Oxford Dictionary of World Mythology

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America

America

North America, Central America, South America

Men entered the American continents from Siberia over a temporary land link during the final stages of glaciation. If it is accepted that East Africa was the place where our ancestors first became differentiated from their cousins the great apes, and this view of the family tree of man appears to be the correct one, then it makes the trek on foot from there to Tierra del Fuego a journey of epic proportions. The Indian tribes living on the bleak and rocky tip of South America are among the most primitive people on the planet. They survive and in their folklore survive traces of the mythology that the first settlers brought into this part of the world so many millennia ago. The Yahgan and Ona tribesmen of Tierra del Fuego, fishermen and hunters respectively, have maintained an initiation ceremony remarkable for its anti-feminine character. Although there is disagreement about the origin of...

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