MAY 1990IS French francs

Imagining the birthof the universe

M 12« -9005 -15.00 F

IUI lllll3791205015001 9005

encounters We invite readers to send us photographs to be consideredfor publication in this feature. Your photo should show

a painting, a sculpture, piece of architecture or any othersubject which seems to be an example of cross-fertilizationbetween cultures. Alternatively, you could send us picturesof two works from different cultural backgrounds in which

you see some striking connection or resemblance.

Please add a short caption to all photographs.

Sorcerer

(1990), bronze, 52 cm

by Pierre Vallauri

"In my work I try torediscover lost roots and

to convey the

permanence of originalforms and universal

symbols," writes French

sculptor Pierre Vallauri.

This bronze sculpture

displays an affinity withtraditional African

statuary.

r

MAY 1990N N

Today there are no more

unexplored continents,

unknown seas or mysteriousislands. But while we can

overcome the physical

barriers to exploration, the

barriers of mutual ignorance

between different peoples

and cultures have in manycases still not been

dismantled.

A modem Ulysses can

voyage to the ends of theearth. But a different kind

of Odyssey now beckonsan

exploration of the world's

many cultural landscapes, the

ways of life of its different

peoples and their outlook on

the world in which they live.

It is such an Odyssey that

the Unesco Courier proposes

to you, its readers. Eachmonth contributors of

different nationalities providefrom different cultural and

professional standpoints anauthoritative treatment of a

theme of universal interest.

The compass guiding this

journey through the world's

cultural landscapes is respect

for the dignity of man

everywhere.

9

4

IMAGINING THE BIRTH

OF THE UNIVERSE

The Vedas

THE QUEST FOR AN INNER UNIVERSEby Rao Chelikani and Roseline de Laval 10

The Qur'anTHE WORD OF GOD

by Norreddm Mahammed 14

GUARANI GENESIS

by Rubén Bareiro Saguier 18

OUT OF THE LAND OF SHADOWS

by Amadou Hampâté Ba 22

THE HUNT FOR THE SUN

by Galina Kaptuke-Varlamova 26

GUARDIANS OF THE COSMOS

by Flor Romero 30

'GIVE US THE LIGHT OF LIFE

AND OF DEATH'

by José M. Satrústegui 34

THE BIRTH AND DEATH OF THE UNIVERSE

by John Gribbin 36

Interview with

CAMILO JOSÉ CELA1989 Nobel Prize for Literature

41IN THE BEGINNING... INBRIEF- 41

REFLECTIONS

The sacred trees of Madagascarby Voahangy Rajaonah 42

SCIENCE

Baffling but irresistibletheworld of superconductorsby Dan Clery 44

OUTLOOK

Teaching human rightsat school 46

FORUM

The European Academy ofArts, Sciences and Humanities

by Raymond Daudel 49 .

LETTERS

TO THE EDITOR 50

N W

was born in Galicia in 1916, was awarded the

Nobel Prize for Literature in 1989. In this

interview he talks about the process ofliterary creation, the role of the writer in

society, and the wide international influence

of literature written in Spanish, to which hisown work has made a major contribution.

Camilo José CelaHow would you judge Spanish literature of the past fewdecades, and what is your opinion of the "boom" in LatinAmerican literature?

I hate passing judgement on anybody, and I am neithera historian nor a literary critic. We creative artists are poorjudges and critics, since we tend to applaud everything thatapproximates to our own view of art, although that is ratherpresumptuous of us.

Nevertheless, I would say that the Spanish novelists ofmy own generationMiguel Delibes, Torrente Ballester,Ana María Matute and Juan Goytisolo, for exampleareexcellent, much better than the younger generation ofwriters.

As for the "boom" in Latin American literature, I think

that it is mainly being created by publishers. Some veryimportant writers are being left out. There is no reason tobelieve that today's star Latin American novelists are anybetter than their predecessors, such as Rómulo Gallegos,Benito Lynch or Miguel Angel Asturias, all of whom haveunfortunately faded into oblivion. Being Latin Americandoes not necessarily make anyone a great novelist, surely.I would have thought that was obvious.

Do you think that the fact that you have been awardedthe Nobel Prize will have any direct impact on Spanishliterature?

It may well arouse enthusiasm for literature, in muchthe same way as the passion of Spaniards for tennis wasstimulated by the successes of Manuel Santana, their passionfor football by the victories of Real Madrid, and theirpassion for golf by the exploits of Severiano Ballesteros.

You have lived through a golden age ofliterature, with suchwriters as Camus, Huxley, Moravia and Sartre in Europe,and Hemingway, Dos Passos, Faulkner and Steinbeck inthe United States. What do you think now of that periodand how do you see your own work in relation to it?

It was an extraordinary period and my own work ispermeated by it. I have always said that we are influenced bythe atmosphere around us. When Albert Camus publishedThe Outsider and I published The Family ofPascual Duarte,1people even wrote doctoral theses about the cross-influencesbetween them. Later on, when we became friends, we found

this very amusing because at the time when our novels werepublished, we were both completely unknown and certainlydid not know one another.

You have devoted your life to literature. Have you everasked yourselfwhat purpose literature serves and what itrepresents for a people?

In my case, writing is a necessity. If I want to makecontact, with myself or with my fellow human beings, ithas to be through words. In the history of mankind, themoment when the first man uttered the first word is much

more important than the discovery of America, or the moonlanding, quantum physics or theories of the atom.

What is the purpose of literature? Certainly not to putthe world right. That is not the writer's role. We mustremember that literature is one of the fine arts. Its purposeis to make art out of wordsthat's all. For a people, litera¬ture is everything, because it gives it a sense of permanency,much more so than architecture. Words last much longerthan stones.

How do you write? How do you go about composing anovel, for example?

If only I knew! The novel is a protean art-form whichnobody has ever really managed to define. A novel is a pieceof prose with a title and the word "novel" attached to itexcept that a novel may also be written in verse, since thepoem El Cantar de Mío Cid is a novel.

A novel comes to me spontaneously. It is not somethingI set about deliberately. When I have a novel inside meand it may stay inside me for several yearsI do not think

about how I am going to develop it. At some point, it willbegin to take shape by itself, at a steady pace, over a periodof eight to ten months. I do not believe in writing scenariosfirst. If the characters are alive, you have only to open thedoor for them and see what they do. And the story of whatthey do is the novel.

a4s a methodical writer, do you believe in inspiration?No, not in novel-writing, although inspiration may be

useful in lyric poetry. Dostoevsky said somewhere thatgenius is a matter of long and patient endurance. When youare writing a novel, you have to work on it for hours onend, day in day out. And you need great physical strengthto reach the end.

It has been said that the Spanish identity is the result ofafusión ofChristian, Arab andJewish cultures. Is that alsotrue of Spanish literature?

I once wrote a book called Jews, Moors and Christians.Might that have something to do with your question? Spainhas had some great "marrano" writers who were descendedfrom the Jews, like Cervantes and Saint Teresa of Avila. Yes,indeed, there was a melting-pot and I do not believe that

"The Bullfight" (1945),oil on canvas (114 x 144 cm),

by the Catalan artist Joan Miró (1893-1983).

there is a single Spaniard who could put his hand in the fireand solemnly swear that he does not have a drop of Jewishor Moorish blood in his veins. Ferdinand and Isabella made

a glaring political mistake when they decided to expel theMoors who were working the land and the Jews who werein trade, banking and jewellery-making, while the Christiannoblemen waged war. Fortunately, very few of them leftthe country, and those who stayed on produced theSpaniards of today.

There are two magnificent lines of verse by FernandoVillalón, which read:

Islands of the Guadalquivir,Where now are your Moors, who did not want to leave?

Spanish culture's leap to the Americas five centuries agomade it universal...

In fact it already was universal, since it was present inItaly and the Netherlands, at least. Its universal characterwas consummated in the Americas, if you like.

"Don Quixote meets a groupof comedians". One of the

plates executed by Spanishpainter and illustrator JoséAlbert Segrelles (1885-1969) foran edition of Don Quixotepublished in 1966 tocommemorate the 350th

anniversary of the death ofCervantes.

Do you think that Spanish as a language, with its extraor¬dinary heritage, is now rigorous andflexible enough, or richand varied enough, to contend with English?

In a few years' timeI don't know how manytherewill be only four languages left in the world, English,Spanish, Arabic and Chinese, and I am not citing them inany particular order. All the rest will have retreated intothe spoken idiom or into lyric poetry. It is true that we inSpain do not defend the Spanish language vigorouslyenoughand by Spanish, I don't mean Castilian, which isonly spoken in Castile. We have no confidence in it, and yet

ai. v-

it is one of the world's major languages. Our governmentin Madrid should learn a lesson from the heroic efforts which

the Basques and Catalans are making to ensure the survivalof their languages.

What contribution, in your view, has the Spanish novelmade to world literature?

I have always believed and maintained that the novelwas born in Spain. El Conde Lucanor, the first book of fablesin our literature, was written several years before Boccaccio'sDecameron, which is generally regarded as being the firstreal novel.

Be that as it may, the Spanish novel has had a far-reaching influence on world literature. There is an essay-by Gertrude Stein, I seem to rememberwhich demonstrates

that the modern novel originates in the Spanish picaresquetradition. From the nineteenth century until today, allnovels, including the great American novels of the 1920sand those of the Spanish Generation of '98,2 have beenoffshoots of the picaresque model.

Cervantes is a landmark in the history of literature, butDon Quixote is an even greater landmark. I have often won¬dered whether Cervantes, like Homer, was not a number

of people writing under a single name, since there is suchan enormous gap between Don Quixote and his other works,such as the Novelas ejemplares. Don Quixote is a work ofgenius and even when we read it today and see its manyimperfections, we realize that they are so brilliantly inspiredthat there are grounds for thinking that they may have beendeliberate. I am not claiming that this is so: I am just guessing.

Having said that, I consider that the greatest writer inthe Spanish language is, and will long remain, Quevedo.When I think oí Don Quixote, Quevedo, the medieval poets,the picaresque novelespecially Lazarillo de TormestheGeneration of '98 and the 1927 generation of poets,3 1 feelthat Spanish literature has always been great and out of allproportion to Spain's paltry achievements in economics andpolitics.

In the twentieth century, the Spanish contribution topainting, prose and poetry has surpassed everything thatFrance, England, Germany and Italy combined havemanaged to produce. Picasso, Miró, Dalí and Tapies are therefor all to see, while in literature you have poets like MiguelHernández, Lorca and the Generation of 1927, and prose-writers like Unamuno, Valle-Inclán, Baroja, Azorín, RamónGómez de la Sernathe list could go on.

There has been a great deal of talk in recent years of the"global village", ofthe trend towards a worldwide culture...

I don't believe in it.

What do you see as the factors that can give a universalbearing to a circumscribed work of local literature?

The geographical setting and the plot are less importantthan what lies beneath the action of the characters because,

when all is said and done, the great overriding passions areuniversal. The Spanish picaresque novel was centred on thelandscapes of Spain, much as the great Russian novels are

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Cover of one of the earliest Japanese editions ofDon Quixote, published in 1914.

wreathed in the atmosphere of the steppes. And yet theyare both read all over the world.

We live in a culture that is dominated by images and yetnever have so many books been published. Do you thinkthat the written word will be capable ofwithstanding theonslaught of the audio-visual media?

I am not sure that contemporary culture is "dominated"by images. I do not believe either that television has astultifying effect on people or that a single image is wortha thousand written words. I believe that anything that canarouse interest in culture is worthwhile, and such interest

may well be aroused by television.Writing will survive television, just as it will not be

abolished by tactile perceptions, because the sensesstimulated are different. I do not think that one sense should

prevail over the others. The important thing is for the sensesto work together. Interview by Ramón Luis Acuña, Madrid.

1. English translation published by Little, Brown and Company, Boston,USA, 1964. Reissued 1989. Other works by Camilo José Cela translated intoEnglish include: Journey to the Alcarria (1964), University of Wisconsin Press,USA; Mrs. Caldwell speaks to her Son ( 1968), Cornell University Press, USA;The Hive (1983), Ecco Press, New York.2. Spanish novelists and essayists who analysed their country's ills at the timeof the Spanish-American war of 1898 were dubbed the "Generation of '98".3. A group of outstanding Spanish poets was known as the "Generation of1927". Editor

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Stairway of the ziggurat ortemple tower at Ur, a greatcity of ancient southernMesopotamia (now Iraq) inthe 3rd millennium BC.

here do we come from? What are we? Where are we

going?" An abundance of myths, religious doctrines and scientifictheories have been developed to answer these fundamental questionsabout the world and man's place in it.

In early times, especially, many societies elaborated cosmogoniemyths which gave an account of the origination of the world orthe universe. Some postulated a world created from the void bythe power and wisdom of an omnipotent and omniscient God; forothers creation xdid not take place ex nihilo but from an alreadyexisting substance. Some communities envisaged the world as theoffspring of a primordial father and mother; others believed that

the created order emerged progressively, like the growth of a fetus.Some creation stories feature prominently in the sacred writingsand beliefs of the world's great religions. Traces of others survivein the customs and traditions of many lands and in the symbolismused in arts and crafts. An idea of the prodigious diversity of humanresponse to questions about our origins can be gauged from thesample of creation myths and traditions presented in the followingpages.

Today scientists studying the behaviour of the universe are

proposing new theories and answers to these eternal questions. Andlike time-honoured myth, modern cosmology is concerned not onlywith cosmogony but its opposite, eschatology, the end of creation.This issue of the magazine is, then, rounded off with an account

of a theory on an expanding and contracting universe which hasbeen developed by a modern cosmologist, Stephen Hawking, andlike many ancient mythsenglobes the birth and also the ultimatedestiny of the universe.

The Vedas ffo quest foran inner Universe

BY RAO CHELIKANI

AND ROSELINE DE LAVAL

I

10

N the beginning were the Vedas. Several cen¬turies before the Christian era, these sacred

hymns written in archaic Sanskrit held sway overIndian religious thought. We know very littleabout their origins, other than that they wereintroduced by Indo-European clans known as theAryas or Aryans, nomadic herdsmen who gradu¬ally began to spread through north-west India inthe second millennium BC.

One thing is certain: during their obscure his¬tory the Aryans had amassed a huge quantity ofreligious writings, a "Revelation" of giganticproportions. This is thought nevertheless torepresent no more than a quarter of the completeVedas, the gods having decided, at the end of theGolden Age, to keep the remainder outside thereach of human beings. It is perhaps for thisreason that, while each of the four parts of thisvast compilation is devoted to a particular aspectof religious life rituals, mythologies, wisdomand hymnsnone proposes a comprehensive cos¬mogonie myth. To the origins of the world, itcontains only indirect allusions and scattered,incomplete and contradictory references.

