Archetypes: the people, places, things, events, that consistently arise from the collective unconscious to take new forms and importance.
Even the concept of archetypes is a recurring theme in my life, first with Joseph Campbell and now with Carl Jung.
In a now recurring job working with stuffed animals, bears in particular, I wondered if the “stuffed animal” or Teddy Bear had a base in our unconscious archetypes. I FOUND ONE!
The modern stuffed animal traces its history back to the Teddy Bear built in association with the historical event of Teddy Roosevelt refusing to shoot a captive bear. “During a bear-hunting trip in Mississippi in November 1902, to which Roosevelt was invited by Mississippi Governor Andrew H. Longino. There were several other hunters competing, and most of them had already killed an animal. A suite of Roosevelt's attendants, led by Holt Collier,cornered, clubbed, and tied an American Black Bear to a willow tree after a long exhausting chase with hounds. They called Roosevelt to the site and suggested that he should shoot it. He refused to shoot the bear himself, deeming this unsportsmanlike, but instructed that the bear be killed to put it out of its misery, and it became the topic of a political cartoon by Clifford Berryman in The Washington Post on November 16, 1902. While the initial cartoon of an adult black bear lassoed by a white handler and a disgusted Roosevelt had symbolic overtones, later issues of that and other Berryman cartoons made the bear smaller and cuter. Morris Michtom saw the drawing of Roosevelt and the bear cub and was inspired to create a new toy. He created a little stuffed bear cub and put it in his shop window with a sign that read "Teddy's bear," after sending a bear to Roosevelt and receiving permission to use his name. The toys were an immediate success.” (quote from Wikipedea)
Creating images of animals goes back further than that. There is a shamanic practice of totemic or power animals. Images of an animal used as a guardian or guide for you spiritual life. This was the beast who became your connection to the spirit realm. The one who watched over you while you slept or when you were sick. The one you told your dreams, worries, fears to that you wouldn’t tell anybody else. The creature you might aspire to be like as you matured. I know the sound of my child’s voice. The sound that comes through the monitor as the nap has ended but not yet ready to be lifted out. A cadence of conversation with no one really responding. A conversation with the bear telling of what took place during the nap, a conversation with one who really understands even when mom, dad, and the beloved Grandparents don’t and can’t understand.
Today the stuffed animal is often a child’s first friend. One who comforts a child in the midst of their nightmares, fears, and chaos of growing up. Of old it would be the quest of a young member of the tribe to seek their totem animal as a coming of age rite known as a vision quest. Now the search for the crib companion falls to the family of the newborn.
Next. Track the spread of the Totemic Bear: Native American, European, and Northern Japanese
Next. Track usage of BEAR in pop culture beyond the teddy bear.
Yogi Bear, Redwall, His Dark Materials, Greatful Dead, Pooh Bear, Paddington Bear
