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In the beginning there was a period of
Chaos, when air, water, and matter were combined in a formless mixture. On
this floated a Cosmic Egg, from which arose Gaea (Earth) and Uranus (Sky).
These deities created the earth and its creatures and the Sun, Moon, and
Stars. Thus the Greeks accounted for creation.
In the beginning there were Holy People,
supernatural and sacred, who lived below ground in 12 lower worlds. A
great flood underground forced the Holy People to crawl to the surface of
the earth through a hollow reed, where they created the world. Changing
Woman gave birth to the Hero Twins, called "Monster Slayer" and
"Child of the Waters" who had many adventures. Earth Surface
People, mortals, were created, and First Man and First Woman were formed
from ears of white and yellow corn. Thus the Navajo accounted for
creation.
Among the most basic questions raised by
human beings are those of origins. How did the human species arise?
How was the earth created? What about the sun? the moon? the stars? Why do
we have night and day? Why do people die? No human society lacks answers
to such questions. While these answers vary greatly in detail, they are,
for primitive peoples as a whole, similar in their basic form: people and
the world exist because they were brought into being by a series of
creative acts. Moreover, this creation is usually regarded as the work of
supernatural beings or forces. The accounts of the ways in which these
supernatural agents formed the earth and peopled it are known as origin
myths.
Until the rise of modern science, origin
myths provided the only kinds of answers possible to such questions. Thus,
myths embody the state and limitation of human thought about origins for
more than 99% of human history.
Although origin myths are usually assigned
to the province of religion, they contain one element of science: explanation.
While moral lessons may be scattered here and there throughout them,
origin myths are basically ways of accounting for things as they are.
Explanation, then, is not unique to nor did it begin with science. Science
shares explanation with mythology. What distinguishes science from
mythology is verification. Not only does science propose answers, it
proceeds to test these answers, and if the answers prove incorrect, they
must be rejected or modified. Mythology differs from this. An origin myth
offers an explanation that is to be believed. Acceptance, not
verification, is what is called for. Ancient Norsemen believed the aurora
borealis (Northern Lights) were reflections of light off the shields of
the warrior maidens the Valkyrie; modern astronomers tell us they are
caused by solar winds interacting with the earth's magnetic field and
atmospheric gases. Both are explanations, but only one of these
explanations can be verified.
What is explanation? At bottom, it amounts
to translating the unknown into the known, the unfamiliar into the
familiar. And what do human beings know best? Themselves. They know how
people think and feel and act. And from a very early stage of culture,
people have projected human thoughts and emotions into the external world,
endowing objects and forces of nature with human personality and
greater-than-human power. The personalized supernatural beings thus
created were assigned the role of providing plausible and satisfying
explanations for the unknown. In this way, origin myths were born.
One more word about explanation. At the
heart of explanation lies causation. The idea of causation, again, was not
born with modern science, nor from the early Greek philosophers. It is
much older than that. Indeed, causation is very deeply rooted in human
thought. Among the Kuikuru Indians of central Brazil, for instance, a
tribe I have studied in the field, a cause is quickly found when something
untoward or unusual happens. Thus, one man attributed a toothache to
someone's having worked witchcraft on a piece of sugar cane he had chewed.
Another man, whose manioc garden was being ravaged by peccaries, decided
than an enemy had put a picture of a peccary in his garden to draw these
animals to it. The pattern of causal thinking I found among the Kuikuru
occurs among primitive peoples everywhere. I think it is safe to say,
then, that the quest for causes, which is so central to modern science, is
actually a legacy bequeathed to science by our pre-scientific Old Stone
Age ancestors.
However, the kind of causation employed by
primitive peoples is of a very special kind. It is personal
causation. That is, the agent responsible for an action generally has the
attributes of human personality. Impersonal causation, a hallmark
of modern science, is regarded as insufficient by primitive peoples.*
Impersonal forces may be the immediate cause of something, but they
are always underlain by ultimate causes, which are usually personal
in nature. Thus, the Kuikuru know it was the wind that blew the roof off a
house, but they carry the search for explanation one step further and ask,
"Who sent the wind?" Their implicit assumption, which
they never seem to question, is that some personality, human or spirit,
had to direct the natural force of the wind to produce its effect. How
could it be otherwise? The members of a pre-literate society could not
possibly know the physical causes of cyclonic storms generated high in the
atmosphere by complex meteorological forces.