The Creator is not the same from one hymnto another. Sometimes we are told that Indra the

Great, after slaying the dragon, created theoceans, the sun and the web of days and nights,sometimes it is related that Varuna, by sheerforce, separated the two vast cosmic masses fromthe primordial egg, pushing back the celestialvault to a great height and unwinding the earth.

Tradition has it that the Vedas contain the

Truth, but this Truth assumes a myriad of dis¬concerting forms, like the tree that symbolizesIndia, the banyan, whose foliage is so dense thatit blots out the sun.

For example, in many of the Vedic hymnsthe origin of the world is traced back to a terriblebattle in which each of a succession of gods isdescribed as having the leading role. The dragonslain by Indra is sometimes said to be a giganticserpent coiled around the mountain that holdsback the primordial waters. After defeating theserpent, Indra shatters the mountain in order torelease the waters. More than an act of creation,this battle is a deliverance. Until that moment,

order and harmony are held in check by suchpowerful forces that the hero-god wears himself

out against them. He has to avail himself ofsupernatural means, the beverage soma, preparedby the other gods, which plunges him into a stateof warlike intoxication. Indra, the god of light¬ning, who usually takes the leading role in thebattle, combines the qualities of all the other gods,who created him for this encounter, entrustingto him part of their power. So it is these amalga¬mated forces that triumph over darkness andformlessness, bringing into being a world that isnot subject to chance but ruled by necessity,where each being and thing has its place.

Should these cosmogonie myths be seen asa way of asserting the value of the warlike idealand of justifying a caste, a people of invaders? Isit the function of the Aryans, "twice born"through the grace of Revelation, to establishorder and to promote the worship of the revealedgods by combating the forces of chaos and dark¬ness embodied in the unenlightened peoples?

In the heat

of the primordial waters

In other myths the origin of the world is linkedto an act of cosmic union. Agni (the fire, the life-force, the devourer) and Soma (the offering, thesacrifice, the devoured), the two pillars of Vedicreality, fertilize the waters with their virile powerand give birth to the primordial egg, the GoldenEmbryo. When the egg bursts, there emergesfrom it the structure of the world: from the silver

half, the earth, from the golden half, the sky.They are held in place by a central pillar, an axis,around which the forces of life are organized insuch a way that the light can spring forth. Then"time commences, space unfurls and the godsstart to play their role".*

Other cosmogonie myths feature a god whoexisted before all others, Prajapati, the Progenitor,Lord of his own lineage. Prajapati splits himselfin two, coupling with his female emanation, whois also regarded as his daughter. From thisincestuous union (considered to be extremelyreprehensible) issue all the gods and all dualities.Creation is thus rooted in the very substance ofPrajapati.

' Jean Varenne, Cosmologies védiques.

The Wheel of Existence

or of the Law,

supported by Yama,the lord of death

in Indian mythology.

CVO

**

12

Seen from another angle, Prajapati causes thegods to come into being by turning the primalfervour upon himself. The gods then complainthat there are not enough offerings to feed them.In order to prevent his creation from vanishing,Prajapati sacrifices himself. Once they havereceived succour, the gods restore Prajapati bygiving up a part of their own substance. HencePrajapati is at once the Father and the Son.

In what is perhaps the most famous hymnin the oldest document, the Rigveda, which allBrahmans are required to recite every day, we aretold how the activity of Prajapati led to the emer¬gence, along with the gods, of a primeval cosmicman, Purusa. He it is whom the ravenous godsdemand be sacrificed to them, and Prajapati hasto allow them to dismember him. This dismem¬

berment gives rise to the four main social divi¬sions (priests, warriors, craftsmen and farmers),but also to the heavenly lamps, the directions ofspace, the sky and the earth, rain, wind and fire.Once they have eaten, the gods can give a partof their strength to recreate a new man. A micro¬cosm of the universe, composed of the veryforces by which he is governed, this new man isinhabited by the gods, embodying the ultimatemessage of Indian philosophy, which is that theindividual soul forms part of the universalEssence. Self-discovery, self-understanding andself-control enable one to discover, understandand control the universe.

The cosmogonie myths do not seek to unravelthe mystery of origins or to resolve an existen¬tial question. They represent rather an invitationto contemplate the manifold forces present in theuniverse, to understand their logic and to tracethem back to their source in order to celebrate

their action and weave the web of their cor¬

respondences, revealing the same energy, thesame beauty, manifest in all things. Recognizingthese forces in himself, man can transcend them

in their scattered multiplicity in order to partici¬pate in the universal process. To do this, he mustadopt a particular mode of life and complywith certain social practices: each daily gestureexpresses and as it were embodies these forces.Each act ritualized by means of offerings andsacred utterances is part of a never-ending processof creation. And each person in his place, in hiscaste, in his station, is his own priest, beingpart of the whole, a fragment of a single reality.

The churningof the Sea of Milk

After coming into contact with vast urban civili¬zations and their very ancient religions, and onceit had been removed from the context from

which it had sprung, the Vedic religion withdrewinto itself. Ritual, growing more and more com¬plex, assumed an importance that divested it ofall meaning. It was then that Jainism and Budd¬hism appeared, each with its own ideas about theorigins of the world and its evolution. As the

Left, the churning of theSea of Milk.

Kashmir school miniature,

18th century.Below left, 18th-centuryminiature depicting thesupreme god Vishnureposing on Ananta, theserpent of eternity, withLakshmi at his feet. Behind

them, Brahma emergesfrom a lotus flower.

The Hindu pantheon.Jodhpur school miniature,18th century.

number of tendencies increased and as one school

of thought gave way to another, a huge body ofliterature grew up, giving rise to new cosmogonies.

One of the most frequently illustrated themesin Indian religious art is the churning of the Seaof Milk. In the beginning there was an ocean ofmilk from which emerged Mount Mandara, theaxis of the world. This mountain rests on the shell

of a tortoise, an avatar of the god Vishnu. Aroundthe mountain, which is fought over by gods anddemons, a huge serpent is coiled. Each of the con¬tending parties pulls on one end of the serpent,thereby causing the mountain to swivel round.The axis turns, the milk is whipped up and fromit all kinds of blessing spring: the nectar ofimmortality, beauty, happiness, mystic raptureand sweetness. This concrete image, based onsuch an everyday act as the making of butter,conveys an essential message, which is that anindistinct entity exists, containing a virtual

RAO CHELIKANI,

Indian historian and

political scientist, ispresident of the

Coordinating Committee ofthe International VoluntaryService. He has publishedthree books on political

science and local

administration written in

Telugu, a Dravidianlanguage of south-easternIndia, and a collection of

poems in English entitledAnonyma.

ROSELINE DE LAVAL

is a French historian.

power, an axis. For it to be stirred into motion,a battle is necessary, which reveals the possibili¬ties harboured by the indistinct entity.

Other hymns describe an eternal divine prin¬ciple, Narayana (one of the many names bywhich Vishnu is known), resting between the des¬truction of the previous world and the creation ofthe next. Narayana floats upon the ocean of milk,supported by the great serpent Ananta (eternity),coiled beneath him, with, at his side, Lakshmi, hisfemale manifestation. When the world is created,

a lotus emerges from his navel. When the floweropens, Brahma comes forth and recites the fourVedas. As these eternal laws are uttered, the

world and all things in it are formed.The origin of the visible world can be neither

a god nor the concentration or dispersion of aprimary element. It results from the attainmentof equilibrium among the primary elements,which are in opposition to one another. Thethought of Brahma is the pure energy that makesup all the forms of the universe. It radiates out

in accordance with a strict logic, giving rise inturn to all the manifestations of reality, all levelsof consciousnessfrom pure consciousness of theself, mind and intelligence, to the senses and theobject of the senses, matter, the visible and in¬finitely divided translation of the unique energy.

Man seeks by various paths to regain theoriginal unity. The quest for knowledge is noth¬ing but a way of approaching this goal: "allefforts to understand the nature of the universe

are a search for the indestructible Person. The

mere observation of changing forms cannot con¬stitute true science." From this quest, engaged inby every human being since the dawn of time,it emerges that "the impressions of the senses arediscontinuous and deceptive. Only our inneruniverse is accessible to us.... Our perception ofthe outer world is but the projection of our in¬ner world. For this reason, the entire 'Hindu'

pantheon is but a picture of man's inner life."*With the passing of the centuries, the differ¬

ent versions have not merged into a single versionbut have, on the contrary, grown more numer¬ous. The incredible diversity of life had to bematched by an extremely subtle symbolic lan¬guage. The thirty-three primary gods of the Vedasbecame 330,000, corresponding to ever morefinely drawn distinctions between the forcesmanifested in the manifold spheres of existence.There has never been any question, in Indianthought, of reaching a consensus as to origins orof establishing a theology. The object is rather,through the multiplicity of experience, to pin¬point a reality which is known to underlie allthings but which can never be grasped. Tran¬scending schools of thought, religious sectarian¬ism and ethnic intolerance, Hinduism affirms that

all points of view, resulting from different levelsof observation, complement and enrich oneanother, weaving an increasingly dense fabric ofknowledge which is laid upon the Unknowable.

Is not science too just one more point ofview? Tradition has it that each Vedic hymn hasthirty-two different meanings, each of which isapplicable to one of the thirty-two sciences. Manylearned treatises have been written on the basis

of each of these interpretations. Ascetics haveimputed the origin of creation to water, fire,wind, ether or the rhythmical oscillations of thecosmos. Other scholars have expressed scepticismwith regard to the sacred texts of the Upanishads(speculative teachings), denying the existence ofthe gods and attributing the origin of the worldto a principle which they have called fatality,time, nature, the void or chance, suggesting thatcreation was the result not of divine intervention

but of a process of internal evolution or ripening.Another school of thought claims that the worldis composed of atoms.

All this has scant importance in the eyes ofthe wise, who see here no more than subsidiaryverifications of the changing forms of matter, inthe long quest leading to the indestructible laws.

13

The Qur'an ffjg Word of God

BY NORREDDIN

MAHAMMED

a,1 IV ,

1,

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|R ,!. ^

ITH the advent of the three great monotheis¬tic religions, all creationmaterial and intangible,natural and supernaturalwas attributed to asingle omniscient and omnipotent god. Mytho¬logical cosmogonie concepts were replaced bymore speculative ways of thinking. Islam, likeJudaism and Christianity before it, did not escapethis upheaval, although traces of ancient cos¬mogonies survived in certain popular traditionsand literary allusions, and were reflected in formsof architecture and music.

The Qur'anthe Word of God as "recited"by its last messenger, the Prophet Muhammad,does not provide a continuous narrative of thecreation of the cosmos, but contains many directallusions to it. God, "the Lord of the Worlds",

is the Creator of the universe: "In truth, We have

created all things according to Our Law" with"seriousness" and perfection. "Thou seest in theBenefactor's creation every thing in true propor¬tions." Inveighing against the polytheists, Hedeclares: "Do not the unbelievers see that the

heavens and the earth were joined together,before We clove them asunder? We made from

water every living thing. Will they not thenbelieve?"

Thus, before the heavens and the earth were

formed, they were inextricably joined. Water isthe source of life. The worlds, the heavens, the

earth and life thus appeared in several stages: theuniverse and its inhabitants were the result of a

process of gradual differentiation. "God is HeWho created seven firmaments and of the earth

a similar number. Through the midst of themdescends His command: that ye may know thatGod has power over all things, and that Godcomprehends all things in His Knowledge."According to some scholars, the number seven,which appears elsewhere in the sacred text, indi¬cates an indefinite plurality.

God created

the heavens and made

the stars

In addition to those verses that allude specificallyto the creation of the universe, there are others

which inform us of its organization and arrange¬ment, notably on "the nearest heaven". Godcreated the heavens "without visible pillars" and"established" in them many heavenly bodies:constellations of stars, or "lamps". As proof ofHis bounty, this harmonious stellar arrangementis useful to mankind: "It is He Who has made

for you the stars that they may guide you in thedepths of darkness on land and sea", as it is also"He who created the night and the day, the sunand the moon, each in a navigable sphere". "It

The first two surahs, or chapters,of the Qur'an in a manuscriptof Islam's Holy Bookproduced in the 16th century. 15

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16

is He Who made of the sun a brightness and ofthe moon a lamp, and Who determined thephases of the moon so that ye may know thenumber and the count of the years."

Direct allusions to the creation in the Qur'anmust be considered primarily as "signs" of God'somnipotence. Their fragmentary nature and themysteries they conceal are typical of Qur'anicpredication, for "God conceals what He will"and "alone knows the unknowable".

So is all speculation forbidden in Islam? Cer¬tainly not: the signs must be deciphered and theirtrue meaning understood. According to Ali, theson-in-law of the Prophet, "there is no Qur'anicverse that does not have four meanings: the exo¬teric, the esoteric, the limit and the divine

project". We need, therefore, to go beneath thesurface of the facts. The quest for God's truthcalls for reflection on this "miracle" of the crea¬

tion of a diverse sensory world, while God isspirit pure and unique.

Avicenna1 made a major contribution toIslamic cosmogony. In his metaphysics, he clas¬sifies beings according to whether they are neces¬sary or possible. In essence, the necessary beingis by its nature unique; it has no cause nor does itconsist in multiplicity. As First Principle, PureIntelligence and Pure Truth, the necessary beingis God. Creation is an intellectual act. It is the

Illustration from a 17th-

century edition of"Wonders of Creation", a

work by the 13th-centuryArab cosmographer

al-Qazwini.

NORREDDIN

MAHAMMED,

of Algeria, teachesmathematics and the historyof science at the Universityof Lille, France. He is the

author of a number of

scientific publications,notably on algebraic

topology.

knowledge that God has of Himself; it is thePrimary Emanation or Primary Intelligence.From this primary creation new entities emerge.After a series of contemplations and intelligencesthe Tenth (active) Intelligence is reached, fromwhich springs a flux of sublunary matter and themultitude of human souls. This is "our" world

the world of the senses and corruptible matter.Avicenna's theory of emanation, with its con¬

tinuous creation of differentiated and hierarchical

beings, has been the subject of lively debate inIslam, Christianity and Judaism. Thus, Averroës,2who wished to restore a cosmogony which con¬formed to Aristotelian concepts, rejected thenotion of hierarchy between separate intelli¬gences. He considered the idea of successive ema¬nations from a single Being as fundamentallyabsurd. According to him the cosmos proceedsfrom an "eternal beginning" of which themanifestation, without creative cause, is simul¬taneous and continuous, with God as PrimeMover.

For Al-Ghazali,3 all these contortions were

simply metaphors for establishing the necessityof the Demiurge and the reality of creation.Rejecting philosophical speculations, he consi¬dered that only the way of the heartfor Godis pure lovecan lead to knowledge. By seekingcommunion with God it becomes possible for

some to raise themselves from the "lower

world"that of the sun, moon and starsto the

"upper world" wherein dwell the "luminous sub¬stances", the angels.

