B”H
Most of you can’t get on InSite yet, so I am posting this discussion board to my blog.
How do you think Origin Stories affect a culture? Please use at least two examples from the reading to back up what you say.
Please answer in a comment to this post that is at least 100 words long. Make sure you include your name so I can give you credit.
Jasmine J
Origin stories affect culture because it’s the way they believe the world was madee. Every culture has some kind of myth about the way it was started. For example with India it uses characteristics from the religion Hinduism. In India they believe a man sacrificed by the gods was the act of creation. The sky was his head, the earth was his feet, and his eyes were the sun and the moon. In India this is what they really believed in and this is what affected there culture and how they lived. Another example would be China. The P’an Ku was hatched from a egg. Half the shell was the sky and the other half was earth. He grows taller each day. Aftter he’s done growing his limbs are mountains, his blood is the river, and his eyes are the sun and moon. These stories affect what people believe about their culture and it’s something that can be passed down in generation.
Origin Stories affect culture because the culture is based off of the story. An origin story will describe the origin from where the culture began, and the story has a lot of influence on the people of the culture, thus shaping the way they live and what they believe in. Origin stories aid in describing why that specific culture is the way it is. For example, in the creation story of the Anansi, it begins with a God, the Sky God to be specific, the Anansi people worship the God. The story goes on to talk about a spider, the spider still today is viewed as a popular character in African tales. The story talks a lot of the land and the creatures within it, and in Africa they are very much connected to their land and the animals that reside there. The Anansi culture was affected in a way that the Anansi are still connected to mother nature, also, because the spider thrived and triumphed in the origin tale, stories still to this very day are referred to as “spider stories” if told in Africa, the spider remains a popular character. In the story of the Egyptians, it talks of many different gods and goddesses, and the Egyptians believed in several gods and goddesses. The story goes onto explain how each god or goddess was needed for a specific task, and in the Egyptian culture, many still believed that they needed to call onto specific gods to carry out specific tasks. It affected their culture to where the idea of many gods stuck with them.
In the Creation Stories article, the ancient Greeks at one time depended on and feared the forces of nature. The complex and conflicted relationship between men and gods reflected in their mythology, is related to the geography from which there ancient culture arose. The earth and the sky were major parts of thier culture and geography. It states that Gaea erupted from the earth in complete chaos and gave birth to Uranus the sky, and together they populated the world together. The belief that the gods determined the nature of the world seems like a natural evolution of cultural realization.
brianamoreaux
Origin stories are a part of a culture. This is a way that origin stories affect a culture. Origin stories are a part of the culture’s history telling how the whole culture evolved. The story of Anansi originated in West Africa. Within the story, a spider attempts to be the owner of all the stories in the world. So because he is so small, he uses his brain to trap a snake, a tiger and a bunch of hornets to get what he wants. This story affects the West African culture due to the fact that it is such a popular folk tale.
Within the creation stories, cultures such as Asia, Japan, Greece, Hebrew, India, Egypt, and others are told how their culture came to be created. In India for example, their world was suppossedly created through a man’s body that eventually created the entire Earth. Therefore, these origin stories affect cultures by revealing how these cultures came to be created.
How can origin stories affect a culture? Every culture around the world has different beliefs. Origin stories coincide with whatever it is that you believe in because they can either tell stories about how the world was made, or outline specific morals or values one’s society should have. For example, attributes of the Ancient Egyptian Origin Story alludes back to the Holy Bible which holds Christian beliefs. For instance Atum, the first god alludes back to the Christian God. His Children, Seth and Tefnut allude back to Adam and Eve, who also had children ( Nut and Geb) – which allude back to Cain and Able. The last allusion I picked up on was the one about Osiris and how he was killed by Seth and was sent to the underworld, which reminded me of how the Christian God kicked Lucifer out of heaven and sent him to hell. With that being said, origin stories can affect a culture in a lot of ways, like showing a society how to live and who to worship. I believe that some origin stories which are originally orally told have now become ‘practices’ for people and cultures all over the world.
