentioned. The Ainu were once settled in Northern Honshu, but were later driven out to Hokkaido across the straits. Zenichiro Oniisan burned readily in the summer sun, and always wore a hat.

Regards,

Judith Hishikawa






Judith,

The Ainu of Japan and the Ainu who crossed into North America through Finland, Greenland and Labrador are in the same haplogroup. In the northern climates the bear appears to have been their totem, but in the Nile, their totem was probably the lion.

The red skin tone is not always pronounced, but other characteristics, such as beards, distinctive headwear and decorative motifs on the robes are evident among all the Ainu men. Compare these photos.

Ainu of Eastern Canada

Ainu elder of Hokkaido Japan

The Ainu are in mtDNA haplogroup X. The dispersion of haplogroup X is shown below. The greatest concentrations are indicated by the darker shade. MtDNA traces lineage by the mitochondria, received from the mothers.

Note the small dot in Southern Siberia.  This is the only known archaic HgX population in that entire region, indicating that the Ainu did not come to North America across the Bering Strait.

Best wishes,
Alice





Alice,

Also, about the Ainu motifs, these share traits with the motifs of the Northwest Coast peoples and the Maori.


Regards,
Judith

Judith,

That doesn’t surprise me. Those motifs are similar also to those found among the fishing communities in Eastern Canada, Labrador and Greenland. That is where the Ainu crossed over to North America from Finland, and originally from the Nile Valley.

A friend from Niger recently called to my attention to the discover of twin pyramids in Tanout Niger.  He said that in discussion about Hausa origins the connection between the Arawa of Niger and the Arawa-Maori of New Zealand was noted. He explained that the Songhaï (Zarma) people are called called "Maori" in Niger and both groups of Arawa claim a common ancestor named "Tama."  He notes also that the names of many Maori towns sound Hausa example: Arawa, Gizo, Buka etc.

It is reasonable to speculate that a confederation of Ar clans traveled across the seas.  Genesis 10 speaks of the clans of Ar who controlled the Red Sea and the Mediterranean island kingdoms of Tyre and Arvad. These were seafaring people. This appears to be a typical Kushite 3-clan confederation, consisting of Ar, Arvd and Arkt. The last two clans are called “Arvadites” and “Arkites” in Genesis 10:15-18. They are the peoples of Sidon and, with other clans living in Canaan, are classified as under the general label “Canaanite.” They spread eastward with the Kushite expansion. Their Mesopotamian kin are called "Arameans" in the Bible.

The Ainu are fascinating and rightly can be called a "first people," but there is still much to learn about them. Were they the predecessors of the Ar clans?

Does your brother-in-law speak English? I would love to communicate with him. Might he be willing to share some of the stories about the Ainu?

Also this shrine you mention... Ise reminds me of Isis or Hathor, the mother of Horus who was called "Son of God" among Abraham's Horite ancestors.  This appears to be the origin of Messianic expectation, long before the Jews emerged in history as a distinct people.

Best wishes,
Alice







Alice,


I'm afraid that my brother-in-law has passed away. Ise Shrine is the most important Shinto Shrine in Japan as it is the one dedicated to the ancestors of the Imperial family. It is dedicated to the Sun Goddess Amaterasu-o-mi-kami, the mythological founder. (The god who lights up heaven) This area of Japan is still thought of as an area where women are very strong. It was once a matrilineal society.

One of the shrine's functions was as an agricultural guide, telling people when to plant what etc. My brother-in-law was in charge of their agricultural museum for a while.

It is where people go to pray at New Years for a good year to come. Babies are taken for a blessing, and thank you. I was told by my mother-in-law that engaged couples shouldn't go there because Amaterrasu-o-mi-kani would get jealous and break up the marriage!

There is a forest preserve around the shrine that has been a natural forest since ancient times, something very rare in Japan. There are many lesser Shrines around the main one, all in the forest. The architecture is like southwest Asian style. The main buildings are rebuilt every 20 years, so they are always fresh and new.

The shrine is a small rather modest structure with a white cloth and scared paper hanging in front blowing in the breeze. There is nothing inside usually, although some have an emblem of the deity. You go and pay your respects by first cleaning your hands and mouth at a watering place, then you sprinkle salt as a purifier on the ground in front of the shrine, and you clap your hand three times to get the attention of the deities, (some places have a rope and bell) and you silently make your case: thanks, requests, whatever, bowing your head.

People who earn their living by gathering seaweed to sell, or making silk, or anyone who depends on a product of nature for their livelihood, take offerings to the shrine to thank the deities for nature's blessing.

We always liked that part because brother-in-law would bring home his share of the seaweed and we got to eat it, usually in miso soup, and I have a lovely pink kimono that my sister-in-law had dyed for me from a roll of white silk that had been a thank-offering.

The priests make a new fire every morning using the old techniques of bow and stick and tinder, brother-in -law was good at that. They also pray for peace in the world at the same time. Neat place!

There are special chickens, called "Phoenix Chickens" in English which roam around the shrine ground. They are the messengers of the Sun Goddess. I've seen carved Roosters on the top of a wooden church in Bergen, Norway. They seem to know when to crow, don't they!

