1. Three Coyote Creation Stories- (1) I can definitely see the imagery of an eagle's feathers making the trees, bushes, and plants--especially firs and ferns. I find it interesting that man was created in a quarrel between Coyote and Fox, but I guess that's one way to explain why people die; at least Coyote was nice enough to bring us fire after granting us the privilege of death. (2) So this time, rather than Coyote creating the earth out of nothing, a mole does. Interesting. . . And Great Man creates the people rather than Coyote and Fox! Poor Coyote is really getting downgraded in importance here, haha. At least he still got to bring us fire and save us from the cold! (3) What is it with ancient cultures and flood stories? Or religions and flood stories? Seriously, though, they're everywhere! It really makes you wonder. . . And this time, the feathers create people rather than trees--then again, that's pretty much the same thing, right? Lol.
2. The Creation of the World- To picture a god who is like nothing more than a "fluffy bit of cotton in the breeze" as he decides to create the earth. . . Now that's an image. And then you have the Earth Doctor trying four times--four times--to stand the creosote bush up without it falling over. There's just something so perfect about such a human god. . . To think that the creosote came first, the ants and termites next, and then the flat World; fascinating. No Atlas here; instead, a spider wove the sky and earth together. The moon and sun are naught but ice, apparently. The stars are water droplets in the sky, and the milky way is ash from the end of the Earth Doctor's staff. . . I just love the imagery of this story!
3. Spider's Creation- Spider creates woman first--smart choice, haha. Interesting that the Indians had one woman as mother, while all other nations had the second woman as mother--it really sets the Indians apart as separate, other, doesn't it? And here, while Spider creates all of the animals and plants and the waters and such, the mothers themselves create the sun, moon, and stars, an interesting departure from the themes of the other tales.
4. The Great Fire; The Origin of Light- (1) Wow; a man so spurned by two women that he sets the world alight. Harsh. And Coyote only able to save two boys, and forced to make men and women anew. . . (2) Can you imagine all the animals bumping into each other because they are unable to see? Hahaha. But here, the sun and moon are balls of fire, so that's different.
5. Creation of Man- A man with supposedly the best qualities of all of the animals. . . If only it were actually so, haha.
6. Old Man Above and the Grizzlies- "Walk on two feet and carry a big stick!"--It's no wonder people compared Teddy Roosevelt to a bear, lol. Awwwww! But the Grizzlies only helped her, they didn't do anything wrong! Old Man Above, why would you punish them like that?!
7. The Creation of Man-kind and the Flood- Wow. So when people run out of food and can't die, they are "obliged to eat each other." I mean, I guess it's only a logical progression, but just. . . ugh *shudder* I really don't blame the Earth Doctor for pulling down the sky and crushing everything yet alive on earth. . . And here comes the flood, 'cause apparently even the second model of man wasn't quite right. But at least now we have Coyote!
8. The Great Flood- So it is due to a flood that we got so many of our famous constellations, such as Ursa Major and the Pleiades--interesting.
9. The Fable of the Animals- Well, the whole thing about a plan backfiring on a coyote is the entire premise of Wile E. Coyote, so there's nothing new there. However, it is interesting that the backfiring of this plan led to Coyote gaining the greatest cunning. Also, it's odd to think that while Coyote may be more cunning, technically he's weaker than even Frog, haha.
10. The Course of the Sun- A story of not only how the sun came to pass from east to west (he liked that road the best!), how he stops for meals at various points (such as at his highest point at noon he stops for lunch), and what the sun wears. A very intriguing story indeed. . .
11. The Theft of Fire- A more detailed version of the story of how Coyote helped man steal fire. Also the story of how the ground-squirrel got its tail and stripes (it was charred during the theft, lol). Additionally, can anyone here actually rub dry sticks/wood together to make fire? I haven't tried often, but the couple times I did I failed miserably, haha.
12. Coyote, Tortillas, and Mesquite Beans- (1) Wow. That woman just drowned Coyote because she didn't want to give him a tortilla. I mean, really, she could have just ignored him and kept going rather than goading him into drowning. Goodness. (2) And this time, Coyote decided to eat a bug and mesquite beans that had survived the flood and exploded because of it. At least this time he was warned not to do it rather than being goaded into his death. . .
That's all, folks! Have a fantastic spring break!!! :D
Arrivederci!
Image Information. California Valley Coyote (Canis latrans clepticus); photo by Justin Johnsen. Wikipedia.
Hey Jessica!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post for this week. I was impressed by in depth you wrote about each story. That takes a lot of thought and time to do. One of my favorite things about this class is that we get to read a lot of creation stories. I liked that you mentioned that in your post. I also thought it was funny that the story said that man was supposed to have the best qualities of all animals. Haha. Good job!