Please respond to one of the following questions, using the comment function.
A. How do the two authors represent or discuss the natural world? What is the relationship between humans and the natural world?
B. Both stories have a historical element to them. How has past experience shaped or effected the stories?
C. There is also a spiritual element to the stories. What is the relationship between the spirit world (the Creating Power, perhaps) and the natural world? Where do humans fit?
D. The first story is a creation myth. What connections do you see with creation myths from other religions or cultures?
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C.
ReplyDeleteThe first myth shows how the world around us, from the land to animals and human themselves, was created by the Creating Power. It explains our geography and biodiversity in a way that weaves together morals and explanations before there was real scientific theories postulated about creation. The complex moral spun out in the myth is the Creating Power designed a world to be good, for water to flow over land, and all creatures including humans are part of the land and respect it. They hold the power to destroy themselves, by losing touch with the elements and creation, the Creating Power may decide to remake the world once again. However, by living harmoniously with nature, the earth from which humans sprung, in respect with the animals—our powerful allies, they may continue to make a life from the gifts the Creating Power provided. But as the Creating Power warns, “Someday there might be a fourth world.”
D. Thinking back to freshman year during Western Heritage, we learned that nearly every great religion or culture has a flood story. The Native American culture is clearly no different. Being an avid Bible reader and Christian, I could not help but recognize all of the parallels to the account of Noah’s Ark. Prior to the flood, the angels who turned against God and followed Satan came to the earth and took up human form. The Bible says that they then married and impregnated mortal women. These women gave birth to, at first, seemingly normal babies. But they kept growing bigger and stronger, until they became giants (or Nephilim). The Nephilim were violent, wicked and coerced everyone to be wicked like themselves. Despite the horrific conditions on the earth, there was one man who was good. This man, of course, was Noah. One day God told Noah that the time had come for him to destroy all of the wicked people, but that he would save Noah, his family, and many of the animals.
ReplyDeleteLikewise, in Leonard Crow Dog’s take on creation, the Creating Power was not pleased with the conditions that existed on the earth that he created and decided that he would allow a flood to wipe away the wickedness. Similar to the account in the Bible, the Creating Power spared animals and birds. In both stories, the water completely submerged everything on the earth. When the Creating Power caused the rains to cease, he sent out animals to dive and bring up mud. On the fourth try, a turtle was sent out and returned with mud. This, of course, parallels to Noah releasing a dove out of the ark so as to see if the waters had run off the earth. On its second attempt, the dove returned with an olive leaf in its beak and Noah knew that the waters had finally gone down.
Also, in both accounts, God, or the Creating Power, created a rainbow as a symbol that the world would never again be destroyed by a great flood.
Many great myths in cultures and societies like the Judeo-Christian faith and ancient Japanese society have striking similarities. In many societies there is a creation myth describing how the known universe, or at least the Earth was created. Many of these completely separate myths share certain plot ideas or characteristics. The Sioux Native Americans have their own creation myth, and it also shares ideas from different cultures.
ReplyDeleteIn Leonard Crow Dog’s version of the creation myth, the Creating Power had already made multiple worlds before, but it was not pleased with them, and started over. While an obvious comparison is the tale of Noah’s Ark in the Old Testament, there is an example of this happening even earlier in the Bible. When Adam and Eve are kicked out of Eden, the entire world changes. They start farming and having children, which leads to the creation of the modern world. Even though it wasn’t planned this first time, the idea of trying again is present.
A major point of the Sioux myth is when the Creating Power states “Water without Earth is not good.” This is similar to the Japanese creation myth, where two gods are curious to see what was underwater. They brought up mud, and with it created the islands of Japan, so they could explore. While the Sioux Creating Power used mud to help the crow, it is still interesting to see the idea of mud become the whole world.
The past is very important in the second story. Since Momaday writes a lot about his family and indian rituals I could really feel in this story how proud he is to be a native american. In the introduction about this reading the Gourd Dance is explained, "The Gourd Dance is both a link to the past and the present. Those participating in it renew their sense of belonging to a tribe (the great community) and family. It also goes on to talking about the dance. But when I read this story Momaday goes back and talks about his father and his daughters and how there are two generations living in the same era but how this dance still brings them all together. How every year everyone gathers together to see this ritual dance. Since it takes place on the 4th of July and is America does it represent some sort of independence, or is it just a day that lives on through generations with this dance? I think the past is also very important in this story when Momaday describes his father and his grandfather's character and how they attended the dance and now more more young people reside for this spiritual event. Without the past in this story it would be hard to understand just how important The Gourd Dance is amongst native american tribes.
