[ **up: [[Legendary creatures]]** ] --- # Dragons - *See:* - [[Dragons--Chinese|Chinese dragons]] - [[Dragons--European|European dragons]] --- ## Dragons — a global belief? [[2025-0323. 'It is a striking fact that a belief in dragons is part of many cultural traditions.'|'It is a striking fact that a belief in dragons is part of many cultural traditions.']][^1] [[2025-0323. 'It is a striking fact that a belief in dragons is part of many cultural traditions.'|’At least since the publication of Charles Gould’s “Mythical Monsters” in 1886, and Grafton Elliott Smith’s “The Evolution of the Dragon” in 1919, there has been a general recognition that the idea of the dragon is a worldwide phenomenon.’]][^2] --- ### Theories re. the origin of dragons Grafton Elliot Smith was “so impressed with the similarities in the form of dragon beliefs that he concluded they must have a common origin.”[^3] > Others, following the psychologist C. G. Jung, have suggested that dragons are “archetypes” — symbols acquired in the remote past and genetically transmitted for millennia as an innate property of the human mind.[^4] > Still others have proposed that dragons were inspired by the fossilized bones or eggs of Archosauria, or by sightings of living organisms unknown to science or that they may be symbols of clouds, mist, rain, or thunder.[^5] > The preferred explanation for a globally distributed cultural trait is [[Convergence (Sociology)|convergence]]. Since limited possibilities play no role here, we are forced to conclude that universal psychological factors have conspired repeatedly in the history of our species to create the idea of a dragon.[^6] > But surely an idea as elaborate as that of the dragon could not arise repeatedly out of pure imagination.[^7] Robert Blust theorises “dragons are the end point of a conceptual development which began with rainbows”.[^8] [^1]: Robert Blust, ‘[[Blust. ‘The Origin of Dragons’, 2020.|The Origin of Dragons]]’, *Anthropos*, vol. 95, no. 2 (2000), p. 519. [^2]: Robert Blust, ‘[[Blust. ‘The Origin of Dragons’, 2020.|The Origin of Dragons]]’, *Anthropos*, vol. 95, no. 2 (2000), p. 519. [^3]: Robert Blust, ‘[[Blust. ‘The Origin of Dragons’, 2020.|The Origin of Dragons]]’, *Anthropos*, vol. 95, no. 2 (2000), p. 519. [^4]: Robert Blust, ‘[[Blust. ‘The Origin of Dragons’, 2020.|The Origin of Dragons]]’, *Anthropos*, vol. 95, no. 2 (2000), p. 519. [^5]: Robert Blust, ‘[[Blust. ‘The Origin of Dragons’, 2020.|The Origin of Dragons]]’, *Anthropos*, vol. 95, no. 2 (2000), p. 519. [^6]: Robert Blust, ‘[[Blust. ‘The Origin of Dragons’, 2020.|The Origin of Dragons]]’, *Anthropos*, vol. 95, no. 2 (2000), p. 519. [^7]: Robert Blust, ‘[[Blust. ‘The Origin of Dragons’, 2020.|The Origin of Dragons]]’, *Anthropos*, vol. 95, no. 2 (2000), pp. 519–520. [^8]: Robert Blust, ‘[[Blust. ‘The Origin of Dragons’, 2020.|The Origin of Dragons]]’, *Anthropos*, vol. 95, no. 2 (2000), p. 519.