To be sure, primitive peoples apply
causation to more than just immediate questions like why a man's tooth
hurts or why his roof blew off. They are also interested in more remote
and enduring questions. Who was the first man? How did people learn to
plant? Why is the moon's face marked? What happens after death? For tens
of thousands of years people have been crafting answers to these
questions,answers that are embodied in the vast body of imaginative
narratives we call origin myths. Over the last hundred years,
anthropologists have developed a keen interest in origin myths and have
made very extensive collections and analyses of them.
Certain myths are all but universal, and
their extensive distribution attests to their great antiquity. The best
example of this is the famous Flood myth. The Flood story recorded in the
Bible was by no means original with the ancient Hebrews, but was derived
by them from the earlier Gilgamesh Epic of the Babylonians. But the
Babylonian version in turn drew on a pre-existing Flood myth that no doubt
went back thousands of years earlier. So old is the Flood myth, in fact,
that it has had a chance to diffuse far and wide. Indeed, it is known to
practically every human society from aboriginal Australia to Tierra del
Fuego.
One should not make the error of
believing, however, that just because a myth is known throughout the
world, it must necessarily reflect an actual occurrence. The
near-universality of a flood story is no more proof that a flood once
covered the earth than the widespread belief in a Fall-of-the-Sky myth is
proof that the sky once actually fell.
Myths are not merely explanations, but
also function to assure, encourage, and inspire. They are also literary
creations: narrative epics, full of drama and romance, of novelty and
imagination, of quest and conflict. But while often having great literary
merit, origin myths should not be thought of as the work of a few creative
geniuses. They are, instead, the product of untold thousands of narrators
who, in telling and retelling a myth, have embellished it here, dropped a
character there, transposed two incidents, amplified a cryptic part, given
greater motive or justification to an action, and so on. Because they
continuously change, then, there is no "official" version o f a
myth. Indeed, even in the same village one may readily obtain half a dozen
versions of the same myth.
With these general considerations in mind,
let us turn now to a brief survey of the kinds of origin myths found in
the primitive world.
The view that the earth is the center of
the universe, which, until Copernicus, prevailed throughout Europe, was by
no means unique to Western thought. It is no doubt a legacy from Stone Age
times. After all, since the earth is the place where people live and is
what they know, and since people create the myths, why shouldn't they
place their planet at the center of the cosmos? Moreover, if the earth is
of prime importance to them - as it is - why not make its creation primary
in time as well? Thus, in primitive mythology, it is the rule that the
world was created first, and that the sun, the moon, and the stars follow
it. In fact, the sun, moon, and stars are often mythological characters
who first lived on earth but who, after a series of adventures or
misfortunes, ended up in the sky to find their ultimate resting place as
heavenly bodies.
A few societies have no myth to account
for the origin of the world. For them, the world has always existed. More
commonly, however, the earth is thought to have been created by the
actions of supernatural beings. Rarely, though, does a deity create the
world out of nothing: generally, he or she has something to work with.
Some Polynesian peoples, for example, believe that the sea was primeval,
and that the land was created by a god, Tane, who drove to the bottom and
came up with mud from which to fashion it. The Norse gods Odin, Vill, and
Ve made the world from the body of the giant Ymir, using his blood for
oceans, his bones for mountains, his hair for trees, and so on. It is not
unusual for several gods or culture heroes to be involved in the creation,
each contributing his or her portion to the final structure.
Beliefs about the origin of human beings
fall into three main types: (1) they have always existed on earth, (2)
they did not always exist but were created in some way, and (3) they
previously existed, but in another world, and had somehow to be brought to
this one.
The first belief is exemplified by the
Yanomamo of Venezuela about whom Napoleon Chagnon says, "The first
beings cannot be accounted for. The Yanomamo simply presume that the
cosmos originated with these people." Usually, though, there is a
specific creation of the human species. The Norse god Odin created man
from ash wood and woman from alder. The Machiguenga of Peru believe the
were made by a god, Tasorinchi, who carved them out of balsa wood. The
Tlingit of Alaska say the Raven created not only the first human beings,
but also the first animals, as well as the sun, the moon, and the stars.
And of course, in the Biblical account, it was God who created the
progenitors of the human race, fashioning Adam out of clay and Eve from
one of his ribs.
The Warao of the Orinoco delta, on the
other hand, believe men first lived in a skyworld where the only animals
were birds. Then one day a hunter shot a bird with such force that his
arrow pierced the ground of the skyworld and continued to the earth below.
Peering through the hole and seeing a rich land beneath them, teeming with
all manner of game, the hunter attached a long cotton rope to a tree and
lowered himself to earth. There he was ultimately joined by his fellows,
who finally decided to abandon the skyworld and settle permanently on
earth. The Karaja of central Brazil reverse the process. Their ancestors,
they say, once dwelt in an underworld until one day one of them climbed up
a hole in the ground and out onto the surface of the earth, where his
fellow tribesmen later followed and where they eventually settled.
