Creation Myths of Primitive America - The Original Classic Edition
Nonfiction, Reference & Language, Reference, Fiction & Literature
| Author: | Curtin Jeremiah | ISBN: | 9781486421138 |
| Publisher: | Emereo Publishing | Publication: | October 24, 2012 |
| Imprint: | Emereo Publishing | Language: | English |
| Author: | Curtin Jeremiah |
| ISBN: | 9781486421138 |
| Publisher: | Emereo Publishing |
| Publication: | October 24, 2012 |
| Imprint: | Emereo Publishing |
| Language: | English |
This is a new and freshly published edition of this culturally important work by Jeremiah Curtin, which is now, at last, again available to you.
Enjoy this classic work today. These selected paragraphs distill the contents and give you a quick look inside Creation Myths of Primitive America:
Described briefly and by an Indian, the American myth system is as follows: "There was a world before this one in which we are living at present; that was the world of the first people, who were [xii] different from us altogether.
...Conflict set in, and because of this came a time of activity and struggle, to which there was no end or stop till the great majority of the first people-that is, all except a small number-were turned into the various kinds of living creatures that are on earth now or have ever been on earth, except man,-that is, all kinds of beasts, birds, reptiles, fish, worms, and insects, as well as trees, plants, grasses, rocks, and some mountains; they were turned into everything that we see on the earth or in the sky.
...First, that small number of the first people whose minds had never changed, those gods who withdrew and who live in their original integrity and harmony, who retired to places outside the sky or above it; second, the great majority of the gods, who have become everything in the present world save and except only Indians. This cycle finished, there is a new point of departure, and we meet a second group of myths concerning the existent world as it is now with its happenings,-myths containing accounts of conflicts which are ever recurrent, which began before all the first people were metamorphosed, conflicts which are going on at present and which will go on forever; struggles between light and darkness, heat and cold, summer and winter, struggles between winds which blow in opposite directions,-in fact, accounts of various phenomena and processes which attract the attention of savage men more than others because savage men are living face to face with them always.
...We must not consider the final act as the whole; the change had been in process for a long period, and the final words from opponents in conflict, the commands of Olelbis, the decisions of personages who changed themselves at the approach of Indians, or at signs of their coming, are but the very last act, the final incident, the official ending, so to speak, of an immensely long career in each case.
This is a new and freshly published edition of this culturally important work by Jeremiah Curtin, which is now, at last, again available to you.
Enjoy this classic work today. These selected paragraphs distill the contents and give you a quick look inside Creation Myths of Primitive America:
Described briefly and by an Indian, the American myth system is as follows: "There was a world before this one in which we are living at present; that was the world of the first people, who were [xii] different from us altogether.
...Conflict set in, and because of this came a time of activity and struggle, to which there was no end or stop till the great majority of the first people-that is, all except a small number-were turned into the various kinds of living creatures that are on earth now or have ever been on earth, except man,-that is, all kinds of beasts, birds, reptiles, fish, worms, and insects, as well as trees, plants, grasses, rocks, and some mountains; they were turned into everything that we see on the earth or in the sky.
...First, that small number of the first people whose minds had never changed, those gods who withdrew and who live in their original integrity and harmony, who retired to places outside the sky or above it; second, the great majority of the gods, who have become everything in the present world save and except only Indians. This cycle finished, there is a new point of departure, and we meet a second group of myths concerning the existent world as it is now with its happenings,-myths containing accounts of conflicts which are ever recurrent, which began before all the first people were metamorphosed, conflicts which are going on at present and which will go on forever; struggles between light and darkness, heat and cold, summer and winter, struggles between winds which blow in opposite directions,-in fact, accounts of various phenomena and processes which attract the attention of savage men more than others because savage men are living face to face with them always.
...We must not consider the final act as the whole; the change had been in process for a long period, and the final words from opponents in conflict, the commands of Olelbis, the decisions of personages who changed themselves at the approach of Indians, or at signs of their coming, are but the very last act, the final incident, the official ending, so to speak, of an immensely long career in each case.
