GRADUATE PROJECT PROPOSAL
Kristi Dawson
Indiana University Southeast
Proposed Title:
The Spiritualization of Clay across Time and Place
Project Proposal
For
the purposes of this graduate project, I plan to study man’s use of clay historically
to depict God or gods, to make icons or fetishes in which to worship gods. I
will also examine the use of clay to give men supernatural protection from
enemies and evil forces. The different creation myths using clay as the
creator’s medium of choice to create man. Finally I will explore how in the
Jewish and Christian faith, the scriptures portrayed God as the potter and used
the analogy of the potter and clay to depict Gods relationship to Israel and
Gods relationship to New Testament followers of Christ. Portions of the project will involve a
literature review and items that have been found and documented as to how they
were used in different cultures. I plan to have three areas of interest
1.
Creation Stories using clay
2.
Stories from around the
world where clay has been used in religious settings to fashion fetishes,
depict gods and goddess in ceremonies and as a object of worship in and of
itself.
3.
The practice of geophagy where clay is
ingested for a number of reasons, one being a belief in the religious and
magical powers of soil.
I have included several passages from my sources to give an idea
of the topics I will be covering.
I hope to make a collection of stories and examples, I am not sure
how I will lay it out but I want to either group the stories by region or by
timeframe. It is interesting to me how
all across time man has used this substance in the spiritual ways that he has.
Timetable
I
have set an approximate 47 week calendar for the project
Week 1-10 Select committee and draft graduate project proposal
I plan to defend this proposal and have signatures of my faculty
committee and submit I wish to register for D602 (6 hours). Three hours to be
taken first summer semester 2008, and the final 3 to be taken fall 2008
semester session. I would like to graduate
with a MLS degree by the end of the fall 2008 semester when I will have
completed all the requirements of this graduate project.
Research
and narrow my topic if necessary. I will begin reading the selected texts. Search online databases for past research and
explore applicable web sites.
Week 11-15 Library research and gather material for project
Week 16-32 summer break
·
Read materials
·
Gather online materials
·
Prepare rough draft of
graduate project and submit to faculty sponsor.
Weeks
33-46
Review
rough draft with faculty committee; makes changes as necessary. Prepare for an
oral defense of this graduate project and submit the completed project to the
Director of the MLS Program. After acceptance I will then submit the project
for printing and binding.
Outline
Creation
Stories
·
Mongol Creation stories
o
THE ORIGIN
OF MAN, THE MONGOLS, AND MONGOL TRIBES In one tale the creation of the world is
attributed to a lama named Udan.
o Another creation story, "Why Man Has No
Hair," explains why man is not hirsute and also hints at why he became
mortal. The creator god in this story is Burqan Tenger.
·
A Creation
Story of the A-Hsi (a small tribe of the Yi people) (one of the
major minority peoples of China)
o god
A-fah - In one place there was clay
[yellow earth], In a second place black coal In yet another place, white mud.
T'oh-lo and Sha-lo First took the clay With which they made man's body. Then,
using the black coal and the white mud They formed man's eyes.
·
Babylonian
Creation story
o Myths of the Creation of Man and the Jericho
Statues, Akkadian Gilgamesh Epic
One of the
clearest Babylonian descriptions of a deity creating man out of clay is
preserved in the Gilgamesh Epic 4: . . . "the Goddess Aruru nipped off
clay, cast it upon the ground, the hero Enkidu she built."
·
Portuguese
East Africa - Lenge (Chopi)
o It
has occurred to me that a story I once heard among the Lenge (Chopi) of
Portuguese East Africa may be of this character. This tale was published in
English in my book Valenge Women (International African Institute.
·
African- Ghana
o In Aiob thought the universe took its origin
from the Supreme Being. In prayers to the lesser gods and the ancestors the
Supreme Being is the God who has sent man into the world (Mawu-/o-ame- (a).
Also, he is the Creative Artist who has made hand and foot (Acayuwdto wo asi wo
afo) 3) In everyday language he is the Maker, (Wola).
·
Fon of Dahomey (people living in the south of Benin (called
Dahomey until 1975) and adjacent parts of Togo)
o Having created and ordered the universe, Mawu
formed the first human beings from clay and water. But clay was in short supply
in those days, and so when men died, Mawu took their bodies to make new men.12
After the creation of world, men were blind and helpless, so Mawu sent Lisa
(sun) accompanied by Gu (deity of Iron) to give light to the earth, and clear
forests and show human beings the use of metal tools.
