Bellringer
• After copying the objective into your composition
books, respond to the following prompt in a
minimum of 2-3 paragraphs:
What do you know about Native
American Culture? What do you know about
the European settlers' interactions with the
Native Americans in the 16th and 17th
centuries? Please be as specific as possible.
• Then, please get an orange textbook, open it to
page 23 and take out a separate sheet of paper.
How was it Made?
An Overview of Creation Stories Across Cultures
How do we make sense of our world?
Since the beginning of time, people have gathered to
discuss one of life’s biggest questions:
How was the world created?
In the Beginning…
• The Iroquois creation myth
we’re about to read offers
one answer to this
question about the origin
of our world.
• What are different
accounts of creation –
biblical narratives,
scientific theories, or
stories from other cultures,
for example—have you
heard or read?
But first, what is a Creation Myth?
• A myth is a traditional story, usually involving supernatural
beings or events, that explains how some aspect of human
nature or the natural world came to be.
• A creation myth is a specific kind of myth that typically
– Describes how the universe, earth, and life began.
– explains the workings of the natural world.
– supports and validates social customs and values.
– guides people through the trials of living.
• Despite the diversity of creation stories, many themes recur.
COMMON THEME #1:
References to the dominant physical elements of
the environment in which the tellers lived.
– The Maori story largely explains storms and the sea, and it
devotes considerable attention to fish.
– The Norse story of Ymir involves ice and cold, whereas ice isn't
even mentioned in most stories.
– The Native Americans living around the Great Lakes, like the
Potawatomi, tell stories in which the earth floats on or is
suspended in water.
– The Jicarilla Apache assume the earth surface is underlain by a
vast dry cavern.
– The ancient Hebrews lived in a dry region, and thus their image
of the paradise from which they were barred is a lush garden.
COMMON THEME #2:
The superiority of the storyteller’s people.
– The Mossi tell how black-skinned people were least
contaminated by the arrogance in the water of a lake in which
other peoples of other colors bathed.
– The Potawatomi tell how white-skinned and black-skinned
people were created with flaws and impurities before the
more successful creation of people with red skins.
– The Hebrews tell how one of their ancestors negotiated a
special relationship with the only true god.
– The Menominee tell how the name of their neighbors became
synonymous with "thieves".
– Strikingly, but not surprisingly, no culture has an origin story
that justifies the superiority of another people, or even the
equality of all people.
COMMON THEME #3:
Negative views of and roles for women.
– Izanami speaks first and spoils the first effort of
Japanese creation.
– The female of the Upanishad is raped repeatedly.
– In the Hebrew story, Eve gets humanity expelled
from Eden, and no other female is mentioned for
generations thereafter.
– Young girls are likewise responsible for disaster in
the Apache story.
COMMON THEME #4:
The need for class structures.
• Many stories also justify exploitation of, or at least
discrimination between, humans themselves. There is
a clear pro-establishment nature to many of these
stories.
– In the Babylonian creation, humans are created to
manipulate and exploit nature, but only as servants of the
gods (and their priests).
– The Chinese story explains that the ancestral upper
classes were hand-made by a deity, whereas the lower-
classes were mass-produced.
– The Japanese and Hawaiian stories are even more specific
in justifying the position of individual ruling families.
COMMON THEME #5:
Darkness and light.
• Many metaphysical explanations could be
offered for this fact, but a practical one is that
the stories were told at night, and in fact were a
means of whiling away the hours of darkness.
Among industrialized peoples, the telling of
stories around a campfire or at bedtime persists.
Given the dark environment in which these
stories were told, it's hardly surprising that
darkness and the light that broke through it were
a common feature in stories of creation.
COMMON THEME #6:
Humans from the Earth.
• In many stories, humans and other beings are made from
clay.
• Two stories from seemingly primitive cultures have elements
that accord well with modern science.
– The Jicarilla Apache story in which a human is made from
a variety of mineral and organic materials is consonant
with our modern view that the human body physically
consists of many chemical substances, and that our intake
of "minerals" is critical to our health.
– The Menominee story of change of animals into humans
provides a striking parallel to the modern understanding
of human evolution. One can only wonder what story
might have been told if Menominee culture had
developed in a region where other primates, as well as
humans, lived.
So What?
• The tremendous diversity of these stories in their materials,
characters, and themes suggests they developed
independently, rather than being derived from one primeval
story told by the first human storytellers. The stories'
promotion of their tellers' cultures and races, at the expense
of others, likewise suggests independent development
rather than common origin. By including what we would
consider racism, sexism, violence, and exploitation of
nature in their accounts of the origin of the world,
storytellers may have inadvertently said much about human
nature too.
So What?
• Humans today have the desire to explain the world and its
history.
• They satisfy it with microscopes and telescopes, with satellites
and seismographs, and with analysis of DNA.
• The explanations developed millennia ago could not draw on
such sophisticated technologies.
• Still, while they often reflect the social and political agendas of
their tellers, they also reflect the human desire to understand the
world around us.
Now, let’s explore these common
themes…
• As you read “The World on the Turtle’s Back,” use the
following strategies to help you understand the myth’s
message and the culture it comes from:
– Read the myth aloud, or imagine a storyteller’s voice as
you read.
– Note the mysteries of nature and details about creation
that the myth explains.
– Make inferences about the social values or customs
taught through the characters and situations.
– Look for details that reveal other aspects of the Iroquois
culture.
To Guide your Notes as We Read…
DETAILS ABOUT SOCIAL VALUES OR OTHER CULTURAL
CREATION/NATURE CUSTOMS DETAILS
Your Task…
• You have the remainder of class time to work on the
following assignment. Please finish it homework and
bring your completed work to our next class .
• Write an original creation myth. Include at least four
of the six common creation story themes which we
discussed in class today.
• Include an illustration for your story.
• Be sure your story is at least one and one half pages
long (one full double-spaced page typed).
• If you need inspiration, or want to look at more
creation myths before writing your own, go to:
http://www.gly.uga.edu/railsback/CS/CSIndex.html