Fiji - Gods of War

In his book, On Fiji Islands, Ronald Wright describes a trip he took to Bau, a small island off the coast of Viti Levu.  It seems to hard to believe it now, but Bau (pronounced Mbau) was once the centre of political power in Fiji and home to the 19th-century Fijian warlord, Cakobau, who proclaimed himself King of Fiji, before gifting the islands to Britain.  Cakobau was responsible for the conversion of Bau to Christianity and the end of warfare and cannibalism, which the islanders had a reputation for. 

Cagawalu - supreme deity of Bau

Cakobau's conversion to Christianity was partly a result of feeling 'let down' by the island's supreme deity, Cagawalu, the god of war.  Wright associates the rise in Cagawalu's popularity, with the rise in the power of the Bau kingdom - therefore, it makes sense that the loss of political influence in Bau, would also mean the triumph of the Christian god of peace over the Fijian god of war!

The not-so-Pacific islands

Despite the name, many of the Pacific islands were quite warlike, especially in Polynesian islands like New Zealand, where the Maoris had a fierce reputation as warriors and war-makers.  The people of Hawaii worshipped a war god called Kū, who ressembles the Maori war god Tū, also known as Tū-mata-uenga (Tu of the angry face), Tū-kai-taua (Tu the destroyer of armies) or Tū-ka-riri (Tu the angry).  Interestingly, Tū was known as the 'old god of war' in Tahiti - perhaps because he was imported at an earlier date and later replaced by the Tahitian god of war, 'Oro.

Featured gods of Hawaii and the Aztecs



Huitzilopochtli, Aztec god of war

I also find it really interesting that the Hawaiian god of war, Kū is depicted as being covered in feathers.  There has been even more evidence in recent months (since I wrote my blog post on Dinosaurs) that dinosaurs may have been feathered and may have evolved into modern-day birds.  I realise that dinosaurs and humans missed each other by millions of years, but I can't help but wonder at terrifying war gods, like Hawaii's Kū, but also Huitzilopochtli of the Aztecs - who has a very bird-like appearance.  Perhaps, there was some ancestral memory or inherited knowledge of larger, bird-like creatures that were predators of pre-historic man?

Human sacrifice and the forces of darkness

Huitzilopochtli is most associated with the human sacrifics that were made in his honour.  Actually, Huitzilopochtli was a solar god, who fought the forces of darkness and demanded human sacrifice to appease the violent nature of the struggle between the dark and the light.  I guess, war is ultimately about sacrifice - we might turn up our noses nowadays at savage practices such as human sacrifice, but if you think of how many young men were 'sacrificed' to appease the gods of World War 1, or the 'war on/of terror' in Afghanistan.  Is it really that different? 

Kali trampling Shiva by Raja Ravi Varma

Even today, war is perceived as a struggle between 'good and evil' or 'dark and light'.  Kali, the Hindu goddess of darkness was seen as the great destroyer, an antithesis of Shiva, the creator - but also his consort.  It seems that the human need to destroy and create goes hand-in-hand.  I'm pretty sre that lucrative contracts for the reconstruction of Iraq were being drawn up, even as Western armies were preparing for invasion.

The 'intelligent' war gods of Europe

Many war gods are also gods of fertility, during times of peace.  A good example is Anann, the Irish goddess of war, who was also a fertility goddess and managed Ancient Ireland's livestock!  Ancient Europeans also made human sacrifices to appease the gods of war - sacrifices were made to the Celtic war god, Lugus and the Nordic Odin.  By all accounts, Odin was the 'thinking man's god of war'.  As well as being God of war, he was famous for his creativity and was considered to be an intelligent god, developing war strategies - he was also revered for his magical powers. 

War Gods of Ancient Greece and Rome

The Ancient Greeks captured the essence of the war god by having two war gods - the male, Ares symbolised the violence of war and the unfettered masculine thirst for blood.  The female goddess, Athena had a more strategic approach to war and transcended the more primal instincts of blood-letting and needless sacrifice.  Ares always went into battle with his two closest companions, Phobos (fear) and Deimos (terror). 

