What can the Rainbow Snake tell us about the Origins of Culture?

The Rainbow Serpent belief not only is widely sparse through the Aboriginal Australia, but it does also appear to exist in other societies and cultures (in this instance it suffices to narrow the definition to belief, whilst I shall demonstrate in the following discussion, the complexity of the ideological system enclosed in the terminology). By means of discussing the origins of the Rainbow Serpent belief, through analysing a version of a Northern Australian myth, and by discussing an Aboriginal ritual, I shall analyse the results of my research in light of 'matriarchal' perspectives and attempt to demonstrate that, being the Rainbow Serpent one of the oldest "religious belief documented in the world" (Flood, J. 1983. page 150), embodies important elements useful to formulate a valid theory for the origin of symbolic culture.

What exactly is the Rainbow Snake? Is it possible to lessen its complex features into formal description? An attempt to describe its constantly evolving features would be useful; moreover, given the fact that the Serpent symbology is present almost in any continent, culture and religion (African, Amerindian, Australian, Aztec, Chinese, Christian et cetera) and its features are somehow similar to each other, I will limit the description to a general overview of the serpents' characteristics. Consequently, I shall draw the most relevant attributes and analyse them in light of Aboriginal traditions.

The existence of a 'divine' Serpent is testable in countless cultures and, it must be pointed out, it embodies various and complex symbols. It is possible to come across male serpents as well as female serpents; moreover, the Rainbow Snake represents a self-generating creature since snakes' skin is seasonally shed. The skin, seasonally shed symbolises a ritualised temporary death, which is followed by rebirth: hence, being the mythical Serpent an essence that has the capacity to die and live again, represent Death itself and Life.
Iconographies of snakes are often characterised by 2 creatures biting each other's tail, or only one serpent, again, in the act of chasing its tail in a perpetual circular motion. Cyclical and seasonal recurrences are in this manner represented. Accepting the fact that the snake is a widespread element in a great number of regions of the world, it is necessary to narrow the argument and focus the attention on the Aboriginal version of the ideology: the Rainbow Snake.
The greatest difficulty in attempting to decode the implicit meanings embodied in the Rainbow Serpent "religious structure" (Eliade, in Maddock, K. 1978: 4) is suddenly encountered when we try to translate the various features into language. Because of its nature and its multifaceted meanings we shall indicate, at this moment, the Rainbow Snake (bolung, in Northern Aboriginal Australia's language) as "a being or a class of beings as well as an attribute of certain beings" (Maddock, K. 1978: 117). Moreover, underling the complexity of the terms by which Aboriginals refer to the Rainbow Serpent, Maddock argues that bolung "not only […] refers to a semantic configuration unlike any to which any of our words refers, but is perhaps a result also of its special symbolic function in verbal (and visual) communication" (ibid.). The concept of bolung / Rainbow Snake encloses the maleness symbolism, as it is associated to a phallus (a non-transcendent explanation for the phallic symbolism attributed to bolung, can be seen in the cobra snake, for instance, when it raises its head before attacking); by opposite, the Rainbow Serpent corresponds to femaleness and the whole, wide symbolism circulating around the fertility and life-giving domains. This 'being', does not symbolise snakes in their physical attributes, but contains metaphysical snakes' attributes: the Rainbow Serpent is not a serpent but behaves like other reptiles since it lives in wells, deep waters, rivers and in sea water. Consequently, the Rainbow Serpent acquires non-terrestrial features and becomes water itself and represents the entire concept of wetness.
Symbolising cyclicity and recurrence, often depicted in cave paintings (Hiatt, L.R. 1996: 119) as a circle or a spiral, the Rainbow Snake is duality and opposition par excellence. As we have seen it lives underwater nonetheless it does live in the sky, manifesting its presence in rainbows. A similarity can be found between the physical aspects of snakes and the shape of rainbows: the latter emerges from the ground (the unknown), rises up to the sky and, like a snake vanishes back into the depths of the earth. As I anticipated above, the Rainbow Snake "combines in a single creature the salient activities of the human male and female generative organs" (Hiatt, L.R. 1996: 116). Including most aspects of the humans' physical and metaphysical world the Rainbow Snake is an essence that has always existed (it is a constant cycle through time, a circle without a beginning or an end). At this regard, Muddock suggests to stress our attention on the "cyclicity embedded in the concept" (1978: 115) of the Rainbow Serpent with particular consideration of the conceptualisation of cyclical recurrence among Aboriginal thoughts. In addition, it is the "curvilinear imagery of snakes and rainbows [that are] apt to express the abstract notion of cyclicity" (ibid.).

