Compare And Contrast Genesis And Iroquois Creation Stories

Genesis vs. Iroquois Creation Stories

Have you ever asked yourself “how was the creation of man and earth possible?” Does it depend on Science? Religion/God? Culture? There are many existing creation stories that contain similar thoughts/beliefs of how man and earth was created; though; they contribute different aspects in each story. For example, The Puritan and the Iroquois Creation Stories both share a similar structure; however the stories differ when specifically describing the creation of earth, the creation of man, and the roles of good and evil.

To begin, every creation story begins with the creation process of earth and these two stories begin there; but specifically differ with how the earth was made and who it was made by. As stated

in the Genesis, God was the creator of heaven and earth and it was he who used the light and the darkness to create days and nights. On the other hand, the Iroquois Creation story states that a woman is conceived in the upper world and it is she who is the creator of this new world, along with her twin sons. Earth was expressed differently in each story whereas it was shown as land in Genesis and was represented as a turtles shell in The Iroquois. The difference between these two stories continue when these worlds are created by different sexes, which can potentially change the views of each story. Some say that it is man who holds the title of creator because he was created first, others believe it is women who hold the title due to the fact that they are able to bring life onto earth. Also, there are some similar elements that exist in each story that play important roles such as heaven and hell also shown as the upper/lower worlds, and an existing sky and an existing body of water/ocean. Nevertheless, both stories hold their stance on who created earth; but the main idea is that earth was made somehow.
Next, they speak of how the first human being came upon earth and how they served a purpose in the new world. In Genesis, God created a man named Adam and he was pure and full of goodness. He was brought to earth to serve the purpose of looking after the earth and showing purity within himself. In the Iroquois story the twin boys are brought to life through their mother’s armpit to finish creating the earth with the sun (mother’s head), the moon (mother’s body) and lastly stars (light). One question I asked myself was why
Lastly, the roles of good and evil exist in each story as they serve different but meaningful purposes. Expressed in the Puritan Creation story, good is represented through God and Evil is represented through Satan. This story mainly consists of goodness and ends with sin and evil. Nevertheless, in the Iroquois story; good and evil is expressed in the beginning with the twin boys where one is good and one is evil.
In my opinion, no matter how the story goes the body of the story generates off of a generalized idea that there was earth, there was man, and there was good and evil that existed within them. The stories can/are twisted in a way to fit our society and cultural beliefs, however I feel that they all originate from the Puritan Creation story because Christianity played a big role in that era.
In conclusion,