Creation Stories :: African Creation Tales Essays

Creation Stories Hegemonic myths are integral to understanding non only where a culture came from but also where it is going. The norms, ethics, and mores of a hunting lodge are imbedded in its oral and written tradition so that it flush toilet subtly be relayed from generation to generation. The myths themselves are not consciously constructed with this intention. sort of the messages are subtextual hidden in the creative tosh lines and characters. Since they were such(prenominal) proper teaching tools, every culture has some kind of creation story to relay its early beginnings and important lessons. Although each society has its own variance on that point are similarities and differences among the antithetical cultures. For example, within westside Africa there are comparable and contrasting creation stories, and then between atomic number 74 Africa and Egypt there are additional points of comparison. There are a variety of categories upon which the different c reation stories correspond that it is difficult to find an overall theme. However, it can be said that each culture truly recalld that its society was the center of the humanity and its story was unequivocally right. I cannot help but be reminded of a scene from the Rogers and Hammerstein musical, The King and I. When Misses Anna shows the emperors children the map of the instauration, they are astonied that Siam is so small and not the center of the world. Additionally, they do not believe the world rotates on an axis. Rather, it is carried on the back of a giant turtle. Although it whitethorn seem rather comical, this is another creation story that, like those from West Africa and Egypt, affirms that the society holds their cultural myths as fact. In addition to the ethnocentric heap that each story purveys, there is an inherent need to explain the unknown. This was plausibly their intended purpose, in addition to providing entertainment. The stories were necessary for people to understand the world around them and their place in it. The elements, the origin of man and his vices and natural occurrences, such as the cycles of the sun and moon, are topics that each myth addresses. It is interesting to dividing line the circumstances under which humans were created. In both the Egyptian and West African Mande myths, man upset the equilibrium that existed between him and the Gods.