铁器时代的神话

陨铁从空中降落,被初民理解为天神恩赐人间的圣物。金属起源于天界的神话观在铁器时代成为支配性的意识形态。通过考察欧亚非三大洲数十个民族或族群的铁器、铁匠神话及相关成年仪式、秘密社会,阐明由人类文明催生的一种物质（铁）生产在人类精神领域引起的巨大回响：由铁的冶炼铸造为原型的创世神话和重铸世界秩序神话;铁匠之祖来自天国的信仰;铁匠与至上神的关系;铁匠与巫师、萨满、酋长、医者、歌手、诗人、国王的身份混同关系。通过铁这种特殊物质的叙事,从一个侧面梳理出神话在人类文化编码中的基础作用。

Mythology of the Iron Age

Meteorites,from the perspective of primitive people,are gifts bestowed by God. The mythic view that metal is from the heaven is the dominant ideology in Iron Age.This paper,by examining ironware,blacksmith myths and related coming of age and secret communities of several dozens of ethnic groups in Europe,Asia and Africa,interprets the influence of iron production on the field of human mind：the Creation myths taking iron making as their prototype,myths about recasting the world,faith in the blacksmith ancestor＇s coming from the heaven;relation between God and blacksmiths;the confusing identity of the blacksmith ancestor as a witch,Shaman,a chief of a tribe,a doctor,a singer,apoet and a king.It,from one side, teases out the fundamental functions of mythology in the encoding of human culture by narrating iron.