"Bears in Myth and Culture",1,34700026.bmp,c,001.wav
Other than woolly elephants, bears were the largest animal encountered by humans in the \Ptemperate\p to cold parts of the northern \Phemisphere.\p In addition to their being feared for their size, they aroused respect and even religious feelings, due to their human-like ability to walk on their hind legs and to sit, like humans, on their buttocks, feet forwards.
Early Stone Age cave-dwellers made paintings and carvings of bears (possibly including the now extinct giant cave-bear) and many niches have been found containing one or more bear skulls, each with leg-bone in the eye sockets and mouth, the hole covered with a slab of rock. The exact significance of such arrangements will never be known, but it must have had some magical or mystical significance. Bears feature prominently in the totem poles of many Northern American Indian cultures and some referred to bears as their spiritual relatives.
There were \Ptransmutation\p legends of bear-people and people-bears and, among the Dakota, a boy's puberty rites included remaining for some days in a pit, fasting and imitating the behavior of a bear. Bear-worship continued into the twentieth century in Hokkaido and eastern Siberia. There are Roman accounts of near worship or \Ptotemism\p in some German tribes around the time of Julius Caesar, and runic inscriptions from Finland give evidence of bear-worship in this region.
\BDescription:\b In addition to bears being feared for their size, they aroused respect and even religious feelings, due to their human-like ability to walk on their hind legs and to sit, like humans, on their buttocks, feet forwards.
\BPhoto:\b Walt Enders - Ellis Nature Photography
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"Bears in Myth and Culture - (2)",2,27040012.bmp,c,002.wav
Together with many other \Ppagan\p beliefs and attitudes, early European Christians incorporated the veneration of bears into their religious practices. The long delay between mating and the beginning of \Pembryonic\p development had led to a belief that female bears could give birth without mating, thus providing a mirror to the virgin birth of Jesus. The fact that a mother bear continually licks her very small young (possibly to reduce loss of water by evaporation) had given rise, in Roman and Greek times, to the idea that she literally "licked them into shape," thus being an example of the creation of life: this, too, was symbolic to Christians.
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\BDescription:\b This bear looks mysterious as it takes a late afternoon swim.
\BPhoto:\b Todtri Productions Limited
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"Bears in Myth and Culture - (3)",3,01630027.bmp,c,003.wav
The long winter sleep of bears -- apparent to death and rebirth -- impressed many pre-Christian peoples and may have underlain the myth of \POrpheus\p in the Underworld. Certainly, in northern Europe, the \Pemergence\p of bears around February seemed to be in relation to the return of green vegetation in the spring and suggested that bears had knowledge (perhaps even control) of the return of the sun.
Early Christians celebrated the return of the sun and the beginning of the year in February with the feast of \PCandlemas,\p under the patronage of Saint Blaise who, among other powers, was keeper of the winds. He celebrated the occasion by breaking wind, seen to be related to the explosive expulsion of air of an awakening bear as it expels the plug of feces that has sealed its \Palimentary canal\p during the months of hibernation.
\BDescription:\b There are many legends surrounding bears.
\BPhoto:\b Todtri Productions Limited
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"Bears in Myth and Culture - (4)",4,01630032.bmp,b,004.wav
Until the nineteenth century, the French town of Arles-sur-Tech celebrated \PCandlemas\p by building a cave in the town square. A young man, clad in the skin of a bear, would rampage ferociously through the town and eventually take a woman into the cave, where they were "married." This appears to be a combination of fertility rites (usually in May) with rebirth (February), but no less symbolic. The behavior of the chosen young man in a bearskin has a parallel in Nordic countries where frantic warriors were known as \Iberserkers,\i a word which translates as "bear-shirters" or "clad in bearskin." Dare one suggest that the bearskin helmets of the \PGrenadier Guards\p (no longer made from bears) are relics of an ancient culture in which there was an association between bears and ferocity?
It may be noted in passing that, over most of Europe, the words for bear and brown are of similar origin and are related to the Sanskrit \IBhurs.\i The Italian name, \PBruno,\p is equivalent to the Swedish Bjorn.
Many European place-names include references to bears. Berlin is one notable example and the Swiss city of \PBern\p is another. \PBern\p has retained a bear-pit in the center of the city since at least the sixteenth century, and the \Pheraldic\p device on its seal and flag is a bear -- as it is in the state of California.
Possibly the most popular children's doll is the "teddy bear," named after the American President, Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt, famed for his hunting of wild animals, including bears.
There are two bears in the heavens. As early as the fifth century BC, Greek astronomers had designated the constellations now known, in Latin, as Ursa Major ("Great Bear" or "Big Dipper") and Ursa Minor ("Small Bear" or "Little Dipper"), still in use today.
\BDescription:\b Over most of Europe, the words for bear and brown are of similar origin and are related to the Sanskrit \IBhurs.\i
\BPhoto:\b Todtri Productions Limited
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"Mythical Bears",5,faoy0187.bmp,b,005.wav
Man has sought to understand and portray bears for many thousands of years. Some of Europe's cave paintings depict bearlike creatures, probably the \Pancestors\p of today's European brown bears but possibly an extinct species known as the cave bear.
\BDescription:\b 19th century engraving of a bear.
\BDrawing:\b All Our Yesterdays
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"Fairy Tales",6,goldi003.bmp,b,006.wav
The fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, transcribed from recited folklore, included stories of \Pferocious\p bears, and European folklore also contains legends of bears that tricked people or were tricked by them. Probably the most famous of all such tales is "Goldilocks and the Three Bears."
This classic is still so popular among children that during the 1980's at least eight hardcover editions were in print in the United States, including one accompanied by an audio cassette and one in sign language.
\BDescription:\b \IGoldilocks and the Three Bears\i is still a popular fairy tale today.
\BDrawing:\b William Bourke
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"Koala is Not a Bear",7,02850005.bmp,c,007.wav
It is understandable when Australian settlers first encountered the koala in the late eighteenth century that they regarded this almost tail-less animal as a "native bear." It was soon recognized to be a \Pmarsupial\p, with a well-developed pouch in which the single young is reared until old enough to ride on its mother's back. Nevertheless, in recognition of the early errors, it was given the name, \IPhascolarctos,\i meaning "pouched-bear" (from the Greek \Iphaskolos,\i pouch; and \Iarktos,\i bear). Common names have great longevity and, almost 200 years since this species was shown to have no relation whatsoever to the bear, many Australians still refer to it as the "koala bear."
\BDescription:\b When a baby koala is born it crawls into its mothers pouch where it feeds on milk for around six months. Adult koalas feed exclusively on eucalyptus leaves and the moist leaves mean they rarely have to drink water. Koalas spend most days sleeping in the forks of the trees.
\BPhoto:\b Webster Publishing
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"Prehistoric Cave Bears",8,faoy0186.bmp,b,008.wav
The \Pprehistoric\p cave bears were the basis for centuries of dragon lore. Among the sites where the fossilized bones of cave bears accumulated were Drachenloch in Switzerland and Drachenfels in Germany -- the so-called Dragons' Caves. The skulls, substantially larger than those of present-day European bears and characterized by a steeply sloping forehead, gave ris
