The World On The Turtle's Back Analysis

The Native Americans believed that in the story “Coyote Places The Stars”, a coyote wonders why his wolf brothers look up at the sky every night. Well when the wolves finally tell the coyote that there are animals up in the sky. The coyote shot arrows up into the sky to create a ladder to be able to climb to the stars and visit the animals above. As they climbed to the stars they found two bears roaming the skies. The coyote decided to leave the wolves with the bears and as he climbed down the arrows he took one out at a time so the wolves couldn’t leave. As the coyote looks up at the night sky, he is pleased on how the arrangement of the stars look so he begins to arrange other stars as well, pleased with work he told Meadowlark to tell people who looks at the stars that it was the coyote who has placed the stars, now Meadowlark tells everyone about coyote and the stars ("Native American Legends").

Nate Mihnovich Mr. Watson English III Honors 5 October 2015 Mythology of Creation Have you ever wondered how this world began or how everything around you was formed? Mythology is often referred to as false or made up stories. Many creation myths or made up stories begin with the theme of birth because birth represents new life or the beginning of life. Everything around the world has to come from somewhere, but many people do not know how to explain how the universe was formed. Humans began to wonder or question themselves about the creation of the universe and everything that surrounds them; so they went searching for some answers.

The myth “The World on the Turtle's Back” tells the story of how a woman created the Earth by using dirt that she took with her when she fell from Sky-World. The myth shows how the beliefs of the Iroquois are quite different from mine because I believe there is a scientific explanation for how the world was created.

In the Genesis story, God created two lights, one to control the darkness and one to control the heavens, essentially, good and evil. “And God made the two great lights – the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night – and the stars.” (Genesis). This is similar to The World on the Turtle’s Back, where the two brothers controlled the good and evil, the light and the darkness. “The right-handed twin made the deer, and the left-handed twin made the mountain lion which kills the deer. But the right-handed twin knew there would always be more deer than mountain lions.” (Iroquois). This quote tells us of the balance that there was between the two twins. While the left-handed twin always made animals to counter with the animals made by the right-handed twin, there would always be enough animals made by the right-handed twin that the system would stay balanced. “the daylight realm of the right-handed twin… the domain of the left-handed twin – the fearful realm of night.” (Iroquois). This shows us the differences between the twins in which the right-handed twin symbolized good and light, while the left-handed twin symbolized evil and darkness. These two stories however differ from that of the Creation story. In the story, Creation, there is no god that controls good or evil, there is only light and darkness, but the two gods together make the world balanced with both good and evil. “All the mysteries and power in the Above belonged to Tawa, while Spider Woman controlled the magic of the Below.” (Hopi). These two gods worked together, neither was evil but Tawa was seen as light and Spider Woman was seen as darkness. “Rain Cloud will pour down waters, and Tawa will smile upon it so that green things will spring up to feed my children.” (Hopi).

rather than the usual patriarchal perspective of women and their influence in the development of the world. The myth states, "After a while, the woman’s time came, and she was delivered of a daughter. The woman and her daughter kept walking in a circle around the earth, so that the earth and plants would continue to grow." In the perspective of the audience, women are depicted as role models and their ability to fulfill a motherly role allows humanity to gain knowledge. Knowledge is a key aspect in the development of civilizations and the women 's knowledge of cultivating the land will ultimately result in the continuation of civilization on the Turtle 's back. The myth also states, "As she

Not only that but that when the chief’s daughter fell ill the Sky People dug up a tree and laid the girl next to the hole that remained. When they laid her next to the hole she fell through the hole where two swans caught her. Then they put her on The Great Turtle’s back and it counseled that she was a symbol of good fortune. The Great Turtle sent all the other animals to bring the Sky World tree back with earth covered roots. Many animals tried but failed, coming back to exhausted and died. Finally an elderly woman toad had just enough energy left to spit a mouthful of earth onto the back of The Great Turtle. The earth was magical therefore it grew and grew enough for the Sky woman to live on. The swans circled enough till it grew in to the land mass it is today. But it was dark so The Great Turtle called the animals to put a great light into the sky. A little turtle climbed into a black cloud collecting lightning as she went. She made a big bright ball called the sun and a smaller ball called the moon. Then The Great Turtle commanded the animals to make holes in the comers in the sky so the sun and moon could go down as one when up as they circled. The Sky woman gave birth to twins, one good called Tharonhiawagon, one evil called Tawiskaron. From her breasts grows the three sisters; corn, beans, and

