In the traditions of archaic hunting peoples there is frequently a figure whom scholars term the master of the animals or the protector of game. He is the ruler of the forest, of all animal species, or of only one particular species (usually a large game animal—e.g., the northern master of the caribou). The master controls all game animals (frequently by penning them up). He dispenses a certain number to humans as food and can be invoked by a shaman when he withholds game. He guides the hunter and, in some traditions, avenges the spirits of slain animals, whose souls return to his enclosures when they die. He is sometimes pictured in human form, on occasion having animal attributes or riding an animal; in other traditions, he is a giant animal or can assume animal form.
In a related complex, a deity in animal form demonstrates to humans the art of hunting, serving as the first victim (a motif found in some of the American Indian bear mother or buffalo woman tales). Or the deity appears among humans as an animal who must be slain and eaten so that he may return to his heavenly home (e.g., the Ainu Iyomante feast in Japan).
A similar pattern is found among archaic agricultural peoples. An ancestral (dema) goddess, at times in plant form, produces food asexually from her body. She is slain by the tribe, and from the dismembered portions of her body crops appear.
The archaic pattern of the dema deity needs to be distinguished from the widespread tradition among technically more sophisticated agricultural peoples of the bountiful mother earth or the god or goddess of vegetation or special crops. In the latter case, the deity, frequently depicted or associated with the appropriate animal and vegetative characteristics, is the principle of inexhaustible vitality. The god frequently has a human consort who participates in a sacred marriage in order to gain fecundity for humans (this happens in ancient Mesopotamian religions, for instance). Culture heroes
The master of the animals or corn mother is frequently found in association with animal culture heroes. An animal or trickster who can assume animal form secures for humans the various attributes of culture (acting either in consort with or opposition to the gods). These traditions are found in etiologic stories about how humans first learned to hunt, discovered tobacco, and accomplished other things. The most frequent motif is that of the animal who stole fire from the gods for the benefit of humanity. Frequently, such traditions lie behind etiologies of specific animal or plant characteristics; e.g., the bat is black and blind because it stole fire and was singed by the flames and blinded by the smoke. In other tales, the animals oppose the acquisition of culture by humans and must be overcome by a human culture hero.
A closely related theme is the myth of a life-giving tree or other healing magical plant, growing in paradise or some other inaccessible place, to which the culture hero must travel in order to gain a boon for humankind. He is frequently assisted by or has to overcome supernatural animals. This is an especially widespread type of myth, with numerous instances found throughout the world. Demonic plants and animals
Opposed to these positive conceptions of the creative powers of plants and animals is the notion that their sacred power is chaotic or demonic. Rather than aiding human beings, they are destructive. The most common examples are monstrous plants and animals, which figure especially in heroic quests as guardians of boons or threats to be overcome; mythical animals associated with destructive natural phenomena, such as the earthquake monster or the monster who according to some traditions causes eclipses by devouring the Sun or Moon; and personifications of evil powers such as death or disease (e.g., the hound of hell) or chaos beasts (such as dragons) whose release marks the end of the world or who will be slain in a final battle by a saviour deity. A universal phenomenon is the association of certain species of animals with sorcerers and witches. The most frequent form of this belief is that of the familiar—an animal whose soul is bound up with that of the sorcerer, whose form the sorcerer can assume, and who may be commanded to serve his evil master.
Some species (e.g., animals such as the serpent and various narcotic plants) exhibit the ambivalence of the sacred—they are conceived as being both beneficent and dangerous. This reflects a crucial aspect of the sacred—that it is a region of power. As was stated above this power is ambivalent—i.e., it can act for humanity’s benefit or detriment—and is perceived therefore as the location either of creativity or of chaos. Relationships of descent
One of the major ways humans have of organizing their world is through genealogy or relations of descent. In theogonies, or tales of the origin of gods (e.g., that by Hesiod), or in legendary lists of human offspring (such as the genealogies in the Hebrew Bible), relations of descent and the association of characteristics, territories, and spheres of influence with descendants provide a means of mapping the cosmos and the human world. In traditions concerning animals and plants, relations of descent are most prominent in myths of human origin and in totemic (animal-clan relational) materials. Central to both is the figure of the plant or animal ancestor. Creation of human beings from plants or animals
A widespread motif, especially among archaic peoples, concerns the supposed descent of the human species from plants or animals. These descent traditions usually name a particular species as humanity’s ancestor, and the tribe frequently takes its name from the plant or animal.
In some myths, an asexual mode of creation is implied; a child, for example, appears from the bud of a tree or from a split fruit, or man is a featherless bird sent from the sky. Even the motif of the birth of man from an egg is predominantly an asexual motif inasmuch as no preliminary coition is mentioned. Other traditions, particularly agricultural ones, see man as the product of the mating of a plant or animal species. In some myths, fabrication rather than descent is emphasized. Man is fashioned from a plant or animal by the gods, or his parts are modeled after other species. In these descent traditions, the primal man who results is usually the progenitor of a particular people. Other peoples are created from different or less favourable species. These traditions persist in folkloric accounts of the birth of individuals from plants or animals. Such myths express a close relationship between man and the animal and plant world. Man does not represent a new type of being but rather a new manifestation or form.
The widely distributed notion of animal or plant ancestors places considerable emphasis on transformation (see below Relationships of transformation). The ancestral myths describe a primeval time of creation (or successive creations) followed by a decisive alteration in the conditions of life in the shift from the ancestral to the present human mode of being. Compared with the “fixed” characteristics of the present period, the ancestral era is represented as having been one of flux, lacking definite boundaries. In it animals, plants, and humans are much the same: they can speak with each other, have sexual relations with each other, and engage in other relationships. The ancestors are polymorphic (many formed) and are frequently depicted as emerging from the ground. In such cases their movement toward the surface is represented as an increasing differentiation, away from compound hybrids and toward forms somewhat resembling present species. But even on the surface, the ancestors remain relatively fluid: some resemble plants, others animals or humans, and all have shared characteristics and the power to change their form at will.