ORIGIN MYTHS

All myths are of distant past but origin myths are a sub-genre of myth about the creation of the world or humans in the world

COSMOS = order of the universe vs. CHAOS = lack of order

Most creation myths show progression from Chaos to Cosmos

Through speaking, listing, naming or otherwise imposing order

PRIMORDIAL = period of time or setting (world) in which myths occur -- an earlier and usually different world (with animals that talk or gods living among people, etc.)

NATIVE AMERICAN ORIGIN MYTHS

Creation Tales (origin myths) may have been less popular among Native Americans

ETIOLOGY: common elements that explain how things came to be the way they are (e.g. why the bear has a short tale, why the crow is black)

More often myths show origins of specific foods, values, traditions, etc. (rather than in creation of human beings per se).

But perhaps because they were often asked for such stories, many tribes have recorded origin stories, showing the beginning of the world (and sometimes of people)

3 MAIN TYPES IN (NATIVE) NORTH AMERICA

1. EARTH DIVER MYTHS (our examples)

Most common motifs:  flood, need for "new" earth, watery world, diving animals (seeking mud/earth), turtle, muddy world, drying out period, new pattern of living on new land

2. EMERGENCE MYTHS (esp. in the Southwest)

Motifs: Previous worlds that are unsatisfactory, destruction of previous world, emergence (through hole in sky), series of world; often we are now in the 4th world

3. MIGRATION MYTHS (e.g. walum olum)

Describes migration to current location

Some scholars sub-divide these types further

Some myths are a combination of types

Some tribes may have more than one type of myth (at once)

Myths, narratives, and all literature are important as keys to understanding the culture

The more context one knows, the better one can interpret myths (or any literature)