The Emergence of Land
From: http://www.cgjungpage.org/articles/popul.html
The Emergence of Land and the Importance of the Word in the Popul
Vuh and Several Origin Myths of the Southwest Indians
by Mark Greene, Ph.D.
The way things are before anything new is created bears a marked
similarity across several origin myths of the Native American tribes
of the Southwest and the Popol Vuh, the Quiché Mayans' sacred
origin narrative. The existence of the primordial element, water,
as manifest in the form of "the calm sea" appears in
every case of this study either alone or accompanied by the emptiness
of "the
expanse of sky." (1) In addition, a pair of creator gods can
be found in each story acting either in unison or opposition who's
actions create the rest of the world. The tension between opposites
is manifest in the binary units of ocean--sky, good-evil and light-dark.
One common resolution to these opposing forces is an upward movement
of earth from the under-sea-world and the creation of living creatures
and landscape upon it.
In the case of The White Dawn of the Hopi, the earth is covered
with water over which a solitary sun rises and sets every day.
Eventually,
the two goddesses living below the water, each in her own kiva
- one in the east and one in the west, "cause the waters to
recede eastward and westward so that some dry land appeared." (2).
The sun points out to the goddesses that no living creature is
to be seen during his daily arc across the sky. His comment prompts
the goddesses to bring creatures to life who will populate the
earth.
In the Yuma origin myth, The Good Twin and the Evil Twin, the
earth begins as "only water - there was no sky, there was
no land, only nothingness." (3) The upward movement is given
expression in the rising of a mist from the ocean's surface which
becomes the sky and the eventual emergence from its depths of Kokomaht,
the good creator twin, and Bakotahl, the evil one. After creating
the four directions upon the water, Kokomaht stirs "the waters
into a foaming whirlpool with his hand." After the bubbles
and foam subside, land is visible and the creator god sits upon
it (4).
In the Jicarilla Genesis, of the Jicarilla Apache, the earth is "covered
with water, and all living things were below in the underworld." Here,
the binary roles of opposition are filled by the people and animals
who want more light and those night animals "the bear, the
panther, and the owl - (who) wanted darkness." The light-desiring
coalition is victorious in successive increments as they win four
rounds of the "thimble-and-button game." After the fourth
win, "the sun came up in the east, and it was day, and the
owl flew away and hid." (5) Eventually, four separate storms,
each distinguished by its own color, "roll up" the encompassing
waters thus allowing the emergence of land and the underground
creatures to rise up from under (6).
As previously stated, the Popol Vuh begins with nothing but sea
and sky. In this story, there are two creator gods, Tepeu and Gucumatz,
hidden "under green and blue feathers" in the ocean (7).
They confer and meditate upon the primordial situation and conclude
that "when dawn would break, man must appear." Again,
the water is caused to recede in order to "let the earth appear
and become solid." (8).
One aspect of the Popol Vuh which distinguishes it from these
other stories is the Gods' insistence upon creating a creature
who will be able to speak the names of its creators. The Gods of
the Popol Vuh are very conscious of language. "Then came the
word" is what is written just before Tepeu and Gucumatz come
together in the darkness of night. In their "discussing and
deliberating; they agreed, they united their words and their thoughts." (9)
The God's obsession to create beings able to speak the names of
the creators is the driving plot behind creation itself as manifest
in the creation of humanity.
The Gods make several attempts at achieving this end. First, they
create the animals of the forest and then beseech their creation
to, "Speak, then, our names, praise us, your mother, your
father." Since their creation is only able to hiss and scream
and cackle, the Gods decide that these creatures shall have their "flesh
torn to pieces" and tell them to accept this as their fate
since they could not speak the names of the Gods (10). The Gods
then attempt to create humankind from clay and then wood. Both
experiments fail since the man of clay "at first . . . spoke,
but had no mind. Quickly it soaked in the water and could not stand," and
the figures made of wood were capable of multiplying, "but
they did not have souls, nor minds, they did not remember their
Creator, their Maker; they walked on all fours, aimlessly." (11)
It is feasible to conclude that in making the Gods in their own
image, the Quiché Maya required literate progenitors. On
the other hand, the Southwest Indians, in lacking a written language,
did not put as much emphasis on the word in their origin myths
as did their southern counterparts, the Quiché Maya.
Footnotes
Delia Goetz and Sylvanus G. Morely, Trans. Adrián Recinos,
Popol Vuh: The Sacred Book of the Ancient Quiché Maya (Oklahoma
City: Oklahoma University Press, 1950), p. 81.
Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz, American Indian Myths and Legends
(New York: Pantheon, 1984), p. 115.
Erdoes and Ortiz, p. 77.
Erdoes and Ortiz, p. 77.
Erdoes and Ortiz, p. 83.
Erdoes and Ortiz, p. 84.
Goetz and Morely, p. 82.
Goetz and Morely, p. 83.
Goetz and Morely, p. 82.
Goetz and Morely, p. 85.
Goetz and Morely, pp. 86-87.
Copyright 1995 Mark Greene. All rights reserved.
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