Reading Notes Week 11: Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes, Part A

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Tortoise (Wikimedia)

Reading Notes Week 11: Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes, Part A

The Earth-Maker:

· I like the setup of this origin story, similar to Christianity’s version of the origin story where there was nothing, and then at once the original being was. Might be interesting to try and merge this with some of the bible’s origin stories.

· Interesting employment of tortoise and hare. Would not have expected Tortoise to be the original man, nor one that would cause war and wrath on earth.

· Really interesting how the origin of death is also weaved into the origin story. But I guess this is also true for the Bible. Really interesting to note also their explanation for why people die. In this story, death is a means of preventing overcrowding and a lack of food and resources. This suggests to me that these tribes valued resources like food greatly, but also that their understanding of death as an essential aspect of the circle of life. The Bible’s origin story with Adam and Eve suggests an understanding of death as punishment for the knowledge received when Eve ate The Apple. Whereas this story seems to emphasize death as an important natural process, the Bible seems to emphasize death as something inevitable that we must prepare for because we will be judged afterward.

· But then at the end they suggest it cannot be prevented, so maybe not so different after all. It’s interesting that it is only after the Hare turns back to look that “everything caved in” and the grandmother could no longer prevent death. Perhaps something to do with our focus on the past, not sure what to make of this thematically yet. However, this scene presents an opportunity for some really cool retelling with the addition of more descriptive imagery. Might also help me better understand this story if I try to retell it myself. I think I’d also like to try and merge this story with aspects of the Bible’s creation story, highlighting similarities more than anything.

Bibliography

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