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Compare the iroquois tribe creation story to the biblical creation story
Compare the iroquois tribe creation story to the biblical creation story
Genesis vs iroquois creation myth
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The two world creation stories from the Judeo-christian and the Iroquois do have quite different perspectives how the world has been created. But, are they some similar parts as well in the stories? And do you see these similar parts even in the culture too? Where are these differences and similarities?
The first difference is already in the beginning of the story: The Iroquois doesn't care about how the earth has been created, Skywoman did just fall on the earth. And that is how the story starts. In the Judeo-Christian story, god, as the one powerful man, starts the story by creating the whole earth in only 1 week. And on the 7th day he creates the humans as cute characters. But once these Humans (Adam and Eve) had broken the rules, God didn't want them anymore, and he made them to leave. So, there are 2 different ways how the stories start: In the Judeo-Christian story, the humans did something wrong and had to live with the consequences. And in the Iroquois story, was nobody, who did something wrong. Even after Skywoman touched the forbidden tree and fell down the birds still saved her.
And then in the Iroquois story two twins created the world. And even there is a quite big difference as well: the Iroquois don't beliefs,
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like the Judeo-christians, at the one, big and powerful “God”, they do have a lot of different gods (one e.g. for the Nature, and another one for the air etc.). God is for the Judeo-christians the strongest person in the whole universe. And because he is that powerful, he wouldn’t ever make a mistake. So, nobody would questioning God's actions, nobody would say, “it was wrong of God to make Adam and Eve leave the garden.” And exactly there is the difference: In the Iroquois story was nobody, who made a decision, that could be wrong. In the Iroquois story there were 2 brothers (one represents the good side and the other one represents the bad side), who created the plants etc. together to find the perfect compromise between good and bad. And on top of that, all the characters, who created the earth together, in the Iroquois story did need a couple of years to create the earth. That's an opposite between the two stories too. But of course, there are a few similarities as well: In both stories there is a big tree, which does carry something special and is unfortunately forbidden as well.
In the Iroquois Skywoman touch the leaves of the forbidden tree, and in follow of this, she fell down of the tree until the birds are catching her. And on the Judeo-christian story the forbidden tree carries some special fruits, that are forbidden to eat as well. So, in both stories the trees symbolize the greed, that the humans have. One other similar of both stories are the families: In the Judeo-christian story is the family described as a collective of all humans from Adam and Eve. In the Iroquois story, the family does only include all people, who helped to create the
world. To sum up, both stories do have a different perspective of the world creation story, although they do have similar parts, as e.g. the Trees, they do have a different main Idea, how the world has been created.
Creation stories tell of how the world was created based on the Indians. In my home state of Washington State, Makah Indians told the story of the-Two-Men-Who-Changed-Things creation story. Chelan Indians told the story of a Great Chief above that created the Indians. Both have different cultural backgrounds and live in different places in Washington.
Most cultures have a creation myth, a story of how humans came to exist in the world. Often, they involve Gods of some capacity who exist without much question or explanation. Many myths have a common idea for the origin of the world, like Earth being born from water, a golden egg, or a great monster. The Mayan creation myth and the Babylonian creation myth are similar in that they both begin with water, and account the creation and purpose of man. They also differ, as the Mayan Popol Vuh chronicles a peaceful tale of trials to forge the Earth and sentient beings to worship the gods, while the Babylonian Enuma Elish tells of wars between gods that lead to the creation of Earth and of man as a servant to the gods.
One of the first differences between the Iroquois’ beliefs and Christianity is the theory on “the creation of life”. The Iroquois believe in a creator God called ‘Hahgwehdiyu’, which was the good spirit of the twin Gods of Wind Breath. He shaped the world with the palm of his hands and recycled the corpse of his dead mother to create the sky, moon and the sun. He planted a grain of corn in her to give the world fertility. It is believed that when the Sky Woman, or the mother, fell from the sky, she would fertilize the earth so her granddaughters could grow and harvest many things. They also believe in a current God called “the Great Spirit”. On the other hand, the Christians believe in a different story. The Holy Bible states that one God, simply called God, created the heavens, the earth, the light and the darkness. Later on he created the first humans, which were Adam and Eve. Already we can see one difference, just by knowing...
During the early beginnings of the Colonial period in the United States, the original inhabitants, the Native Americans had to deal with many invaders from Europe. Of all the Native American tribes, the Iroquois and Huron had the most interaction with the Europeans. The Spanish, English, and French were some of the few countries that worked with the Native Americans the most. Each country had their own methods of dealing with the Native Americans when it came to interaction or methods for trading and obtaining of goods. Of those three nations the French was the one nation that appeared to not take full advantage of the Huron and Iroquois.