Several schools of thought reject emana¬tionism, which appears to limit and even excludeGod's freedom in the act of creation. To upholdthe idea of divine omnipotence, the Ash'arites,4for example, go so far as to deny intermediarycauses and the universal cause. They consider thatmatter is indivisible, and reduce its multipledifferentiations to a transcendent principle, whichis God the Creator. The idea of the indivisibilityof matter leads to the recurrence of creation. In

each of its parts and at any given moment theuniverse is, or can be, subject to modification.Furthermore, it cannot be eternal: its cohesionand duration are matters for the free will of God.

Esotericism

and philosophy

Nevertheless, many currents of Islamic thought,including hermeticism, Shi'ite speculation (andits Ismaeli variants), and some mystics, have givenAvicenna's cosmogony a better reception. Insuch thinking, modes of philosophical and theo-sophical knowledge, visionary and propheticperceptions often merge in a single theory.Typical of these currents, but also descended fromother cultic and cultural traditions, is

Suhrawardi's philosophy of light.5 Starting fromverses of the Qur'an in which God is qualifiedas "Light on Light", Suhrawardi identifiesseparate intelligences as pure lights, each oneemanating from another. The Tenth Intelligenceis the Angel of Revelation, the Holy Ghost, theone who spoke to the Virgin Mary and to theProphet Muhammad.

A universe is affixed to each of these primor¬dial lights. The cosmos is the sum of theseuniverses, including the lights that govern themand the radiation they mutually reflect. It isorganized into four worlds: the world of pureintelligence, the world of celestial spheres, theworld of sublunary elementary beings, and theworld of subtle forms and images. The latterworld, which is halfway between the worlds ofthe sensory and the supra-sensory, plays a leadingrole in Suhrawardi's reasoning, where rationalspeculations and imaginative visions are resolved.It sets out and opens up the path to a refinedgnosis.

These concepts bear witness to the fact thatin Islam, cosmogony is ontologically necessaryfor accession to the Supreme Truth. As theoryand reflection on the formation of the cosmos,

it englobes all aspects of the process of creation.But in its ultimate development it can becomeone with God Himself. In fact, many Muslim

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mystics maintain that the cosmos was created tosatisfy God's desire for self-knowledge. Did notIbn 'Arabi6 state that "God wished to see His

own essence so as to demonstrate His mysteryto Himself"? So the final consequence of the one¬ness of Being"there is no Being but the PureBeing"is that cosmogony is a reflection of thisdivine desire. It thus attains a metacosmic level

which only the most vertiginous form ofknowledge is permitted to reach!

These concepts, which had wide currency inthe intellectual circles of classical Islam, engen¬dered many passionate arguments. It is extraor¬dinary that this philosophical and religiousebullition did not hold back scientific studies of

astronomy and cosmography.

Above, portrait of thegreat Islamic philosopherAvicenna (Ibn Sina,980-1037 AD), paintedon a wall in Bukhara,Uzbek SSR.

Left, description of a lunareclipse in a Persian editionof al-Qazwini's "Wonders ofCreation".

1. Avicenna (Ibn Sina). Born 980AD near Bukhara. Died 1037. A

great thinker who wrote over 240works and contributed to many-fields of knowledge.2. Averroës (Ibn Rushd), born atCórdoba in 1126, was a

champion of Aristotelian thought.His philosophical works exercisedgreat influence on the Jewish andChristian intellectuals of medieval

Europe. Although he was doctorand adviser to several rulers, he

often had problems with thezealous representatives of"official" Islam, for whom the

prescriptions of the sharía tookprecedence over all forms ofspeculation. He died in Moroccoin 1198.

3. Abu Hamid Mohammed

Ghazali (1059-1111). Islamictheologian and philosopher,taught in Baghdad until 1095,then spent ten years travelling asa sufi through many parts of theIslamic world. The insights hegained from his meditations andmystical experiences are enshrinedin one of his major works, TheRevival of the Religious Sciences.4. Ash'arites: members of a

school of theology which takesits name from its founder,Abu *1-Hassan al-Ash'ari

(c. 873-943).5. Yahya Suhrawardi (born 1155in Media, in what is now north¬

western Iran) originated a revivalof traditional metaphysics inShi'ite Islam. He set forth a bodyof Islamic doctrine in which he

integrated ancient wisdom(notably inherited from ancientPersia), classical philosophy andmystical practices. Imprisonedand executed at Aleppo in 1191.6. Ibn 'Arabi, Andalusian

theosophist, was born at Murciain 1165 and died at Damascus in

1240. Editor 17

Guarani genesisGateway of che JesuitHlhrion of San Ignacio Mini(Argentina), sculpted byGuarani craftsmen

(17th-18th century).

*> ' v.t tf

The intricate

cosmogony ofSouth America's

'forest theologians'

Xhe French anthropologist Pierre Clastres oncewrote that the Guarani Indians of South Ameri¬

ca are "the theologians of the forest". It is cer¬tainly true that their conception of the creationreflects the subtlety and the complexity of theirthought.

The Guarani cosmogony, unlike most others,does not postulate the pre-existence of a Creator.Genesis takes place in several complex stages,beginning with the self-creation of the supremedeity Namandú. In the midst of the primevaldarkness, Our Father-the Ultimate-the Foremost-

the Primordial "caused his own body to emerge"from the original chaos. This self-creation ema¬nated from a radiancethe divine wisdom-

located in what was to become Namandú's heart.

The majestic process unfolds like the bur¬geoning of a tree. All the imagery used to describeit is borrowed from the plant worldfeet areplants, arms are branches, fingers are leaves, and,crowning all, the head is a magnificent tree-topin full leaf.

The second stage of creation is anthropogen¬ic, although it does not concern the origin ofhuman beings as such, but of speech, their dis¬tinguishing attribute. A fragment of the divineword, speech will enable the Guarani, the "Chos¬en", to communicate with the divinity and toenjoy the distinctive condition of the gods-immortality. This divine yet human speech, thecement of society that forms and shapes the com¬munity and ensures its collective solidarity, iscalled ayvú, to distinguish it from ñe'e, the speechused in human relations.

The next stage involves the creation of thefour principal gods, who will help Namandú inhis arduous cosmogonie task. Each of the fouris allotted a specific field of action: NamandúGreat Heart is the master of words; Karai is

master of the flame, of the fire of the sun; Jakairáis master of the fog that moderates the heat andof the revitalizing mist; Tupâ is master of water,of the sea and its extensions, of rain, thunder and

lightning. Each of these gods creates for himselfa companion known as the "true mother".

The pillars of the sky

The fourth and final stage in the creation con¬cerns the genesis of the first land, the land of manand woman, of plants and animals. A blue pindóor palm-tree arises in the centre of this land-to-be. (The colour blue symbolizes the sacred.) Thetree is sustained by four other palm-trees spreadout in the directions of the four winds and of time

(in Guarani, a single word, ara, covers these twoconcepts). Five blue palm-trees, like the fingersof a hand, thus support the bedrock of the earth.Then comes the creation of the firmament, which

also rests on four pillars, with a fifth added toprevent the heavens from shifting when buffetedby the winds.

With the creation of the first earth comes a

piecing together of its different componentsthe 19

aquatic world, the subterranean world, the dryland, day and night. The existence of theseseparate entities became perceptible as animalsgave them shape. Thus, the serpent outlines thesurface of the land; the song of the "little colouredcicada" gives birth to sound; the girino beetlegives life to the waters as it skims above them inacrobatic flight; the green grasshopper creates theprairies, since, wherever it alights on the ground,the grass begins to grow; the armadillo is "thefirst to violate the bedrock of the earth" with its

burrowings; night falls when the owl, "mistressof the shadows", closes her eyes in sleep.

At last the moment comes for Namandú to

create man and woman. This act of genesis is notdescribed. Our Father-the Ultimate-the

Foremost-the Primordial grants "wisdom" to the"Chosen" and orders the god Jakairá to place thehalo of life on their heads so that "the revitalizingmist shall crown the heads of my sons and mydaughters". He commands Karai to "lodge"within his beloved daughters and sons "thesacred, beautiful flame", and he enjoins Tupâ toimplant the "fountain of freshness" in the "heartof hearts" of his human creations.

The Fall

His task accomplished, Namandú withdrew tohis eternal abode, leaving in the hands of hishelpers the destiny of his creationthe first earth,perfect, devoid of evil, on which man and godslived in harmony. So long as they observed therules that led to perfection, the humans couldhold their heads as high as the gods and share withthem the supreme attribute of immortality.

The timeless time of eternity came to an end,however, when man failed to observe these rules

and lapsed into animality. The Fall was broughtabout by a serious transgression, incest, commit¬ted by Jeupié with his father's sister, in flagrantviolation of the Guarani kinship laws.

The punishment that followed was the des¬truction of the first earth, which disappeared

RUBEN BAREIRO

SAGUIER,

Paraguayan writer andspecialist in the Guarani

culture and language, is aresearcher at the French

National Centre for

Scientific Research (CNRS).His publications includestudies on linguistics andcollections of poetry and

short stories.

20

under the waters of the flood. The sole survivors

of the cataclysm, however, were those who hadcommitted the crime of incest. Through thepower of prayer and ritual incantations, theymanaged to swim to an eternal palm-tree wherethey escaped death by climbing into the safetyof its branches. Not only did they survive, butJeupié, "the master of wicked love", acquireddivine status and became the head of a categoryof minor gods.

What an astonishing transformationinsteadof being punished, the guilty one found himselfpromoted to a higher rank! By committing incest,Jeupié had, in effect, defiantly rejected his humancondition and thus had placed himself beyond thelaw, making himself the equal of the gods who areabove guilt and for whom nothing is prohibited.

Our Father-the Ultimate-the Foremost-the

Primordial encountered many difficulties increating a new earth. Many of his acolytes refusedto take on a task doomed to failure. In the end,

Jakairá agreed to create a new, imperfect earth,knowing full well that it "already held the seedsof rupture and of the misfortune of our sons andof the last of our children".

The rupture between the divine and the hu¬man worlds was confirmed with the inaugurationof the "imperfect earth", the "land of woefullife". Man lost the immortality inherent in hisdual human/divine status and had to resign him¬self to his new condition as a mere mortal. But

Guarani Indians of

Paraguay.this rupture left its mark upon his ancestralmemory and added a further dimension to Guara¬ni mythologythe unrelenting search for yvymaraey, the land without evil, itself a part of theworld in which we live, where it may be possi¬ble to regain immortality in life and, perhaps, alsoafter death.

This search retains all its immediacy for theGuarani people, who still, from time to time, setout on messianic wanderings.

An enduring symbolism

It is interesting to observe how religious syn¬cretism has welded together the symbolism of theGuarani and Catholic cultures.

In Paraguay widespread interbreeding hasensured the social and biological survival of theindigenous people and of certain elements of theirculture. The Guarani language, for example, wasgenerally used throughout the colonial period andis still predominant in Paraguay today.

Evangelization, however, was relentlesslypursued to achieve "the necessary extirpation ofindigenous idolatry". Rigorous orthodoxydemanded conversion of the indigenous popula¬tion to "the true religion", a task unwaveringlycarried out by the Society of Jesus. In the Jesuitmissions, for over a century and a half the sceneof an extraordinary social experiment, the Indianswere kept occupied with art and craft activitiesto "save them from idleness". The art they prac¬tised, however, was intended essentially to con¬vince and convert. Under the strict control of the

Jesuits no room was left for their "disciples" toexercise their powers of imagination. They wereconsidered to be "excellent copyists" but devoidof any creative talent.

However, close examination of the paintings,altar-pieces, images, statues and buildings of thisperiodespecially of the decorative details, whichwas left mainly to the disciplesreveals a numberof elements taken from the mythical universeof the Guarani. Baroque, the then dominant aes¬thetic trend, lent itself to the discreet introduc¬

tion of various forms of indigenous symbolism.Thanks to the fluid rhythms and the profusionof detail characteristic of the baroque period,Guarani animism surreptitiously found its wayinto the nooks and crannies of the official art

forms. In one piece of sculpture depicting theangel of the Annunciation blowing a trumpet, forexample, the angel is portrayed standing on apindó palm, the same tree which, in Guaranimythology, supported the first earth and the fir¬mament.

It was above all during the eighteenth century,when their confidence that the conversion was

complete led the evangelizers to soften theirintransigence, that plant themes proliferated inthe works of the indigenous people employed bythe missions. The works of this period feature,in addition to plant-life, saints whose hair-stylesrecall the jeguaká, the decorative mark of "theChosen", which in turn is reminiscent of the self-

creation of Namandú, whose flower-decked

headthe triumphal plume was the crowningsymbol of Guarani theogony.

21

A West African peoplelearns to respectthe cosmic order

Out of the land

of shadows BY AMADOU HAMPATE BA

Colourfully dressed members of a Fulani family,Burkina Faso.

IN the pantheon of the Fulani people of WestAfrica, the Supreme Being is Gueno, the Eternal,the Omnipotent, the Creator, Preserver andDestroyer He who bestows life and takes itaway. Both good and evil stem from Gueno, asis made clear in the prayer: "Give me Thy good,not Thy evil, but if Thou givest me Thy evil, giveme the strength to endure it." Idleness, vice andwar all stem from Gueno. This is regarded as nor¬mal, for His authority is unquestionable and Heowes no explanations to humankind, any morethan the head of a family owes any to hischildren.

Obedient to the traditions which govern theirupbringing, the Fulani never rebel against theirparents or consider them unjust, even when theyare harshly treated. Parents, chiefs and elders allhave rights. If one of them distributes propertyunequally and a young man complains, he isasked: "Are Gueno's shares equal?" And he istold: "No, they are not. Take then what you havebeen given and when your time comes to appor¬tion shares, do as you see fit."

In the Fulani tradition, unlike Islam andChristianity, there is no Satan on whom evilintent is polarized. When the devil is referred toin the initiatory narrative known as Kaïdara,which forms part of the tradition, a substituteword is used. In reality, the devil is a spirit or"genie", since Gueno is not in direct contact withhuman beings. First of all there are his "emana¬tions", supernatural spirits who act as "channels"for him. They include Kaïdara the Initiator,Jeddo-Dewal the Evil One, and the primal godssuch as Ham, Dem, and Yer, to whom sacrificesare offered. Next there are an infinite number of

génies specific to the elements (the spirits of air,water and fire), génies (such as the génies ofKaïdara) who serve supernatural spirits, andgénies who roam free in nature and contrive tohelp or torment human beings. A beautiful dreamis sent by a good genie, whereas an ugly suspi¬cion is the work of an evil genie. Lastly, thereare génies who perform special functions in foodpreparation, hunting, crop growing, animal hus¬bandry, and other activities. This means thatthere is a teeming "occult" population which

The terra-cotta bottle

stopper in the form of thehead of a Fulani woman,

above, was crafted in the

16th century.

Man, animal, the elements...

the rainy season in Niger.

lives in the "land of shadows" inhabited by thesuudiibe or hidden beings, invisible spirits that canassume all kinds of physical forms.

