bats in african mythology

The tour includes a brief 20-minute conservation education lecture about bats, caves, and the history of the Montford Bat Cave Sanctuary. Now that we have looked at some of the most popular bat myths from around the globe, lets take a look at some of the superstitions that people have about these creatures. One reason not to kill bats is that female bats have breasts and are mothers like human females [25]. Using four species of bats and three brave female volunteers he deliberately attempted to entangle the bats by thrusting them into the womans hair. Vampires. In this story, Jonayaiyin, a hero who battled the enemies of mankind, killed several eagles and gave their feathers to a bat who had helped him escape from the eagles nest. Category:African legendary creatures The recent introduction of a fungal disease (WNS=White-nose Syndrome) from Eurasia to North America has killed millions of bats in North America in the past decade. WebFar Eastern Bat Symbolic Meanings. In Macbeth (1605), there is the incantation of the three witches: Eye of newt, and toe of frog, wool of bat, and tongue of dog, while there is Calibans curse on Prospero in The Tempest (16101611): All the charms of Sycorax, toads, beetles and bats, light on you.. Bats have fascinated humans for millennia, and this cultural and spiritual relevance is reflected in the presence of bat symbols in Egyptian tombs from 2000 BC . These small creatures wished to participate in a ball game in which the animals challenged the birds. Bats were also persecuted because they were believed to be carriers of disease. When capturing its prey, it grabs the neck, sometimes killing the prey with a single powerful bite [51, 52]. These are Under the influence! 10 brilliant bat facts *Address all correspondence to: [email protected]. In China, the bat is a symbol of happiness and good luck and its image is found in art and crafts expressing this. When his wife returned she saw the pot was still boiling and no sign of her husband. Bats feature in many myths, legends and folklore from diverse cultures around the world, and are often associated with darkness, death and the supernatural. When a truce is declared, the bat is rejected by both sides because of this deceitful behavior. In 2021, a bat won New Zealands Bird of the Year competition name of which in Mori language is Te Manu Rongonui o te Tau, and the word Manu means flying creatures, including bats. And because of this, many myths, superstitions, and folklore have been created about them. Only older and somewhat educated people reported more positive attitudes toward bats than others [21]. While some cultures see bats as a harbinger of death, others believe that the creature holds the key to eternal life. Bats tend to get off on the wrong wing with us humans. New molecular biology findings indicate that there are two new Suborders, Yinpterochiroptera and Yangochiroptera, not coinciding with the earlier subordinate classification [5]. Bats for eating in the Laos marketplace. The first sighting was reported in 1928 by Thodore Monod. While the English term batty denotes mad in a reasonably innocuous sense. It tells how a bushrat named Oyot was friends with Emiong the bat and they would often eat together, taking it in turns to cook. The Greek philosopher Chaerephon was called the bat, because he, like the animal, did not appear by day but instead hid and philosophized. Subcategories. Bats in Myth and Legend 945ontwerp / Getty Images The apparent liminality of bats is also reflected in a legend from the Kanarese of India in which bats were originally a type of unhappy bird. Spirits are less grand, less powerful, and less like humans than the gods, who often have weaknesses and emotions. On the other hand, the Tupinamba people believed that the planet would be eaten by a bat at the end of time. This ethnic group in Africa is known for its Bats in a church during a wedding ceremony is a bad omen. The idea that carrying a bats eye around with you will allow you to turn invisible. Samoan people prize flying fox meat as a delicacy and as a gift to elders, but commercial hunting and export of the meat are culturally frowned. These birds went to temples and prayed to be turned into humans. Also, a Tacana woman in Bolivia was killing a bat while not realizing that it was her husband [34]. In southwest Asia, the bat is predominantly perceived as a strange, negative, and demonic animal that should be avoided. Our team is growing all the time, so were always on the lookout for smart people who want to help us reshape the world of scientific publishing. Why is it then that while in some parts of the world this beneficial creature is seen as a symbol of good luck and good fortune, in many societies it is viewed with fear and loathing? A modern variation of the myth that bats arose from rodents comes from an Ohio woman of Polish ancestry who attested that the bat was from a mouse that had eaten blessed Easter food. (In Polish tradition, a representative food from the Easter dinner is taken to church to be blessed.) The weasel replied, No, I never let mice go! The bat said, Well, look closely at