Saturday, February 3, 2018

Context B from "Peoples, Drugs and Serpents", D.Anton, Piriguazú Ediciones

Primates of the Seashore


That day the sea was calm.
The sun cleared wisps of cloud and quickly rose away from the horizon toward the highest point of the blue dome.
Several men were swimming in the bay and regularly diving for food. A few women remained in the shallower areas and every now and then swimmed a few strokes away from the beach and then returned.
Some children were swimming near the women and babies stayed afloat strongly clinging to the mothers long hair.
This people were excellent swimmers. For many thousands of lunar months they approached the shores of the sea and lagoons to search for  food.
They developed great skill with their hands. Their long fingers and opposable thumbs adapted marvelously to the exploration within the sandy and clayey bottoms, where shellfish lives.
The skin on their palms had spread slightly between the fingers to facilitate swimming.
Gradually their bodies had lost their old fur and now appeared smooth, tanned, just covered by a slight, almost invisible hair.
Adult males had their faces and breasts covered by curly hairs that showed their manhood in the eyes of females.
Very young children spent many hours in the water with their mothers. They instinctively swam from birth. The tasks of caring for infants were shared by women and men.
When night came, the group left the water and took refuge under the palm trees growing along the beach.
When the sea was rough, they preferred to remain on land where there was also enough food.  Many plants and animals provided a varied diet which complemented well the usual tasty menu of oysters and crabs.
The trees gave nutritious fruits and some plants had leaves and edible flowers.
There were animals that they could kill and eat.  Some were small and agile, others were large and powerful. But these animal-humans had managed to hunt through cunning ambushes or traps hidden in the foliage.
Some animals were very important because in their droppings special, almost magic, fungi grew.   When they ate them they increased their sensitivity and skill.  They could see much further away, feel extremely mild odours and hear almost inaudible sounds, allowing them to find rodents or other animals inside their deep burrows.

 The mushrooms had other main properties. Under their effect it was possible to hear the voice of the Mother Serpent.  She appeared in visions to explain the past and the future.
These animal-humans were at the same time, creatures of the sea and the forests, they could swim almost as dolphins, they were able to quickly climb the trunks of erect palms and, if necessary, ran quickly on the sands of the beaches.
We do not know how they called themselves. Probably they used different names according to their traditions and places.
We don’t know either how much time has passed since then.
Maybe 3 or 4 million years.
A few bones testify of their existence.
Some scientists have named ​​them with, hard to remember terms:, Australopithecus africanus , Australopithecus robustus ,Australopithecus afarensis , and other similar appellations.
Of those who lived near the beaches, may be the majority, very few remains were preserved.
The only incontrovertible remains are ourselves.
Some define them as primitive, semi-human, a very small and simple precursor to the “real” human beings who were to appear in the future version.
Surely it was not.
The spiritual essence that brings us together as a species  was already there. From them we came to be what we are ..
This happened long ago.

It was the time when humans were still brothers and sisters of animals and plants.

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