Eve does exactly what God commanded her to not do. Now that I have explained the main things a bout both stories I will continue by discussing the main themes and symbols that are existent in both stories.
Throughout this history of the world power has been spread out throughout the countries. In the course of history there has never been a time where every country has had the equal amount of power. As history unfolds many countries have tried to break away from the countries with power so they can gain their own independence. Whether that the country takes a violent approach or a non-violent approach the goal was still the same. There have been many countries who have fought for independence but two I am focusing on are when the Americans and Indians both fought for their independence.
...milarities. Their single god creates a firmament, luminaries, dry land, and the people that inhabit that land. Chinese and Egyptian mythology also share an uncanny amount of coincidences, such as the presence of a dog-headed god, or the creation of Earth and the heavens from a cosmic egg. Norse, Japanese, and Greek mythologies, too, agree on a lot of ideals. They each contain a clash of gods and the death of certain gods in order to form life. The list of creation myths, and myths in general, that relate to each other could stretch out for miles. With these parallels, humanity can better understand earlier cultures and document the method to how mythologies change over time.
The most apparent difference, is how the Earth was created. In How the World Was Made and The Sky Tree, the earth is created by animals. “The Sky Tree” describes how a group of animals, “Beaver, Mink, Muskrat, and Otter each brought up pawfuls of wet soil and placed the soil on Turtle’s back until they had made an island of great size.” Then it describes “the great tree” falling on the earth and taking root, creating the plants. And How the Earth Was Made tells how a water beetle dove to the bottom of the ocean and brought the mud up where it then “began to grow and to spread out on every side until it became the island we call earth.” That earth was then “fastened to the sky with four cords.” While these two stories are vaguely similar, the book of Genesis differs extremely. In Genesis an omnipotent being commands the earth to appear. It states that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” and that “On the seventh day, God finished his work which he had made.” Another example of the many differences of these stories, is why the earth was made. For example, in The Sky Tree, Turtle sees a woman falling from the sky and has his friends “bring soil up and place it on Turtle’s back,” so that the woman would have something to land on. They created the earth to save the woman’s life. In How the World Was Made, the story stated that the sky world that the
Considering historical evidence, the notion: Native –Americans was not the first inhabitant of America is a complete false. For centuries, history kept accurate and vivid accounts of the first set of people who domiciled the western hemisphere. Judging by those records, below are the first set of Native-American people who inhabited America before the arrival of another human race; the Iroquois: The Iroquois of Native Americans was one of the tribes that lived in America before other people came. Based on historical evidence, it is believed that the Native Americans came from Asia way back during the Ice Age through a land bridge of the Bering Strait. When the Europeans first set foot in America, there were about 10 million Native Americans
In both myths the relationship between humans and nature is shown as a positive one but with negative effects from humans’ greed and necessity for more. In the beginning of the Creation Story it is stated in the first few lines “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” God then began to create the Earth in seven days. On the first day he created day and night out of the darkness and light. The second day led to the creation of the sky. The third day was the creation of the land. The fourth day led to the creation of the season. And finally on the fifth and sixth day, animals and humans were created, and the first two were a male and female named Adam and Eve. At the end of everyday during creation the words “and God saw it was good” are written. God is happy with his creation of nature. The phrase shows the positive connotation of...
Though the two Creation stories are supposedly intended to be connected - even interchangeable - the only similarity they share is the presence of the omnipotent God and His role in the creation of the earth. Where the first creation describes a detailed, six-day process in which God first delineates day and night, establishes the physical world, and then finally creates man, the second creation is a much simpler process, one almost contradictory to the first story's strict schedule.
The creation myths that I have studied are similar in many ways. They also have differences that show an inherently different way of thinking about the world. All have creators-gods that make the world into what is now. There are conflicts within their world, and these conflicts change the face world. God to god or human to god maybe be involved in these conflicts. Their bloody struggles prove who is more powerful, causing change in the control of the world. Some gods are beneficial to man and others are self-serving, using man only as a tool.
other Native American tribes. Although first and foremost the Myth follows an emergence story of how
Just look at two creation stories side-by-side and you should easily see their similarities. Perhaps the easiest way to do this would be to take one unknown creation story and compare it to one from one’s own culture. Below is an example of a Mongolian creation myth:
These two different creation stories are different, but have a lot in common. The Great Tree and The Tree of Knowledge are two separate stories that different people believe in. They are both about a tree that is sacred in some way. The Tree of Knowledge was different from The Great tree because Adam and Eve were told by god not to eat from the tree. Adam and Eve did eat from the tree which was the original sin that got passed down the human race do to this act. Now for the The Sacred Tree the gods could not touch one tree. This was the Sacred tree in the middle of the skyworld, but one of the wives wanted something to eat from it. Her husband then went to the tree scraping around for the roots when he found a hole. His wife peered in