ReplyDeleteThe natural world is a very essential factor in each of these pieces of writing; Native Americans have a very deep and spiritual relationship with it. In the first piece of writing, it is apparent that animals have a very important role in creating the world we live in. This emphasizes the Native American’s belief that animals are powerful and should be respected and cherished. Humans are not considered to be the most significant creatures on earth. The “Creating Power” saves particular animals instead of any humans because he finds them to be more beneficial to the process of creating a new and better world. Each animal is also a symbol. For example, the turtle and represents a “long life and endurance and the power to survive.” Using animals as symbols gives them even more prominence within the human world.
ReplyDeleteIn the second piece of writing, it is interesting to see how Native American names show how humans are connected to nature. Names such as the author’s grandfather, “Mammedaty,” means “sky walker.” It is evident that an aspect of nature classifies each person whereas in today’s society, nature is something that is inferior to humans and humans are what classify nature. This idea holds true throughout both pieces of writing, because nature is not something that humans control; it is spiritual and powerful and is of higher importance than humans are.
D. This creation myth has many similarities to other cultures. In most creation myths, there is a divine power, which nobody knows how it got there, it just did, and they are omniscient. They have the ability to create other things, such as people, creatures, and land, and also possess the power to order the things he creates around. In the Egyptian culture, for example, a lotus flower came out of thin air at the beginning of time, and from its center, the sun bloomed out of it. In Christian cultures, it is believed that Adam and Eve came into the Garden of Eden somehow, and everything was perfect. And everyone knows the story of how Eve was tempted by the serpent to break the only rule that the omniscient power gave them, and that is how humanity got corrupted. In the “Leonard the Crow Dog” creation myth, it differs from most because it remained Utopia. There is no “part two” of this story that explains the negative side of humanity unlike most. I think there can be subtle and similar connections in every creation stories, because we all had to start somewhere, and we all have to believe in something.
ReplyDeleteD. The majority of children in modern America have grown up hearing the story of Noah’s Arc and the great Flood. The story or myth (whichever word suits you) where God felt that the entire human race had become too evil and sinful and decided that he would smite them all, thus flooding the Earth, and killing the human race, except for the people on Noah’s Arc. However, by no means whatsoever is Noah’s Arc the only “flood story” in religious life or otherwise. Leonard Crow Dog gives a great account on another cultures point of view on the way that the earth was created, the ways that their gods act, and the basis of their religion.
ReplyDeleteThe main similarities to the stories of Noah’s Arc (which I know best) and “Remaking the World” is that God or the Creating Power felt that the people of the earth were wicked and needed to be cleansed of their evil ways. Once a bird found land the story was resolved (whether it be mud from the turtle or the dove finding some sort of branch), and the higher power made a rainbow. However, in the Noah’s Arc God promises that there will never be another flood, yet the Creating Power says that it is possible for there to be a fourth flood. All in all, I like “Remaking the World” better the animals are just cool.
There is also a spiritual element to the stories. What is the relationship between the spirit world (the Creating Power, perhaps) and the natural world? Where do humans fit?
ReplyDeleteI thought both myths were very influenced by a spiritual element. For example, In the first myth, it shows the importance of the “creating power” and its dominating relationship with the natural world. However, I found it interesting that Humans were not given the most significant and dominate character. This is because in place of humans, animals were believed to be more important and beneficial to the earth. I enjoyed how animals were believed to make the world a better place, in place of humans. Another example is in the second selection, there is an interesting relationship between humans and animals. Again, humans did not possess that dominating and negative attitude that humans tend to hold today- relating to the power capable of having over nature. I believe this awareness connects to the spiritual world, and the knowledge that humans do not hold all the power.
Both of the myths show just how minute humans are in the natural world. Both tales use great experiences (whether it be a tale of how life first began, or a dance that allows people to escape into a different time for a while) in which humans seem to be small and unsure of the greater life that surrounds them. The first story invites the reader to imagine a creating power so large that its tears can produce oceans, and animals who have been around from the beginning of time. The fact that we are never quite sure of how everything began puts humans in their place.
