The Hopi Creation Stories: A Mythological Analysis
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At the introductory level, the concept of myths are shrouded by literary texts like those of the Greco-Roman and Norse traditions. These myths have been stamped in time by the various authors who choose to record them in written form. Before the myths were written, they were spoken word and these tales were an evolving art form for these great civilizations. Native American myths, particularly of the Southwestern United States are very much alive. The myths have always been part of an ongoing tradition of rituals. These rituals have individual history and significance to each tribe. Because of ethnography we are able to collect these tales form the native communities that are still practicing their rituals today. The two creation accounts acknowledged…show more content… The creatures are insect like similar to the Zuni myth. However, the first world is created by a Sun Spirit named Tawa, and their guide through the worlds is Spider Grandmother. As they move up to the second world they evolve into new creatures like bears and coyotes. In the third world they continue to evolve replacing tails, fur, and webbed fingers for human characteristics. They receive more help from a manufactured clay catbird, Spider Grandmother, and chipmunks to find a reach the sipapuni. Sipapuni is an opening between worlds that allows passage from one world to another. Once they had reached the fourth world it was still cold and dark. They all helped to create the world at stretched leather over wooden disks, painted them with dyes and egg yolk to make them shine. They then sang the disks into the sky where they became the sun and the moon. Once they are finished a coyote finds the paint bucket and flings it with so much might that flecks reach the sky and become the stars.
The two stories are very surprising because of the significant different in Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian traditions. In Genesis the humans are given Earth, and anything that is nonhuman is considered inferior to humans. Opposed to the Native American people who see themselves as equal to all being on the Earth. Hesiod’s ideas in the Ages of Mankind shows human developing specifically descending from a Golden Age. The Native American myths had their people ascending through time becoming more sophisticated. The Hopi account stated that people were once the inferior animals that humans in Genesis had power