The song
Men in White - 5:07 - Artisan
Men in White was written by Brian Bedford. You may have noticed that I usually try to match the song or songs of the day to the theme of the essay. In this instance the song’s haunting mood and tone seems to contradict the playfulness we usually associate with children’s snow creations. This ain’t Frosty the Snowman. The logic may seem clearer after you read the essay.
The a cappella trio Artisan is comprised of three friends who grew up in Yorkshire. They were primarily active from 1984 to 2005, but with brief reunion tours in 2010, ’15 and ’16, and a charitable fundraising concert in 2019. They planned to do another fundraising concert in 2020 but then this Covid thing happened, so it is possible we will hear from them again. Their albums are still available in both CD and digital form from their website.
Artisan are: Brian Bedford, the group’s songwriter and recording engineer; his wife Jacey who is also their business manager; and the operatically-trained alto Hilary Spencer (who has a 3½ octave range!) As with this song, their signature sound was close harmony featuring Hilary’s strong voice bracketed by Brian usually on the upper side of his baritone-base range, and gluing them together is Jacey with a soft, gentle soprano.
I was fortunate to see and hear them in person in 2003 when they toured their annual Stuff the Turkey pre-Christmas show to North America. It was in the picturesque theatre of Camosun College’s Young Building, built in 1913. Besides their songs, the show included humorous patter and a traditional English panto show skit. What a treat! On their website, Jacey gives a reminiscence of that tour:
We even took the show to Canada and the USA one year, though cramming scenery on to a plane was no fun. Though most Canadians totally got it, the Americans were rather confused by the pantomime element, and we had to explain that no there really were no sexual undertones with the principle boy being a female and the dame being a man. It was just supposed to be innocently funny! And the original idea of the principle boy being a woman in the early days of Victorian panto was that it gave theatres a legitimate excuse to have a woman on stage showing a great deal of leg. (Of course we didn't do the leg thing. No one was willing to volunteer, not even Brian!).
The lyrics for Men in White are:
The Men In White
In the deep sleep of a clear night
As the moon crept past the still flight
Of owl's wings and white sound
On the north wind over white ground
They cameA parachute of icy down
whisper soft this virgin gown
That draped itself on every tree
Made silhouettes so none could see
Their flightNo-one heard and no-one stirred
Each took his place and said no word
As bathed in moonlights cold disguise
The men in white with coal black eyes
Appeared
In the deep sleep of a clear night …In silence each man cast his spell
Hidden by the flakes that fell
And then as one each figure sighed
The earth was still and slept inside
A thoughtLook ! Look ! from every house a shout
As children wake and thunder out
To make their mark on virgin snow
And to each snowman laugh hello
And smileAnd now on every snow washed street
A heart of ice began to beat
And deep inside each snowman's soul
A child would laugh and make him whole
Again
In the deep sleep of a clear night …A scarf a hat and buttons bright
To please the strangers dressed in white
And angels in the snow appeared
As snowballs flew and children cheered
The dayThen one by one each weary child
Returned to firesides and smiled
And tired eyes would gaze awhile
Outside where lonely figures smiled
FarewellAs moonlight bathed the winter white
And silence filled the dreamy night
Without a sound soft figures flew
Into the clear and icy blue
Away
In the deep sleep of a clear night …And on the ground lay buttons bright
That glistened in the morning light
A hat a scarf an empty space
To mark the spot the lonely place
He stoodFor with the morning and the sun
Children woke and swiftly ran
To greet the friends of yesterday
To find that they had gone away
AloneAnd so each child began to mould
A man of snow and icy cold
With coal black eyes against the white
A hat a scarf and buttons bright
He stands
In the deep sleep of a clear night …We see in every snow filled cloud
The magic of that wintry shroud
The silent flake that wakes us too
Enchanted fall that make things new
Once moreWhere children run to make a friend
With coal black eyes and then pretend
An icy heart begins to beat
A scarf a hat and he's complete
Again
In the deep sleep of a clear night …© October 1996 Brian Bedford
Essay: Ancient Origins Part 3: Prehistoric hunter-gatherers and animism
In the first chapter of this Ancient Origins series of essays I discussed the potential sources of information about ancient paganism and explained why I intend to use academic research (indirectly obtained from science or history reporting) as my sources for this series. In last Thursday’s chapter I postulated about a possible origin of animism as our ancestors’ first “religion” one million years ago.
Actually, the date doesn’t really matter. We know that animism was the first pagan religion because that is what it was by 40,000 years ago. That is the beginning of the time frame for today’s essay. In this one I will discuss circumstances and my speculations about the world views of our ancestors who lived in the Middle East and Europe from that date until about 6,000 BCE, when pastoralism and agriculture were first invented. This roughly corresponds to the very last years of Archaeology’s Paleolithic time period, and its Mesolithic and Neolithic periods – the end of the Stone Age.
Humans first began moving north out of Africa, first to the Middle East around 100,000 to 70,000 years ago, and to other parts of Asia and Europe as early as 40,000 years ago. As people moved further north the seasonal differences became more acute. The short lengths of days and the coldness of winter became more obvious and more important to hunter-gatherers’ lives. And, of course, both technology and language were continuing to expand.