·
Mythic Aspects of the Process of
Adam's Creation in Judaism and Islam
o “This paper aims to examine various tales of
how God created Adam from clay as an example of mythopoetic activity in Islam.
Comparison of the Jewish, Islamic and Gnostic material relating to the creation
of Adam in these three religions will show that Islam, far from rejecting myth
outright, in fact stands in the middle of a continuum whose extremes are
Judaism (generally regarded as lacking in myth) on the one hand and Gnosticism (generally
regarded as highly mythical) on the other.”
·
Clay People: Pueblo Indian Figurative
Traditions.
o Native origin stories in America, and
elsewhere, frequently feature clay and mud in the creation of the world and of
people, and of course in the invention of ceramics. In 1924 Ruth Benedict
recorded a Cochiti story about the first pottery
o Diegueno story like the Mohave account,
describes the first man as a being made from clay. “Then he took a piece of
yellow clay and split it part-way up. That is the way he made man."
"He dug in the ground, and took mud, and made of it the men."
Objects of worship made from clay
·
India
(East
Bengal)
o People irrespective of caste and creed build
clay images of the snake-deity and worship her at their own houses individually
with sacrifices either of goat or of pigeon. The Vaisnavas (the worshipers of
Visnu) who do not take meat, offer the goddess sacrifices of sugar-cane,
pumpkin and other vegetables. The image has two or sometimes four arms; two
clay snakes spread their hoods on either side of her shoulder. On the following
day, before the image is immersed in the river, the earthen snakes are taken
out of the image and placed in the house. People believe that the dried earth
of these clay snakes is an infallible remedy of many incurable diseases,
especially children's diseases.
·
India - built
by Tamil villagers in south India
o “These
works are created by a caste of hereditary potter/priests who are products and
heirs of an ancient tradition in which clay and religion are inseparably
linked.”
o Panchami (the day on whick the serpent is
worshiped all over India by orthodox Hindus) People irrespective of caste and
creed build clay images of the snake-deity and worship her at their own houses
individually with sacrifices either of goat or of pigeon. The Vaisnavas (the
worshipers of Visnu) who do not take meat, offer the goddess sacrifices of
sugar-cane, pumpkin and other vegetables. The image has two or sometimes four
arms; two clay snakes spread their hoods on either side of her shoulder. On the
following day, before the image is immersed in the river, the earthen snakes
are taken out of the image and placed in the house. People believe that the
dried earth of these clay snakes is an infallible remedy of many incurable
diseases, especially children's diseases.
· Clay Figurines of the Jōmon Period: A Contribution to the History of Ancient Religion in Japan
o Rather,
it is generally agreed by archaeologists that these figures were made and used
with religious intent as symbols of the spirits of these creatures.
·
ritual of Mesopotamian apotropaic
magic: the strategic burial of protective figurine deposits under house and
temple floors during the Neo-Assyrian period of ancient Iraq (c. 934-610 Bc).
Geophagy
The practice of geophagy extends
back into the pre- history of humankind, with Vermeer (1979) suggest- ing the
presence of earth-eating in East Africa some 40 000 years ago. Gelfand (1945)
speculated that the origins of geophagy may be based on the fertility of the
earth. Thus, women ate soil before, during and after pregnancy because of the
observed soil's fertility, with their children being encouraged to eat soil in
order to ensure their future fertility. According to Gelfand (op. cit.), a
belief in the religious and magical powers of soil may have been other early
reasons why earth was consumed.
Working Bibliography
Bibliography
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—. "The Serpent
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(1965): 1-10.
Bois, Ron du. Larger
than Life: The Terracotta Sculptures of India. 1980. 10 April 2008
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Chipman, Leigh N. B. "Mythic
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Maori
Lore: The Traditions of the Maori People, with the More Important of their
Legends
Compiled
by James Izett Published 1904 By authority: J. Mackay, Government Printer
Maori
(New Zealand people) 451 pages Original from the University of Michigan
Digitized
Mar 28, 2006
http://books.google.com/books?id=uYBXVBseum4C&printsec=titlepage#PPR1,M1
African
Religions & Philosophy By John S. Mbiti
http://books.google.com/books?id=eTUpo9lH-fYC
The
Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion
By James George Frazer