The origin of the name ISE is not clear, but it was a place name long before writing came to Japan in the 800s, along with Buddhism. I can tell you that the name "ISE" is an old one from a time of oral language only. The Chinese character that was chosen for the "I" part means "that one" and is used in other contexts in combination for "dandy' "showy dresser" etc. The "SE" part uses a character that stands for "energy," "influence," "power," "military power," "might" and is used in combination for words like "influential family."

As for sun worship, when I went to Japan in the 1960s, I saw older country people get up and bow to the sun and saying a prayer with their hands held up together in front of them. When I asked, it was dismissed as something old people did. Native Americans in the southwest do the same thing, or so I have read.

Judith







Judith,


The veneration of the sun is extremely ancient. Among Abraham's Nilotic ancestors the sun was regarded as the emblem of the Creator and sometimes shown as the Deity's solar boat.  In some images, such as this one found at Anghor Wat, Horus appears in the form of a falcon flying above the sun.

Angkor Wat faces west toward the Nile. Angkor Wat and the Egyptian royal tombs correspond in form to the number 72. The number 72 represents the numerical sequence linked to the earth’s axial precession, which causes the apparent alteration in the position of the constellations one degree every 72 years. It has been noted that Angkor Wat is located 72 degrees of longitude east of the Pyramids of Giza. The name Angkor correlates with the ancient Egyptian Anhk-Hor, meaning "May Horus Live." This was likely a Horite shrine before it became a Buddhist temple. The Horite ruler-priests are responsible for the diffusion of Horite religion across the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion.

The practices you describe are common in Africa. If the Ainu came to Japan from the Nile, this should not surprise us. I asked about Ise because the name reminded me of Ishtar and Isis. Earlier she was called Hathor among the Proto-Saharan and Nilotic Ainu. Abraham's father was Terah (Tera) and his name was associated with the royal Ainu of the Upper Nile. Tera-neter means one devoted to God. Tera indicates a priest and ntr refers to God. The name is associated with Het-u temples. The Het lived well after the time of the Patriarchs. In Genesis 10 they are listed as Noah's descendants by his grandsons Sidon and Het and are indicated as the original inhabitants of Canaan.

The Proto-Saharan word for throne is es or is. It is associated with serpents. The proto-root for vein, river, tongue, sinew, lightening and serpent was NS. Originally, the S would have been a pictograph representing a serpent or anything serpentine. It also indicates "great" and can mean "Man" (Egyptian - sa), and throne (Proto-Saharan es or is). The serpent was a sacred symbol to the Kushites, especially to the metalworking clans such as the Hittites of Anatolia who called themselves Nes.

With kind regards,

Alice

Alice,

Hum... in current Japanese, "tera" is the word used for "temple" as in Buddhist Temple. A throne is not an original Japanese concept. Rulers sat on a higher tatami mat or higher floor part, or one closer to the center of the room in the back. Snakes, as far as I can tell, are just used for medicine and are often thought of in a benevolent way. They help the farmers by eating rats and mice. We had an aodaisho, a large black-blue snake in our neighborhood, and I was directed to treat it with respect because of it's age and usefulness. It was round and quite long and went about it's business undisturbed until it found its way into the cage of the baby parakeets that the manager's wife had left hanging on her eaves when she went shopping. What a scream she let out! I went over to help. Our friendly neighborhood snake had gotten itself into the cage and eaten so many baby parakeets that it couldn't get out. I was going to take it down for her and open the door to let it out, but she wanted to wait until her husband came home. In any case, the snake was let loose again.

I don't remember any snake motifs around shrines. People did catch them and make snake wine, though.

The Japanese word for snake is "hebi." The Egyptian sign for river is very similar to the Chinese character for river. The Egyptian one looks like a "W". The Chinese character is three vertical lines in a row, the last being longer. If you let your brush touch the page lightly between strokes, it can look like "W". "River" is "kawa", "vein" is "joumyaku', "tongue" is "shita", "sinew" is "tsuji", lightening is "kaminari."  Kaminari can be translated as "from the gods" or "the gods are up to something" or simply "from above." Terasu is "to shine."

Judith

Judith,


The sinew that the angel touched on Jacob’s thigh is called gid ha'nasheh in Hebrew. There is a relationship between nasheh and nahushtan, the bronze serpent on Moses' rod. Reeds, sinews, veins, lightening and rivers are like serpents. It is easy to see how prehistoric man might have thought of lightening as God's serpent. Where it struck there was a connection between heaven and earth. That place would be considered the sacred center, just as the Nile was the sacred center between the Pole Star and the rising sun, and the Jordan was the sacred center between M-nasheh/Ephraim and M-nasheh/Gad.

In the older Proto-Saharan languages spoken by Abraham's Kushite ancestors, N at the end of the word designates the plural form. Appa is father, but appan means fathers. When N comes at the beginning of the word, it refers to God, as in the Egyptian ntr. The original root for vein, river, serpent, sinew and lightening was probably NS. It would have represented the idea of connection between heaven and earth, and between God and man.


