Where does history begin? With creation!
"What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: Our life is the creation of our mind." ~ Buddha
Does the quote above strike you as being a true statement? Do you agree or disagree with it? Or are you open to interpretation? Hopefully, you are a profound thinker and hopefully it is apparent to you just how much importance lies in our past. The culture and mindset we exist in today all ties back directly to some event in the past. Certain relics, sites, and texts have been left behind by prior civilizations because they were meant to convey important messages to whoever stumbled upon them in the future. Creation ties into understanding the past. There are several things from an anthropological viewpoint that can be gained while studying these myths.
What is "creation"? What is "myth"?
The definition of creation is the action or process of bringing something into existence. On the other hand, myth is defined as a traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon. So, when we put two and two together we end up with a creation myth. A creation myth is a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it. Creation myths are the most common type of myth developed throughout human culture. The majority of these myths were passed down over generations in oral traditions, leading to the existence of several versions of myths belonging to certain cultures. These can be paralleled to history in a sense of societal and cultural evolution.
Creation myths use metaphors and a variety of symbolism and literary techniques to convey profound truths regarded with importance, be it spiritual, religious, domestic, etc., by the culture or society producing them. Creation myths often share a number of typical features.
- considered to be sacred accounts
- associated with nearly every religious affiliation
- contain stories with plots and characters - deities, human-like beings, animals; all speak and transform easily
- set in a dim, non-specific past
- pose deep questions viewed as being meaningful by the society they belong to
- reveal central worldview and framework of society they belong to
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MYTH DEFINED IN TERMS OF CREATION:
"Speaking for myself, the definition that seems least inadequate because most embracing is this: Myth narrates a sacred history; it relates an event that took place in primordial Time, the fabled time of the "beginnings." In other words, myth tells how, through the deeds of Supernatural Beings, a reality came into existence, be it the whole of reality, the Cosmos, or only a fragment of reality -- an island, a species of plant, a particular kind of human behavior, an institution. Myth, then is always an account of a "creation"; it related how something was produced, began to be." ~ Mercea Eliade
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| Mercea Eliade, 1986 |
There are many different varieties of the creation myth that mythologists use to categorize and make distinctions. There are hundreds of these myths as diverse in detail and substance as the many cultures that produced them. However, many myths share commonalities with others. Mercea Eliade (pictured and quoted above) and Charles H. Long developed a classification based on common motifs that appear in several stories and myths worldwide.
Eliade's Classification of Creation Myths ~ The Five Basic Types:
* Creation Ex Nihilo - "Ex Nihilo" is a Latin phrase which means "out of nothing". These myths claim creation to have come out of thoughts, words, dreams, or secretions (be they bodily or spiritual) of a divine being, as easily as they would out of nothing, as if out of thin air.
* Earth Diver - A diver sent by a creator (most commonly appearing in the form of a bird or amphibian) dives to the bottom of a primordial and vast body of water and returns to the surface with sand or mud which then becomes a terrestrial world.
* Emergence Myths - An ultimate predecessor passes through a series of worlds, dimensions, or realms to finally emerge into the present one.
* Dismemberment - Creation is said to occur at the dismemberment of a great divine being or primordial entity.
* Creation from Order - Creation develops at the ordering or splitting of a unity, such as the "cosmic egg", bringing or structuring order out of chaos.
* Emergence Myths - An ultimate predecessor passes through a series of worlds, dimensions, or realms to finally emerge into the present one.
* Dismemberment - Creation is said to occur at the dismemberment of a great divine being or primordial entity.
* Creation from Order - Creation develops at the ordering or splitting of a unity, such as the "cosmic egg", bringing or structuring order out of chaos.
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An alternative system based on six recurring narrative themes was designed by Raymond Van Over:
- A primeval abyss, an infinite expanse of water or space.
- An originator deity which is awakened or an eternal entity within the abyss.
- An originator deity poised over the abyss.
- A cosmic egg or embryo.
- An originator deity creating life through sound or word.
- Life generating from the corpse or dismembered parts of an originator deity.
"The beings referred to in myth -- gods, animals, plants -- are forms of power grasped existentially. The myths should not be understood as attempts to work out a rational explanation of a deity." ~ Charles H. Long
Check back for links to the next parts in our Creation Myth series. :)
Check back for links to the next parts in our Creation Myth series. :)