me. The study concluded that conservation-related education should be included in the school curriculum to ensure that students would appreciate not only the importance of bats but of all wildlife [26]. These creatures, or more like monsters, were said to be able to transform themselves into bats at will and would fly around looking for victims to drink their blood. During the early days of the world, a bat and twelve insects revolved in the darkness. Nearly another third reported actively killing bats or destroying bat roosts, and most respondents associated bats with the destruction of farmers fruits, especially mangoes. The basic scenario is that, in a battle between the beasts and birds, the bat repeatedly changes allegiance so as to be on the side that appears to be winning. Participation by local people is vital to achieving successful conservation programs [35]. They were believed to destroy trees and damage fruits in gardens. An idea that reflected their ability to fly around so quickly in the dark without hitting anything. Open Access is an initiative that aims to make scientific research freely available to all. A witch shape is believed to be capable to suck out the life of a sleeping man or woman [18]. Bldg. There are more than 1,300 bat species! In fact they are mammals of the scientific order Chiroptera, meaning hand wing in ancient Greek, because their forelimbs have become adapted to be wings. Unquestionably, they are strange creatures, appearing as half animal and half bird, like something from a nightmare world. WebTrunko. Folklore and the Origin of Bats The twins had to spend the night in the House of Bats, where they squeezed themselves into their own blowguns in order to defend themselves from the circling bats. In Madurai, worshippers of the Muni god regard Indian Flying Fox Pteropus medius, formerly Pteropus giganteus, as sacred and protect colonies for fear of heavy punishment. In Africa, bats were credited with high intelligence. See my wings. The weasel replied, Well, so you are! and let the bat go. It is a carnivore, eating birds and other vertebrates, occasionally taking even other species of bats. Bats, being seen as liminal creatures, were believed to be able to cross this barrier. Photo credit: Raniel Jose Castaneda creative commons Wikimedia credit as in Figure 7. With Gods permission, He fashioned the winged likeness of a bat from clay and breathed life into it. When you stand with us, your donation will support critical bat conservation initiatives. Pre-Islamic magical belief in Hunza said that if the lady would once offer the cooked meat of bat to her guests, hiding it behind her back while serving her family would never be without meat for their whole life [25]. In Cameroon, the superstition of the vampire is attached to bats. Two Bats are greater luck, and five represents the five blessings Among the Ibibio people of southern Nigeria, bats are associated with witchcraft, and for any bat to fly into a house and touch a person is a sure sign that this person is thereafter bewitched and will soon perish because his or her heart is eaten at night while he or she sleeps. In southwest Asia, bat folklore has been documented between Iran, India, and Myanmar [25, 26, 27]. The king ordered that Emiong be arrested and thrown into prison. The cave prohibits hunting and guano harvesting, while income from this ecotourism chiefly flows into local economy and enhances the sustainability and protection of the cave site (Figures 7 and 8). Many spirits are associated with geographical features, such as mountains, rivers, wells, trees, and springs. Lately, education seems to have some effect, and more and more people have started to appreciate how useful and amazing bats truly are. Books > This apparent ambiguity in the nature of bats is seen in many folktales about how they came to be in the first place and how they acquired their various features. In ancient Egypt it was believed bats could alleviate or cure many ailments including baldness, fever toothache and poor eyesight. Recommended for you. Adjule. In Malaysian Borneo, people consider it taboo to disturb a fruit bat. In Western Europe, there existed an unfounded superstition that if a bat fell on a woman (who mostly had long hair back then), the bat would become so entangled in her hair that the hair would have to be cut off just to pull it out. Liminality aside, many of these myths have obvious roots in the real features of bats. Although the exact source of the fungal pathogen, Pseudogymnoascus destructans, and its mode of introduction into North America remain unknown, the introduction was most likely mediated by humans, either through direct or indirect transfer of infectious propagules [66]. Further films and novels continued associating vampires with bats and this is still perpetuated in western literature, films, television, theatre, art and most forms of media. In Sri Lanka, it is believed that one may be reincarnated as a bat for denying another person drinking water [31]. Bats, at least the ones that originate from North-western Europe, look a bit like mice with wings. Photo credit: Stan Delone creative commonWikimedia. Thus, more