This is a land lying midway between the"land of clarity" inhabited by visible beings andthe "land of darkest night", the abode of the soulsof the dead and the unborn not only the soulsof humans but those of animals and plants. Theseare the three lands of the Fulani.

Kaïdara is therefore "a beam radiating outfrom the burning centre formed by Gueno". Hemay assume a multitude of visible forms, but heusually prefers to adopt the features of deformedold men or beggars, to help him lead astraywould-be opportunists or shallow individuals.

It has not been possible to attach a precisemeaning to the word Kaïdara, but it could besaid to denote "aim", "limit", "boundary" or"finality".

Why should the word mean "aim" and whydo people strive at all costs and endure many or¬deals to grasp the mystery of Kaïdara?

The reason is that Kaïdara is the god of goldand of knowledge.

Gold is a royal metal around which basicmyths throughout West Africa have been con¬structed. But why was gold an esoteric substancelong before it had a monetary value? Because, itis said, gold "never rusts and never tarnishes".It ¡s the only metal which can become "cottonwhile remaining iron", and "with one gram ofgold, it is possible to spin a thread as thin as astrand of hair and circumscribe an entire villagewithin it". Gold is also "the pedestal ofknowledge, but if you confuse knowledge andits pedestal, then the pedestal will fall andcrush you".

Yet while adventurers are attracted more bygold than by knowledge, Kaïdara typifiesknowledge, which even dictates the form heassumes. An extraordinary being with sevenheads, twelve arms and thirty feet, perched onan endlessly rotating four-footed throne, Kaïdararepresents the structure of the world and time:the seven days of the week, the twelve months,and the thirty days of the month. He representsthe perpetual movement of the earth, the four

24

AMADOU HAMPATE BA,

of Mali, is a specialist inAfrican history, cosmogony

and literature. He is the

author of many books andarticles about Africa,

including a novel L'Etrangedestin de Wangrin

("Wangrin's StrangeDestiny"), which won theGrand Prix Littéraire de

l'Afrique Noire in 1974. Hiswork in collecting and

relating traditional stories,such as the Kaïdara initiatorynarrative presented in the text

published here, hasmade a major contribution

to the preservationof the oral traditions of the

Fulani people.

basic elements and the four cataclysms which,according to the prophesies, will destroy theworld of humankind.

Kaïdara epitomizes knowledge of cosmicorder and disorder alike: pervasive dualism andthe annihilation of some beings by others. Herepresents knowledge of the laws of society, butalso of the laws of psychology. Every symbolencountered on the path taken by Kaïdaracorresponds to a human type, with its positiveand negative aspects. The three pieces of advicegiven by Kaïdara himself are aimed at ensuringthat the laws of nature and of the ancestors are

absolute, yet without divulging their secrets. Woe

betide anybody who does not respect them!But the knowledge of the god of knowledge isunfathomable and that is probably why his namemeans "limit", since he personifies the limitplaced on human knowledge. He is "remote yetvery close", since we think that we can easilyunderstand him, whereas in fact he is inexhaust¬

ible. It is significant that, at the end of the initia¬tory narrative, Kaïdara takes three steps backwhen the man he has just initiated wishes toembrace him in a gesture of joy, for there mustalways be a distance and a veil between masterand pupil, between god and man, and betweenknowledge and its imperfect approximations.!

Fulani women often wear

jewellery of gold, theprecious metal whichfeatures in many WestAfrican myths.

25

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In Siberia,an eternal search

for lightand warmth

The hunt for

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ali

ITa*'

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the sun BY GALINA KAPTUKE-VARLAMOVA

I

JuONG ago, the Evenk people of northernSiberia believed that the sun, the moon and the

sky were their cosmic parents, founders of theuniverse and the source of all life on earth. Theyinhabited a vast upper world, Ugu Buga, whichhad its own taiga, rivers and oceans. Beneath UguBuga stretched the boundless sea of Lam Buldyar,ruled over by Savaki, son of the sky.

The chief figure in this ancient Evenk cos¬mogony is the sun, Dylachankur, master of lightand warmth. Each morning Dylachankur risesand orders his youngest son, Garpani, to take atorch made of birch-bark to the hole in the upperworld in order to bring light to mankind. AsGarpani approaches the hole the earth growslighter, and when he puts his torch to the hole,day breaks.

Dylachankur himself works all day longgathering warmth for the people. But when hepulls down the curtain-door of his tent and stokesthe fire in his hearth, autumn comes to the earth.And winter comes when all the warmth is

gathered into his huge leather sack inside the tentand the door is tightly closed. When Dylachankur

-ajAtaiv. In-, sons carr) the sack to the hole in the^upper world and shake out the warmth, the snow

thaws, the rivers flow again and the warm daysof spring return.

waking from his long winter sleep, theer Agdy strikes fire from a flint to stoke

Thunder roars and lightning flashes.

At this time of year the call of the cuckoo, theshaman bird, can also be heard. She is sent to the

earth to sing praises for the returning warmth andlight and to awaken spring. With the first pealsof thunder and the first cries of the cuckoo, the

Evenk celebrate the coming of spring. For eightdays, the feast of Ikechik, they sing and dance andgive thanks to Dylachankur, the sun, for thewarmth that has come to the earth.

Legend has it that long ago Dylachankur hada wife, Bega, the moon. They lived together andhad childrenthe sun-rays. But once, when theywere travelling across the sky, Bega left behindtheir ollon, a hook for hanging up a cauldron.Although this was such an important householdutensil, Dylachankur told her: "Don't go back,or you'll fall behind for ever." "No, I won't,"the moon answered, and she went back to fetch

the ollon. Alas, she never caught up withDylachankur and their sons, and she is still tryingto do so. When the sun rises the moon is nowhere

to be seen, because she has gone back to fetch thehook, and when the sun sets the moon immedi¬

ately appears in vain pursuit.Evenk hunters referred to a fixed point of

brightness in the night sky (the Pole Star) fororientation. They named it Buga Sanari ("thehole in the sky"). Through this hole they believedit was possible to reach the upper world. Theymarked the passing of time by the nightly appear¬ance of the Great Bear constellation, which theynamed Havlan, the she-elk of the sky.

The hunters used to say that during the day¬time the she-elk and her calf (the Little Bear) hidein the forests of the sky. When darkness falls, theycome out to graze on the high peaks of the moun¬tains and then they can be seen. But the bogatyr

a cosmic forefather of the Evenk. hunts the

Soothsayer and healer, theshaman was the central

figure in traditional Evenkreligion. Below, 18th-century illustration of ashaman.

she-elk each night. His wide skis leave a trailthe Milky Way. Mani overtakes the she-elk andkills her, but the calf escapes. By the next night,the calf has grown up and takes her place in thenight sky with a new calf. Again Mani puts onhis skis and continues his hunt.

According to another version of this myth,Hoglen the elk steals the sun, thus taking day¬light away from the earth. He hides the sunbeneath his belly and runs with him across thesky. Night falls on earth. Mani comes down tosee how the Evenk live, but it is dark on earth

because Hoglen has taken away the sun. Peoplecannot live without light and warmth, so Manidecides to help them. He puts on his skis and setsoff in pursuit of Hoglen, armed with a bow andtwo arrows. He skis with all his might, overtakesthe elk and shoots his first arrow, but in the dark¬

ness he misses the target.Hoglen the elk runs across the sky, with

Mani the bogatyr in hot pursuit. They run for along time, and all the while the earth remains indarkness. At last Mani overtakes the elk once

more and, running by his side, draws back thebow-string to its limit. This time the arrow findsits mark. Mani takes the sun from Hoglen and

28

brings light back to the earth. And so it has beenever since, which is why night always follows dayand day follows night.

The earth-diver mythThe Evenk believed that the earth was created

by Savaki, son of the sky, who lived in the upperworld of Ugu Buga with his elder brother Khargi.Savaki asked the golden-eye duck and the diverbird to help him create a "middle world" bybringing sand and clay from the sea-bed. Thegolden-eye dived three times but it could notreach the bottom. Then the diver plunged intothe sea but at first had no success either. It dived

again and this time it just touched the bottomwith its beak. Then it rested for a while and tried

again, diving so deep that it caught up a beakfulof earth. When the diver came up it spat out theearth and an islet was formed, which graduallygrew larger and larger. Khargi was enviousbecause his brother had created the land, while

it had never occurred to him to do anything likethat himself.

Savaki, meanwhile, looked at the bare land

and was not pleased with it. Nothing grew onit, nobody lived there. So he made up his mindto create plants, mountains, rivers and lakes.Every day he came down from the upper worldto the earth to work. Khargi also came down tospy on him. The land was growing wider but itwas not solid enough, so Savaki set fire to it. Thefire raged for a long time, and when it was extin¬guished lakes and rivers appeared in the burnedplaces. Next Savaki asked for the help of thewater dragon, Dyabdar, who had the enormoushorns of an elk. Dyabdar dived under the earthand as he swam the twisting of his body raisedhills and mountains.

Savaki then began to create trees and grasses,intending to make only plants that would beuseful to man, but the envious Khargi waswatching him and imitated everything he did.When Savaki created a larch, Khargi made a pine.The Evenk never use pine as firewood becauseits smoke hurts the eyes. Savaki created a birch,and in trying to copy him Khargi produced analder, a tree which is virtually useless to theEvenk apart from the dye that can be extractedfrom its bark. The furious Khargi finally cried:"From now on I'll only create that which isuseless or harmful to man."

Thus man can eat all the animals and birds

created by Savaki, while Khargi's creations areinedible. When Savaki created a grouse, Khargicreated.. .a woodpecker. In the end, Savakiproscribed the eating of meat from his brother'screations.

Finally Savaki began to create men andwomen. He wished them to be immortal. The

dog, which resembled man in that it could speakand had no fur, was helping him. Its duty wasto guard Savaki's creations so that Khargi couldnot spoil them. One day when Savaki had gone

in search of clay and iron (which he needed tomake man's heart), Khargi came to the hut inwhich the finished figures were kept and wherethe dog was on guard.

"Open the door and let me see what mybrother has created," he said. "No," answeredthe dog, "Savaki forbade me to open the doorfor you." Khargi found a crack in the wall andblew through it with all his might. It grew verycold and the naked dog was freezing. Kharginoted this and repeated: "Open the door, I'll justlook at my brother's creations and then I'll giveyou warm clothes for good. You will never becold again." So the dog opened the door.

Khargi licked the clay figures all over, spaton them, and said: "My brother wanted to makepeople immortal, but I'll spoil his creations. Theywill no longer be immortal but will be subjectto diseases that will make them die before their

When Savaki returned he was very angrywith the dog and said: "Now you will becomea real dog, you will grow fur and forget humanspeech. You will understand everything, butinstead of answering you will just wag your tail.You will always walk with a leash round yourneck and look at man's back." He drove the dog-out, and that was the end of their friendship.

Savaki breathed warmth from his fire into the

clay figures and they came to life. Then hereturned to the upper world and named the earthDulin Buga, which means "middle world". Ontaking his leave, he gave the people their tradi¬tions and the rules that govern their life and con¬duct. As for Khargi, he left for the place that hehad created for himself, the lower world that is

the source of everything harmful to man.

time.

Evenk figurine of aprotective spirit.Left, Evenk hunters ofnorthern Siberia use

reindeer as pack animalsand mounts.

GALINA

KAPTUKE-VARLAMOVA

was born in Soviet Siberia

into a family of Evenkhunters and reindeer

breeders. She is a philologistand writer with a specialinterest in the folklore of

the peoples of the far north. 29

c *-

A mountain people30 in harmony with Nature Guardians of the

i fc»

>% *

s * *r?^^

San Miguel, a Koguavillage.

...

cosmos BY FLOR ROMERO

Ahe Kogua, or Cagaba, people are a mainlyfarming community of South American Indians,who number some 5,000 and live on the slopes ofthe Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, in Colombia.

They farm scattered plots of land to which theytravel along stone-paved roads made in the forestsby their ancestors, great builders whose customsand beliefs they still observe.

The Kogua do all they can to avoid cuttingdown trees, to ensure that the rivers run unfet¬

tered along their natural courses and to preservethe tombs and sanctuaries of their forefathers.

The stars, the vagaries of the wind and the pat¬terns of plant and animal life are an open bookto them. They have learned to read the heavens,where "everything is written, everything can beseenthe past, people and animals". From their,mountain-dwelling ancestors they have inherited ',

% i*«*

32

a very ancient calendar which features Huso (thecrab), Neuiheldji (the otter), Mebbtashi (the jaguar)and Tarbi (the serpent).

They treasure the ancestral lore concerningthe laws of nature and the governance of theuniverse, and they have a sense of helpless despairas the "civilized ones" push them ever higher upthe mountains and confound the laws of the

Mother.

The Mother is the symbol of fertility. Herlaws regulate the reproductive cycle, and obe¬dience to them guarantees its perpetuation for alltime. For the Kogua, true "knowledge" isknowledge of the laws of Mother Nature asreflected in traditions about the birth of the

universe, in myth, and in the lives and genealo¬gies of the great heroes. Living at one with theMother is the key to the preservation of theuniverse and the constant renewal of life in the

great, unending cosmic cycle.

The ancestral message

Seated on a mound in the Ciudad Perdida (the"Lost City"), dressed in a white tunic and wear¬ing a pointed hat, the high priest of the Koguacontemplates the blue skies, lost in meditation.Beside him lies a cloth bag filled with bananas,avocados, corn cobs, pineapples, potatoes andyams. He is on his way back to his humble home,high in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, andhas stopped for a while to meditate on the desti¬ny of his people.

Long ago, the Kogua reigned as lords andmasters of the region stretching from the foothills

of the Sierra to the snow-clad peaks overlookingthe Caribbean Sea. Everything was theirsthesky, the sea, the snows, the mountains, the riversand the sacred cities. And they held sway overthe neighbouring peoples.

They had been masters of the universe eversince time immemorial, when the Universal

Mother gave birth to them, for "She is theMother of all the races of men and of all the

tribes..."

The high priest, or Mama, of the Kogua isresponsible for watching over the universal orderas well as the spiritual and social order of thetribe. He knows the cosmogony of his tribe (seepage 33) by heart and zealously preserves theancestral message handed down from generationto generation. His knowledge of the laws ofnature, inherited from the forefathers, enableshim to understand the Law of the Mother. She

is the Mother of the lakes, the rivers, the trees

and of all things. She is the Mother of song anddance, of the ancient brethren of stone, of fruitand of all things. She is also the Mother of thelesser brethren, or foreigners. She is the Motherof musical instruments and of all temples, of thesun and the Milky Way, of fire and of rain.

Like their ancestors, the Kogua believe thatthey alone hold the secret, passed down fromfather to son, that governs the way all things areborn, grow, reproduce and die, that causes therain to fall, the springtime to come and the sunto rise in the morning. The Kogua are, indeed,the guardians of the universe.

