A call for collaboration, (of myths and legends?).




v. To place or store; to keep.














Looking forward to responses, and hoping to weave something together!




  1. Nathi Khumalo | 12.2.2017

    One i know about is if some passes away due to a car accident or air the hospital, it is believed that your soul needs to be go fetched and return home. Using a throne tree, this ritual is vital before the burial to so that the spirit rest easy.

    Thats one example of how nature and humans are interlinked

  2. Sarasija Subramanian | 11.19.2017

    Hi Nathi,
    Thankyou so much for such a nuanced response!

    I’ve never seen the word legacy in the same framework as archive, I think that’s rather interesting actually, especially because it extends the idea of power to brute will and war. It opens up a lot more, in fact I think I’ve been having conversations very similar to these with a artist-turned-vet in Ireland. His scientific background makes him analyse myths in such a logical way.

    For example, when he talks of Celtic myths of Ireland which talk of superhuman acts done by Viking Warriors or legends that talk fo Giants and Fairies, then he very quickly justifies them by saying “No no, when information gets passed on it begins to exaggerate” or “a lot of Irish population before was malnurished and were very short, so when one individuals genetic structure made them taller than the rest then he was seen as a giant”. I guess that makes me think of legacies as well, and how a culture begins to create their own legends and legacies step by step.

    I read about pinky pinky, it sounds so unlike any of the other things that would be passed down generations. Is it more of an urban myth in that sense, with a more recent origin? I actually never considered looking at myths such as these, its something I should look into as well! 🙂

    I actually spent a little bit of time a couple of years ago looking at the totemic links to plants and trees in African stories, and there’s a beautiful tree called the African Tulip that we in India get from Africa, which was used in so many ways to ward of evil and mark the homes of people considered to be evil with its bright red flower, warning the rest of the village to stay away.
    We back home have very particular bonds to certain natural elements and beings, giving them a sort of undue power, either positive of negative, which often acts as a reason why they are saved or preserved in their natural habitat. Sometimes it turns into worship, sometimes it is shunning them all together, but often it is a ongoing relationship between man and nature which is so important to the culture of that community.

    I found a lot of such things in Ireland as well, where their Galic alphabet actually eminates the look of a tree, and each alphabet corresponds to a particular tree. Its remarkable to see how entire cultures have roots which are actually so simple to comprehend when they are seen outside the labels of ‘paganism’ or ‘knowledge’.

    I will definitely look into the myth that you have spoken off, but I am curious if there are any others which work more within the parameters of man and nature. I am trying to keep the project as a whole as specific as possible atleast in one aspect, to be able to draw paralells that may otherwise get lost along the way.

  3. Nathi Khumalo | 11.18.2017

    I am fascinated by the way you have described meaning of “Archive” and how you have given the word this magnificent power. because one thing i have learned is the importance of an archive as you have described it : Our entire history is based on archives which have been in place or set up.

    I think archiving system has always been apart of our living experience. From giving names to a person to building kingdoms and the greatest monuments where built as a piece of archive so that the future generations would always have some so of evidence or remembrances as to what that time was all about.

    Even with most of the wars that have happened, some one or some individuals wanted to leave a what we could call a legacy. When i look at both these words, some how i feel that they are parallel and they influence each other, certainly as to the only way we would know of a legacy is through the archive which is provided which intern because the factor in us receiving that particular information.

    My other interest in on your post is the position that you are proposing: “one aspect of their culture which they would use to draw a parallel between the natural world and myths/folklore.”

    This has also been a form of archiving in Africa as it stories which were used as a form to pass down the histories of people. whats amazing for me is how. Most times this the myths i heard as a young person where intertwined with the real world. people most talking about the horror of what they have seen.

    Most notable one was pinky pinky. a mysterious girl that would appear on a mirror if your lone in a room or toilet. A number of artist have tried to recreate that story to a visual formate.

    I have shared a link. below.

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