Eurasian back-migration: traces in mythology?

The author examines the world distribution of mythological motifs peculiar for Northeast Africa but absent in other parts of this continent. The corresponding narratives describe the events of the time of creation, objects and beings localized at the ultimate limits of the human world as well as episodes of the journeys of heroes to these limits. The motifs in question are absent in Central Asia and Siberia but found across Western, South and Southeast Asia, in Oceania and across the New World. Considering such distribution, these stories probably appeared at the early stages of the peopling of the oikumene (definitely before the peopling of the New World) and were brought to Africa by the populations engaged into the Eurasian back-migrations that were going since the Terminal Pleistocene and possibly earlier.

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Publication Details

Journal
Etnograficheskoe obozrenie
Published
2024-11-04
DOI
https://doi.org/10.31857/s0869541524030094
Primary Topic
Indigenous Studies and Ecology
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Eurasian back-migration: traces in mythology?

Yuri Berezkin
Etnograficheskoe obozrenie
Indigenous Studies and Ecology
article

Eurasian back-migration: traces in mythology?

Yuri Berezkin
article en

Abstract

The author examines the world distribution of mythological motifs peculiar for Northeast Africa but absent in other parts of this continent. The corresponding narratives describe the events of the time of creation, objects and beings localized at the ultimate limits of the human world as well as episodes of the journeys of heroes to these limits. The motifs in question are absent in Central Asia and Siberia but found across Western, South and Southeast Asia, in Oceania and across the New World. Considering such distribution, these stories probably appeared at the early stages of the peopling of the oikumene (definitely before the peopling of the New World) and were brought to Africa by the populations engaged into the Eurasian back-migrations that were going since the Terminal Pleistocene and possibly earlier.

Etnograficheskoe obozrenie(3)
Peter the Great's Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (RU)
Smithsonian Institution, Arctic Institute of North America, Yale University, Harvard University, University of Chicago, University of Washington, Alaska Pacific University, Nanzan University, Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, Lunds Universitet, Goddard Space Flight Center
Openalex Percentile: Top 65%
Indigenous Studies and Ecology
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Eurasian back-migration: traces in mythology? — Yuri Berezkin · Etnograficheskoe obozrenie (2024) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS