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Creation Myths of the Hebrews and Hopi Indians

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(NOTE: Briefly compare and contrast two stories from your reading.)

FIRST CREATION MYTH: GENESIS
REGION OR CULTURE: HEBREW

SECOND CREATION MYTH: SPIDER WOMAN
REGION OR CULTURE: HOPI INDIAN

Who created the world?
Who were the main characters involved? What was the process?
What was the motivation to create the world?
How did humankind come into being?
Did the original creator(s) maintain involvement in the newly created world?

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Solution Summary

In reference to two creation stories (Hebrew and Hopi Indian), this solution compares them on several dimensions e.g. who created the world, the main characters involved, the process and the motivation to create the world for each creation story. It also compares how humankind come into being and how (or if) the original creator(s) maintained involvement in the newly created world.

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Please see response attached (also presented below) I hope this helps and take care.

RESPONCSE:

a. FIRST CREATION MYTH: GENESIS
REGION OR CULTURE: HEBREW

b. SECOND CREATION MYTH: SPIDER WOMAN
REGION OR CULTURE: HOPI INDIAN

1. Who created the world?

a. God created the world by speaking it into existence.
b. Spider Woman: The dominance of Spider Woman, the female creative principle, befits a culture that remains to this day matrilineal. Most important creation story (but not the only one), the Spider Woman story is an example of an emergence myth, a type of creation myth popular among Native American tribes. The emergence story stresses the idea of the Earth as a womb from which the people emerge gradually, as in childbirth. At each stage they grow in knowledge and ability, and only when fully born are they bathed by the light of the Sun God's power, the power of Logos, the principle that allows for proper social ordering. (1)

2. Who were the main characters involved? What was the process?

a. God spoke the world into existence and angels were already created in heaven.

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.(1) Then God said, "Let there be light;" and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. And God said, "Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters." So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. (2) And it was so. God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day. And God said, "Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, "Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it." And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day. (2)

And God said, "Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, (3) and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth." And it was so. God made the two great lights-the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night-and the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. And God said, "Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky." So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. (2)
And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind." And it was so. God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, (4) according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth." So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (5) ...

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