ReplyDeleteThe second story talks about a ritual that has been going on for a long time and is experienced by many generations at once. The children were still questioning why they all came to share this dance, and the old and wise were sharing their stories. The natural world makes the ritual what it is. The power of everyone uniting and dancing in an open area where nothing is important but the company and love that surrounds them seems to be unexplainable.
Each experience with the natural world is unique and necessary for these tribes and play a big role of the spiritual development of these human beings.
D. The first story is a creation myth. What connections do you see with creation myths from other religions or cultures?
ReplyDeleteThe connections between creation myths from other religions or cultures is the idea that something in nature has such an impact. The emphasis on creation myths allows for a religion or culture to justify or explain natural phenomena. Taking an example from the first story, rain dancing describes the natural occurance of rain.
The connections Ive noticed between different religions with creation myths is that there is a common belief among them that these creation myths are constant and generations old. The two stories are both time old stories that have the reader question how the mixture between old time and new age can create myths.
D. There are many connections between the first myth and other religions and cultures. The biggest connection I made, was between the first myth and the Biblical story of Noah's Ark. In the first myth, the Creating Power is relative to God in the story of Noah's Ark. The general plot of the stories are the same, even specifics like saving certain animals for after the flood. I like how the myth ended with the Creator questioning the integrity and sustainability of the newest world, almost as if to allude to how humans can't live in this world without destroying something else in the process. The Bible is packed full of stories with similar themes, giving evidence to how the same beliefs are not limited to one religion or culture. Most ancient civilizations have their own interpretation of how the world was created, and who created it. Even within Native Americans the story of creation differs, because there were so many different tribes, many of which were isolated from the others.
ReplyDeleteD. The first myth reminds me a lot of the creation story where many religions believe that the earth and all of its beings were created by a higher form of a God or deity. This myth in some form puts into perspective that everyone was created equal and from the same elements; all humans are created from mud (just of different colors) and all animals the same. It also allows each creature to have importance, i.e. when the turtle is called upon to swim to the bottom of the second world and bring mud to created the third world. The idea of the world being destroyed and recreated because the creator did not like the way the creatures interacted on the world and treated the earth is a very important element to this story for me. In some sense I wish that this is how it could be, that some higher power (not necessarily God) will show humans in our world today how much is being destroyed at an unfixable rate... or maybe we are doing that ourselves. In the myth each creation of a new world is a punishment for how the previous world was treated.
ReplyDeleteC. Spirituality in Momaday’s story, unlike Crow Dog’s, is something that comes from within the characters. It is awakened within Momaday during this Gourd Dance as he reconnects with the man in the tree, with the earth, with the sun, and his people. The natural elements of the story such as the sun and the trees intertwine with the human voice, the rattles, and the fire (all of which may be argued to be natural elements as well) and move this man’s spirit so deeply that he writes “there comes a moment when the dance takes hold of me, becomes itself the most meaningful and appropriate expression of my being.” From this passage we learn that the natural world, the dance and the lore are all tapping him for the reawakening of his spirit as he celebrates.
ReplyDeleteA. How do the two authors represent or discuss the natural world? What is the relationship between humans and the natural world?
ReplyDeleteIn the book of Genesis, humans were created last, but the world was created for them, to be ruled over by them. The hierarchy was established. First the planet, to be used and exploited by everthing that came later. Then the animals, dumb and maleable. And finally the kings of the earth and the purpose behind its creation, man. How different is the creation story of the Native Americans, which had the humans created last not to honor them, but recreated as a punishment. Not the greatest and wisest of the creations, in fact they caused the world to be destroyed multiple times before due to their petulance and ignorance. "You may stay THIS time if you promise to behave yourself." The animals are wise, and are kept alive and protected by the creator.
Both of these stories take the control out of the hands of humans. This is very different from modern human belief. We have furnaces and roofs, and heavy winter coats to shelter us from the elements. Any problem that comes along we feel as if the technology is just around the corner that will allow us to manipulate it. But that terrifies us all the more when the tornados and Hurricane Katrinas roll through. I feel as if the act of living in America has corrupted the second authors sense of nature, out of necessity. Things are very different, such as the traveling by plane and car to the ritual. It sounds like any other family vacation, up until they arrive at the cerimony and it all melts away.