HUMANITY’S END AS A NEW BEGINNING World Disasters in Myths MINEKE SCHIPPER, Essay and Selected Myths YURIKO FUJITA YAMAGUCHI, Art ‘A work of shared fate and hope’ Long before scholars started wondering and worrying about The End, storytellers provided their own answers in myths. How long will people be allowed to continue handling the earth and their fellow men without respect, before the gods are going to intervene? And what will happen to us humans? Will fire from heaven set our earth ablaze? Will a pandemic break out? Or will we all be drowned? This book by Mineke Schipper, inspired Yuriko Yamaguchi to create a series of art works depicting both the growing despair and the ultimate hope conveyed by these thrilling stories from all over the globe. A book about our worrisome world with encouraging echoes of hope. Dr Mineke Schipper is Emeritus Professor of Intercultural Studies at Leiden University of and the author of academic books, literary essays and novels, including Never Marry a Woman with Big Feet. Proverbs about Women from Around the World, and Naked or Covered, A History of Dressing and Undressing Around the World. Yuriko Yamaguchi is a Japanese-American artist and sculptor, residing in the US. Her works have been exhibited in the US, Japan and Europe. ‘I found my purpose in creating works that remind people that we are all connected in many overlapping webs (…) family origin, economic stressors, religious beliefs, nature, time, place and technology.’