Tag Archives: Adam and Eve

The Anunnaki: A Myth

Nationality: American
Age: 56
Occupation: Director of Administration
Residence: Tiburon, CA
Performance Date: 4/21/18
Primary Language: English

Hrmm, I mea- I’m not sure you wanna use this.  Alotta people have ridiculed Sitchin’s work and if you submit this, people will probably think that your Mom’s a nutcase (laughs).

 Okay so here goes: The Anunnaki are the (quote) “ones who came from heaven.”  They’re told of in the Sumerian texts and the story goes, at lease according to Sitchin in his Earth Chronicle books – which’s been wildly panned by all the scholars – is that the Anunnaki were extra-terrestrials who came to the Earth about five-hundred-thousand years ago to mine for gold. They uhh that they needed the gold to replenish their atmosphere on their planet called Niburu.

 So because Nibiru takes thirty-two-hundred years to circle the sun, they lived incredibly long lives. The miners – the Anunnaki – got restless and wanted help with their work, so the Anunnaki used their scientific expertise and created the Adamu – that’s Adam in the Bible – by mixing their DNA with the native creatures already existing on the planet. I always found it interesting that this story is probably the basis for the Adam and Eve story in the Bible. 

The Informant has always been interested in unconventional explanations for nearly everything. The disclaimer above is genuine, her interest does not entail belief. She believes stories can be valuable inherently, with truth underlying them playing a lesser importance (a natural folklorist!). I’m almost certain she first learned of the Anunnaki for the first time on the show Ancient Aliens. It piqued her interest and she began reading Zecharia Sitchin.

According to Sumerian mythology, the Anunnaki are descendants of the sky-god, An. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, there are contradicting accounts of the Anunnaki, including the number of gods or even their function. Perhaps there were rivaling religious factions even in 2144 BC.

The mythology is written in stone, literally, but the academic world has widely rejected Stitchin’s creationist myth of the Anunnaki as an alien species responsible for creating homo erectus as a slave race to mine for gold. He has been accused of misrepresenting the Sumerian texts and mistranslating Sumerian to fit his claims.

Although this myth turned creationist myth is strange, oddity is a characteristic of mythology. The truthfulness of sacred myth, by definition, is questionable. Stitchin’s work is a good story and surely an interesting premise, but nonetheless a blatant exaggeration of the surely sacred to the Sumerian people in Mesopotamia.

Feminist Interpretation of Adam and Eve

Nationality: Indonesian
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: California
Performance Date: 04/05/15
Primary Language: English
Language: Indonesian

The informant and I live in the same residence hall, and for this folklore collection, we got pizzas together and just sat down and ate them in my room while talking and sharing stories.

“Women are equal to men, because when God made Eve, he took a part of Adam’s rib. If He had taken a part of Adam’s head to make her, that would have meant that she is above him, because she cam from the highest point of the body. If He had taken a part from Adam’s leg or his foot, that would have meant that she was below him, because she came from a lower part of the body. Since God had taken from the rib, that makes them of equal status since the ribcage is sort of a midway point of the body.”

Background & Analysis

The informant’s parents are from Indonesia, however the informant herself was born in the U.S., but is fluent in both Indonesian and English. The informant’s mom grew up Christian and went to a Catholic, all girls school. Nowhere in the actual bible does it mention this interpretation of Adam giving rise to Eve. When I asked whether the informant thinks that Indonesia has more gender equality, she said no, however in this particular scenario, since her mom had grown up in an all-girl’s school, they were more likely to learn variations on Bible scriptures that undermined the original intent of the Bible.

This particular interpretation of a very well known story, gives me a bit of hope for the future. Obviously gender inequality has gone down over the past years, however with popular culture and strict interpretations of the bible, our society will never make it to the desired endpoint. With folklore coming into play however, I see a trapdoor opening up.