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The Dragon and the Rainbow
Manâs Oldest Story
Series: - Ancient Languages and Civilizations, Volume: 5
Author:
Modernization and conversion to world religions are threatening the survival of traditional belief systems, leaving behind only mysterious traces of their existence. This book, based upon extensive research conducted over a period of nearly four decades, brings scientific rigor to one of the questions that have always attracted human curiosity: that of the origin of the dragon.
The author demonstrates that both dragons and rainbows are cultural universals, that many of the traits that are attributed to dragons in widely separated parts of the planet are also attributed to rainbows, and that the number and antiquity of such shared traits cannot be attributed to chance or common inheritance, but rather to common cognitive pathways by which human psychology has responded to the natural environment in a wide array of cultures around the world.
The author demonstrates that both dragons and rainbows are cultural universals, that many of the traits that are attributed to dragons in widely separated parts of the planet are also attributed to rainbows, and that the number and antiquity of such shared traits cannot be attributed to chance or common inheritance, but rather to common cognitive pathways by which human psychology has responded to the natural environment in a wide array of cultures around the world.
Robert Blust (1940-2022) was a Professor of Linguistics at University of Hawaiâi at MÄnoa. He was, and continues to be, the preeminent scholar of Austronesian comparative linguistics. An enormously prolific scholar, Blust had nearly 300 publications. In addition to being a world-famous linguist, he was also an avid writer of poetry.
Foreword
Preface
Preface by the Author
Acknowledgements
List of Figures and Tables
Introduction
Prologue: Two Steps from Nature to Culture
â1âFrom Rainbow to Rainbow Serpent
â2âFrom Rainbow Serpent to Dragon
1 What, If Anything, Is a Dragon?
2 Why Dragons? Theories from A to Z
â1âNaturalistic Theories of the Dragon: Cryptozoology
â2âSymbolic Theories of the Dragon
â3âNeo-Lamarckian Theories: The Dragon as Archetype
â4âDiffusionist Theories
â5âOther Theories
3 Dragons and Waterfalls
â1âNorth America
â2âThe Caribbean and South America
â3âInsular Southeast Asia
â4âThe Pacific
â5âAfrica
4 Dragons and Thunder/Lightning
5 The Ethnology of the Dragon
â1âCentral and East Asia
â2âNorth America and Mexico
â3âThe Data
6 What, If Anything, Is a Rainbow?
â1âRainbows: Familiar and Fantastic
â2âPortrayals of the Rainbow
â3âDistributional Summary
7 The Ethnology of the Rainbow
â1âHow the Dragon Was Born
â2âMysteries of the Rainbow
â3âSunshowers
â4âThe Rainbow Taboo
8 A Glimpse of the Glory
â1âEurope
â2âAncient Near East
9 Connecting the Dots
10 Conclusions
Appendix: Ethnic Groups Cited
References
Index
Preface
Preface by the Author
Acknowledgements
List of Figures and Tables
Introduction
Prologue: Two Steps from Nature to Culture
â1âFrom Rainbow to Rainbow Serpent
â2âFrom Rainbow Serpent to Dragon
Part 1 Dragons
1 What, If Anything, Is a Dragon?
2 Why Dragons? Theories from A to Z
â1âNaturalistic Theories of the Dragon: Cryptozoology
â2âSymbolic Theories of the Dragon
â3âNeo-Lamarckian Theories: The Dragon as Archetype
â4âDiffusionist Theories
â5âOther Theories
3 Dragons and Waterfalls
â1âNorth America
â2âThe Caribbean and South America
â3âInsular Southeast Asia
â4âThe Pacific
â5âAfrica
4 Dragons and Thunder/Lightning
5 The Ethnology of the Dragon
â1âCentral and East Asia
â2âNorth America and Mexico
â3âThe Data
Part 2 Rainbows
6 What, If Anything, Is a Rainbow?
â1âRainbows: Familiar and Fantastic
â2âPortrayals of the Rainbow
â3âDistributional Summary
7 The Ethnology of the Rainbow
â1âHow the Dragon Was Born
â2âMysteries of the Rainbow
â3âSunshowers
â4âThe Rainbow Taboo
8 A Glimpse of the Glory
â1âEurope
â2âAncient Near East
Part 3 Summing Up
9 Connecting the Dots
10 Conclusions
Appendix: Ethnic Groups Cited
References
Index
Blustâs treatment of the ethnology of the rainbow and the demonstration of its relationship to the dragon idea has a global reach and will appeal to a broad audience. Moreover, it is written in prose that makes it accessible to the general reader. It will surely be of great interest to folklorists, mythologists and cultural anthropologists open to addressing culture universals, and likely to generate considerable interest to cognitive scientists, evolutionary psychologists, evolutionary biologists, or anyone interested in the evolution of human cognition.