The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #55415   Message #861058
Posted By: GUEST,Q
07-Jan-03 - 06:29 PM
Thread Name: BS: In The Beginning
Subject: RE: BS: In The Beginning
Never found any dragons in southwestern Indian mythology. Eagle was important, and in some stories other animals might have wings for a while, but they generally came to grief.
No uniformity among beliefs, except among those contaminated by the Christian religion and a modern tendency to "homogenize" among the Plains groups.
Of course there will always be some beliefs that coincide from one religion to another. Some are exceedingly complex (the bibliography on Navajo culture, their view of the universe, ran to 326 pages in 1980).
Simplifying, in Navajo creation, in the first stage only water exists. In the next stage, there are five sacred spirits above the water. These lend themselves to creation. Stage 3, the earth came into being. Stage 4, the earth gave birth. Stage 5, At the bottom of the world, "things happen." Stage 6, the separation of the sexes. Stage 7, the flood. Like the Christian belief, this is likely based on a flood in the region whee they lived at one time. Stage 8, emergence, and stage 9, placing of the creation. Navajo creation consisted of two parts; the creation proper, and Things created for the benefit of the Navajo. Only medicine men are familiar with the details of creation; not the layman. There is a great variey of ceremonies, not the same from one area to another. See "A Taxonomic View of the Traditional Navajo Universe," Werner, Manning and Begishe, in Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 10, The Southwest, 1983, The Smithsonian.
The Zuni have quite a different view, some aspects are reminiscent of one set of Japanese beliefs.