Origin myths also explain the variety of
animal life that covers the world. Makunaima, a Guiana Carib culture hero,
climbed a large tree and with his stone axe cut off pieces of bark which
he threw into the water. One by one, they turned into all the animals in
the forest. Sedna, according to the Eskimo, cut off her fingers, which
turned into seals, whales, walruses,and other ocean mammals. Often,
particular incidents are introduced into an animal creation myth to
account for the size, shape, color, and peculiar habits of each animal.
In almost all primitive myths there is a
close association between animals and men. Countless episodes tell of the
transformation of human beings into animals, or vice versa. Animal-human
matings occur commonly. Indeed, it is not uncommon for animals to be
regarded as the precursors of the human species - a crude foreshadowing,
in a way, of the theory of organic evolution.
A tribe's mythology accounts not only for
its own origins but also for that of other tribes. However, the origin
assigned to an enemy is likely to be unflattering. The Saliva of Columbia,
for example, say that their hated Carib enemies arose from large worms in
the putrefying entrails of a serpent-monster killed by a Saliva culture
hero. A common belief in the primitive world is that all peoples were once
a single tribe, living together and speaking the same language. But then
something happened (among the Tikuna of the Upper Amazon it was the eating
of two hummingbird eggs), and thereafter people began to speak different
languages, split into separate groups, and dispersed far and wide. Here we
see a clear parallel to the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel.
Many primitive myths tell of a Golden Age
during which life was easy and pleasant, discord was unknown, tools worked
by themselves, no one ever died, and the like. Then something went wrong,
and ever since, travail, misfortune, and death have been the lot of
mankind. This notion of a Fall of Man is likewise familiar to readers of
the Bible.
In contrast to a Golden Age, there is
often a belief in the notion of a Primordial Simplicity. According to this
view, the earliest stage of the human race was one of ignorance and
innocence out of which the benighted were lifted by a god or culture hero.
This mythical being taught them many things - how to make tools, how to
build houses, how to plant crops, even how to copulate properly.
Among many elements of culture purportedly
unknown to the earliest people was fire. However, rather than being given
fire by the gods, most primitive peoples say they had to steal it. In myth
I recorded among the Amahuaca of eastern Peru, fire was stolen from the
stingy ogre, Yowashiko, by a parrot who flew away with a burning brand in
its beak. Angered by the theft, Yowashiko tried to douse the flames by
sending rain. However, other larger birds spread their wings over the
parrot, thus keeping the flames alive so that eventually fire became
available to everyone. This account is of course reminiscent of Greek
mythology, in which Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to
mankind.
Origin myths often tell of a rudimentary
earth with many shortcomings and imperfections that, one by one, had to be
removed or overcome. One belief is that at first, night did not exist and
there was only day. The sun stood at zenith all the time and its rays beat
down unmercifully on the ancestors. Sleep was all but impossible, and
people lacked the privacy that only darkness can afford. Some tribes say
night did exist but it was the hidden possession of some mythical being,
and before everyone could reap its benefits, night had to be found and
released. The Tenetehara of eastern Brazil, for instance, say that night
belonged to an old woman who lived deep in the forest and who kept it
enclosed in several clay pots. It was finally wrested from her and given
to the tribe by a native hero named Mokwani.
The Kamayura of central Brazil and many
other tribes have the opposite belief. They hold that in the beginning
there was only night. It was so dark, in fact, that people could
not see to hunt or fish or plant, and so were slowly starving to death.
Then they discovered that the birds owned day and decided to get it from
them. Ultimately, they were successful, and day was sent to the Kamayura
decked in the brilliant plumage of the red macaw.
The foregoing myths are not merely
primitive curiosities, irrelevant to the Judeo-Christian view of the
origin of the world. Many of the mythological episodes recounted here have
close parallels in the Bible. These parallels, moreover, have long been
recognized by students of comparative religion as being extremely
significant. In his book, Folk-lore in the Old Testament (1918),
Sir James G. Frazer, the well-known scholar, scoured the anthropological
literature for these parallels and wrote "...I have attempted... to
trace some of the beliefs and institutions of ancient Israel backward to
earlier and cruder stages of thought and practice which have their
analogies in the faiths and customs of existing savages." And in this
effort, he was successful. There is very little doubt among
anthropologists and Biblical scholars that many of the creation stories in
the Bible are really pre-Biblical, going back thousands of years.
