Before written history, the native peoples of America shared their stories and knowledge through spoken word. These myths and legends had themes that repeated through generations and cultures, such as stories functioning to explain the natural world. Parables also taught reverence for nature and others. Good and evil creating a balance is a pattern in these tales as well. When comparing Native American culture to modern Americans, we are more different than alike because we use science to explain the world and pit good against evil. A common theme in Native American myths is their function to explain occurrences in the natural world. In “The Coyote and the Buffalo”,” the story starts and ends by telling the reader that it explains why there are no buffalo in a certain area of North America. “The World On the Turtle’s Back,” is a creation story, and so by its very nature explains the natural world, telling how it came to be. This function is less obvious in Brother Bear, but it still exists, explaining the Northern Lights. This theme does not appear as often in modern works. …show more content…
In “The Coyote and& the Buffalo”,” Coyote is disrespectful to Bull Buffalo’s remains and kills the buffalo calf because he is greedy and therefore is punished. The Great Tree in “The World On the Turtle’s Back” was made to be revered and not disturbed, but the woman digs up the roots anyway. Because of this, she falls out of the Sky World and into the ocean by herself. Kenai kills the bear in Brother Bear, and even though it is in retaliation for his brother’s death, it is a disrespect to the bear’s life and family. Because of this, he is essentially punished by being turned into a bear. These themes recur in stories that are popular today in the form of fables and morals, such as “Little Red Riding
How does this myth fulfill the four functions of myths? (look on p. 31 in your textbook or p. 37 in the online book)
Have you ever wonder how the world was created from another culture’s perspective? Native Americans used creation myths to explained to their people how the world was developed overtime. Creation myths are a big part of the Native American culture. they have been passed down from generation to generation. In the creation myths, harmony with nature, rituals, and strong social values are shown in each myths. The purpose of having strong social value in these myths is to teach younger Native Americans valuable lesson if they ever do something bad. These myths reveals how the rituals were created and their intentions for doing it. Creation myths has harmony with nature in it to show a very close kinship between them
Native Americans, also called Indians, have inhabited the Americas for hundreds of years, allowing their culture to grow, diversify, and change. Even though many of these Native Americans lived on different sides of the content, and most had little to connection with the others, the natives developed myths that related to each other in a similar spiritual sense, and moral value, through the universal unconscious.
Stories are central to the Lakota way of life, specifically their story of how the world came to be. The Lakota Indians believe that the Great Spirit created everything. They say that there was once another world, but the Great Spirit was upset with those people because they had lost the sacredness of the land, so he destroyed it and made a new one. To bring water, he sang a song, but by the fourth song, the Earth was flooded. The flood killed all of the animals except the crow, Kangi, illustrating the necessity of balance in life. Kangi begged the Great Spirit for a place to rest, so the Great Spirit called forth four animals that could survive under the water, they were an otter, beaver, loon, and a turtle. The Great Spirit then asked them to go and retrieve some mud from under the water.
There are many cultures throughout the world, and each has its’ own creation story, and many of them are very similar; however the creation stories of the First Nations’ People are some of the most magical. These stories not only tell how the world was created, but give a glimpse into who the Cherokee and Lakota were, and their views of the relationship between human beings and creation, and human beings and animals. The Cherokee and Lakota creation stories are similar in many ways, but each has
“Coyote and the Enemy Aliens” is a satirical commentary that effectively expounds on the intense objectification and dehumanization of Japanese Canadians during the colonial Canadian era. By depicting the grotesque living conditions, the Japanese were subjected to, King is able to critique the racist perspectives of the Canadian society. King condemns the actions of colonial white-men, depicting them as creatures engulfed in moral blindness that strive to fabricate an ideal white world. Moreover, King vividly portrays the idea of social dynamics, expounding on the helplessness of Citizens against dominant political powers. King also introduces an idea of conformity, showcasing how citizens gradually adapt to
In the multiple origin stories both the Native and Euro-Americans told, there were many ways that Earth was believed to be created. Through stories like “Earth on Turtle’s Back,” “White Buffalo Woman,” and the book of Genesis, the values and beliefs of each group shine through. Reading origin stories of the Euro-American and Native American civilizations illuminates profound differences in the cultural values of the two groups.
The Native American’s way of living was different from the Europeans. They believed that man is ruled by respect and reverence for nature and that nature is an
Between Native American Culture and the society we live in today, there are ample amounts of similarities between the two cultures. Some of the things we share in common are ceremonies, respect for animals and nature, good and bad competition and good and evil create a common world. “Coyote and the Buffalo”, “World on the Turtle’s Back”, and “Brother Bear” show us the many similarities we have with the Native Americans. For example we have just about the same respect for animals and nature as the Native Americans did. We also have ceremonies like church, wedding, funerals and much more. We are also in constant competition. It may may not be the same competition as the Native Americans but we are constantly fighting for our grades, our sports and sometimes our friend. It is not always good
Many aspects of Native American culture can be seen in their literature. Native Americans showed a high respect to nature and often viewed animals as equal in rights to humans. Myths of creation, nature, social order, and relations towards other tribes are often topics of literature. Animism was a commonly shared belief of Native Americans. They believed that souls and spirits existed in nature and that forces of nature were controlled by spirits.
Just as the Greeks, the Romans and any other great civilization, Native Americans had their own gods with certain values. These values are a sharp contrast to the current european expansionist mindset and give great insight into understanding Native American’s actions and behavior. These documents are about Native American culture and are written around the arrival of European settlers. These documents show the conflicts that many Native Americans had were due to many miscommunications and conflicts in values. The two Native American values that the Europeans most tread on were their very philosophy and honor, which leads to some of the most brutal acts of war and massacres.
The Native American Indian tribe called the Iroquois contributed greatly toward America. They have many stories about the world, and how things came to be the way they are. They have one story about the creation of the world. They use oral traditional elements in this story which is represented by nature. They also use a romantic aspect, which is represented by God’s and the super natural.
Broad themes are found often in stories, broad outlooks, and day-to-day events. Native American myths all include similar themes like the importance of competition and that good and evil create a balanced world. These themes, and many more, are common for the people of today just as much as the people of hundreds of years ago. Many of the customs, religions, and ideals from ancient Indian civilizations are similar to people today, making us much more alike than different from those who came before us.
Native Americans hold a type of esoteric concept that comes from their philosophy of preserving their environment as well as their kinship that ties them together (Access Genealogy, 2009). They not only have social ties, they are politically and religiously organized through their rituals, government, and other institutions (Access Genealogy, 2009). They work together to reside in a territorial area, and speak a common language (Access Genealogy, 2009). They are not characterized by any one certain structure (Access Genealogy, 2009). However, the society agrees on fundamental principles that bond together a certain social fabric (Access Genealogy, 2009). Different Native American tribes throughout the years have had different ideas, opinions, philosophies, which are not always predetermined by their past ancestors.
Native American literatures embrace the memories of creation stories, the tragic wisdom of native ceremonies, trickster narratives, and the outcome of chance and other occurrences in the most diverse cultures in the world. These distinctive literatures, eminent in both oral performances and in the imagination of written narratives, cannot be discovered in reductive social science translations or altogether understood in the historical constructions of culture in one common name. (Vizenor 1)