The high priest, with his sad face, his stonystare and with all his knowledge of nature,watches impotently over the destruction of theuniverse. Like an elder brother, it is his duty toensure that the laws of Mother Nature are not

altered; yet what more can he do than recite theceremonial invocations and prayers in her tem¬ples so close to heaven?

From time to time he may go down to theplains, but only to implore the foreigners and theauthorities to let his people live in peace, not toencroach any further on their lands, not to im¬pose upon them the customs of the newcomersand to stop the white intruders' impious destruc¬tion of Mother Nature, who is the fount of all

things.On 9 June 1987, worried about the violation

of their holy places, the Kogua priests gatheredin conclave in the Ciudad Perdida. As a result of

their deliberations a letter was sent to the govern¬ment requesting protection for these sites. "Thesegreat cities contain the true secrets of our tradi¬tional wisdom and of our philosophical thought.This is one of the reasons why the priests of theKogua have a duty to watch over their legitimatepossessions."

The Kogua stress, in particular, that Teyuna(centre of power and symbol of fertility and ofthe future) is a sacred place to which their priestsgo to meditate. Placed in their safe-keeping, it is theheritage bequeathed to them by the gods.

- ' 4*a

The "Lost City" of theKogua in the Sierra Nevadade Santa Marta (Colombia).

FLOR ROMERO,

is a Colombian writer whose

published works includenovels such as Triquitraquesdel trópico (1972; "TropicalReverberations") and Los

sueños del poder (1979;"Dreams of Power") and

biographical studies. She hasalso published collections of

stories based on pre-Columbian myths and

legends.

THE NINEWORLDS

OF THEKOGUA

A simplified, adapted version of thecosmogonie myth transcribed in itsoriginal form by Gerardo ReichetDomatoffin The Kogua, Volume II,published by Procultura, Bogotá, 1985.

In the beginning was the sea. Allwas darkness. There was neither

sun nor moon, no people, plantsor animals. There was only thesea; and the sea was everywhere.The sea was the Mother (...); andthe Mother was neither personnor thing, nor anything at all. Shewas the spirit of that which wasto come; and she was thought andshe was memory.

Thus, the Mother already ex¬isted, when, gradually, the lands,the worlds took shape until theybecame the world that we know

today. In this wise were fashionednine worlds. In the First World

was the Mother, the water and the

night. There was as yet no dawn.This is why, at that time, theMother was called Se-ne-nuláng.There was also a Father, who was

called Katakéne-ne-nuláng. Theyhad a son, whom they namedBunkua-sé. Yet still there were no

people, no things, not anything atall. They were Aluna,* that is,

they were spirit and thought.Such was the First World.

The Second World had a

Father who was a tiger. In theThird there emerged worms andmaggots. In the Fourth therewere two Mothers, Sáyaguaeye-yumang and Disi-se-yuntaná, anda Father, Sai-taná, who knew

what people would be like. In theFifth World appeared the MotherEnkuâne-ne-nuiâng, who pon¬dered on the human beings to be;but these were humans without

ears, without eyes, without noses,without hearing, yet they had aform of speech, incessantly chant¬ing in a mad refrain "sai-sai-sai"(night, night, night).

The Mother, Bunkuáne-ne-

nuMng, and the Father, Sai-chaká,of the Sixth World gave birth tothe first two Masters of the

World, the two Búnkua-sé, Blueand Black. The world was divided

into two partsthe Blue and theBlackand then, in each part,

there were nine Búnkua-sé. Those

to the left were all Blue and those

to the right were all Black.Ahúnyika was the Mother of

the Seventh World in which

blood began to form in bodies and .worms multiplied but still had nobones or strength.

In the Eighth World theMother, Kenyajé, and the Father,Abuinakatana, gave birth to thethirty-six Fathers and Masters ofthe world.

Finally, the Ninth World wasformed, in which there were nineWhite Búnkua-sé. Then the

Fathers of the world encountered

a huge tree in the sky above thesea; and above the sea they builta great house of wood and lianaand they called it Aluna.

* For the Kogua, the concept of Alina in¬cludes the notions of spirit, memory,thought, volition, soul and intention. Theconcrete, visible manifestation of things issymbolic only and their true value and es¬sence are embodied in Aluna. 33

'Give us the light of life andof death'

34

Araditional cultures portray the origin ofthe universe in strikingly similar ways. The spec¬tacular dividing of the waters of the sky and ofthe depths, of the firmament and of the ocean,in Basque cosmogony thus parallels the creationof land described in the first chapter of Genesisas a place for the earth's creatures to live.

The traditional Basque New Year ceremonyof the presentation of water derives directly fromthis world picture and from ritual practicesassociated with the New Year ever since very ear¬

ly times. In Navarre, when the last stroke of mid¬night chimes from the clock in the Urdiáin tower,solemnly marking the end of the year, a band ofyoung people offers the local dignitaries a jarbrimming with water in order to wish themsuccess and happiness in the coming year. Thedignitaries must accept the gift, drink the water,and offer in return a roll (opila), or, nowadays,a traditional pastry.

The form of the greeting that accompaniesthis ritual varies from one part of the Basquecountry to another. The words that I learnt asa child in Arruazu (Navarre) are: Ur goiena, urbarrena! Urteberri egun onal Graziearekin osasuna,pakearekin ontasuna: jainkuak dizuela egun onal("Water on high, water below, New Year greet¬ings! Grace and health, peace and prosperity: mayGod give you greetings!")

Although such ancient myths have ceased tobe current, the rural Basques still observe certaincustoms that can be traced back to them. For

example, the pagan prayer to the sun and themoon (emaiquzu biziko ta hileko argia usthe light of life and of death") persists in Chris¬tianized form in popular religious practice.

The symbolism of light plays a fundamentalrole in traditional Basque funeral rites. When thehead of a rural household dies, the family beehiveis covered with a black sheet as a sign of mourn¬ing. If it is not, the bees are believed to be indanger of dying. This rite is accompanied by anincantation which has a very practical objective:"Give us more wax this year as the master of thehouse is dead."

Like many other peoples who are the heirsto an ancient civilization, the Basques attributeda sacred character to atmospheric disturbances,and some practices associated with worship of theforces of nature still survive today. Many peoplestill believe that fossils are thunderbolts that have

fallen from the sky. The inhabitants of the valleyof Burunda in Navarre call them Jangoikoaren

harriak ("stones of God") and pick them up tokeep in their kitchens, where sometimes over adozen can be found, of all shapes and sizes. Thefossils are thought to protect the house from

BY JOSE M. SATRUSTEGUI

Echoes fromancient myths

survive in

Basquecustoms and

folktales

lightning and, by extension, from evil action byoccult forces.

Metal implements such as axes, knives orsickles are also believed to be effective lightningconductors. I once saw an old woman who lived

alone in Valcarlos, in Navarre, brandishing a

sickle during a storm. To be on the safe side, shehad opened all her doors and windows, heedlessof the wind blowing through the house. She wasconvinced that she was doing the right thing.

Other Pyrenean villagers adopt a more radicalsolutionthey fire a rifle into the clouds to makethem disperse. If there is no man in the house,the woman will shoot in the direction of the

storm from an upstairs window. I have seen nor¬mally sensible men take down their rifles at suchtimes and fire them up the chimney.

Left and opposite page,Illargi-Amandre("Lady Moon"), 1972,bronze casting onoak pedestal by theBasque sculptorNestor Basterrechea.

JOSE MARIASATRÚSTEGUI,

Basque ethnologist, issecretary of the Royal

Academy for the BasqueLanguage and a

corresponding member ofthe American Institute of

Basque Studies. He is theauthor of several studies on

Basque ethnography.

Legends of the sun and moon

Every day the sun strolls across the firmamentand turns around his mother the earth, who

welcomes him to her bosom at nightfall. Legendhas it that man once lived in fear that one daythe sun would forget to wake up. He sent a sentryaccompanied by a cock to the ends of the earthin order to disturb the sun's slumber should the

need arise. When he arrived at his destination,

the envoy discovered that the primitive peopleliving in that place usually banged the groundwith sticks or other instruments every morningto make sure that the sun began his daily roundon time.

According to Basque tradition, everythingconnected with the sun has an auspicious, sacredcharacter. The sun is said to rise on Midsummer's

Day (24 June) by leaping over the horizon andin the evening he is besought to return: IruzkiSaindia! Haugi bihar muga onez ("Holy Sun! Beon time tomorrow morning").

The moon reigns over the night and the here¬after and is sometimes less obliging and indeeddownright vindictive towards mortals.

It is said that a peasant returning home laden

with branches was once overtaken by nightfall.Worn out and weighed down by his burden, hegrew impatient with the whims of the moon whoseemed to be playing hide-and-seek with theclouds like a crazy she-goat, and shouted: "I'd liketo see you in this godforsaken hole with a loadon your back!" Nettled by his aggressive tone,the moon seized the insolent fellow and carried

him off, and ever since then his silhouette can beseen on the face of the moon.

This is why old women implore the moonnot to get angry.

Heaven's revenge

A Basque legend has it that the wagon of theGreat Bear is drawn by oxen. It is also said thatone day some robbers stole a team of oxen froma peasant who lived on his farm with his wife andtwo children. Discovering the theft the next day,the farmer sent his son after the thieves. The son

followed the usual paths, but did not return.Next, the farmer sent his daughter to look forher brother, but she did not come back either.

Then the family dog went off in turn in searchof the children, leaving the house unguarded.

Finally the father, beside himself with anxi¬ety, decided to set out in pursuit of his children.After walking fruitlessly for a long time, over¬come by weariness and sorrow, he began to cursethe fugitives, saying: "By Almighty God, wher¬ever you may be, you can stay there!"

This terrible curse brought a punishment thatwas even more terrible. Ever since, all thoseinvolved have been condemned to wander one

after the other without ever being able to meet,in the trail of the constellation which the Basquescall for this reason "the ox-thieves" (idi-ohoinak).

According to another legend, one year whenthe month of March had been particularly harshfor shepherds, a shepherd insulted March bysaying, "May you be gored to death!".

Sorely offended, March decided to takerevenge, but it was already noon on the 31st dayof the month. He therefore asked April to lendhim two and a half days during which he un¬leashed a violent storm of snow and hail through¬out the region. All the rivers and streamsoverflowed, carrying away the flock of theimprudent shepherd, who stood by helplessly.Seeing that the ram had got caught on a branch,the shepherd went to get it back, exclaiming, "Byyour mother, I'll save you at least!". But thepanic-stricken animal struggled so violently thatwith a sudden jerk of its head it gored out theeye of the unfortunate shepherd who was alreadyone-eyed and now became completely blind. Suchwas the vengeance wreaked by the baneful monthof March during those three "borrowed" days(ordiz-egunak), which are understandably fearedby shepherds. 35

The birth and death

cOSMOLOGISTS today stand on the edge ofbeing able to answer the age-old question of thephilosopherswhere do we come from, andwhere are we going? Even many non-scientistsare familiar with the term "Big Bang" to describethe birth of the universe in a ball of fire some

15 billion years ago. But even some scientists arenot aware of new ideas in cosmology which linkthis birth of the universe to its ultimate death,

in a self-contained description that owes muchto a marriage between the two great achievementsof twentieth-century physics, general relativityand quantum theory. Researchers such as JayantNarlikar, in India, and Jim Hartle, in California,as well as several Soviet experts, have been closelyinvolved in this work. But the man whose name

is most intimately linked with this breakthroughis Stephen Hawking, of the University of Cam¬bridge in England.

Hawking is well-known today as the authorof a best-selling book about the nature of time,*and as the victim of a crippling disease that leaveshim confined to a wheelchair and able to com¬

municate only by laboriously spelling out wordsand phrases using movements of one hand todirect the output of a small computer. But longbefore he achieved such popular fame Hawkingwas recognized by his scientific peers as one ofthe most original, and able, thinkers of his gener¬ation. For twenty years, his studies have concen¬trated on the puzzle of what happens to matterat a singularitythe point of infinite density andzero volume that lies, according to relativity the¬ory, at the heart of a black hole, or at the begin¬ning of the universe.

The universe itself is, in fact, described by thesame equations that describe a black hole. A blackhole is a region where there is such a concentra¬tion of matter that the gravitational pull itproduces is so strong that not even light canescape from its surface. Nothing from inside ablack hole can affect the outside world, althoughobjects from outside may fall in. Such a black holemay be produced when a star rather more massivethan our own sun comes to the end of its life,

and shrinks inward. The equations of general rela¬tivity show that any star that shrinks inside ablack hole must, indeed, collapse all the way toa singularity.

Scientists are suspicious of singularities, and

* A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to BlackHoles, by Stephen W. Hawking. Bantam Press, TransworldPublishers, London and New York, 1988.

BY JOHN GRIBBIN

of equations that contain infinities; they usuallyregard any indication that they exist as a sign thatsomething is wrong with the equations. Butgeneral relativity passes every other test with fly¬ing colours; and since the singularities predictedby the equations lie only in the hearts of blackholes, where they can never be seen, the idea was,reluctantly, accepted. Hawking put the cat amongthe pigeons by showing, just over twenty yearsago, that the same equations that require collaps¬ing stars to form singularities also require that theexpanding universe was born from a singularity.

Reversingthe direction of time

We know that the universe is expanding becausedistant galaxies are observed to be moving awayfrom us, with velocities proportional to their dis¬tance. This does not mean that our Milky WayGalaxy is at the centre of the universe, since sucha pattern of recession, with velocity proportionalto distance, is exactly what you would see fromany point within a uniformly expanding universe.This discovery, dating back to the 1920s, is oneof the key ingredients in the concept of the BigBang, that the universe used to be in a superdense,superhot state, from which it has been expand¬ing for about 15 billion years.

Just by imagining the expansion reversed, itis clear that long ago the galaxies were closertogether, and that even longer ago all the starsin all the galaxies must have been merged in onehot lump. But nobody seriously suggested thatthe expansion could be "wound back" all the wayto a singularity, until Hawking proved that byreversing the direction of time in the equationswhich require collapsing stars to form singulari¬ties you obtain equations which require that theexpanding universe started from a singularity.

Unlike the singularity in a black hole, the sin¬gularity at the birth of the universe is, in a sense,open to view. But since it is 15 billion years awayfrom us in time, physicists were still not too wor¬ried about this flaw in their equations. Worse,though, was to come.

Black holes

In the 1970s, Hawking turned his attention to thebehaviour of black holes themselves. He realized

that there is a profound connection between thedescription of a black hole in terms of generalrelativity and both thermodynamics and quantum

PRECEDING PAGES

Nebulae are huge clouds ofgas and dust that swirlthrough interstellar space.Left-hand page: the CrabNebula in the constellation

Taurus.

Right-hand page: the OrionNebula.

