Creation Myths

[Asonokirk V 2.0]

One universal fact is there is some form of creation myth at the beginning of all of the histories of all of the societies and civilizations that have preceeded the current generation of mankind. I've read a few of them and have been dumbfounded as to how anyone could have imagined the scenarios as presented.

For example, Japanese Creation Story (http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_1/kojiki.html) the referenced link.

I think that if we study some of the more ancient myths, we might be able to piece together an idea of what generated these myths. I don't know how much study has been done in the field, although I'm sure there has been significant attention paid to these myths in academia, I just wonder if anyone has put any energy into understanding what it was that drove the fact people devised these myths in the first place.

[ellenora]

When I was in college, I did my freshman comp term paper on the similarity of creation myths world-wide and their underlying universal truths. Used a bit of Jung to delve into archetypal commonalities. Trust me... it was very pedestrian and while I got an "A" on it I didn't break any new ground. I was only 18 at the time. :wink:

[Asonokirk V 2.0]

The reason I'm wondering about this, is because I have a very tenuous theory that by understanding why a distant ancestor may have perceived existence as they did, we may find some elemental fact or facts present that have either been forgotten, or changed out of context within our collective memory.

There must be some kind of motivation behind creation mythology we haven't considered. The only reason I say this at all is because of the bizarre nature of some of these myths.

I've tried to put myself into the head of a primitive human, but the only thing I can believe is that all of us have a fundamental understanding of our existence that is very different than the ancients, and we are starting from a place of perspective that has the advantage of knowledge gathered between then and now. For example no modern child would believe that the earth revolves around the sun (if any do, there are too few of them to warrant any contradiction with my argument), and since that is a fundamental awareness, it effects perception of everything else, and prejudices that perception.

I would like to go back to an awareness existing prior to the factual knowledge of the universe we've gathered over the millenia.

[Rowanberry]

no modern child would believe that the earth revolves around the sun
Don't you mean the other way round?

The Finnish creation myth is included in the first poem of the Kalevala (http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/kveng/kvrune01.htm); it's one of the many in which the world is created from an egg.

[Asonokirk V 2.0]

Don't you mean the other way round?

The Finnish creation myth is included in the first poem of the Kalevala (http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/kveng/kvrune01.htm); it's one of the many in which the world is created from an egg.

Yes, I meant "would believe the sun revolves around the earth." It is just I find the nature of creation myths to be mystifying. I'm trying to get inside the heads of the ancients, as, after all, they lived closer to the beginning of things than we do, so their perspective wasn't clouded by thousands of years of theories, suppositions, and prejudices.

Ancient man might have had an awareness more fundamental and actually closer to reality than we have. Like I said, this is just a tenuous theory. I have no reason to believe there are facts present within creation myths that we do not recognize as such.

[ellenora]

Creation myths were early man's attempts to explain why things were the way they were and where man came from, how society evolved, why evil was in the world... etc.

Their answers were formulated by the world around them... by the things in nature that they could see and understand. Thus... since life came from an egg... an egg was often used as the source of life. They sought the easiest answers for the complex questions they were asking.

~elle

[Asonokirk V 2.0]

But that could be a projection of our thought processes upon ancient man. After all, the creation myths vary in content to the extent that what it was that drove their conceptualizations may be based on an extended awareness in which we no longer subscribe. Perhaps a comparitive analysis of each myth, compared to all of the others, will reveal some commonality that might be able to be labled as derivative of a certain perception.

By having an understanding of the underlying motivational imperative driving the mythology, we can have a more clear understanding of how what we know as history fits into our present. That understanding will enable us to have a more comprehensive awareness of what is going on around us.

Again, I am only speculating aloud. I don't have any objective facts in support of my comments.