A number of anthropologists suggested that the Rainbow Snake is a sort of demiurge who, during the Dreamtime, created rivers, ponds and wells. However, although this explanation is testable against archaeological records (Flood, 1983), the belief appears to embody more symbols than a simple creator of the continent of Australia, the seas and the rivers. Undoubtedly, as we shall see, being the demiurge of the rivers and the waters in general, the Rainbow Snake has been interpreted as the creator of the cyclical recurrence of the rainy and the dry seasons, and thus of Life in general (Warner, 1957: 386). However, the origin of the belief does not originate exclusively from a historical fact, but represents a more complicated issue. The Rainbow Serpent is always associated with water and, in particular, with tides. As we shall see, the tides and the moon are some of the main protagonists of the rise of culture.

The complex intricacies embodied in the Rainbow Serpent religious system might be better elucidated if we consider and analyse one of the several variations of the myths that exist through the Australian landscape: the Wawilak Sisters myth. Since there are numerous versions of the myth, what is in this instance reported is the Lévi-Strauss' summarised version, which lacks crucial details essential for the understanding of the myth:

"At the beginning of time, the two Wawilak Sisters began to walk toward the sea direction and, while walking, they named places, the fauna and the flora; one sister was pregnant, the other was carrying her child. Before leaving, they had incestuous relations with men from their own moiety. After that the younger sister gave birth, the afterbirth blood began to flow into a sacred pool, in which Yurlunggur, or the Rainbow Serpent, dwelt. The Serpent, which belonged to the same moiety of the two sisters, attracted by the blood [afterbirth or menstrual blood, depends on the version of the myth], emerged from the waters and caused a deluge and then a flood. Afterwards, the Serpent swallowed the women and the children. Until the Serpent was erected, the waters covered the land and the vegetation, then, when eventually he laid down, the water disappeared." (Lévi-Strauss, C. 1966: 105) .

Lévi-Strauss focuses on the ecological aspect of the myth and interprets the Rainbow Serpent as the origin of the monsoonal season in Northern Australia. Accepting his version, the French anthropologist associates the wet season with the Serpent, whilst the dry season is linked with the Wawilak Sisters. Doing so, Lévi-Strauss considers the serpent purely masculine and initiated in opposition to his binary opposite: the non-initiated and the feminine domain. The 'swallowing' and consequent 'regurgitation' is taken into account according to a complicated argument about the sacredness of the male class (initiated) who is superior to the female class and the non-initiated. Another unsatisfactorily explanation of the myth is provided by Warner, who similarly, advocates that the 'swallowing' is a necessary males' action directed towards the "unclean group" (1957: 387). Warner then proceeds stating that "the male snake-group in the act of swallowing the unclean group swallows the initiates into the ritually pure masculine age grade, and at the same time the whole ritual purifies the whole group or tribe" (ibid.). As we shall see, the 'swallowing' and 'regurgitation' are very important elements for interpreting the myth and subsequently the ritual to which its associated; nevertheless, it is important to examine in greater detail Warner's hypothesis since his interpretations, although rather erroneous, lead to a simpler solution. Warner argues that the serpent is symbolism of nature and, in particular, represents the wet season which brings a period of fertility (Warner, L. 1957: 387). The rainy season is, then, somehow characterised by negativity for two reasons: on the one hand, because the heavy rains have been caused by the Wawilak sisters' menstrual blood polluting the waters; on the other hand because, once the land is inundated, it is impossible to maintain social relationships given the fact that menstruation implies seclusion (Knight, C. 1991: 464). According to this account it is possible to associate the cyclicity of the monsoonal season with the cyclicity of the menstrual period: however, there are other implicit details in the myth that provide a full and exhaustive account to define the role of the Rainbow Serpent.