"Interstellar Portal", oil on

canvas, by thecontemporary Italianpainter Luigi Crippa.

theory. In so doing, he linked the greatest de¬velopments of twentieth-century physics with thegreatest achievement of nineteenth-century phys¬ics. But at the cost of exposing the singularitiesinside black holes to the outside world.

It works like this. There is a sharp "edge"to a black hole, called an event horizon. Anythinginside the event horizon is trapped, and can neverescape. Anything outside can, if it has enoughspeed, escape from the gravitational clutches ofthe hole. The area of this surface around the black

hole, the area of the event horizon, represents itssize, and is, of course, related to how much massis inside.

Quantum theory comes into the story becauseof a property known as uncertainty, which is atthe heart of the quantum world. In that world,"uncertainty" has a very precise meaning. Quan¬tum physics describes the behaviour of particleslike electrons, on scales smaller than atoms. At

this level, nothing is certain. A quantum particle,for example, does not have both a precisely definedposition and a precisely defined momentum at the

38

same time. In everyday language, the particleeither knows where it is going or where it is now,but not both at once. Unfortunately, there is nospace here to go into all the fascinating implica¬tions of this.

A similar uncertainty applies, at the quantumlevel, to energy. In a tiny volume of empty space,where there ought to be nothing at all, a littlebubble of energy is allowed to pop up, out of thevacuum, provided that it vanishes again withina very short time, a time specified by the quan¬tum equations. Such a short-lived energy bubbleis called a "vacuum fluctuation". Since Einstein

taught us that energy is equivalent to mass, thisuncertainty energy can even be turned into a pairof particles, provided that they promptly vanishagain (it has to be at least a pair of particles, be¬cause of other quantum rules, which I won't gointo here).

Bizarre though it may seem, this descriptionof the vacuum of space as a seething maelstrom

of particles popping into and out of existenceevery tiny fraction of a second is a cornerstoneof modern physics. But what happens to such"virtual" particles when they are created along¬side a black hole?

Hawking's stroke of inspiration was toimagine a virtual pair being produced right on

the edge of a black hole, a miniscule distanceabove the event horizon. It is possible, just bychance, for one particle in the pair to be movinginto the hole while the other moves outward. Justas particles can only be created in pairs, so theycan only be destroyed in pairs. But in less timethan it takes for the pair to annihilate, one particlehas vanished forever into the black hole, and the

other has escaped. The uncertainty rules seem tohave been broken, since a particle appears to havebeen created out of nothing at all. But Hawkingshowed that the mass-energy needed to make theparticle has come from the gravity of the blackhole. As a result, the hole has actually lost massand shrunk by a tiny amount.

With this processHawking evaporation-going on all over the event horizon, a black holemust slowly shrink away, turning its mass intoa flood of elementary particles. Every black holehas a characteristic temperature as a result (thelink with thermodynamics), and may eventuallyshrink to the point where the event horizon dis¬appears and the singularity inside is exposed toview.

The 'edge' of the universe

Hard though it is for physicists to accept, as yetthey have found no way to avoid this possibility.But having exposed the singularities inside blackholes, in recent years Hawking has done his bestto hide the singularity at the birth of the universe.

Just as quantum physics removes the bound¬ary around a black hole, so, Hawking believes,it may remove the singularity at the beginningof the universe. A moment of creation, he says,provides an "edge" to the universe, a boundaryin time. But:

"When quantum mechanics is taken intoaccount, there is the possibility that the singular¬ity may be smeared out and that space and timetogether may form a closed four-dimensional sur¬face without a boundary or edge, like the surfaceof the earth but with two extra dimensions. This

would mean that the universe was completelyself-contained and did not require any boundaryconditions. ..there would not be any singularitiesat which the laws of physics would break down."

The quote is from Hawking's essay "TheEdge of Spacetime", in William Kaufmann'sbook Universe (Freeman, New York, 1985). Itcan be translated into everyday language quitesimply.

Hawking suggests that we think of the fourdimensions of the universe (three of space and oneof time) as being like the two dimensional sur¬face of the earth. The surface of the earth is

"closed", in the sense that it has no edge whichyou can fall offthat is, it is unbounded, althoughfinite in size. In order to make the analogy work,you have to think of all three dimensions of spaceas represented by a single line of latitude, a circlearound the earth from east to west and back to

its starting point. The direction of time isrepresented by lines of longitude, running fromone pole to the other.

The North Pole represents "time zero", inthis picturethe birth of the universe in the BigBang. The "line of latitude" at the pole has zerodimensions. As the universe expands away fromthe Big Bang, imagine successive lines of latitudedrawn closer to the equator. As time passes (thedistance from the North Pole increases), the linesare longerthat is, the universe expands. Butthere is no "edge" in time at the North Pole, anymore than there is an "edge of the world" there.It is just a place from which all time directionshappen to be "forward", just as on the surface

of the earth all spatial directions from the NorthPole are "south".

So far, so good. But what happens when wereach the equator? Now, as we continue draw¬ing successive lines of latitude they get smaller,the "universe" shrinks, until it disappears at theSouth Pole, in a mirror image of the Big Bangin which it was born.

How could this happen in the real universe,if we translate back from Hawking's picture? Onepossibility being entertained seriously today isthat the entire universe may be no more, and noless, than a vacuum fluctuation on the grand scale.For most of us, imagining the creation, if onlyfor a fleeting instant, of a pair of particles out ofnothing at all is far from easy. But cosmologists,to paraphrase Lewis Carroll, have no troublebelieving three impossible things before break¬fast. It was an American physicist, Ed Tryon,who pointed out that although the lifetime of avirtual pair of particles is limited by the amount

"Cosmic Composition"(1919), oil on board onwooden base, by the Swissartist Paul Klee (1879-1940).

39

^"S»

1?n 'a|T! '

.-

40

of mass-energy they contain, it is possible for awhole universe to be created, out of nothing atall, with zero net energy. If so, there is no con¬straint on its lifetime, since the quantum equa¬tions are always in balance.

'A complete description ofwhere our universe comes from

and where it is going'

This neat trick rests upon the way energy isstored in a gravitational field. This is always nega¬tive, in the sense that the mass-energy of a particleis always positive. So our 'universe might havebeen born as a tiny bubble in spacetime, contain¬ing the entire mass of the universe, but with thismass-energy balanced by the gravitational energyassociated with that mass. The trick only worksif there is enough mass to ensure that the universeitself is a kind of black hole, closed off by gravityfrom anything outside. Af first, cosmologiststhought that such a new-born "universe" wouldcollapse rather suddenly, and disappear. Morerecently, however, a theory which goes by theappropriate name of inflation has been developed

and shows how such a tiny, superdense seed ofmatter would be "blown up" to produce thefamiliar Big Bang.

And so cosmologists have their completedescription of where our universe comes from,and where it is going. We do, indeed, live insidea gigantic black hole, containing the entire cos¬mos. Born out of nothing at all, as a quantumfluctuation of the vacuum, it has been expandingfor 15 billion years, but at an ever-decreasing rate.Some time in the distant future (not for manymore tens of billions of years) the tug of gravitywill inevitably halt that expansion, and then putit into reverse. For many more tens of billionsof years, this will have little effect on stars,planets, and any life forms around to puzzle oversuch matters. But eventually galaxies will mergetogether, stars will collide and be squeezed intoan amorphous mass, and ultimately the universewill be snuffed out of existence, gone like anyother fluctuation of the vacuum. The consolation,

for anyone distressed to learn of the ephemeralnature of the universe, is that other universes

must also exist in the infinity of spacetime, somebefore us, some after us, and some, in a sense,

alongside us. Sic transit gloria mundi.

Tracks of the stars

around the South Pole.

Long-exposure photo takenin New South Wales,Australia.

JOHN GRIBBIN,

British astrophysicist andwriter, is the author of many

popular science booksincluding The Omega Point

(Corgi, London, 1988) whichdiscusses the ultimate fate of

the universe, and (withProfessor Martin Rees) Cosmic

Coincidences (Bantam, NewYork, 1989), which looks at

mankind's place in theuniverse. He is currently

completing, with KateCharlesworth, The Cartoon

History of Time, which will bepublished later this year by

Cardinal, London.

IN BRIEF... IN BRIEF... IN BRIEF

A missing linkThe almost complete head of aUranopithecus, a hominoidwhich lived some 9 or 10 million

years ago, has been discoveredat Xirochori, near Thessalonica in

Greece. The only previouslyknown traces of this primatewere a number of teeth and

fragments of jawbone found ata nearby site in 1973.Uranopithecus may be a distantancestor of Australopithecusafarensis, one of the earliest

hominids, whose fossil remains

dating back 5 or 6 million yearshave been unearthed in East

Africa.

Joy or freedom?Some historians believe that

when Friedrich von Schiller

wrote the famous "Hymn toJoy", later set to music inBeethoven's Ninth Symphony, heactually used the word Freiheit(freedom), not the word Freude

(joy). At performances of theNinth Symphony given in WestBerlin and East Berlin last

December, choirs directed by theAmerican conductor Leonard

Bernstein used the word

freedom. "I am sure Beethoven

would have approved," saidBernstein.

Return of a goddessThe back of a statuette of the

Egyptian goddess Sekhmet,bearing inscriptions dedicated toPharaoh Ramses II, has recentlybeen returned to Egypt. Stolensome 20 years ago, it turned upin June 1 988 in a Paris antiqueshop, where it was on sale for1,200,000 francs.

Treasures of AssyriaAfter 8 years of war, the IraqMuseum in Baghdad hasreopened its doors to the public.One of the world's greatmuseums, its holdings mighthave been more extensive still if

some masterpieces ofMesopotamian art had not beendispersed. The winged bullsfrom the palace of the Assyrianking Sargon II are, for example,in the British Museum in

London, and the Code of

Hammurabi, engraved for theking of Babylon on a stele ofblack diorite, is in the Louvre.

But important new finds havebeen made recently. In April1988 Iraqi archaeologistsrestoring the sumptuous palacebuilt at Nimrud (near modern

Mosul) in the 9th century BC byking Assurnasirpal II discovered 3tombs containing pricelessAssyrian artefacts which are nowdisplayed in the Iraq Museum.

Women and alcohol

Women are more sensitive to

the effects of alcohol than men,according to a study publishedin the New England Journal ofMedicine. The study showswomen reach the same state of

intoxication after consumingroughly one-third less alcohol.As a result, women more readilydevelop liver disease afterdrinking smaller amounts ofalcohol than men, whose

resistance is thought to be dueto higher levels of a protectiveenzyme in the stomach whichbreaks down alcohol before it

enters the bloodstream.

Blowing hot and coldResearchers at the

Massachusetts Institute of

Technology (MIT) and Britain'sMeteorological Office havecalled into question the widelyaccepted belief that the averagetemperature of the planet hasincreased by between 0.5°C and0.7°C since the turn of the

century. By analysing air andwater temperatures taken at seaduring the last century andrecorded in ships' logbooks, theyhave produced data suggestingthat the earth has warmed byjust 0.2°C. In view of themargin of error for suchmeasurements it is even possiblethat there has been no warmingat all. Supporters of the globalwarming thesis contest theprecision of the temperaturesrecorded by 19th-century sailorsand still maintain the importanceof the greenhouse effect causedby the emission of carbondioxide and other gases.

Biodegradable plasticsOrdinary plastic takes 2 or 3centuries to decompose, andefforts are being made todevelop a biodegradable plastic.A Belgian company ismanufacturing a plastic bag

made of polyethylene, anoxydizing agent, a catalyst and6% cornstarch. When buried,the starch macromolecules are

destroyed by micro-organisms inthe soil. At the same time, theoxydizing agent reacts withmetallic salts in the soil to form

peroxides which attack thepolymer chains and eventuallydecompose the plastic intocarbon and water within 2 or 3

years. The manufacturers of the

bags have announced that theywill soon be marketingbiodegradable plastics containing50% cornstarch.

Adopt your own whaleThe Massachusetts-based

International Wildlife Coalition

(IWC) is proposing to adopt 66humpback whales from amongthe 400 which spend thesummer offshore. In 4 years ithas sold more than 100,000"adoption certificates" for $15each. Each sponsor receives aphoto of his or her "own"whale, recognizable by variationsin the distinctive white and greymarkings on the tail and bydifferent scars. The idea seems

to be spreading. The state ofTexas recently launched the ideaof having its beaches"adopted", and now some30,000 people regularly spendtheir weekends picking updetritus from "their" stretch of

beach.

High-risk professionFifty-eight journalists were killedin the exercise of their

profession in 1989, more thantwo-thirds of them in Latin

America, according to theFrench non-governmentalorganization "Reporters sansFrontières". The figures for 1987and 1988 were 32 and 45

respectively. In its annual reportfor 1989 "Reporters sansFrontières" also records 241

arrests of journalists and 87expulsions.

AIDS spreadingAt the beginning of 1990 therewere some 600,000 peopleworldwide with acquiredimmunodeficiency syndrome(AIDS), according to WorldHealth Organization (WHO)estimates. It is thought that the

figure could rise to 6 million bythe year 2000 since (againaccording to WHO estimates)some 5 million people are nowinfected with human

immunodeficiency virus (HIV),the virus which causes AIDS.

Speaking at Unesco HQ on 26February, Dr. Jonathan Mann,then director of WHO's Global

Programme on AIDS, stressedthat "All-out mobilization of the

world community througheducation" is necessary to stemthe spread of the disease.

From Celsius to Kelvin

As a result of majordevelopments in low-temperature physics the Kelvintemperature scale is becomingmore widely used. The Celsius orCentigrade scale makes itpossible to measuretemperatures using two fixedpoints, 0°C and 100°C,corresponding to the freezingand boiling points of water atnormal atmospheric pressure. Inthe Kelvin scale, the fixed pointis the triple point of pure water,that is the temperature at whichthe liquid, solid and gaseousforms of water can be

maintained simultaneously. Thispoint, assigned the value of273.16 K, is equal to zero onthe Celsius scale. In 1968, aninternational conference adoptedan International Practical

Temperature Scale, and in1990 a new scale will be

promulgated to take accountof progress in thermicmetrology. The measuringpoints will have a precision ofthe order of a millionth of a

degree.

SupercomputersJapanese researchers arereported to have made the first"Josephson computer". Usingparts made fromsuperconductors, it should befaster and consume less energythan the present generation ofcomputers which use siliconchips. The Josephson effecttakes its name from the British

physicist Brian Josephson who in1 962 discovered that two

superconductors separated by anarrow insulating gapexchanged particles and a directcurrent passed from one to theother with extraordinaryelectromagnetic properties.

IN BRIEF IN BRIEF BRIEF41

THE SACRED TREES OF MADAGASCAR

BY VOAHANGY RAJAONAH

42

Ihe people of Madagascar believethat a place without trees is a place

of infertility and death. A source offood and wealth, trees are also

inhabited by invisible forces with

which human beings must come toterms.

