Types of cosmogonic myths
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- Also called:
- cosmogonic myth
The world as a structure of meaning and value has not appeared in the same manner to all human civilizations. There are, therefore, almost as many cosmogonic myths as there are human cultures. Until quite recently, the classification of these myths on an evolutionary scale, from the most archaic cultures to contemporary Western cultures (i.e., from the assumedly simplest to the most complex) was the most dominant mode of ordering these myths. Recent 20th-century scholars, however, have begun to look at the various types of myths in terms of the structures that they reveal rather than considering them on an evolutionary scale that extends from the so-called simple to the complex, for, in a sense, there are no simple myths regarding the beginning of the world. The beginning of the world is simultaneously the beginning of the human condition, and it is impossible to speak of this beginning as if it were simple.
Creation by a supreme being
The 19th-century scholars who took an evolutionary survey of human culture and religion (e.g., Sir James George Frazer and Sir Edward Burnett Tylor) held that the notion of the creation of the world by a supreme being occurred only in the highest stage of cultural development.
Andrew Lang, a Scottish folklorist, challenged this conception of the development of religious ideas, for he found in the writings of anthropologists, ethnologists, and travellers evidence of a belief in a supreme being or high god among cultures that had been classified as the most primitive. This position was taken up and elaborated by an Austrian priest-anthropologist, Wilhelm Matthäus Schmidt, who reversed the evolutionary theory, holding that there was a primordial notion of a supreme being, a kind of original intellectual and religious conception of a single creator god, that degenerated in subsequent cultural stages. Though Schmidt’s theories of cultural historical stages and diffusion and an original primordial revelation have for the most part been discredited and abandoned, the existence of a belief in a supreme being among primitive peoples (a notion discovered by Andrew Lang) has been proven and attested to over and over again by investigators of numerous cultures. This belief has been found among the cultures of Africa, the Ainu of the northern Japanese islands, Amerindians, south central Australians, the Fuegians of South America, and in almost all parts of the globe.
Though the precise nature and characteristics of the supreme creator deity may differ from culture to culture, a specific and pervasive structure of this type of deity can be discerned. The following characteristics tend to be common: (1) he is all wise and all powerful. The world comes into being because of his wisdom, and he is able to actualize the world because of his power. (2) The deity exists alone prior to the creation of the world. There is no being or thing prior to his existence. No explanation can therefore be given of his existence, before which one confronts the ultimate mystery. (3) The mode of creation is conscious, deliberate, and orderly. This again is an aspect of the creator’s wisdom and power. The creation comes about because the deity seems to have a definite plan in mind and does not create on a trial-and-error basis. In Genesis, for example, particular parts of the world are created seriatim; in an Egyptian myth, Kheper, the creator deity, says, “I planned in my heart,” and in a Maori myth the creator deity proceeds from inactivity to increasing stages of activity. (4) The creation of the world is simultaneously an expression of the freedom and purpose of the deity. His mode of creation defines the pattern and purpose of all aspects of the creation, though the deity is not bound by his creation. His relationship to the created order after the creation is again an aspect of his freedom. (5) In several creation myths of this type, the creator deity removes himself from the world after it has been created. After the creation the deity goes away and only appears again when a catastrophe threatens the created order. (6) The supreme creator deity is often a sky god, and the deity in this form is an instance of the religious valuation of the symbolism of the sky.
In creation myths of the above type, the creation itself or the intent of the creator deity is to create a perfect world, paradise. Before the end of the creative act or sometime soon after the end of creation, the created order or the intent of the creator deity is thwarted by some fault of one of the creatures. There is thus a rupture in the creation myth. In some myths this rupture is the cause of the departure of the deity from creation.
An African myth from the Dogon peoples of West Africa illustrates this point. In this myth the creator deity first creates an egg. Within the egg are two pairs of twins, each pair consisting of one male and one female. These twins are supposed to mature within the egg, becoming at maturation androgynous (both male and female) beings, the perfect creatures to inhabit the earth. One of the twins breaks from the egg before maturation because he wishes to dominate the creation. In so doing he carries a part of the egg with him, and from this he creates an imperfect world. The creator deity, seeing what he has done, sacrifices the other twin to establish a balance in the world. The creation is sustained by this sacrifice, and it is now ambiguous, instead of the perfect world intended by the god.
This myth not only shows how a rupture takes place within the myth itself but also points out the fact that the characteristics of the supreme creator deity noted above seldom exist apart from other mythological contexts. The widespread symbols of dualism (the divine twins), the cosmic egg, and sacrifice are basic themes in the structure of this African creation myth. In myths of this kind, however, prominence must always be given to the might of a powerful creator sky deity under whose aegis the created order comes into being.
Creation through emergence
In contrast to the creation by a supreme sky deity, there is another type of creation myth in which the creation seems to emerge through its own inner power from under the earth. In this genre of myth, the created order emerges gradually in continuous stages. It is similar to a birth or metamorphosis of the world from its embryonic state to maturity. The symbolism of the earth or a part of the earth as a repository of all potential form is prominent in this type of myth. In some myths of this type (e.g., the Navajo myth of emergence), the movement from a lower stage to a higher one is initiated by some fault of the people who live under the earth, but these faults are only the parallels of an automatic upper movement in the earth itself.
Just as the supreme-creator-deity myth forms a homology to the sky, the emergence myth forms a homology to the earth and to the childbearing woman. In many cases the emergence of the created order is analogous to the growth of a child in the womb and its emission at birth. This symbolism is made clear in a Zuni myth that states,
Anon is the nethermost world, the seed of men and creatures took form and increased; even as in eggs in warm places speedily appear . . . Everywhere were unfinished creatures, crawling like reptiles one over another, one spitting on another or doing other indecencies . . . until many among them escaped, growing wiser and more manlike.
The underworlds prior to the created order appear chaotic; the beings inhabiting these places seem without form or stability, or they commit immoral acts. The seeming chaos is moving toward a definite form of order, however, an order latent in the very forms themselves rather than from an imposition of order from the outside.
From another perspective the emergence myth is homologous to the seed. When the homologue of the seed is referred to, the meaning of fertility and death are at once introduced. The seed must die before it can be reborn and actualize its potentiality. This symbolism is dramatically presented in a wide range of funerary rites: one is buried in the earth in hope of a renewal from the earth, or the earth is the repository of the ancestors from whom the new generation emerges. In every case, emergence myths demonstrate the latent potency immanent in the earth as a repository of all life forms.