famine relief food aid is desperately needed to reduce the bush meat use during the food crises, which are nearly annual in the region [22]. Our collection of global perceptions aims to promote a better biocultural richness for humans and bats as our long-term nocturnal companions. In a Cherokee fable, an eagle, a hawk, and other birds fashioned the first bat and the first flying squirrel from two mouse-like creatures. They belong to the Order Chiroptera. In 1332, a French noblewoman, Lady Jacaume of Bayonne [12], was publicly burned to death as a witch because crowds of bats were seen about her house and garden., William Shakespeare (15641616) also equated bats with witches, spells, and curses. Bat meat is widely consumed because it is considered more delicious than other types of meat. Commentdocument.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "a5fde012108c6f81a46adcd8fa31b17e" );document.getElementById("ebd2ec4c6f").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); Gordon is an ecologist with two degrees from Exeter University. Interestingly, blood sucking has been attributed to bats both in Cameroon and Sierra Leone despite the countries being widely separated and when no such type of bat is found in Africa [19]. In Indonesia, farmers in South Sulawesi believe that flying foxes roosting near their rice fields guarantee a good harvest [27]. African Mythology But the larger animals made fun of how small the creatures were and drove them away. This suggests that the Asia-Pacific region and its cultures contain far more positive associations with bats than most European or American societies and, as such, offer promising examples and opportunities to promote human-bat coexistence. Bat Myths In Nagaland between 7000 and 25,000 cave-dwelling bats (Cave Nectar Bat Eonycteris spelaea, Great Roundleaf Bat Hipposideros armiger, and Leschenaults Rousette Rousettus leschenaultii) have been annually harvested until recently [73]. Traditional Navajo folklore places the origin of bats in the earliest world, when all was dark: twelve insects and the bat revolved in darkness. The Symbolism of a Bat. Nandi Bear. Large, often man-eating, bats are found in Hawaiian traditions, and there is even a legend of an eight-eyed bat in Hawaii. Later bats received even more bad publicity when they became linked to Count Dracula and vampires. Our habit of sharing their ancestral living quarters would inevitably have brought bats to our attention from before the dawn of history. Thereafter, humans and animals may have lived different lives; but like people, the animals still had tribes, councils, and ethics, and they played ball games. There are more than 1400 bat species worldwide, and they make up roughly 20% of the worlds extant mammals [6]. Between Iran and Rajasthan, north-western India, there is the widespread public belief that if a bat lives somewhere in the house or hangs on the roof, this would mean bad luck for the owner [25]. One clan of the Cakchiquel Maya, of the highlands of Guatemala, was named the Zotzil (=belonging to the bat), whose deity was a bat. The animals then give teeth to the bat to make it more animal-like. The bat must then hide during the day to avoid creditors. In India, a total of 3059 high school students from 36 schools were questioned on their bat perceptions. WebBat (goddess) Read Bat became the emblem on a sistrum, related to Hathor and which appears on the top of columns of her main temple of Denderah This painted terracotta Naqada figure of a woman is interpreted as representing Bat, c. 35003400 B.C. However, in post-Christian Europe, the bats propensity of flying at night led to its association with the devil. Company registered in England & Wales, no. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/de/legalcode. The duality of bats is mentioned in one of Aesops Fables, which tells how a bat fell to the ground and was Betwixt and Between. Especially when the bats preferred natural resources have been logged out of existence and replanted as a monoculture. Montfort bat cave entrance in the Philippines with the numerous Geoffroys Rousette fruit bats Rousettes amplexicaudatus. Many paintings from western Europe in the middle ages depict the devil with bat wings. Micro-batswhich include the smaller, familiar snub-nosed batsmainly hunt by echolocation. Both African-Americans and those of European descent from around the United States frequently maintain that Even cultures that value bats positively may have values conflicting with bat conservation. We are a community of more than 103,000 authors and editors from 3,291 institutions spanning 160 countries, including Nobel Prize winners and some of the worlds most-cited researchers. Should a bat or an owl come near the house, or a bush-cat defecate in the compound, the owner must go at once to diviner to discover what remedies must be taken to ward off the evil. African Mythology - 15 Myths And Legends That Will The decision to include the New Zealand long-tailed bat Chalinolobus tuberculatus also known as pekapeka-tou-roa (Mori) in the 2021 Bird of the Year competition did cause a bit of controversy, some people