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PHY360 SCIENCE IN HISTORY 2011-1

Creation Legends
Prepared by Burak Pehlivan

Introduction
Initially, creation legends were being used by shamans, witch doctors, and other similar figures in tribal societies during celebration,healing, relieving ceremonies.They were also attempts to answer the vast number of questions surrounding the life and the matter. As the human life was more surrounded with nature the legends of tribal societies seem to give nature more role in the creation (See Polynesia, Turkic, Huron legends below) whereas the role of the Supreme Power(s) in creation legends increase with the economic activity changing to agriculture and then urban life.

Classification
The generally accepted classification of creation stories was done by Charles Long. He classified them as follows [1]: -Ex nihilo creation (creation from nothing) -Creation from a cosmic egg -World parents creation (Mother Earth-Sky Father and similar concepts) -Emergence (creation from undergrounds) -Earth-diver (creation by diving in primal waters) However, many legends fall in more than one categories with this scheme. Another classification scheme can be applied which has two different categories: Causality: A1-Creation at the command of existing substance A2-Creation at the command of Supreme power(s) The things created: B1-Creation of living, organic substance B2-Creation of non-living inorganic substance The most legends are of type A2B1. For example, A1B1: Rarely seen, this type is seen mostly in Hindu legends A1B2: Finnish Kalevala legend A2B1: Mayan Popol Vuh(creation of human), Sumer creation legends A2B2: Polynesia creation legend All legends can be categorized in this manner. Still, some of them can be placed in more than one categories. I think above categorisation is a better alternative for analysing the creation legends from natural science perspective.

The Physical Roots behind the Creation Legends


The essence of earth and clay concepts: These concepts are seen in many legends. (Sumerian, Turkic, Native American and so on.) The hunter-gatherer society had limited knowledge on agriculture and plant cultivation. Even the new agricultural societies misinterpreted the fertility of mineral rich soil by claiming it was the soil/clay which caused the life to start and flourish as they had little knowledge on the plant seeds. Still, the life indeed benefits from mineral rich soil and this observation helped the formation of early agricultural civilizations. The primeval water concepts: In dry climates, like those seen in many parts of Asia, it is a very simple yet crucial observation for both hunter&agricultural societies that plant and animal life indeed flourishes around water sources. This observation probably led to the primeval water concept seen in many central Asian creation legends. The dismemberment concept: In times when climate gets colder making it impossible to eat plants and small animals, mass animal migration seasons, and lacking ability for hunting available animals; eating massive, dead animals might be the only reason for human and some animals survival. This theme is also used extensively in creation legends. The cosmic egg concept: It derives from the basic observation that eggs naturally contain a small prototype of the mature creature and can preserve its content very well in many circumstances like earth protects its habitants, thus it provides a good model for the creation. This concept is also in accord with the ever-changing living content of the world.

Sumerian Creation Legend The Sumerian developed the first of the great Mesopotamian civilization in the third millenium BCE. Some historians claim the writing, libraries, schools were first established by Sumerians. The tablets remaining from Sumerians are missing lines and incomplete but still gives a good idea about their creation legends. ***
The goddess Nammu (Primeval Sea) gave birth to Sky and Earth. Sky (An, male) and Earh(ki,female) was unified at first.(Anki means universe in Sumerian language). These two made the air god Enlil. Enlil seperated the two so that creation could proceed. Enlil, joining forces with his mother, created the God Enki, god of vegetation and wisdom.

*** From another tablet the information below is extracted: ***


Primeval Sea goddess and the other gods wanted to create humans so they serve the gods. At a feast, drunken gods created the first humans. Mother Earth made some that could not reproduce, while Enki made the others out of clay. But they were still imperfect. After the gods decided on great flood to destroy their creation, Enki saved Ziusudra. So Ziusudra lead re-creation.

*** The story of the Great Flood and re-creation is written to the tablets where the story of the heroking Glgameshs life is told.

Chinese Pangu Legend Chinese was a home for many legends. The creation legend below, the legend of Pangu deserves a particular interest due to its distinct characteristics. It was compiled by Xu Zheng in his Three Five Historic Records during Three Kingdoms period. ***
At first there was only a formless chaos in the universe This chaos formed a cosmic egg during 18000 years. After perfectly opposed principles of Yin and Yang became balanced, Pangu, primary human emerged from the egg. Pangu started the creation of world: He seperated Yni and Yang with his axe thus creating the Earth and Sky. To further seperate them Pangu pushed the sky for 18000 years. After this, Pangu dismembered and a transformation took place: His breath became the wind; his voice the thunder; left eye the sun and right eye the moon; his body became the mountains and extremes of the world; his blood formed rivers; his muscles the fertile lands; his facial hair the stars and milky way; his fur the bushes and forests; his bones the valuable minerals; his bone marrows sacred diamonds; his sweat fell as rain; and the fleas on his fur carried by the wind became the fish and animals throughout the land. Nwa the Goddess then used the mud of the water bed to form the shape of humans. These humans were very smart since they were individually crafted. Nwa then became bored of individually making every human so she started putting a rope in the water bed and letting the drops of mud that fell from it become new humans. These small drops became new humans, not as smart as the first. [1]