The amontana and the aviavy,

which are related to the sycamore

and the fig-tree, are royal trees. Theysymbolize the life-force and epitomize

power. Their flowers blossom andbear fruit before their leaves, which

appear only when the fruit is ripe, as

though to protect it from the sun.According to the elda^Jto revealone's fruit and then conceal it

beneath graceful foliage is the pre¬eminent sign of royalty, which openly

proclaims its designs for the good ofthe people, but then conceals themmodestly because they are sacred.

The king's tree

King Andriamanelo is thought tohave been the first to plant thesetrees in his realm of Alasora, one of

the twelve sacred hills of the Merina

people. He made them a symbol of

royalty and would not allow them tobe planted anywhere but in the resi¬

dences of kings or their representa¬

tives. He liked to say that the fruit of

the aviavy left a bitter taste on thetongue, which then turned sweet.

"May my kingdom," he said, "havethis sweet aftertaste."

In Betsileo country, in the centre

of Madagascar, when a king was en¬throned an aviavy tree was plantedto the east of his house, and when

he died, his funeral ceremony took

place beneath it. The royal family

would then plant seedlings belonging

to the same variety or produced

by the original tree in order to per¬petuate the memory of the dead kingand symbolize his survival through hissuccession.

The hasina, or "dragon tree",has an important position in the

mythology of northern Madagascar,

on the east coast and in the high¬lands. The very name of this tree is

synonymous with spirituality andespecially with saintliness. It is con¬

nected with the cult practised by theearliest inhabitants of the island, the

Vazimba, who are feared and conse¬

quently venerated by the population.

Hasinas grow in the areas where theVazimba used to live, or near their

tombs, and the local people wouldnot uproot or desecrate them for any¬

thing in the world.Unlike the amontana or the

aviavy, the hasina grows near thedwellings of kings and ordinary folk

alike. It legitimizes the authority ofthe head of the household or of the

village who plants it to the north-east

of his dwelling, in the sacred plotreserved for the ancestors. As a

general rule, the north is consideredto be a noble and auspicious direc¬

tion; it is linked to water, which sym¬bolizes purity, life and prosperity.

On the north-east coast, among

the Betsimisaraka people, the man-

drorofo represents the permanence

of life by virtue of its longevity, which

is comparable to that of the oak orthe sequoia. According to legend the

mandrorofo, traditionally planted atthe entrance to villages, is the

primeval tree brought by the ances¬tors from distant Indonesia and is

thus the repository of the past. Since

Left, in northern Madagascar, amourner pours a libation on a

stone erected to the memory of adead kinsman. A sapling of thevenerated hasina or "dragon tree"can be seen in right foreground.Right, baobab trees (Adansoniadigitata), Madagascar. Centre, a

Malagasy youth begs forgivenessafter offending his ancestors,whose spirits dwell in the sacred

tree. By laying his hands on theyouth's head, the ritual masterhelps him communicate with theancestor spirits. Below, silhouetted

against a glowing tropical sky, ayoung villager of southernMadagascar.

it came with the ancestors, surely itmust be considered an ancestor it¬

self? And since it still survives, it alsocasts its shadow into the future.

The bamboo, also considered a

tree, represents the family. The youngshoots that grow at its foot all yearlong stand for posterity, a paramountconcern of the Malagasy people, who

attach the highest importance to the

perpetuation of their name and of

their line. As an evergreen, the bam¬boo symbolizes eternal youth, the

dream of all human beings. Itsslender stem thrusting up towardsthe sky is the very image of beauty.

Because they are sacred, trees

also possess protective qualities. In

stock-raising areas, where a man's

wealth is measured by the size of hisherd, the zebu pen is placed beneath

the protection of a tree, usually a

hasina, which is always planted in the

north-east. This practice is supposed

to protect the herd against diseaseand theft. A would-be thief who

enters the enclosure will not be able

to get the animals out and will him¬

self remain a prisoner. The merepresence of the tree is enough to dis¬

suade him from going in.

A tropical country, Madagascaris subject to spectacular storms whichoften cause fires. Formerly, when

stone was used only for tombs, dwell¬ings made of plant fibres would burst

into flame at the slightest spark. Asa protective measure, a lendemy tree

(literally, "which makes mild") wouldbe planted within the village precincts

to keep away lightning.

Trees are also the refuge of

spirits. In the south of Madagascar

the kily (a tamarind tree) and the bao¬

bab are reputed to be inhabited by

what the ¡slanders call "things", in¬

definable spirits that are widely vener¬ated because they are reputed to beevil.

These spirits may be released bythe trees that hold them captive,especially at nightfall when it is inad¬

visable to go near them. If there is no

alternative, the best ploy is to put ablade of grass at the foot of the tree

or tie together three blades of the

grass growing beside it.

Trees that harbour spirits can be

recognized by the bottles of toaka (a

local alcohol) placed beneath them

and by the strips of cloth hangingfrom their branches or wound

around their trunk.

Other trees are venerated be¬

cause they have been witness to an

exceptional event which has left its

mark on the popular imagination. InTanosy country in the south-east of

Madagascar, a kily is held to besacred if there has been a spectacular

case of healing or an apparition in itsvicinity, if an important person hasrested in its shade, or, in more recent

times, if ¡t has caused the death of

the passengers of a car that has

crashed into it. Funeral processions

stop beneath the kily just longenough to prepare and eat a meal:

the tree is thus regarded as the lastearthly resting-place of the deadperson, united with the community.

The kily and the baobab produceedible fruit. The fruit of the baobab

in particular is an important sourceof food in southern and south¬

western Madagascar. However, even

in periods of scarcity, it is strictly for¬bidden to pick and eat fruit from

sacred trees. Anyone who defies thisrule will suffer misfortune or even

death. The same punishment awaitsthose who dare to defile or fell sacred

trees or lop their branches

It is hard not to draw a parallelwith the Garden of Eden and the

archetypal ¡mage of the Tree of Life,which man can never know because

he tasted the forbidden fruit.

VOAHANGY RAJAONAH,

Malagasy geographer, is a lecturer atthe University of Madagascar and

permanent representative at Unesco ofthe Société Africaine de Culture, a

non-governmental organization. Aneditor of the French magazine

Présence Africaine, she has publisheda number of articles on the geography

and civilization of black Africa.

43

E,LECTRiciTY ¡s the power sourcethat drives the modem world. It pro¬vides heat and light, it powersmachines and appliances and makesglobal communications possible. Inthe same way that friction limits theefficiency of mechanical machines,resistance to the flow of electrons

through the conducting material isthe limiting factor in any electricaldevice.

In 1911, however, a type ofmaterial was discovered which has no

electrical resistance. Known as super¬conductors, such materials are effec¬

tively "frictionless" conductors if

you start an electric current movingin a loop of superconductor it willliterally go on moving forever. Theyare the electrical equivalent of a per¬petual motion machine.

The one big drawback of the ear¬ly superconductors was that they onlyfunctioned at very low temperatures,within a few degrees of absolutezero, -273° Celsius, which is known

as 0 Kelvin or 0 K. Until a few yearsago, the highest recorded tempera¬ture at which a superconductorwould work was 23 K. This meant

that liquid helium, an expensive liquidto produce and store, had to be usedas a coolant.

This has not prevented supercon¬ductors from being used. Magnetscan be made from coils of supercon¬ducting wire which produce intensemagnetic fields. These have been put

44 to use in medical body scanners and

BAFFLINGBUT IRRESISTIBLE-

THE WORLD OFSUPERCONDUCTORS

BY DAN CLERY

in magnetically levitated trains whichcan reach speeds of 500 kilometresan hour floating just centimetresabove the track. Japan has a work¬ing prototype of just such a train.Electronic devices made from super¬conducting materials can be used asextremely sensitive sensors or as com¬ponents in super fast computers.

New superconductingceramics

In April 1986, however, everythingchanged. Two researchers whoworked for IBM in Zurich, GeorgBednorz and Alex Müller, stumbled

upon a ceramic made from the ele¬

ments lanthanum, copper, bariumand oxygen which became supercon¬ducting at 35 K. Scientists in theUnited States soon discovered similar

ceramics which worked at tempera¬tures up to 98 K. This was verysignificant since these new supercon¬ducting ceramics could be cooledwith liquid nitrogen, which is muchcheaper than helium and a mucheasier liquid to handle.

Suddenly the scientific world wasin turmoil and scientists all over the

world were racing to see who couldfind the ceramic that showed super¬conducting qualities at the highesttemperature. At a hastily convenedmeeting of the American PhysicalSociety early in 1987, thousands ofphysicists crammed into a ballroom inNew York's Hilton hotel and fiercelydebated the new discoveries until 6

a.m. The press quickly latched on andhailed the meeting as the "Wood¬stock for physicists". Magazines werefull of photographs of little blocks of

the new ceramics levitating over mag¬nets. This phenomenon is an exam¬ple of the Meissner effect, in which

a superconductor repels any magnet¬ic field from penetrating its surface,causing it to float above a magnet.

The potential of these newmaterials was quickly seen and indus¬trial companies as well as academicresearchers joined in the race.Governments poured money intoresearch, not wanting other countriesto get a lead in exploiting the newphenomenon. Reports flooded in ofhigher and higher temperatures,some even approaching room tem¬perature, around 295 K. If this wereachieved it would literally transformelectrical technology. People spokeoptimistically of a world of super-efficient machines, effortlessly fastlevitating trains and new high-speedcomputers.

Many of the early reports were,however, overly optimistic. Most ofthe new ceramics which showed

superconducting behaviour at tem¬peratures higher than 100 K wereunstable, and soon lost their super¬conducting qualities, or were notshowing true superconductivity. Todate the highest confirmed temper¬ature for a superconducting ceramicis 125 K.

How the new superconductorsactually work is still confounding thetheorists. Electrical conduction occurs

when electrons free themselves from

their atoms and can move about in

Opposite page: in a startlingdisplay of lévitation, a smallcylindrical magnet hovers in

mid-air above a nitrogen-chilled disc of ceramic

superconducting material.The glowing vapour is

from liquid nitrogen, whichmaintains the ceramic within

its superconducting

temperature range.

Left: a pellet of the ceramic,

suspended from a length ofthread, is deflected by a

permanent magnet.

Right: molecular computergraphic showing the crystal

structure of one of

the new generation ofsuperconductors.

the crystal structure of a conductor.Resistance is created by the electronsbumping into atoms in their path asthey move through the conductor.The theory which explains traditionallow-temperature superconductorspredicts that electrons can avoid anycollisions by moving through the con¬ductor on a vibration in the lattice justas a surfer rides a wave on the ocean.

But in order to do this the electrons

have to move around in pairs, oneelectron following the other like aslipstreaming racing car.

The theory also predicts thatsuperconductivity cannot occurabove 35 K, so theorists have had to

start from scratch to explain the newmaterials. There is no definitive theoryyet, but one strong contenderpredicts that conduction occurs notthrough the movement of electronsbut the movement of electron vacan¬

cies, or "holes", which jump fromatom to atom in the conductor.

Practical applications

The hype that surrounded the discov¬ery of these new materials neglectedto mention the many problems thatmust be overcome before useful ap¬

plications can be achieved. Supercon¬ducting ceramics are produced as apowder which can be compressedinto a rather brittle solid substance.

This brittleness makes it very difficultto produce useful shapes such aswires. Some success has been

achieved by using techniques takenfrom the microelectronics industry.The ceramics can be laid down as a

thin layer on top of another material

by gently spraying the constituentparts of the ceramic at the underly¬ing base. As they land, the moleculesarrange themselves into the crystalstructure of the ceramic.

Any useful application mustmake use of one of the three specialproperties of superconductingmaterials. The first of these is the fact

that they will conduct electricity withno resistance. The most obvious ap¬plication would be in the transmissionof power from power stations to elec¬tricity users. At the moment 1 0 to 20per cent of all power produced is lostduring transmission, and so signifi¬cant savings could be made. An effi¬cient method of drawing theceramics into wires must be found

before these savings can be achieved.Also, the new materials cannot carry

a large amount of current withoutlosing their superconducting quali¬ties. The best they can manage at themoment is one thousandth of the

current needed.

The second special property ofsuperconductors is their ability togenerate very strong magnetic fields.Low-temperature superconductorscan generate fields 200,000 timesstronger than the earth's magneticfield. Any electrical conductor cangenerate a field. If formed into aloop, a current round the loop willgenerate a magnetic field through itscentre. It is a superconductor's abilityto conduct current effortlessly aroundthe loop which leads to such strongfields.

Medical scanners and levitatingtrains could both be made more sim¬

ply and cheaply using new high-

temperature superconducting mag¬nets. So too could the Supercon¬

ducting Supercollider, a particle ac¬celerator which the US governmentplans to build in an 88-kilometre tun¬nel under the state of Texas to studythe elementary particles of matter.Accelerators use powerful magnetsto bend beams of particles into a cir¬cular path so that they collide and thefragments of their collisions can beanalysed.

The Meissner effect, described

above, prevents a magnetic field frompenetrating into a superconductor.However, strong fields can break

through this repulsion, and if they dothis they destroy the superconduct¬ing properties of the material. Thenew superconducting ceramics haveso far proved susceptible to the ef¬fects of strong fields, so their useful¬ness for this sort of application maybe limited.

The Josephson junction

The third property of superconduct¬ing materials is the one that looks themost promising for the new ceramics.If two superconductors are broughtvery close together but not allowedto touch, electrons can jump acrossand current can flow as if the two

conductors were touching. The cur¬rent across the gap is, however, verysensitive to external electric and mag¬netic fields, so this so-called Joseph-son junction can be used as a veryaccurate sensor of electric and mag¬netic fields or as an electronic switch

like a transistor.

Devices based on Josephson

junctions can be used by biophysiciststo study the minute electrical fieldscreated by activity in the brain. Onboard satellites they can be used indetectors to look at the stars and

planets or down at the earth's sur¬face. Computer chips based onJosephson junctions, with intercon¬necting wires also of superconduct¬ing material, would be much fasterthan conventional machines. The

technology for manufacturing thesetiny devices from the brittle ceramicsalready exists, but many reliabilityproblems remain to be solved. It is inthese high-technology fields of sen¬sors and electronics that we are most

likely to see the new superconductorsin use.

The likelihood of superconduc¬tors that operate at room tempera¬ture now seems remote, unless there

is another dramatic breakthrough ora theory of superconductors whichcan point the way to use at highertemperatures. Very exciting possibil¬ities for superconducting ceramics lieahead, but perhaps not those whichpeople originally imagined.

DAN CLERY

is a British journalist specializing inthe popularization of science.

E N45

o K

On 10 December 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the UniversalDeclaration of Human Rights. The Assembly called upon all member states to publicize the textof the Declaration and "to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principallyin schools and other educational institutions".

In order to make the Declaration accessible to children, the World Association for the School

as an Instrument of Peace (EIP), an international non-governmental organization founded in 1967,asked teachers and students of the faculty of psychology and educational sciences at the

University of Geneva (Switzerland) to simplify the language. Some extracts are published below.

