Mythical Elements in Other Cultures

October 11, 2016 12:07 PM

I know that the Babylonians/Egyptians/Greeks (and through them European cultures), and China, Japan, Tibet, and India all had conceptions of the world being made up of four or five fundamental elements (e.g., earth, air, water, fire). Did any cultures outside of these (the Mayans, native North American societies, sub-Saharan societies, etc.) have similar elemental cosmological systems?
posted by Sangermaine to Science & Nature (2 answers total)

The Aztecs recognized four elements and five ages.

For the sake of reference, in Japan the concept of the "5 elements" (earth, water, fire, wind, and space) comes from Buddhism (which comes from India / South Asia). The representation of these 5 elements can most commonly be seen in graveyards, where there may, depending on the denomination, be gorinsekito (五輪石塔), or "five-ring plinths" that sometimes are used as grave markers.

The five elements are meant to be metaphorical and cosmological.

China, btw, has 5 elements, but they are a bit different than the 5 elements of Japan.
posted by My Dad at 12:37 PM on October 11, 2016

Western alchemy also divided matter into salt, sulfur and mercury.
posted by sukeban at 12:52 PM on October 11, 2016