***

5 The creation process above is not an instantaneous act, but rather takes considerable time and effort. It also reflects the duality and imperfect human creation found in many other legends. The egg figure is also found in several Indian legends.

Indian Legends Vedas contain the oldest legends of India. After this, several commentaries on Vedas (brahmanas, Aranyakas, Upanishads, The Law Book of Manu) were written. *** (1100-2000 BCE) Vedas 10th book
The primal man Purusha who had thousand heads and feet, enveloped the Earth, universe and even time. Three fourths of Purusha was of immortal origin, the rest being the lifes portion. When the gods sacrificed Purusha, his living part became the Earth. His mouth became the wise brahman priest and the god Indra. His arms became the warrior caste, his thighs the common people, and his feet the lowest of the low. From the dismemberment came also the beasts, plants, and the Vedas themselves. Purushas mind became the moon, eye sun, breath wind, head sky, feet the earth and his navel the atmosphere.

***

Purusha [2] Despite the legend tells Purusha is a male, it may well be otherwise looking at this and some other drawings. There is a chance that Vedas was modified by later priests.

The intermadiate legends of Indian culture can be seen on the David Leemings book. [1] These show a trend of becoming more abstract in context regarding the creative elements they possess.

The legend following can be regarded as the completion of getting more abstract at creation act in India legends.

6 (2nd century BCE) Lawbook of Manu ***


The Self Existent Brahman made the priemaval waters by thought. His seed became a golden egg, out of which Brahman was born within a year. Brahman created the Skies and Earth by thought as well. Out of brahman came the Purusha. ***

The Indian creation legend makes an explanation even for the social castes and is more broad in context.

Mayan Legend, Popul Vuh (the Book of the People) It is the written account of the Mayan spoken legends as compiled and transferred by thr Christian priests after the collapse of the Mayan civilization at 16th century. They had hieroglyhic on Stone and wood which mostly did not survive. It mainly focuses on the creation of the men. First the supreme powers attempts to make men ouy of clay but it melts under rain. Second attempt is done with wood, resulting in inflexible, mindless creatures. At the third attepmt the corn is used, and humans become perfect. The design is then modified by the spureme powers to make it less perfect. ***
At first there were only twin creators: Tepeu and Gukumatz, and the Feathered Serpent. They made the earth, mountains, trees by thought. They seperated the sky and Earth and made the animals. Then they created human. The first human form, being out of clay, fell apart when it got wet. The second form was out of wood, but it was too inflexible, mindless. The third form was made from the corn. It was perfect. So the first four humans were created. Later they were imperfected by twin creators, to differentiate humans from themselves.

*** This story also has the duality in creation and imperfection in the products like many other legends. It is distunguishable by the fact that it focuses more on the creation of human than the inorganic matter.

A Mayan paint depicting creation [3] Finnish national legend, Kalevala

7 The people of Finland speaks an Uralic language and have a creation legend in their national epic story, Kalevala (meaning the land of descendants of Kaleva). The compilation was done by the poet Elias Lonnrot in the 19th century. A story from the poems in the first two runes can be extracted, as follows: [1],[8] ***
At first, there were only the primeval waters and Sky. One day, Skys daughter Ilmatar came to waters. Then se stayed in waters for 700 years. In search of a nest, a teal arrived. Ilmatar raised her knee and the bird laid six golden eggs and one iron one. The bird rested on her knee. After some time, it became so hot that Ilmatar moved, dropping the eggs to water. Lower part of one of the eggshells formed the land, the top part the sky. The moon and the stars was formed from the egg white, and yolk became the sun. After several hundred years of creation by the cracking of eggs, Ilmatar acted to create. The first human, Vainamoinan was born of Ilmatar, the sea his father. He swam for years, then landed on an island. He asked Great Bear in the stars for help. A boy came with plant seeds. ***

The act of creation in this legend also take a long time and seems unplanned for inorganic world. Primal waters concept, which can be found in many Asian&American legends, is also seen here.

