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Folklore and earthquakes: Native American oral traditions from Cascadia compared with written traditions from Japan
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Ludwin, Ruth S. Smits, Grégory Carver, D. James, Karl Jonientz-Trisler, Chris McMillan, A. Losey, Robert J. Dennis, Richard L. Rasmussen, Jeanette Angeles, Arelys De Los Bürge, Diane Thrush, C. P. Clague, John J. Bowechop, Janine Wray, Jeffrey |
| Copyright Year | 2007 |
| Abstract | This article examines local myth and folklore related to earthquakes, landslides, and tsunamis in oral traditions from Cascadia (part of the northern Pacific coast of North America) and in written traditions from Japan, particularly in the Edo (present-day Tokyo) region. Local folklore corresponds closely to geological evidence and geological events in at least some cases, and the symbolic language of myth and folklore can be a useful supplement to conventional geological evidence for constructing an accurate historical record of geological activity. At a deep, archetypical level, Japan, Cascadia, and many of the world’s cultures appear to share similar themes in their conception of earthquakes. Although folklore from Cascadia is fragmentary, and the written record short, the evolution of Japanese earthquake folklore has been well documented over a long period of history and illustrates the interaction of folklore with dynamic social conditions. Local cultures in regions of significant seismic activity around the world are rich in myths, legends, and other symbolic representations of earthquakes and their consequences. The study of local earthquake-related lore can shed useful light on local cultural traditions and values, human From: PICCARDI, L. & MASSE, W. B. (eds) Myth and Geology. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 273, 67–94. 0305-8719/07/$15.00 # The Geological Society of London 2007. psychology vis-à-vis the violent forces of nature, and other aspects of society and culture. This lore can also shed useful light on the geological record, sometimes even to the extent of suggesting major geological events that remain undiscovered by conventional scientific approaches. Common themes appear in stories from different cultures, and may help identify stories with geological information. In this paper, we examine two types of earthquake lore from Cascadia and Japan. First, we discuss figurative stories from the Pacific Northwest coast of North America that appear to refer to earthquakes, tsunamis, permanent land level changes, or landslides. Geographically these stories describe events along two major fault zones; the Cascadia subduction zone (CSZ), which produced a magnitude 9þ earthquake in 1700 (Satake et al. 2003), and the Seattle fault in Puget Sound which produced an earthquake of estimated magnitude 7.4 in approximately 900 AD (Bucknam et al. 1992). Secondly, we discuss non-geological evidence from Cascadia and Japan that researchers have used to date the CSZ earthquake of 1700. Next, we examine figurative conceptions of earthquake causality in Japanese folk culture, both circa 1700 and, in greater detail, during the period following the Edo (present-day Tokyo) earthquake of 1855. This earthquake produced an outpouring of figurative namazu-e (catfish picture prints), which expressed a wide range of popular views on earthquake-related phenomena, both geological and social. Data from both Cascadia and Japan support our general argument that symbolic language can usefully describe geological events. In addition to demonstrating a linkage between local earthquake lore and geological events in these two parts of the world, we propose some observations about similarities in this lore, with reference to other regions of the world. At a deep level, which we call the ‘archetypical level’, many apparently unconnected societies throughout the premodern world conceived of earthquakes in similar ways. Stories of earthquakes and related events from native societies in the Cascadia |
| Starting Page | 67 |
| Ending Page | 94 |
| Page Count | 28 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| DOI | 10.1144/GSL.SP.2007.273.01.07 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://library.wisn.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/130068-LudwinSmits2007_GSL_SP273-67.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://doi.org/10.1144/GSL.SP.2007.273.01.07 |
| Volume Number | 273 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
