above image: some costumes worn during the kina and kloketen rituals by the Hain people of Tierra del Fuego

Obscure Mythology Chapter 11: Kina/Kloketen

A South American religious dance ritual and initiation ceremony.

     Welcome back! I had a really hard time narrowing down this chapter’s installment to just one, there were so many good ones but I could not pass this one up. The kina and kloketen go hand in hand and I was happy that they both fit in the same chapter. They are two separate rituals but they are connected and the Kloketen couldn’t happen if the kina never did. You will understand better in a few minutes after you read the meanings. This is the first instance that I have come across where a myth or in this case a ritual explains why men were dominant in their culture. It is assumed that ancient homo sapiens venerated a female creation figure since the oldest known religious themed artifacts are the Venus Statues, figures of plump, voluptuous females with the oldest dating to over thirty thousand years ago.

 above image: venus figurines from paleolithic Europe

Many ancient tribes were matriarchal or at the very least women were as respected as men. All that changed a few thousand years ago when organized religion took a foothold and men gained the moniker of the “dominant” gender, more so by their actions then any written rule or law. Of course, the Bible, Koran and many other written materials made it very clear that men were for the most part dominant over women. We know today that is purely fiction and both species are equal no matter what a man or men may say. Women are by no means equal to men in many countries and areas to this day and that in itself is a scary thought. How could such antiquated ideals still be practiced today? The answer is the same since biblical times: Religion or tribal beliefs and today I was lucky enough to discover a ritual that helps explain early man’s thinking at least for this specific tribe. I am sure more tribes and cultures from around the world have similar myths or reasons for the gender inequality and it will be interesting to look into that in the future. For now, I give you the dance-ritual kina and its equally important initiation ritual the Kloketen.

Kina: South America, in Tierra del Fuego, a masked religious dance-ritual for men only.

Originally used by women, who were the superior sex, the sun discovered the secret from the moon and killed all the women except young girls and adopted the dance for men to ensure that they became superior to women. (see also kloketen).

Kloketen: South America, in Tierra del Fuego, a male initiation rite.

Youths gathered in a hut are subjected to frightening ordeals by masked men who instill the secrets of the tribe and the superiority of men.

(both entries taken from: The Dictionary of Mythology, an A-Z of themes, legends and heroes. J.A.Coleman)

The first thing that struck me was the universal idea that the sun was masculine and the moon feminine. This aspect of mythology dates to the beginning of homo sapiens and was dominant in just about every ancient civilization. I have stated numerous times that our myths come from our very ancient ancestor’s staring into the sky, mostly the night sky of course, and coming up for reasons why certain celestial and earthly things occurred. The sun and the moon have always played a prominent role in these reasons as they were associated with the male and feminine. Every culture I have studied so far while doing this or other projects has a few universally related myths, the first being a flood or deluge and the second being the first “couple”. The Adam and Eve myth. Some cultures say it happened before the flood and others say they were spared the flood and tasked with starting the human population again. In nearly all of these myths the first couple are eventually either taken to the heavens or banished there, becoming the sun and the moon. As I stated in the introduction anthropologists and historians know by studying the few remaining hunter-gather tribes and ancient records that females did play a dominant or at least equal role to men in pre-historic times and that’s why this or these particular myths caught my attention. The kina and kloketen are used by this tribe to explain why men are dominant, as if having a reason was good enough. These rituals are passed on from generation to generation until it becomes habit. The women of this tribe are subservient because their culture has told them they are since the day they or even their parents were born. Making a grand spectacle of it just reinforces the dominance and the subservient roles that this particular tribe associates with gender. This sort of brainwashing by culture has been happening for thousands of years and like I said still happens to this day. I believe everyone has a right to believe what they want to, especially if it is thousands of years old but I also believe that everyone, no matter of race or gender deserves equal treatment. We live in the 21^st century, in the Golden Age of information yet there are places in the world who still live by stone age beliefs and refuse to capitulate to modern times in fear of losing their identity. It is fixable but it will take time, forcing a people to radically change their beliefs in a short period of time has never benefited anyone just look at the many empires that have existed and how they assimilated their subjects through threat of violence, slavery, etc. I think I have said enough for today. I am going to be keeping an eye out for anymore myths or rituals similar to this one to see how other cultures dealt with the same issue. I cannot wait to share what I find with you all. Until then, I hope today’s post urged some of you to research this fascinating subject in more detail and I shall be back tomorrow with another installment. Have a great day and as always: PEACE!!!!!