The account of the myth provided in the Savage Mind not only provides an incomplete explanation of its contents, but also, as it is the case for Warner, covers the issue from a purely male perspective. It is now the case to consider the myth from another perspective, a less patriarchal and 'negative' point of view since the main protagonists of the myth are two women and their blood loss.
Lévi-Strauss, summarising Warner's version of the Wawilak myth, reports that the serpent was "angered" by the blood's smell; however, other versions of the story feature the serpent aroused and attracted (Knight, C. 462). Following the latter account it can be argued that the serpent's reaction is radically different. Hitherto, it is acknowledged that the serpent is a sisters' kin; that the two women are by themselves, close to a sacred pool and that they are manifestly menstruating. The presence of water in the scene is not surprising since menstruations and wetness are often associated (see table below). If we 'translate' the snake metaphor it would not be difficult to grasp that the two sisters have been swallowed by their female kin; as Hiatts suggests to assimilate the act of swallowing and regurgitation with an immense womb (Knight, C. 1991: 468). Thus, the scenery is changing from Warner's interpretation, since he argues that the snake punishes (and kills) the women for polluting the pond: according to Chris Knight the snake has incestuous sexual intercourse with the women, which clearly symbolises a return to the womb. As a consequence, the Wawilak sisters are swallowed by themselves.
So far we have analysed very few details of the myth and, at this stage, I consider it a necessary step to suspend our interpretation for evaluating a theory which provides valuable notion for the continuation of our argument. As it will be shown, the presence of water, of female sibling, menstrual blood and the act of "swallowing" and "regurgitating" are fundamental particulars for the decoding of the myth.

There are several theories regarding the origin of human culture; however, one in particular not only accounts for the origin of symbolic culture but also for the emergence of rituals, incest taboos, totemism, language and provides a convincing hypothesis about the Rainbow Snake "religious structure" (Eliade, ibid.) hidden meanings.
The rapid encephalization of Homo, which occurred half a million years ago, was energetically very costly: such costs were entirely paid by females, who adopted a successful strategy to exploit males' labour. "Natural selection began to favour [those females who] increasingly synchronised and concealed ovulation" and "extended their sexual receptivity" (Turke, P. 1984: 33). Chris Knight and Camilla Power argue that "culture came into being […] when evolving human females decided to control their own sexuality, allowing access only to males who provided them and their offspring with meat from the hunt" by means of "revolutionary act of collective [female] solidarity" (Humphrey, C. 1992: 20). The cited strategy was a necessary action, since, once pregnant or lactating, females would have lost their attractiveness. The tactic functioned on a female individual level but it might have been a source of conflict and jealousy on a group level since one isolated female could have attracted all the males. A female coalition is the answer: the whole group would have been able to deceive males by "manipulating menstrual signals" (Power, C. 1999: 98). Power explains that "whenever a coalition member menstruated, the whole coalition joined in advertising this valuable signal as widely as possible to recruit available male energy to the coalition" (Power, C. 1999: 98). Males, then, could not recognise menstruating females from non-menstruating ones since the latter had the ability to mimic blood loss with blood itself or substitutes of it (sham menstruation). The necessary condition for the model to work is a reciprocal female altruistic alliance and an instrument to time the moment for the synchronous ovulation with precision: in a shoreline setting, the tides would have provided a monthly cyclical rhythm, whilst, in areas not influenced by tides, the moon would have fulfilled the 'clock' function (Knight, C. 1991: 245). Knight states that "to counter outgroup male attempts at rape or other defiance of periodic sex-strike action, females needed to form coalitionary alliances with one another and with their male offspring and kin " (1997: 135).

