5.6 The Moon/Lake Myth and the Myth of the Cosmogonic Tree
97
lies between 20 and 30 ◦ N). Sirah Cave in Borneo is about 2 ◦ N of the equator and
Ulu Leang in Sulawesi a little over 3 ◦ S of the equator. If rice were first domesticated in Southeast Asia, major acclimatization would have been needed for rice to
grow in southern China and in Japan because of sharp differences in the ripening
times between equatorial and high-latitude areas. It is therefore more likely, given
that a significant time would have been needed for its acclimatization there, that
first-wave rather than second-wave Spice Island colonists introduced rice to Japan.
A long history of plant domestication in Wallacea, as we shall see in Chapter 7,
would have given even first-wave Spice Island colonists the horticultural skills to
genetically manipulate its acclimatization to the higher latitudes of southern Japan.
If rice was important to the accession rituals of the Yayoi period, rice was probably
an important staple then: not recently imported but long acclimatized.
If the horticultural background to the accession myths, which was shared by
the Javanese and Japanese in the Yayoi period, dates back to an earlier period,
so too does the mythological background for the accession rites. We can date the
Moon/Lake myth to the period of first-wave colonization because in the Pacific it
has a Lapita-age maritime distribution which provides a later margin for such dating (3,600–3,000 years ago). An earlier margin is given by the likely diffusion of
the myth through a mainly land migration to Europe from the Spice Island region
via the continent of Sundaland before the last Ice Age flood drowned the continent
and this migration path 7,500 years ago. The land diffusion via Sundaland took the
myth to Turkey, Greece, Germany, England and Scandinavia and matches the diffusion of the Spice Island myth of the Cosmogonic Tree or Tree of Life which reached
Europe by this same land route and which also has a Wallacean origin and a Lapita
distribution in the Pacific.
The geographical diffusion of the Moon/Lake myth – to Japan, Hawaii, New
Zealand and Western Australia – as well as to the recognized Lapita colonies of
Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa, fits with a Lapita-age first-wave diffusion of the myth.
Such a diffusion accords with our paradigm which predicts that Spice Islanders
would have followed the Kuro Shio Current to Japan and Hawaii in the east, the
East Australian Current to New Zealand and the West Australian Current to Western
Australia in the south. Significantly the Moon/Lake myth is not found in Eastern
Polynesia which was settled perhaps 1,500 years later. Nor is it found in North or
South America.
5.6 The Moon/Lake Myth and the Myth of the Cosmogonic Tree
As a prelude to discussion of the distribution of the Moon/Lake myth, it is helpful
to quote the Javanese and Japanese versions of the myth narrated by Oppenheimer
[8]:
In Java there is the following story: the moon goddess Nawang Wulan (Wulan = month)
descends to Earth having donned her swan-feather cloak. She lands on the waters of a lake,
where she discards her cloak and begins to bathe, but the cloak is stolen by Kyai Agung.
When she cannot find her means of returning to the sky, she is obliged to stay with the man,
97
lies between 20 and 30 ◦ N). Sirah Cave in Borneo is about 2 ◦ N of the equator and
Ulu Leang in Sulawesi a little over 3 ◦ S of the equator. If rice were first domesticated in Southeast Asia, major acclimatization would have been needed for rice to
grow in southern China and in Japan because of sharp differences in the ripening
times between equatorial and high-latitude areas. It is therefore more likely, given
that a significant time would have been needed for its acclimatization there, that
first-wave rather than second-wave Spice Island colonists introduced rice to Japan.
A long history of plant domestication in Wallacea, as we shall see in Chapter 7,
would have given even first-wave Spice Island colonists the horticultural skills to
genetically manipulate its acclimatization to the higher latitudes of southern Japan.
If rice was important to the accession rituals of the Yayoi period, rice was probably
an important staple then: not recently imported but long acclimatized.
If the horticultural background to the accession myths, which was shared by
the Javanese and Japanese in the Yayoi period, dates back to an earlier period,
so too does the mythological background for the accession rites. We can date the
Moon/Lake myth to the period of first-wave colonization because in the Pacific it
has a Lapita-age maritime distribution which provides a later margin for such dating (3,600–3,000 years ago). An earlier margin is given by the likely diffusion of
the myth through a mainly land migration to Europe from the Spice Island region
via the continent of Sundaland before the last Ice Age flood drowned the continent
and this migration path 7,500 years ago. The land diffusion via Sundaland took the
myth to Turkey, Greece, Germany, England and Scandinavia and matches the diffusion of the Spice Island myth of the Cosmogonic Tree or Tree of Life which reached
Europe by this same land route and which also has a Wallacean origin and a Lapita
distribution in the Pacific.
The geographical diffusion of the Moon/Lake myth – to Japan, Hawaii, New
Zealand and Western Australia – as well as to the recognized Lapita colonies of
Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa, fits with a Lapita-age first-wave diffusion of the myth.
Such a diffusion accords with our paradigm which predicts that Spice Islanders
would have followed the Kuro Shio Current to Japan and Hawaii in the east, the
East Australian Current to New Zealand and the West Australian Current to Western
Australia in the south. Significantly the Moon/Lake myth is not found in Eastern
Polynesia which was settled perhaps 1,500 years later. Nor is it found in North or
South America.
5.6 The Moon/Lake Myth and the Myth of the Cosmogonic Tree
As a prelude to discussion of the distribution of the Moon/Lake myth, it is helpful
to quote the Javanese and Japanese versions of the myth narrated by Oppenheimer
[8]:
In Java there is the following story: the moon goddess Nawang Wulan (Wulan = month)
descends to Earth having donned her swan-feather cloak. She lands on the waters of a lake,
where she discards her cloak and begins to bathe, but the cloak is stolen by Kyai Agung.
When she cannot find her means of returning to the sky, she is obliged to stay with the man,