SSCI 101: Cultural Diversity
Origin Myths
Origin Myths are one of the ways people attempt to explain the unexplainable. With the development, modern technology the myth has been much less used. According to Webster?s college dictionary myth is defined as ?A traditional or legendary story, especially one that involves gods and heroes and explains a cultural practice or natural phenomenon.? To me myths are a wonderful thing; they represent creativity and are a very good way to explain things to kids. Many myths also make simply wonderful stories just like the ones that I?m writing about. They explain cultures, state or mind, and the lens that people of that place or time or of that culture see the world through. All these stories differ greatly from one another and apparently, they are not all, if any, correct.
By comparing both myths, I see that both cultures had their own way to explain the existence of the sun or cycle of the day and night.
Human cheek cells
Day 36-Mythology
English: "The Deluge", Frontispiece to Doré's ill...For example, Cherokee used animals to impersonate humans. They say that little insignificant spider went on its mission and successfully accomplished it by bring the sun. They don?t say that there were humans and animals it simply tells us that world had an animal people. Comparing to other myth where it says that humans and animals lived on earth and they were alike because they spoke same language, they ate everything that came from the ground, etc. The way Eskimos explain ?Day ? phenomena is by saying that Hare?s words ?Day, day? were more powerful than fox?s so it actually brought the day. So there is some similarity in both concepts of how one group got the sun and the other got the day; they were both animals.
Both myths reminds...