Mars and the Vestal Virgin by Jacques Blanchard

The Roman god of war, Mars, was symbolised by the wolf and the woodpecker.  The wolf because of its brutality and power and the woodpecker because of its persistance in bringing down the Oak tree, which is much bigger than itself.  The 'red planet' is named after Mars which, I guess, is symbolic of his blood-thirsty role. 

War and Peace

Cakobau converted to Christianity because he believed that the old gods had deserted Fiji and that his people should submit to the new god of Christianity.  It got me thinking about the influence of monotheism and religions like Christianity and Islam.  Islam is the religion of 'submission' and peace - although there were war gods in Ancient Babylon, Sumeria and other parts of the (what we call) the Middle East, the adoption of Islam, saw the end of pagan beliefs and a new belief-system that promoted peace, tolerance and trade.  Likewise, the central messages of Christianity, particularly in the New Testament are all about 'Love Thy Neighbour' and 'Turn the other Cheek'. 

If the spread of Christianity and Islam helped pacify previously warring tribes and nations (as it did in Fiji), then why is the world still at war?  Which 'god' is still demanding the sacrifice of human lives?  Perhaps the new gods of war are oil, money and greed!

Image credits:

All images are taken from Wikimedia commons and are considered to be in the public domain and, therefore, copyright free. 

Dorset - How the English invented Dinosaurs

It was only when I first visited Dorset that I heard of the county's 'Jurassic Coast', one of the UK's 28 UNESCO World Heritage sites.  It starts in Devon, actually, not far from Exmouth and continues all the way to Swanage in East Dorset.  It includes geological wonders such as the Isle of Portland, which is a tied island, ie. only linked to the mainland by a spit of gravel, known as a tombolo.  Portland is famous for its limestone and Portland stone has been used in important buildings like St Paul's Cathedral, Buckingham Palace and the UN world headquarters in New York.

Remarkable Creatures

The Jurassic coast became the haunt of geologists and palaeontologists, in the 19th century, when scientists became interested in fossils of 'remarkable creatures' that were abundant along this coast, notably in the area around Lyme Regis.  I've just finished reading a wonderful book called Remarkable Creatures by the London-based US writer, Tracy Chevalier (she also wrote Girl with a Pearl Earring, which I really loved, about the life of Vermeer).  

Mary Anning and the fossils of Lyme Regis

Dinosaurs at Musee des Science Naturelles

Remarkable Creatures brings to life the story of Mary Anning, Lyme Regis' most famous fossil collector and her close friend Elizabeth Philpot.   Anning came from a very lowly background and started off fossil-collecting as a child, earning money to keep her family out of the poorhouse.  She had an incredible talent for spotting and preparing fossil specimens and, as she gained more experience, she herself became a leading expert on the fossils she was collecting and selling - her advice was sought after by prominent geologists such as William Buckland and the Reverend William D Coneybeare. 

Of course, in the 19th century, the doors of Scientific institutions were completely closed to women, even more so to working-class women with no education and, towards the end of her life, Mary Anning felt aggrieved by the lack of recognition she'd received in a male-dominated world.  In her novel, Chevalier very cleverly explores the tensions between Anning and Philpot who, despite coming from different social classes, had an incredible friendship and united against the adversity they both faced, as women working in a new scientific field. 

The Englishmen who invented the Dinosaur

The work of Mary Annings and other scientists paved the way for the work of early palaeontologists such as Richard Owen and Gideon Algernon Mantell.  I mention Owen and Mantell in particular, as they had a rivalry which was every bit as fractious and intense, as the friendship between Annings and Philpot.  When I say the English 'invented' Dinosaurs, what I mean is that Owen and Mantell were amongst the first scientists who tried to conceptualise dinosaurs.  Considering how little material they had available to them at the time, the work of the first palaeontologists was both revolutionary and visionary.

