This happened in the Philippines. A washerwoman was doing the laundry by a river, while her daughter was playing nearby. Soon, the woman realized that her daughter was missing. So she looked everywhere in the village for her child, who was nowhere to be found.

So the girl told her story: She met and befriended a mermaid, who took her to the watery depths. She was offered a feast, where one of the dishes was fish. It was a good thing that she did not eat the fish, or else the mermaid would kill her, because fish are the creature's friends. After the meal, the girl and the mermaid played. Then the latter brought the child back to the shore.

After that incident, whenever the girl sees water, she sees the mermaid's face. It reminds her not to eat fish, or else she would die...by drowning.

An elder told me that story when I was a kid. That is not the only mermaid story I have heard from her. But that is the only one I know how to "dissect" so far. First of all, the girl could have seen a dugong, which swims in Philippine waters. It belongs to the order Sirenia, which also includes the manatee and the now-extinct sea cow. Scientists say that there could have been a land-dwelling seacow as well. Seeing a picture of its fossil, particularly of its appendages. reminds me - and possibly the sailors long, long ago - of fingers and toes. At a certain angle in the moonlight, a sirenian with half of its body above water and seaweed on its head may really look like a mermaid. Also, sirenians breastfeed/nurse their young.

The mermaid fossil exhibit of the 1840s was a fake. Who was behind it? P. T. Barnum, renowned for his circus. One of the mermaid fossils can be seen in the Peabody Museum of Harvard. The bottom half should have decayed with the upper part, at least. It is speculated that it is just papier-mache, which looks more like the "mermaid" at St. Bonaventure University.

In the medical terms, mermaid babies exist. The disorder is called sirenomelia, where the lower limbs are fused together. One sirenomelia case occurs in every 70,000, and since it had always been fatal, until today, folklore could have contained the hope that mermaid babies could survive.

Amazingly, within folklore and literature, the mermaid appears around the world as well. It does not necessarily have one fish tail; it may have two fish tails, or it can turn into other animals, such as seals or jellyfish. Some [pre-Christian] female gpddesses were water-borne, like Aphrodite. The mermaid has long been the symbol for the woman in society. [Interestingly, mermen are usually depicted as ugly.] Ariel in the Little Mermaid is a stronger character than the original mermaid of Hans Christian Andersen. whose story exemplifies women's suffering in a male dominant society. But Myrivilis's protagonist (in The Mermaid Madonna) is stronger and more feminist. Usually, sexuality is also discussed with regards to this topic. In the Elizabethan era, 'mermaid' was another word for 'courtesan'.

How can mermaids be a subject to blog about? It is interesting to understand how people are willing to believe in mermaids, how myth has inluenced our cultures, [how similar the world's cultures are], and how people depict them, since they have truly become the symbols of women in society.

I don't think that mermaids (as in 'the Little Mermaid' or something like this) exist. But I do believe that women fascination for the water-world has always been immense, like the one for the air. This is why they tried to imagine a being that can live under water, and adapted it as much as they could.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License,except where otherwise noted. ProgressiveU.org is a nonpartisan social welfareorganization that encourages an open discussion of current events,progressive values, and public policy priorities. The views and opinions expressed inpostings, and in advertisements, are those of the respective authors andsponsors, and they do not necessarily reflect the official position ofProgressiveU.org.

This is cache, read story here