People got better and better at making tools from stone and other materials. Spears with sharp stone or serrated bone points replaced pointed sticks as spears, and atlatls were invented using leverage (like those plastic arm-extenders for throwing tennis balls for dogs) to throw spears harder and further.
Bow and arrows perhaps date back up to 70,000 years. Actually, the archaeological evidence dating back that far is only for arrow heads and the bows are inferred. The finely-crafted stone points are too small to be practical for spears. Wood and hide is preserved in only rare conditions, so the oldest direct evidence for bows and bowstrings is much more recent, but is still well before the invention of agriculture.
All this tool-making itself helped humans’ language evolve. This study by an experimental psychologist and an experimental archaeologist found that:
Stone tool-making and cued word generation cause common cerebral blood flow lateralization signatures in our participants. This is consistent with a shared neural substrate for prehistoric stone tool-making and language, and is compatible with language evolution theories that posit a co-evolution of language and manual praxis. [Emphasis added]
Improved language skills enabled ever more complex thought about abstract matters like religion. But our ancestors were not just making stone tools during the last years of the Stone Age. Besides their improved tool-making and weaponry during that time, they: learned how to make fire; invented beads and other personal adornment; developed pelt clothing for warmth; invented pottery and reed boat building; and they may have begun to smoke-preserve meat (the evidence I found for that last one seems sketchy.)
[A long digression: Another odd little development occurred during this time period; Actually, it may have happened in several places and times in northern Eurasia between 29,000 and 14,000 years ago. Humans invented pets. There is no clear origin for when or why wolves were domesticated and became dogs, but it is not likely that it was motivated by intentions to enlist them as hunting partners.
Wolves prefer to be scavengers rather than hunters. It is simple wolf logic: They are good at hunting in packs, but scavenging is easier and safer. Contrary to popular belief, our ancestors were not the “noble savages” we envision who used every part of the animals they hunted and respected the environment. For example, they would drive parts of herds off cliffs as a safe way to kill them, producing a large surplus of food. Even if only one large animal like a buffalo or mastodon was killed it produced a surplus of meat for our ancestors who lived in fairly small extended families.
Our ancestors’ practices attracted scavengers. Wolves did not need to kill people or drive them away from their kills (although children could be at risk if they wandered too far, which may explain the widespread prevalence of cautionary folk tales about the “big bad wolf.” Remember, in folklore studies as well as linguistic archaeology, widespread prevalence of a motif equates with antiquity.) Wolves could wait and eat the surplus, and them follow the humans who would give them future such opportunities.
One theory is that humans and wolves became accustomed to each other’s presence, and the wolves who were most “friendly” evolved into dogs. They would hang around the humans, serving a useful role as nighttime “guard dogs”, earning them more scraps of meat.
Another theory is that human children and wolf pups played with each other, and that humans adopted starving orphaned pups as playthings for their kids, then when the pups grew up they became useful as guard dogs. There was no real cost for keeping these domesticated dogs fed if they lived where prey was abundant.
I don’t know if, in the long run, this has proven to be a good deal for the dogs. Sure, many are pampered – fed lavishly and are given the best of medical care. But they have also been bred for insanely unnatural sizes and shapes, many with characteristics that make them prone to medical problems (like hip dysplasia and obesity) that their wild cousins don’t have.
When I was young the couple across the alley from us had two small chihuahuas that spent a lot of time in their back yard. I suppose that the enclosed yard was plenty of roving space for such little animals but they always seemed restless. They also seemed to think that the alley was part of the territory that they were supposed to defend because whenever anyone, person or car, went by they would begin yapping crazily.
They also seemed to think that the paved area leading to our garage was part of their territory because whenever I played there they would constantly yap at me. We had a very friendly german shepherd called Rain. They would yap at her even when she was in our yard near the back fence. I hated those two dogs.
Today whenever I hear little dogs yapping those feelings come back. But perhaps I am being too harsh, and I should feel sorry for them instead. Maybe what I am hearing is the spirit (or soul) of a wolf expressing its anger at being trapped inside of a tiny human-bred monster. End of long digression.]
Getting back to religion, what this essay is supposed to be about, it was during this time that Neanderthals and humans began to perform ritual burials, and they also began making stone sculptures and other rock art (pecked or abraded petroglyphs and painted pictographs.) The following picture is of paintings in the Lascaux caves in what is now southern France made by Cro-Magnon people about 17,000 years ago.
These paintings were probably done by the light of primitive oil lamps, with a wooden platform erected in order to paint near to the cave ceiling. This was done with yellow and red ochre mixed with animal fat. It was blown on to the cave wall through a reed. We can’t know for sure why they made such paintings but it is believed animals like these were painted to give hunters magical powers and ensure a successful hunt.
Being further north than their African ancestors, people began to experience the cycle of winter seasons and the Winter Solstice. As I discussed earlier in essays that were not part of this Ancient Origins sub-series, this included longer nights and shorter days, and winter weather that they could probably perceive was related to the Sun not rising as high in the sky.
