Myth In Religious Worlds Analysis

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Williams Paden discusses the world building character of myths and their capacity to shape time and delineate scared and profane space for the communities that believe and transmit them. In William Paden, “Myth,” in Religious Worlds: The Comparative Study of Religion, he explains that within religious worlds, myths set a foundation that advance to shape a person’s way of life. Subsequently, they shape their belief and conscience. His theory relates to an element an indigenous story which is the creation story precisely the story of the turtle island. For the Ojibway and Anishinaabe people, the creation story was used as a grounding prototype to shape their belief and their outlook on how the world was created. The story shows how myth is being …show more content…

It also shows how different animals come together in harmony to create a new land that was once destroyed. The creation story teaches about different animals such as the loon who catches its food by diving underwater yet floated to the top weak and nearly unconscious, the hell diver who tried but also failed, suddenly the little muskrat came forward and accomplished what they all failed. This helps us understand the text’s social role and importance as the legend teaches about courage of all the animals to volunteer; bravery displayed by the muskrat as he disregards the more powerful and bigger animals as they taunted him, yet he strived to prove to them that he can do it. Ultimately muskrat resurfaces very weak from air and a few minutes later his spirit passed on to the spirit world; in his paw was a smallball of earth. The animals are regarded as one that people should posses such as bravery and courage. The theory makes the text more understandable as it creates a base on how the world and the people in it should

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