Mythological Beings Based on Mammoths

Abstract

Genetics, linguistics, mythology, art, anthropology and other disciplines converge to remind modern humans that much of their belief system harkens back to the hunters of mammoths and related giant fauna. This is manifest in the fact that all across Eurasia the words for the animal elephant are remarkably similar and are ostensibly derived from the onomatopoeic "ZZZAAAN" sound of mammoth trumpeting. In places where memory about mammoths and elephants no longer survives it is perpetuated in mythologies about giants who suck. These beings are described as being wooly, pachyderm, nasal, gigantic, and in other ways remarkably mammoth-like.