Being nomadic and constantly traveling to where the food was is a strategy that can work best where the annual weather cycle is wet season and dry season. But when our ancestors moved further north, the annual cycle came to be dominated by there being a warm season and a cold season. This led to a more semi-nomadic lifestyle. In the winter, in northern Asia and in Europe, practical necessity drove people to find shelter in caves during the wintertime.
Caves not only provide safe shelter from wind and rain, they stay the same temperature through the whole year – whatever the annual year ‘round temperature is for their location. Day or night, winter or summer, the temperature is the same. I know this from exploring in the 13 miles of Mystery Cave in southern Minnesota with the University’s Rovers Outing Club, where the temperature was always 48⁰F (9⁰C).
In the case of the Lascaux cave in France is about 16⁰ Celsius (61⁰ Fahrenheit) all the time. [Note: the cave temperature there is getting warmer with climate change, causing a threat from fungus to the ancient rock art.] Such a temperature seems cool in the summer, but in winter it is much warmer than outside, meaning much less fuel would have been needed for fires to stay warm.
In England caves are about 15⁰; in Sweden limestone caves are about 7⁰ - chilly, but still a lot warmer than outside in the winter. Besides their temperature, limestone caves often are in forested areas where winter game animals were abundant. Some may even have had their own food source in the form of a hibernating bear.
While the term “cave man” has gone out of fashion, such caves attracted human habitation in the wintertime, turning people from fully nomadic to semi-nomadic. That is why European caves are often rich in archaeological sites.
While they were adapting to this new environment, with the winter - summer seasons something was going on that they could not understand from the knowledge they gained from their daily experiences. But looking at the sky they could see the obvious differences in the height that the Sun rose to at different times during the year. These were intelligent people. I am sure that over time they could see the pattern. When the Sun seemed strong the days were long; when the Sun seemed weak the days were short.
Meanwhile, animism is thought to still have been the mainstay of their religious views (which is why the explanation for their making rock art is usually attributed to animistic beliefs.) If the Sun and its spirit hadn’t been seen as a dominant force in nature by their African and middle-eastern ancestors it certainly must have been recognized as such by those who had migrated to Europe. And if the Sun’s complementary spirit was not already the Moon a million years ago, it certainly was by the late Stone Age.
As the cave paintings suggest, during this time period our ancestors’ pantheon of spirits or souls of plants, animals, objects, and natural phenomena had greatly expanded.
[Regular size digression: Because of my upbringing, I can’t help associating the word “souls” with Christian beliefs and that is why I am more inclined to use the word spirits rather than souls in these essays. But I looked it up: The word has a long history of pagan usage. The ancient Greek philosophers recognized a persons’ spirit as his or her soul (ψυχή - psykhḗ). The etymology of the English word soul is described here as:
“A substantial entity believed to be that in each person which lives, feels, thinks and wills" [Century Dictionary], Old English sawol "spiritual and emotional part of a person, animate existence; life, living being," from Proto-Germanic *saiwalō (source also of Old Saxon seola, Old Norse sala, Old Frisian sele, Middle Dutch siele, Dutch ziel, Old High German seula, German Seele, Gothic saiwala), of uncertain origin.
Similar words appear to exist in almost all languages. In linguistic archaeology, the existence of the same word in so many cultures is evidence of its antiquity as a concept. This is part of the evidence that animism is the world’s oldest religious belief system. End of digression.]
People now counted on fire for survival more than ever, but since they now knew how to make it, I suspect that its central role in their “theology” may have waned in importance, while the importance of the Sun, which they still did not understand but was clearly related to the seasons, probably took center stage.
After the Sun and its spirit is given a special status, it was probably also logical that the Moon become recognized as its counterpart. It changes shape over the course of 28 days but when it is full, and is present only when the Sun is not in the sky, it is almost exactly the same size as the Sun. If you don’t know why it is happening that changing shape thing is weird and seems to be a characteristic that is unique to the Moon. There is a lot of good fodder there for a storyteller.
The idea of concepts and things (and their souls) as having counterparts that complement and balance each other is very ancient. The earliest concept of calendars divided the year into only two seasons, whether it was the wet season and the dry season, or the cold season and the warm season. Men are similar to, but different from women. Darkness is the opposite but complementary to light. “What goes around, comes around” and the South Asian concept of karma are variations on this theme.
The familiar Chinese yin-yang symbol is apparently not really that old in the time frame we are using here (first used around 600 BCE), but the concept itself is very old and universal. The concept is that obviously opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world. Nature is comprised of order and chaos. Darkness is complementary to light. The coldness of winter balances the mildness of summer. When the sun is out it is time for work; when the sun goes down it is time for rest.
I suspect that during this stage of paganism the spirits or souls were not personified or given names separate from the things, animals, plants or phenomena they represented. Although they were invisible, their spirits were seen to be just as natural of a component of the everyday world as the things we can see and touch.
This kind of pagan world view seems to have changed, at least for urban dwellers, when the advent of agriculture and its many related technologies changed the world. That story will be in the next Ancient Origins essay on Tuesday, Dec 13.
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