ABSTRACT
In archaic mythologies, the epoch of primordial creation is peopled by ancestors, demiurges, and cultural heroes. These three categories are intertwined and practically inseparable from one another. The foremost, however, is perhaps the ancestor of the lineage, the phratry, or the tribe, since he could be thought of as a universal ancestor-primitive con sciousness does not admit of a humanity that goes beyond its own social borders. The primordial ancestor/demiurge/culture hero is responsible for everything that is known to the community, which is formed of the only ‘real’ human beings in the universe. Among the Aborigines of cen tral Australia, some African peoples such as the Bushmen, Papuan tribes, and North American Indian groups, mythical heroes are the to temic ancestors. They are the progenitors, the creators of a particular animal (rarely vegetable) species and an of ethnic group that considers the species as its own flesh; its kin and totem, in other words.