In the light of the 'sex strike' model we are now able to assess the myth from another perspective and to draw valuable details: the two sisters are the quintessence of consanguineal coalition; according to Chris Knight (1991), the coalition is successful throughout the whole landscape if male kin are involved, and this is the case for our mythical event. The pool from which the Rainbow Serpent emerges symbolises the tides; however, for the model to work evenly, it was crucial to guarantee that the synchronicity was maintained unanimously all across the territory by means of a rigid, binary on / off signal, which is the moon cyclical revolution. The whole discussion acquires more significance if we extract the mythical story's particulars and we compare with the table below :

ON -------------------------- OFF
Loud signals --- Weak signals
Waxing moon -- Waning moon
Seclusion ---------- Availability
'Other world' ------ 'This world'
Night ----------------------- Day
Wet -------------------------- Dry
Bleeding/raw - Cooking/cooked
Hunger/being eaten - Feasting
Flesh taboo --- Flesh available
Production ------ Consumption
Kinship ---------------- Affinity
Gender inversion - Heterosexual polarity
Animality ------------- Humanity [*]

Although it is not stated, we can imagine that at the moment of the rainfall thunders and darkness were present in the scene, given the fact that "noise seems to be persistently associated with incest […] and eclipses, darkness, storms, rebellion and the flowing of blood" (Knight, C. 1997: 137); details that confirm our sex-strike theory discussion. According to the Knight's model, it is predictable to encounter bonded kin having incestuous sexual intercourses within a secluded setting: as it is the case, the snake swallows viz. copulates with the sisters and the child, being the Rainbow Serpent the symbolic representation of a vagina. Hence, we can formulate the following equation: the Wawilak sisters are the coalition of kin, which are the menstrual synchrony itself and therefore the sisters are the Rainbow Serpent. In addition, Knight confirms our discussion stating that the Snake, being a "ritual phenomenon" represents "women in such close intimacy that they feel as if they are 'one flesh', 'one blood' or 'one mother'" (Knight, C. 1988: 245). The act of menstruation unanimously creates a metaphysical single blood flow and therefore "these women are indeed 'like a snake', for no creature on earth more closely resembles a river or flow, or can coil itself up into so many repeated cycles" (ibid.).
Hitherto, we evaluated the myth in light of divergent hypothesis and the sex-strike theory model appears to be the most exhaustive. The goal of the following chapter is to evaluate the meaning of an Aboriginal ritual, constantly keeping in mind and referring to the sex-strike theory model with particular attention to what Edmund Leach writes about myths and rituals: "myth in my terminology, is the counterpart of ritual; myth implies ritual, ritual implies myth, they are one and the same" (1970: 13).

The Wawilak Sisters' myth is re-enacted in the Julunggul ritual, which lasts from a variable period of two weeks to a couple of months. In this place, I shall not describe in their sum those particulars not entirely relevant to our analysis; it is suffice to mention that the layout of the sacred ground is shaped to represent the Rainbow Serpent's body and that a female genital area is also represented in which a good deal of action takes place. Men and women dance together and mimic sexual intercourses inside the hole representing the vaginal opening: according to Peggy Grove (1999: 6) this act encompasses fertility connotations. Men, then, dance around the women and become the Rainbow Serpent trying to smell the women's menstrual blood. Bullroarers 'sound is heard by the novice (exclusively young males) that are covered in ochre and arm blood. The blood, obtained by way of an incision on the arm's veins, is exhibited proudly by the adult men who dance following a trumpet rhythmic sound (the voice of the Rainbow Serpent). "The initiates are put under [ceremonial tree] branches, mimicking the two Wawilak Sisters who sat in the hut […] who are smeared all over their bodies with red ochre, lie passively waiting for the instant when they are to be born" (Grove, P. 1999: 7). Once the young men are reborn, purification ceremonies will follow.
An Aboriginal informant's view of the ritual:
"When the Julunggul went into the hut, we mean that a penis is entering a woman's vagina, and this hut is a uterus too: that is why we have it on the sacred ground, for it to reminds us that everything must come from the mother's uterus…And when the Julunggul swallows the Wawilak, that is like a penis being swallowed by a vagina, only we put it the other way around"
(Berndt 1951: 39, cited in Grove, P. 1999: 6).