Owen v Mantell

Richard Owen coined the word Dinosaur

Richard Owen first coined the word dinosaur from the Greek for terrible lizard in a publication in 1842.  The -saur part had already been used for the first specimen found by Mary Anning, the Icthyosaur or fish lizard.  Owen's conceptualisation of dinosaurs was of large, slow-moving, elephantine creatures that walked on four column-like legs.  This conceptualisation was popularised by his dinosaur models at the Great Exhibition in Crystal Palace in the 1850's.  Largely ignored by his contemporaries, Mantell's conceptualisation of large, fast-moving, two-legged creatures, turned out to be a more accurate conceptualisation, backed up by further fossil finds in later years.

Nowadays, thanks to a myriad of books and movies, an image of dinosaurs is well-and-truly imprinted on our minds.  It's hard for us to imagine the difficulty of trying to conceptualise what a dinosaur looked like, but it's worth bearing in mind that early palaeontologists were working with often incomplete fossils, pressed into rocks, with no obvious indication of what these creatures might look like, if they were stood upright.

The influence of Australia?

Something that really interested me, as I was researching all of this, was how the conceptualisation of dinosaurs co-incided with the colonisation of Australia and the 'discovery' of lots of new creatures, like the kangaroo which had never been seen by Europeans before.  Early examples of dinosaur skeletons were often juxtaposed with skeletons of Australian animals, like the wallaby and cassowary and I can't help wondering whether or not the physiognomy of these Australian animals influenced palaeontologists like Mantell, as they tried to conceptualise the stature of dinosaurs?

In his book, A Very Short Introduction to Dinosaurs (part of the OUP series), David Norman outlines the importance of paleobiology as a branch of palaeontology that can clearly inform, not only the stature of dinosaurs, but also their eating habits, sex and movement patterns. 

Dinosaurs and Darwin

It's also hard to imagine the societal attitude towards palaeontology at that time.  For many people in the 19th century, the idea that creatures existed before Noah's Ark was inconceivable.  Not only did the study of dinosaurs challenge the widely held belief in Bishop Ussher's biblical theory about the age of the Earth (ie. that the Earth was created on the 23rd of October 4004 BC!), but the idea that God would create life and then let it become extinct was considered sacrilegious.  The dinosaur debate fed into and supported Darwin's theory on Evolutionary gradualism, an even greater discussion that was to revolutionise 19th-century thought. 

Why are we so fascinated by dinosaurs?

Some dinosaurs were quite small!

Accepting the idea that God might let the dinosaurs become extinct, opened up the possibility that some day God might let humans become extinct.  A lot of the 19th-century anxiety around the study of dinosaurs was tied up in greater concerns about the fate of the human species.  Perhaps this goes some way to explaining the eternal fascination we have with dinosaurs.  Very few branches of science have captured the imagination more than the study of dinosaurs - what they were, what they looked like and what happened to make them 'suddenly' die out. 

It's also interesting to note how fascinated children are by dinosaurs.  As part of my research, I visited the famous Bernissart Iguanadons in the Musee des Sciences Naturelles in Brussels and I realised I'd never seen a reconstructed dinosaur before.  It's a fantastic place to bring children and their awe of dinosaurs reminded me that, even today, the conceptualisation of living dinosaurs requires a lot of imagination. 

Did dinosaurs have wings?

Dinosaurs and Dragons

I also think that there is something deep in the human psyche that 'remembers' a time when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.  Of course, we know that this is impossible, dinosaurs became extinct long before the human species had evolved.  But how do we explain the stories of dragons and mythical beasts in many world cultures?  Isn't there something in our 'ancestral memory' that haunts our dreams and children's fairy tales?  It's quite apt that the English invented dinosaurs, a symbol of St George conquering his dragon!

Dinosaurs today

Something that I didn't know, before I started researching this topic, is that birds are believed to have evolved from dinosaurs!  Studies of bone structures show amazing similarities between dinosaurs and birds and it's quite possible that when the continents moved and the Earth flooded, dinosaurs simply became smaller and took to the skies to survive.  I don't think I'll ever look at birds in quite the same way again!

Image credits:

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