Ilmatar by Robert Wilhelm Ekman. [9]

Turkic creation legend The legend is told by the Shamans in Central Asia region and probably one of the oldest legends to date. The figure of devil or trickster has a significant role in central Asia creation legends. ***
The great white* Goose Tengri (Tengri lgen) flew over the primordial waters. At the urge of the White Mother below, he started to create. First, he created Er Kishi so that he would help the creation. Er Kishi, however, undermined the creation. Tengri lgen left to remain in the Skies, where he sent sacred animals to guide the people.

*** *The white color is also used in many Turkic context to represent the goodness. The creator of the universe is in the bird form like in the Finnish story. The creation is being imperfected due to the struggle between the good (Tengri lgen) and the bad (Er Kishi). A similar struggle can also be found in Mongol creation legend. [1]

A Shamans photo [4] Tungus creation legend Tungus people lives mainly in Manchuria and Siberia regions of Asia. The legend is being told by witch doctors in Tungus culture for hundreds of years. ***
At first, there were only the waters and the God. God sent down the fire, which caused the land to appear. When the God set foot on the land, he found Buninka, the devil: Buninka wanted to create his own world, and he got so angry when God refused to let him do so that he broke Godss lyre. God challenged Buninka to make a tree out of the water to prove his powers. Buninka agreed, but the pine tree he created was weak and it leaned over. God created a tree that was strong and constantly growing. Buninka therefore recognized Gods power over him and all things. [1]

*** The devil figure in the Tungus legend challenges the creator directly unlike Er Kishi in the Turkic legend (a trickster). Also the creator is not in animal form in this legend.

A witch doctor [5] Polynesian creation legend Polynesians, living in Polynesia islands, maintain a herder-hunter life even today. The story puts the material (Sky, Earth) as the creator of the gods in Polynesia culture.

9 ***
At first there were Sky and Earth coupled in darkness. Their children, the gods, discussed what to do to seperate them so that they have more space. The god of cultivation, (Rongo-ma-tane) tried to stand up to seperate them, but was unsuccesful. The same thing happened with the other gods, until the god of forests and flying thing (Tanemahutu) stood on his head and pushed the father Sky with his feet away from the mother Earth. However, the god of winds was against the seperation and getting furious, sent forth a terrifying series of storms to punish his brothers. Tane gave his children (humans) canoes and nets so they might catch fishes, the creations of ocean god. Sometimes Tangarao swallowed up people. Eventually, one of the gods ate all of his brothers and created his offspring. The gods then descended form him.

***

An icon for Tangaroa, British Museum [6]

Zuni creation legend Zuni is a native people of western New Mexico. Unexpected to many, their legends and stories show a quite complex character. ***
Awonawilona is the creator and the one who existed in the beginning. Out of himself he made the seed to create Earth Mother (Awitelin Tsita) and Sky Father (Apoyon Tachu). The Sky Father and Earth Mother together created the world and all the living things. Earth Mother held up a great bowl of water and told Sky father the bowl was herself and that along its rim the people would live. Earth Mother spat into the bowl and stirred it, which caused the land to build up on the edges. Sky father sent his breath, which made clouds and mist on the land. He also passed his hand over the bowl and the fruits of earth were created.

***

10 Huron (Wyandot) creation legend Huron people still live in North America. They have fighted with other tribes, especially Iraquois tribe and were forced to migrate several times over the centuries. ***
At first there were only water and water animals. Into this water a goddess who lived with great Spirit fell. To find a suitable place for her animals held counsil. They decided to dive in water to find earth (essence of soil). Many animals tried but failed during their attempts. Only the toad succeeded. The goddess took it and placed it on Tortoises back. It grew into land. The great Tortoise still supports the world. Goddess had been pregnant when she fell. She was carrying twin boys, one good and the other bad. The bad one killed his mother by breaking through her side in her womb. From the buried goddess came all the vegetables and fruits of earth. Life was marked with the struggle between opposite twins after then. The good one made streams to travel oni the bad one made rapids to impoede travel on streams. Eventually the good brother killed the bad brother.

***

Giant Tortoise [7]

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References
1- David Lemming, Creation Myths of the World 2- http://hinduismonline.wordpress.com/2010/04/03/purusha_suktam/ 3- http://www.channels.com/episodes/show/12903973/TERRA-539-Energy-s-Future 4- http://about-world-religions.blogspot.com/2010/08/what-is-shamanism.html 5- http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo/rights-managed/SF17615/tungus-shaman-witchdoctor-with-drum (Also shown in the book Creation Myths of the World, David Lemming) 6- http://www.culture24.org.uk/history+%26+heritage/art40733 7http://eu.art.com/products/p12377690-sa-i1744775/posters.htm? ui=463E49EB7CF3453BB18E74F62677F7E4 8- http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/kveng/ 9- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilmatar

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