saying the country had gone batty. However, the long-tailed bat got more than 7000 votes, bringing a clear victory to this critically endangered animal, despite not being a bird [50]. Although vampire bats have been known to attack humans and large animals it is usually not fatal, though it has been known to transmit rabies. Although bats already had long had a sinister reputation their addition to European vampire folklore came after that. Bats eyes are small and sometimes poorly developed, but they work just fine. The Adze is a vampire in the legends of the Ewe people of Ghana and Togo. 11 Legendary Monsters of Africa Despite its scientific name, it feeds exclusively on fruits, nectar, and flowers and not blood (Figure 6) [70]. It is at this time when the veil between this world and the otherworld was believed to thin and a state of liminality existed. People sometimes think of them as blind, bloodthirsty flying mice. Bats belong to the order Chiroptera, not Rodentia; they're actually more closely related to primates than they are to rodents. Cultural traditions and beliefs influence the future of the bats, which is threatened by human exploitation, both directly on bats and indirectly on the environment. In Jamaica, the bat and the owl were very important symbols in Taino mythology and death. In England, they also say that when someone is a little insane, they have bats in the belfry. In all four cases, the bats each walked about the volunteers hair without becoming entangled in any way and finally took flight without any difficulty. The positive side is that by 600 BC., and probably before, humans were learning important things from bats. Hopefully, now that we know more about these amazing creatures, we can protect them better in the future. Also known as Hunbatz, One Monkey A Monkey, not a Bat One of the Monkey Twins, hes the son of Hun Hunahpu and Xbaquiyalo. In Indonesia, Iban people in Kalimantan also hunt fruit bats for consumption, and mainly Christian people in North Sulawesi regularly eat flying foxes (Black Flying Fox Pteropus alecto and Sulawesi Fruit Bat Acerodon celebensis) especially during the Christmas season [38, 39]. Vampire bats were not discovered until the 16th century in Central and South America. A world without bats would look very different than the one you know and not for the better. Prior to 1985, flying foxes were not protected in New South Walesin fact, they were regarded as vermin. In New Zealand, Mori people associate bats, pekapeka, with the mythical nocturnal bird hokioi that foretells death [49]. The bat said, Well look at me. In Kenya, a bat attitude questionnaire was presented to 394 people living around the Arabuko-Sokoke forest. We still are. To summarize shortly the various findings: In the West, bats have been seen as animals of ill omen, alongside other nocturnal hunters such as owls and black cats. The felling of roosting trees was mentioned as bat death reason by 29% and hunting by 18%. In two fables from Aesop (born ca. Bats prefer a variety of daytime hideaways, including rock crevices, caves, old buildings, mines, bridges, and trees. By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. However, consumption was influenced by religious beliefs, food taboos, and some myths about bats. It is the largest bat found in continental Africa and was believed to suck the blood of sleeping children until they die. Medics said there is no truth or clinical evidence that blood suckers or vampires exist in Malawi, and the United Nations mission withdrew its personnel from the riots-affected areas [24]. Most respondents were less likely to value the importance of bats in the ecosystem, so creating a conservation education to connect people with nature is not easy. In Malawi, negative bat superstitions caused recently quite disproportionate behavior when rural people in southern parts of the country killed nine people accusing them to be vampire bats [23]. This liminality gives bats a supernatural air that further heightens mystery and distrust as they cross the borders between birds and mammals, day and night. I am a mouse, not a bird! The weasel looked at the bat and agreed it was a mouse and released it. 1. As messengers for the forces of darkness, they become evil omens. Some bats also pollinate flowers and help disperse seeds. This persecution has been quite intense and has had negative effects on the whole environment. Many mythological stories from different cultures have been passed down throughout the years about bats. Theyre passive components, not active agents of change. Surprisingly little folklore exists specifically about Vampire bats, and Pre-Columbian erotic scenes do not involve bats although some folklore portrays female bats as alluring to men. It remains to be seen, however, if this could halt or even reverse the decline of the North American bats [64]. An irrational fear of batsChiroptophobiaencompasses negative perceptions of bats as disease vectors, pests, or harmful creatures associated with devils and witchcraft, which represents an important barrier to bat conservation globally [27].

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