TEACHING HUMAN RIGHTS AT SCHOOL

Original version (in light type)Simplified version (in bold type)

ARTICLE 1

All human beings are bom free and equalin dignity and rights. They are endowedwith reason and conscience and should

act towards one another in a spirit ofbrotherhood.

When children are born, they are freeand should always be treated in the

same way.

LAUREN (age 4)

JUDITH (age 4)

ARTICLE 2

Everyone is entitled to all the rights andfreedoms set forth in this Declaration,

without distinction of any kind, such as

race, colour, sex, language, religion, polit¬ical or other opinion, national or socialorigin, property, birth or other status.

Furthermore, no distinction shall be

made on the basis of the political, jurisdic¬

tional or international status of the countryor territory to which a person belongs,whether it be independent, trust, non-self-

governing or under any other limitation ofsovereignty.

...everyone has the right to possess orto take advantage of all that has justbeen said:

even if they do not speak yourlanguage

even if they do not have the same

colour skin as you

even if they do not think like youeven if they do not have the same

religion as you

even if they are poorer or richer

than you

even if they are not from the same

country as you.

NICOLAS (age S)

ARTICLE 7

All are equal before the law and are enti¬tled without any discrimination to equalprotection of the law. All are entitled to

equal protection against any discriminationin violation of this Declaration and againstany incitement to such discrimination.

The law is the same for everyone: itshould be applied in the same wayfor all.

ARTICLE 3

Everyone has the right to life, liberty andsecurity of person.

You have the right to live, to live in

freedom and in safety.

U

u

ARTICLE 26

1) Everyone has the right to education.Education shall be free, at least in the

elementary and fundamental stages.Elementary education shall be compulsory.Technical and professional education shallbe made generally available and highereducation shall be equally accessible to allon the basis of merit.

2) Education shall be directed to the full

development of the human personalityand to the strengthening of respect forhuman rights and fundamental freedoms.It shall promote understanding, toleranceand friendship among all nations, racialor religious groups, and shall further theactivities of the United Nations for the

maintenance of peace.

3) Parents have a prior right to choose thekind of education that shall be given totheir children.

You have the right:

to go to schoolto take advantage of compulsory

education without having to pay

anythingto learn a profession or continue

your studies as far as you wish.At school, you should be able to

develop all your talents and youshould be taught to get on withothers, whatever their religion or the

country they come from.Your parents have the right to

choose how you will be taught, andwhat you will be taught at school.

48 MARTA (age 4)

ARTICLE 27

1) Everyone has ¡me right freely to partici¬pate in the cultural life of the community,to enjoy the arts and to share in scientificadvancement and its benefits.

2) Everyone has the right to the protectionof the moral and material interests result¬

ing from any scientific, literary or artisticproduction of which he is the author.

Whether you are an artist, a writer or

a scientist, you should be free to sharethe work with others and to profit

from what you have done together.Your works should be protected

and you should be able to benefitfrom them.

ARTICLE 29

1) Everyone has duties to the communityin which alone the free and full develop¬

ment of his personality is possible.2) In the exercise of his rights and free¬

doms, everyone shall be subject only tosuch limitations as are determined by law

solely for the purpose of securing duerecognition and respect for the rights andfreedoms of others and of meeting the just

requirements of morality, public order andthe general welfare in a democratic

society.

...you have duties towards the peopleyou live amongst, who also allow youto develop your personality.

The law does not take anything

away from human freedoms andrights, but it allows everyone to

respect others and to be respected.

#THE SCHOOL

AS AN INSTRUMENT

OF PEACE'

The World Association for the School as

an Instrument of Peace (EIP) is an inter¬

national non-governmental organizationwith consultative status at the United

Nations, Unesco and the Council of

Europe. The organization's aim ¡s to

"disarm the mind

to disarm the hand".

EIP activities in schools around the world

reflect a common objective, that of unify¬ing people while respecting their differ¬ences. To this end, EIP has drawn up a

code known as the "universal principles ofcivic education", the teaching of which ispromoted along with that of the UniversalDeclaration of Human Rights. These prin¬ciples are as follows:

School is in the service of humanity.

School paves the way to mutualunderstanding for all the children of theworld.

School teaches respect for life and formankind.

School teaches tolerance, that quality

which helps us to accept attitudes andbehaviour that are different to our own.

School develops a sense of responsi¬bility. The more our condition improves,the greater the responsibility we mustassume.

School teaches children to overcome

their selfishness. It helps them understandthat human progress can only comeabout through individual efforts andworldwide co-operation.

In 1984, EIP set up the InternationalHuman Rights and Peace Teacher TrainingCenter in Geneva. This documentation

and research centre, the first of its kind,

is open to teachers of any subject,whether from primary, secondary or fur¬ther education, to representatives ofministries of education and international

organizations, and to any other person orinstitution concerned with the teaching

of human rights and peace.EIP was awarded an honourable

mention in the 1 98 1 Unesco Prize for the

Teaching of Human Rights, and receivedthe United Nations Peace Messenger Prizein 1988.

M

Ihe European Academy of Arts,Sciences and Humanities, founded in

1 979, brings together eminent artists,scientists and writers who wish to

contribute to the analysis of majorworld problems.

The Academy is a three-tieredinstitution. It has some 200 titular

members, forty of whom are Nobelprizewinners, from fifty-five national

academies spread over five conti¬nents. A similar number of cor¬

responding members are chosen

from among young people who are

making an outstanding creative con¬tribution to the arts and the sciences.

The Academy is served by several

committees, notably a committee ofhonour whose members include

heads of state, government ministers,

ambassadors and representatives ofseveral intergovernmental organi¬zations.

Ever since it was founded, the

Academy has collaborated with

Unesco. Initially it was agreed that an

international symposium should beorganized annually in a European

capital under the auspices of one orseveral national academies. The first

symposium, on relations between the

sciences, the arts and philosophy,was held in 1980 at Unesco Head¬

quarters in Paris. Subsequent meet¬

ings were held in Brussels, Lisbon,

Stockholm, Uppsala, Bucharest, Paris,Rome, Sofia and Geneva.

Two particularly important meet¬

ings were a symposium on "TheEuropean Cultural and Scientific

Community and its Role in North-South Dialogue", held at Unesco inits fortieth anniversary year (1985),

and a workshop on the theme of"Science, Culture and World Health"

jointly organized by the World Health

Organization, Unesco, and the Euro¬pean Academy, held at Geneva in1 989 on the tenth anniversary of the

founding of the Academy. An instru¬ment of co-operation between the

three organizations is being drawn up

with a view to adopting a joint plan

"Cellular Machinery",a painting by the French artist Nicole d'Agaggio

inspired by phenomena from the world of molecular biology.

THE EUROPEAN

ACADEMY OF ARTS,SCIENCES AND

HUMANITIES

BY RAYMOND DAUDEL

International co-operation is founded on a network of dailycontacts, exchanges and initiatives which create bonds ofsolidarity between men and women all over the world. Inaddition to the intergovernmental agencies of the UnitedNations system, hundreds of non-governmental organizations(NGOs) today form part of this network. These organizationsexist thanks to the dedication of people with similar professionalinterests or common aims who wish to share their experienceand combine their efforts. "Forum", a new feature launched this

month, gives them an opportunity to talk about their activities.

of action to strengthen the role of

universities in the promotion ofhealth.

Under the aegis of Unesco and

the European Federation on AIDS

Research, nine laboratories in Europe

and North America are engaged injoint research on an AIDS vaccine, on

improved treatment for those suffer¬

ing from AIDS, and on the origins of

the disease. This "Man against

Viruses" group is chaired by ProfessorLuc Montagnier of the Pasteur Insti¬

tute in Paris, whose team was respon¬

sible for identifying two of the AIDSviruses.

Together with Unesco, the

French Ministry of Research and Tech¬

nology and the Descartes Associa¬

tion, the Academy is currently

preparing a workshop to study links

between biological diversity and cul¬

tural diversity. Questions examined atthe workshop will include the role of

natural and artificial reserves, and the

need to create gene banks for the

preservation of certain varieties of

maize, coffee and Sahelian plants.

In association with the Hungari¬

an Academy of Sciences, a seminar

is being prepared for 1991 to foster

the promotion of ethical, humanistand cultural values in education.

In 1992, to mark the five hun¬

dredth anniversary of the "Encounterbetween Two Worlds", America and

Europe, the Academy and Unesco

intend to organize a major workshop

in Madrid on the importance of dia¬

logue between cultures, a process

which is often threatened by the

rising tide of intoleranceethnic,

nationalist, ideological or religious.

RAYMOND DAUDEL,

French scientist, is president of theEuropean Academy of Arts, Sciences

and Humanities and of the

International Academy of QuantumMolecular Sciences. He is editor of the

International Journal of QuantumChemistry, and the author of a

number of scientific works includingQuantum Theory of Chemical

Reactivity (1973) and (with others)Quantum Chemistry (1984). 49

Letters to the Editor

50

Teaching aidsI teach Spanish and philosophy andam also responsible for giving careersadvice to teenagers. Unesco publica¬tions have been an enormous help in

my work. I particularly like the Courierbecause of the richness and varietyof its contents. My colleagues in thehistory and geography departmentsjoin me in expressing our thanks.

Flor Parra Vera

Dario Salas College (Chile)

The ecological front lineI should like to think that the thaw

which is taking place in the worldtoday will melt the ice of ignorancetowards ecological problems, whichare so serious that humanity couldperish without a single weapon beingfired. I am glad that the UnescoCourier is helping to stimulate the

growing world interest in theseproblems.

Tatiana Diomina (USSR)

1789: An idea that changedthe world

Bravo for your outstanding issue onthe bicentenary of the French Revo¬lution. The great idea of 1 789, whichinspired the Universal Declaration ofHuman Rights in 1948, has againcome to the fore. In Eastern Europe,

this idea really has "changed theworld". Thanks to it the Romanian

people have overthrown tyranny andregained their freedom.

Professor Nicolae Liu

University of Bucharest (Romania)

The Courier

and television

What a pity that Unesco doesn'tsponsor a quality television pro¬gramme presenting the themes cov¬ered in the Courier. There would be

no need for advertisements. What a

contribution such a programme couldmake to our knowledge of the world1

Pascal Gladoux

Besançon(France)

The Leagueof Nations ideal

Your December 1989 issue, HighDays and Holidays, was a great disap¬pointment I know that the Courieris not intended to compete with Time

magazine, but now that the EastEuropean countries are raising ourhopes of a return to the ¡deal pursuedby the League of Nations in the daysof Briand and Stresemann, why don'tyou inform the present generationabout the history of the League ofNations and the reasons why it failed?

P. Rietsch

Sophia UniversityTokyo

(Japan)

An Egyptian treasure

Would it be possible to publish anarticle on the discovery in Egypt lastyear of a fantastic treasure-trove ofnecklaces, bracelets and other pre¬

cious artefacts? Another interestingsubject which the Courier might con¬sider is "design", a profession whichbrings together art and technology

Laure Mestas-Débrosse

St. Cyr-l'Ecole(France)

Universal images

It was a good idea to change theformat of the magazine, which hasgained correspondingly in succinct¬ness, clarity and elegance. The designand presentation are greatly impro¬ved Images, like music, form a uni¬versal language. In this sense it canbe said that the Courier has become

even more "universal" than it was.

I don't mean that the magazineis better or worse than before, simplythat it is more accessible and thus

does more to foster mutual compre¬hension between people of differentcultures.

The Courier is also continuing tofollow its guiding principle of presen¬ting themes impartially and givingspace to as many points of view aspossible. This is the reason why themagazine is as lively as ever.

Here are some themes which

I should like to see in the Courier:

anarchism, feminism, the history

of music; twentieth-century archi¬tecture.

Aurora Gómez-TejedorGetxo (Spain)

We shall take your suggestions intoaccount when planning future issues.Editor

An easier read

Your new formula is a success, andthe articles are easier to read and

understand than before. Keep up the

good work of bringing peoples closertogether.

Robert Laurent

Arbouans (France)

Loss of identityI don't think the magazine has beenimproved by the new conception andpresentation In fact it has lost itsidentity. You should have made gra¬dual improvements instead of chan¬

ging it completely so that it resemblesso many other magazines

J. -P. Portmann

Neuchâtel (Switzerland)

Acknowledgements

Couverture, page 3 : Chad Ehlers ©

Fotogram-Stone, Paris. Couverture

de dos : Bob Thomas © Fotogram-

Stone, Paris. Page 2 : © Yves Rigoir.

Pages 3, 4 : Efe © Sipa Press, Paris.

Page 5 : Faillct © Artephot, Paris /ADAGP, Musée maiional d'art

moderne, Paris. Pages 6, 7 : Oronoz

© Artephot, Paris / Bibliothèque

nationale, Madrid. Pages 8, 11, 17 en

haut, 25 : © Charles Lenars, Paris.

Pages 12, 13, 16, 17 en bas, 34, 35 enhaut, 35 en bas : © Roland et Sabrina

Michaud, Pans. Pages 14-15 : PieterseDavison International Ltd © Chester

Beany, Dublin. Pages 18-19 :

Moldoveaunu, Unesco. Page 20 en

haut : Tous droits reserves. Pages 20

au centre et en bas, 21 : tire de

NimuendajU par Georg Menchen ©

VEB F.A. Brockhaus Verlag, Leipzig,

RDA 1979. Pages 22-23: © Ron

Giling, Arnhem, Pays-Bas. Page 24 en

bas : J. Brun © Explorer, Paris. Page

24 en haut : J.P. Vidal © CNRS-

CEGET, Paris. Pages 26, 27 :© APN,

Paris. Pages 28, 29 en haut : © Musée

de l'Homme, Pans. Page 29 en bas :© Edition russe du Courrier de

l'Unesco, Moscou. Pages 30-31, 32,

33 : © Juan Mayr. Pages 34-35 : Luis

Irisarn © Ediciones Vascas, Saint-

Sébastien, Espagne. Pages 36, 37 : ©

CNRS-OHP, Paris. Page 38 : Mandel

/ Ziolo © Artephot, Paris. Collection

particulière, Pans. Page 39 : ©

Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen,

Düsseldorf, RFA. Page 40: ©

Fotogram-Stone, Paris. Page 42 : R.Lanares © Collection Musée de

l'Homme, Paris. Page 43 en haut et

en bas : Christian Vaisse © Hoa-Qui,

Pans. Page 43 au centre : Daniel

Laine © Hoa-Qui, Paris. Page 44 :

David Parker / IMI / University of

Birmingham High Tc Consortium /

Science Photo Library © Cosmos,

Paris. Page 45 à gauche : Iowa State

University / Science Photo Library ©

Cosmos, Paris. Page 45 à droite :

Chemical Design Ltd / Science Photo

Library © Cosmos, Paris. Page 49 :

© Galerie de Mars, Pans.

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