Best wishes,
Alice






Alice,


Such interesting topics! The origin myth of Amaterasu-o-mi-kami has her parents, Izanagi and Iznami, who are the progenitors of all the gods, standing on the "bridge of heaven" (a rainbow) and stirring the ocean with a long pole. The places where they stirred the bottom up became the 8 main islands of Japan. If you remember the opening ceremonies for the Nagano Olympics, you will remember that the world was shown the ancient art of raising a large pole using ropes. Such a pole could be used in building a large structure. When Izanagi and Isanami were married, they walked around the main pole. As the story goes, Izanami, the female, was too anxious for the union and she walked around and met Izanagi first. This was considered inappropriate, and they had to do it over again. The gaikokubashira or main pole of a house, is a term used to describe someone who quietly supports the people around them. In a traditional Japanese house, there is a raised platform half-way across the back of the parlor, the zashiki or receiving room. This platform is about 8 inches high and usually there are sliding doors and a storage area over it under the ceiling. This is the place of honor in a home where you hang a scroll to match the season and put a flower arrangement and maybe a special ornament. This tokonoma has a decorative pole to the right of it that is made of special wood, highly polished and given respect. There are many grades of wood used for this supporting pole and the trees used are specially grown for this purpose.

The Japanese language consists of consonant-vowel syllables, except for the N sound which only comes at the end of a word. The N sound in Japanese can come at the beginning of a word as part of a consonant+vowel syllable. When it stands alone, it can only come at the end. Generally speaking plurals are not always given, but understood. When necessary for clarity, there are word endings which can be added depending on the type of word. I remember distinctly getting a letter from school in which I was asked to provide my daughter with hakko for a kindergarten project. So I went and got a special kind of soap that came in a very pretty little box, when actually they wanted all sorts of used boxes for the children to tape together and make whatever object they wanted. Sigh!

Father is ottosan, or more formally in the old style chichiue. As for the connection between heaven and earth, that was provided when Amaterasu-o-mi-kami came down to live in Ise in human form. The gods are not far away. You can go to any shrine and talk to them anytime you want to. You don't have to wait for Sunday services, or pay for special sacred dances, or musical performances, or shrine festivals. Shinto shines are everywhere, sort of ''fast-food" gods, ready at our convenience. The inari jinja are special shrines to the fox god who is clever and good for merchants and shop keepers. You can find them near busy shopping streets. There are local shrines to a multitude of gods. You name it, somewhere there is a shrine to it. Natural objects, like a pine tree, for instance, that is especially old and has weathered many storms, can be inspirational. Such a tree will have a shimenawa or sacred rope with sacred paper streamers attached to it to show respect for the courage of the tree. Especially noted rock formations will have shimenawa, or waterfalls.

In modern American, we had "The Old Man of the Mountains" in New Hampshire, for example that was made much of, or Walden Pond. Natural caves and land bridges are admired and turned into parks. We admire the "handiwork."



All the best!

Judith





Alice,

Reflecting some more on matrilinial families, that tendency is still present in modern Japanese society.  I know that the Emperor only has a daughter and the authorities are dithering about succession, that's a whole story in itself.  If they looked to the past they would not dither.

Anyway, if in modern Japanese society, you have property, let's say, and only a daughter to inherit, you can adopt a male legally, and he will change his family name and marry your daughter.  He'll marry in. This is usually a second son who didn't inherit.  That's what my mother-in-law did.  She went off and found herself a husband and her parents legally adopted him, he changed his last name.  This is not uncommon.

Also, in certain prominent families with say, traditional occupations such as flower arranging, dancing, acting etc,  the males will have several different personal names over their life time to indicate that they've mastered new skills.  I believe Native American had the same practice.
What about Africa?

Regards,

Judith






Judith,

Matrilineage is a significant feature of Abraham's Horite people who originated in the Nile Valley. To this day, Jewish identity is traced through the mother, not the father. I have identified the marriage and ascendancy structure of the Horites and can confirm that line of descent and blood line are traced through the mothers.

It was the Horite custom to have two wives.  The first wife was a half-sister (as was Sarah to Abraham) and the second wife was either a patrilineal cousin or niece (as was Keturah to Abraham).  The wives lived in separate households on a north-south axis.  The east-west axis was considered God's territory as the Sun traveled this direction over the Earth.

With two wives, there was a question of succession of two firstborn sons.  The firstborn son of the sister wife ascended to the throne of his father.  So Isaac became Abraham's heir and successor.  The firstborn son of the cousin wife ascended to the throne of his maternal grandfather, after whom he was named.  So Abraham's firstborn son Joktan ascended to the throne of Joktan the Elder, after whom he was named.

Sons were also born to concubines, although it appears that each ruler only had two concubines.  The sons of concubines and the younger sons of wives were sent away to establish territories of their own. This marriage and ascendancy pattern drove the Kushites expansion out of Africa into Mesopotamia, India, Nepal, Cambodia and Japan.  The Kushite expansion has been attested by DNA studies.




Related reading:  Ainu at the Center of Cavalli-Sforza's Genetic Distance Chart; A Kindling of Ancient Memory