The World on a Turtle's Back is a Iroquois myth about the creation of earth. This belief is related to the biblical belief about creation. Both portray a story of a woman wanting to enjoy the forbidden fruit. After they eat of this forbidden fruit, good and evil is created. According to the myth good prevails over the day and bad rules over the night. The days of creation are represented by the woman planting roots and plants while riding the back of the turtle, the night is created by the right handed twin cutting off the grandmother’s head and tossing it into the sky, and the seas are filled by the body of the grandmother being tossed into the

1. “Root metaphors” from the Aztec and Spanish worlds have combined through the how these two cultures view sun and light and how they associate them with divine beings. Long before the Spanish arrived, Aztec civilization had a cosmic system of five time cycles that included five different suns which they believed influenced results of regarding creation or the apocalypse. Furthermore, they came to believe that their god(s) used the sun as divine messages for them. Because of this conclusion “root metaphor” they feared that the god(s)’s punishment for them would be that the day would turn to night forever unless human sacrifices were made. In contrast, the Spanish used solar imagery as divine representation in relation to the Psalms

In “How the Snake Got Poison” and “How the world was made” The two texts provide mythological background to how things upon the Earth was created. With the two texts being similar in some aspects; therefore, having some type of differences. A thorough evaluation between how the World was created by multiple occasions, and how some Snakes got their Poison over time.

How was Earth created? How were people created? Why was everything made how it was? All of these questions and many more were asked by Native Americans, and so they came up with stories to answer these questions in a way they could understand. Some of these stories include; The Sky Tree, The Earth on the Turtle’s Back, Coyote Finishes His Work, Coyote Steals the Sun and Moon, The Blackfeet Genesis, When Grizzlies Walked Upright, and The Navajo Origin Legend.

In The World On The Turtles Back the right handed twin represents day and heaven, the left handed twin represents night and also hell. “The day time rituals they thank the master of life. The night time or darkness the people dance and sing for the left handed twin” (39). The right handed twin is smart, does good and he brightens things up. The left handed twin is evil, mean and is just a dark person that’s why he reminds me of hell. In this next story God distinguishes day and night so we could find a place where we belong. Genesis explains a lot more than we can understand because there is a lot of info. “And God made two great lights the greater light ruled the day and the lesser light ruled the night” (1). Day and night are very different because they represent different things, they have different meanings. The sunrises in the morning it brightens life and is like a heaven, can make you happy but night time it’s dark, mysterious and scary. TWOTTB twins and Gods day and night are similar because the right twin can compare with day and the left handed twin can show similar qualities with night

The Iroquois feelings toward nature was believed to be great and they were very thankful for what the earth provided them. The Iroquois have a “sacred tree that stood at the center of the universe.” The Iroquois also have fruits and flowers and fish to eat from. Iroquois grew many different kinds of things for their people to eat from. The Gods made the birds in the sky, the bids caught the woman and brought he down to safety so that way she would not be hurt and that way she could have her baby.

The Graptemys caglei, also known as the Cagle’s Map Turtle, is an endangered turtle species found in San Antonio, Texas and along the Guadalupe River. It identifies easily by the pattern on its shell which resembles an aerial view topography, as well as its spiked shell edges, which are not as sharp as other map turtles of the same genus. Although the Cagle’s Map Turtle has natural predators pose a threat to the individual turtles’ lives, the predators are not a greater threat than habitat disturbances created by humans. Unfortunately, this species suffered a significant drop in population since the mid-1970 through changes in its habitat disallow support of a larger population of the turtles(van Dijk, P. P., 2011).

There was a large hole in place where the tree once stood, as the Chiefs curious wife leaned over the the hole looking upon the water, she fell with a handful of seeds in her hand. As we read on the seeds she took from the great tree in the sky would come in handy in the beginning of the Earth. The creativity in the myth really begins to really show as the animals within the water start talking as they see the woman falling from the sky. As she fell into their territory they noticed she was not like them, which pushed them to dive into the deep of the ocean to pull up the

“The World on the Turtle’s Back” Analysis Essay The use of specific language in “The World on the Turtle’s Back” leads to the conclusion that the story is an Iroquois myth that explains how the world was created. The myth begins by describing a “Sky World” that existed long ago. The use of specific words imply that the story took place long ago.