Humans and Elephants, Transforming and Transformed: Two Naro Myths about Ontological Mutability

• Published in: Folklore (London) Vol. 131; no. 4; pp. 371 - 385
• Main Author: Guenther, Mathias
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 01-10-2020; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Animal human relations; Animals; Belief & doubt; Cosmology; Elephants; Humans; Intersubjectivity; Literary devices; Mythology; Narrative techniques; Narrative theme; Ontology; Storytelling; Symbols; Text analysis; Transformation; Women; Worldview
• ISSN: 0015-587X; 1469-8315
• DOI: 10.1080/0015587X.2020.1714305

Two myth texts were collected by the author from the Naro storyteller Qhomatcã in May 1995, on the motifs of ontological transformation and the equivalence of women and game. The animal featured in the two stories is the elephant, a species especially close in San myth and belief to humans, especially women. Transformation and woman-game conflation are both pan-San mythemes and premier manifestations of the cosmological theme of ontological mutability that pervades San thought and experience. The analysis of the texts is couched in terms of this theme, presented in relational terms of human-animal intersubjectivity. The article presents an ontological schema and a way of perceiving the human-animal relationship that is suppressed in the Western worldview.