ASTRONOMY 9: HISTORY OF COSMOLOGY

Handout #3

J. E. Baker
UC Berkeley, Spring 2000

Origin Myths: Siberia and the Americas

1.

Siberia

• Ambiguous role of devil

  (a)

  Alarsk Buryats: When Burkhan Came Down From Heaven

  • Earth created using undersea mud gathered by devil
  • Devil is rewarded with his own land
  • Devil creates harmful creatures (reptiles, snakes) by driving his staff into the ground

  (b)

  (Altaic: devil is the First Man!)

  (c)

  (Evenki: pine-tree contest, devil recognizes god's greater power)

• Raven as mediator between worlds, trickster

  (a)

  Eskimo: The Creation

  • Separation of heaven/earth/sea floor
  • Raven unwittingly creates man from pea-pod, orders man and nature

  (b)

  Chuckchi: Creator Makes Men and Animals

  • Raven sent to peck a hole in the sky for the Sun (fails), wagtail succeeds (just)

• Very imperfect creation

  (a)

  Chuckchi

  • Subjects of creation are incompetent (failure of raven)
  • Punished by making them scavenge for food (had been provided)
  • God can't find a messenger, must go directly to earth to teach humans to have sex and multiply
  • Russians are entirely outside the creation, self-transformed, but are given role of masters

• Limits to man's dominion over Nature

  (a)

  Eskimo

  • Raven is displeased if too many animals killed, punishes man
  • Creates bear to instill human fear

  (b)

  Chuckchi

  • Man created from seal bones

• Astronomical order

  (a)

  Eskimo

  • Man is punished by taking away Sun
  • Raven's son wants to play with Sun, sets it free part-time => day/night duality, revolution of the sky, stars of glowing grass

• The Fall

  (a)

  Eskimo

  • Loss of sacred powers as world is more ordered
  • Raven loses ability to ascend to heaven
  • Work for food

2.

North America

• Creation by divine thought

  (a)

  Hopi: The Emergence

  • Taiowa (creator) in endless space (no time/shape)
  • Creation arises from his mind, Infinite => finite
  • Creates helper Sotuknang to make manifest: 9 universes, solids, waters, winds

• Creation out of Chaos

  (a)

  Cupeno: A Bag Hung in Space

  • Dark initial void, bag appears and coyote, cat arise
  • Man arises from mud

  (b)

  Jicarilla: In the Beginning Was Nothing

  • Chaos (dark/water/cyclone) of potentiality
  • Hactcin divides Mother Earth / Father Sky
  • Jicarilla emerge from shawdowy embryonic dream state

• Earth created from mud gathered under primeval waters

  (a)

  Kainah (Blood): Creation of Man

  • Napioa (Old Man) sends animals to fetch earth

  (b)

  Assiniboine: Making Men and Horses

  • Inktonmi sends animals (all fail until muskrat tries) to dive
  • Man and horses (a recent introduction!) created out of dirt

  (c)

  Cherokee: How the World Was Made

  • Heavenly animals (water beetle) dives for mud
  • Earth is floating on cosmic ocean
  • Attached to sky (of rock) by cords at four cardinal points
  • Stamped into dry land (Appalachians) by Buzzard
  • Sun passes under (day) and above (night) the sky arch
  • Man (brother + sister) created last, multiply at 1/week (too many), then 1/year(!)

• Coyote as mediator between worlds, reconciler of dualities

  (a)

  Cupeno

  • Has power of speech
  • Links earth/man with heavens (through shamans)
  • Reconciles hunter/farmer duality (scavenges; cf. African myths)

• Differing roles of women

  (a)

  Salishan-Sahaptin: Making the World and People

  • Woman is derived from tail of man (wolf)

  (b)

  Kainah

  • Women created first
  • Confusion of mouth/sex organs: verbal/physical creation
  • Man is afraid of her until encouraged by Napioa

  (c)

  Jicarilla

  • Created out of man's dream
  • Puberty rites established

• The Fall

  (a)

  Hopi

  • Emergence into the fourth world (see notes)
  • Descent from initial perfection, forgetting the sacred, imbalance

• Interconnectedness of nature

  (a)

  Salishan-Sahaptin

  • Sky/earth/underworld connected by a pole or trees
  • Humans derived from wolf

  (b)

  Kainah

  • Tame buffalo created for man's benefit

  (c)

  Assiniboine

  • Inktonmi as wolf god
  • Orders a long winter, Frog protests (even after death!) and prevails

  (d)

  Cherokee

  • Parallel underworld has opposite seasons (spring water temp.)
  • Animals and plants which could stay awake 7 nights awarded night vision, conifers

  (e)

  Jicarilla

  • Humorous animals (hog) are created and teased
  • Man from image of stones/turquoise/ochre/coral/rock/opal/abalone

• Sociopolitical roles of myth

  (a)

  Assiniboine

  • Justification for stealing other tribes' horses

3.

South America

• Creation through speech

  (a)

  Quiche Maya: The Popul Vuh

  • Tepeu and Gucumatz (creators, forefathers, sun/fire) deliberate/discuss in the middle of watery void
  • ``Let the emptiness be filled'' and it is
  • Praise and invocation essential (for gods' egos?)
  • Gods perplexed that animals don't have power to praise them, and so man is created

• Creation though struggle: cosmic quarrels

  (a)

  Jivaro: Nuhino, the Earth Story

  • Eclipses as a violent quarrel, Etsa (sun, male) pursuing Nantu (moon, female)
  • Incest between gods disrupts nature, offends animals
  • Masata (War) arises, incites tribes to violence
  • Rainbow as a sign of peace, obscured by rain/clouds
  • Chingaso eaten by imprisoned grandson she tries to free

• The gods are fallible

  (a)

  Quiche Maya

  • Animals intended to have speech but don't
  • First man: clay; melts away, destroyed
  • Second man: wooden, no mind/soul for praise; maimed, killed (animals, pots exact revenge!), and becomes monkey
  • Man from corn (4 => cardinal directions): too much power; wisdom is curtailed
  • Fierce animals turned to stone by rising sun, mud dried

  (b)

  Munduruku

  • Karusakaibo creates the world
  • With armadillo discovers people in a hole in the ground
  • Delivers half with (umblical) rope before it breaks
  • Cycle of life <=> death

• ``Mainfest destiny''

  (a)

  Inca: Ordering the World

  • Sun god sends son and daughter to civilize the ``savages''
  • Find a place where golden rod (till, phallus) can be plunged into soil
  • Establish divine right to rule
  • Power to inspire awe equated with ``modern'' dress, piercings
  • Justification for creation of great Andean empire
  • Ultimately overthrown by the Spanish version, ``tears of blood''

  (b)

  Jivaro

  • European technology is seen but forbidden to Indians

• Role of women

  (a)

  Quiche Maya

  • ``Their women were made'' to beget the tribes
  • Water as feminine (passive, receptive)

  (b)

  Inca

  • Civilization/cities divided into Upper realm (elder, male, king) and Lower realm (younger, female, queen)

  (c)

  Jivaro

  • Man (sloth) as son of Sun/Moon, woman (wife) from eggs of Chingaso
  • Man is lazy, most of work done by women!

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