This account makes manifest the intention of men to revert the course of the mythical events, and following Knight's argument, they transform an all-swallowing organ into a penis: initiated men maintain secret their knowledge and "keep women ignorant" (Maddock, K. 1974: 151, cited in Knight, C. 1991: 473). The men send a clear message to the women, that is, they are the Rainbow Serpent. Let's look at other details of the rituals since we will be able to conclude the argument asserting that men ritually 'stole' feminine power and that they were conscious of their actions. Initially they blow the trumpet which is the voice of the Serpent: men, thus, scare the novices which are to be swallowed by the Serpent. Other versions of the Wawilak myth account that the two menstruant sisters hid into a seclusion / parturition hut scared of the presence of the Serpent: as I reported, during the ritual, novices are covered in blood and wait underneath branches. The similarity with the Wawilak sister is remarkable, yet the opposite; now, the men / Rainbow Serpent will swallow only the boys, given the fact that women are not menstruating as men (Knight, C. 1991: 477-478). The blood that covers both men and novices is the same menstrual blood of the Wawilak Sister and

"the hole in the man's arm isn't that hole anymore. It is all the same as the vagina of that old woman that had blood coming out of it. This is the blood that snake smelled when he was in the Mirrirmina well"(Warner, L. 1957: 278).

Before concluding this paper, it would be valuable to account for another male menstruation ritual that appears to be undoubtedly painful: across almost all the Australian continent:
"men cut their penis along the underside, the incision reaching to the urethral canal; the organ then opens out wide. During rituals the wound is reopened to produce a flow of blood. The more sacred the ritual (as a general rule), the more bloody -and the more taboo it is to women" (Knight, C. 1988: 247).

What is the reason for a man to severely cut his penis and hide his 'menstrual' blood from the women's sight? Knight states that Aboriginal men perform what women used to act in the past, that is keeping their rituals secret and thus maintaining social and political power (1988). Men, not only stole women's reproductive powers, as it has been shown with regards to the Julunggul ritual, but also depict the Rainbow Snake as a dangerous and terrifying creature.
By virtue of strategic alliances women controlled the social and political world; moreover, they were in total control of their sexuality, which was employed as a means of obtaining food with regular occurrence and protection against other bands. This case is not restricted to Australia, but it has been proved that female coalitions were employed in Africa from 70.000 years ago (Watts, I. 1999). Unknown, though, are the approaches which men employed to 'steal' women's ritual power. What is certain is that, nowadays, men do fear menstrual blood and tend to employ the 'magical' element for their own purposes. Painful mutilating rituals fulfil men's requirement for constant manifestation of 'superiority' towards women. Seasonally, men perform collective rituals act to reinforce their status and to generate, in novices, fear of a mythical past. Women held an inexplicable magic power, their blood, and were intelligent not to reveal to men their innate capacity of 'magically' bleeding unanimously and their ability to transform themselves, through dances and masking, into other creatures. Tricking the women, men now menstruate and give birth to their male children: women's reproductive powers do not require collective rituals to demonstrate their innate capacities, whilst men need public display of their newly acquired generative abilities to maintain and reinforce their status. Costly and painful mutilations are strong and intense signals meant to prove given conditions. Women, viz. the Rainbow Snake, by means of their magical loss, copulated with the moon and had an inextricable bond with their kin, and in addition, women, could turn into innocuous the dangerous and polluting hunted game's blood.
Men acknowledge the great importance of owning women's power and are aware of the implications of possessing social and cultural control. Aborigines know that the 'magical' powers have been 'stolen' from women and are aware that it is necessary to maintain women's ignorance about the issue.
In conclusion, we have evaluated the notion of Rainbow Serpent comparing different interpretations, and by means of decoding an Aboriginal ritual, it has been proved that the complex concept of Rainbow Serpent changed through time. At the time of the Dreamtime, the Rainbow Serpent was an articulate system of interrelated holistic features that provided a rhythmic economy of the social structure. It is possible, at this point, to state that the Rainbow Serpent, being a metaphysical projection of women's power, and making the women the creators of symbolic culture, acquires more importance than, say, a religious structure: the Rainbow Snake is culture. The Serpent regulates socio-economic contracts, marriage and kinship patterns, inter and intra group relationships, et cetera through the whole landscape. Given the fact that the Rainbow Serpent belief is widely sparse in similar forms in a great number of contemporary cultures, it can be argued that, once, the entire human social system was regulated by cyclical snake-like reoccurrences.

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