In the eyes of anthropology, no culture
holds a privileged position. None is thought to be the unique recipient of
divine knowledge or benevolence. Each is recognized as the product of two
million years or more of a natural process of cultural evolution. During
these countless millennia, each society added to its own store of origin
myths elements from the mythology of near or distant tribes. The result
was that each society gradually developed an elaborate cosmogony, which,
while unique in certain particulars, nevertheless incorporated many
features that ultimately derived from the four corners of the world.
Not until the rise of modern science
during the last few centuries has a different account of human and cosmic
origins emerged to challenge the picture presented by mythology. Applying
newly developed concepts and instruments, science has given us a fuller
and truer account of the origin of man and his universe than was ever
possible before. These explanations, constantly subjected to verification
and correction, have become ever more probable and more precise.
Perhaps the account of how the world began
that has been patiently hammered out by science lacks the drama, emotion,
and romance of mythology. But what it may have lost in color, it has
gained in coherence and certitude. Anthropologists are ready to argue that
the exchange has been worth it. Moreover, without having to accept the
literal truth of origin myths, we can still glean from them a vivid
picture of how primitive peoples interpreted their world, and how they
used myth to justify the present and glorify the past. And while all this
tells us little or nothing of how human beings and the earth actually
began, it tells us much about the nature of human thought and its modes of
expression. This knowledge is of the greatest interest and value to the
science of the human race.
*
The exception to this rule is provided by magic, in which cause is thought
to produce effect by a kind of irresistible mechanical process working its
way without the intermediacy of personal agents.
Suggested Readings
- Kramer, Samuel Noah. 1961. Sumerian
Mythology. New York: Harper & Row
- Levi-Strauss, Claude.1969. The Raw
and the Cooked. New York: Harper & Row.
- Marriott, Alice, and Carol K Rachlin.
1968. American Indian Mythology. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell
Co.
- Robinson, Herbert Spencer. 1976. Myths
and Legends of All Nations. Totowa, NJ: Littlefield, Adams &
Co.
- Wilbert, Johannes. 1978. Folk
Literature of the Ge Indians. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American
Center Publications.
- Wolverton, Robert E. 1966. An
Outline of Classical Mythology. Totowa, NJ: Littlefield, Adams
& Co.
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Myths of the Gods
Many myths do not directly concern human beings, but focus rather on the
activities of the gods in their own realm. In many mythologies the gods
form a divine family, or pantheon (from the Greek pan,
meaning "all," and theos, "god"). The story of
a power struggle within a pantheon is common to a large number of world
mythologies—for example, the Babylonian Enuma elish centers on
Marduk's struggle for supremacy and his eventual victory over Tiamat.
Greek mythology features a similar story of struggle between generations.
In Greek mythology, the earliest gods were Gaea (Earth) and Uranus
(Heaven), and their children were called the Titans. The eldest of the
Titans, Cronus, overthrew his father and was eventually overthrown by his
own son, Zeus, who became the new master of the universe. Similarly, the
Aesir–the pantheon of the Norse gods—had to overcome an older group
called the Vanir before gaining power.
Across cultures, mythologies tend to
describe similar characters. A common character is the trickster. The
trickster is recklessly bold and immoral, but through his inventiveness he
often helps human beings. In Greek mythology, Hermes (best known as the
messenger of the gods) was a famous trickster. Other tricksters of
mythology are the West African god Eshu, who tricked the supreme god
Olodumare into abandoning the earth to dwell in heaven; the Indian god
Krishna, whose trickery often aims at a higher moral purpose; and the
Native American Coyote, who scattered the once-orderly stars in the sky
and strewed the plants on earth.
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Myths of
Heroes
Nearly all cultures have produced
myths about heroes. Some heroes, such as the Greek Achilles, have one
mortal and one divine parent. Others are fully human but are blessed with
godlike strength or beauty. Many myths about heroes concern significant
phases of the hero's career, such as the circumstances of the hero's
birth, a journey or quest, and the return home.
The birth and infancy of a
mythological hero is often exceptional or even miraculous. In the ancient
Near Eastern and Mediterranean world, the births of many heroes followed
similar patterns. Many heroes were often left to die at a ver young age
but miraculously survived. Other heroes were immediately able to care for
themselves. They performed astonishing feats of strength as children.
Most heroes set off on a quest or a
journey of some kind. One of the earliest tales of a hero's journey is the
Babylonian story known as the Gilgamesh epic, written in cuneiform on 12
clay tablets in about 2000 BC. The hero, Gilgamesh, embarks on a quest for
immortality. In Greek and Roman mythology the stories of Jason and of
Aeneas likewise describe journeys or quests. Another narrative that may be
interpreted as a heroic journey is the biblical story of the Hebrew
prophet Moses.
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