Areca Tree Myth

Here are some of the notes I took for our presentation on the Areca Tree Myth, or, Sacred Place myths:

Sacred places serve to teach and remind people who they are and how we should behave on a daily basis.

1. “Whether they are the repositories of national or ethnic identity or the site of supernatural revelation or visitation, whether they are actual places where we can stand…or imaginary places shaped by…mythic vision, sacred places serve to teach and remind us of who we are and how we ought to behave in our day-to-day lives” (320).
2. The Bethel leaves and the areca nut juice symbolize love, brotherhood, family, loyalty, and happiness. Bethel leaves and the areca nut are are traditionally used for starting conversations and marital exchanges, or acting as an act or gift of faith
3. Sacred places embody the identity of a nation and influence/effect the people who live in it.

Sacred Place myths also help people determine the values of a culture and/or nation.

In the U.S. for instance, some of our historic battlefields such as Gettysburg, and places of rest for soldiers such as the National Cemetery, are examples of Sacred Places (320).

While some sacred places are physically myth, they still exist as a symbol for meanings beyond the surface of a story.

We like to think of ourselves as “down-to-earth” but how down-to-earth are we when we live our lives in cyberspace? Sacred Myths, in particular to “the various senses” that Native Americans use the term, call out to us to become down to earth, to remember and honor and revitalize our essential connections to the earth and the natural world, to the sacred all around us” rather than what’s on a screen in our hands (320).

Sacred Myths also “…invite us to associate the spiritual with such natural phenomena as mountains, rivers, lakes, trees, and caves” (320).

As for our places of reverance, "...Vine Deloria points out, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, with its battlefield and national cemetery, serves as a sacred place in our creation of national identity” (320).

However, beyond a location, there does exist “…something deeper that makes such sites sacred. What makes them important is that they embody and provide a location that dramatizes complex notions about nationhood and individual identity as well as the various contradictions that constitute the human condition such as bravery, fear, aggression and altruism” (321).

Andrew Gulliford completed an analysis of Native American sites which he then broke down into his Nine Categories of Sacred Places:

1. Sites associated with emergence and migration tales
2. Sites of trails and pilgrimage routes
3. Places essential to cultural survival
4. Altars
5. Vision quest sites
6. Ceremonial dance sites
7. Ancestral ruins
8. Petroglyphs and pictographs
9. Burial or massacre site

Of these Nine, I believe that the following pertain most closely to the Areca Tree Myth:

1. Sites associated to emergence and migration

The Areca Tree myth brought about the emergence of the new marriage tradition, and the migration to reach the river, represents a journey to their final resting place and ultimately, love (love shared between the brothers and the wife).

2. Places essential to cultural survival

Chewing betel leaves and the name of the plant itself can also be derived from this myth. The abundance of the trees throughout the land is explained as well. And as such, any place with this tree would thus be a sacred site by association; this I feel can be related to our culture as how people won’t curse in front of a church or a picture of Jesus.

3. Altar

Although there are no sacrifices, people do go to the site of Tan, Lang and Thao to light incense and honor their memory.

4. Ancestral Ruins

Maybe, and this may be a kind of stretch but if we consider that Tan, Lang and Thao really “died” at the site of the first Area Tree, then the shrine would eventually constitute a ruin.

5. Burial Site

 Although there is no tomb or grave, there is an altar and it was the last place the trio spent on earth before they transcended from life to death.

Gulliford’s categories refer to actual iden-

-tifiable locations that have mythological dimension. These final quotes sum up his ideas and the idea of sacred places rather well.

“Such sites are of course, actual places…Yet at the same time, these actual places are mythic because they embody meanings far beyond the scope of the events that happened and even beyond the limits of the physical locations themselves” (321).

 “These real world locations were made sacred by events that happened in the mythic, rather than the historical past. Therefore, what is needed is a typology of sacred places that describes all the possible associations that make a place holy” (322).