Many Origin Stories are what have started different cultures. Origin Stories can affect a culture because these particular sets of stories are what people of certain cultures have been listening to and reading since their existence. Hence the word “origin” meaning the place where something begins, where it springs into being. In relation to the Origin Story of Mesopotamia, the Mesopotamians believe in a story that has been dated back to 1500 BCE. In which this story begins with Apsu and Tiamat, watery obstreperous creatures. By the end of this particular Origin Story, Tiamat wants control but was slaughtered by Marduk, the god of Babylon, in battle. Marduk then took Tiamat’s corpse and split it in two, thus creating heaven and earth, and so on and so forth. As for the Origin Story of India, they keep the same concepts of Hinduism – yet there have been three stories that involve the concepts of dismembered giants and magical eggs to the simple doubts of the stories.
Even with the major differences in all of the Origin Stories, many of the basic structures of the stories have remained within these cultures.
Each culture has its own version of how the world came to be.These stories help outsiders of the culture understand what is important to them. Most cultures with involve things most important to them in their stories.Whether it be a god or a spider like in the story of Anasi, the things that are most important to that culture are intertwined in their creation story.However, as different as the cultures are, I find it interesting that most of them can be linked together in that they have a way that their prominent god created or created people that made up the heaven and the earth. In Mesopotamia it was the dead body of Tiamat that created the heaven and earth. In India the gods took a sacrificial body and made its head the sky and the feet the earth. In China it was P’an Ku who was hatched from an egg. The top shell was the heaven and the bottom shell was earth. The different creation stories define the culture and tell what is important to them.
Overtime, origin stories are passed down from generation to generation and become accepted as the truth. Considering the fact that culture does consist of societies religious and social beliefs, these origin stories definitely affect culture. People tend to live what they learn. After being told several times as a child how things were created and what approaches were taken to get a certain outcome, you become familiar with it. For example, there is an indian story about god Brahma, who split the golden egg in half and that is how heaven and earth came about. Many Indians base their faith off of us that story. Another example would be the African story of Anansi. The story tells of how an evil spider manipulated others so he could be the owner of all the stories. This story explains why spiders are considered sneaky and sly. Some origin stories may seem far fetched but they all give some type of explanation, which is something everyone wants. I believe that the origin stories also give people a sense of hope and wisdom within their culture.
Origin Stories affect culture because most culture comes from and are based off origin stories, most people believe and live by the origin stories, we believe in them that’s why the affect our culture so much, Christians believe in the bible story where we think that god created Adam and eve the first man and women the world. Who shows an act of disobedience. So Christians believe that Adam and eve was the beginning and that we have such things as disease, guilt, violence, sexual shame, and even death because of that.so the Christian culture live their lives by not trying to an disobedience act against god. An origin story has a huge affect on culture, china believes in of P’an Ku. Who is hatched from a cosmic egg, where they believe mankind is parasites from P’an ku and the entire world is created from pieces from him. These stories have alot of influence on people and these stories are passed down to different generations and our cultures which come from the origin stories are passed down also.
Origin stories affect a culture because it molds what the people of that particular community thinks. Many people rely on Origin Stories to know what is right from wrong based on their ancestry and also how the world was created. An example would be to analyze the gods and goddesses in Egypt. Based from origin stories people believed that it is very important to worship each and every god/goddess in order for life to continue smoothly. Another example of how origin stories affect at a culture is to analyze the China creation story. Based upon the belief of how the earth was made is completely different from Egypt, which then affects how each culture views things. China culture believes that the earth began with a splitting of an egg and a giant man, named P’an Ku, whose body parts formed the earth. According to Egypt, the earth started with a man named Nun that helped developed the gods/goddesses that they worship. Both are very significant to each culture and helped mold their views and beliefs.
No matter the background, every child is told stories about their culture. An elder normally tells the child why the family does things a certain way. The elder may share stories about certain people in the family who are of significance, or perhaps the elder introduces the child to the god in which they live to please each day. As years go on, the child that was told these stories, will grow to have offspring of their own. These stories eventually get passed down generation to generation. This is what origin stories are all about. They are told based on the perspective of people that lived early on. Origin stories effect culture because they give the listeners of the stories ammunition to go out in the world and carry out a family legacy that has been passed to them. Origin stories also effect culture because they pave the way for how the next generation should behave. All in all, these stories are very important to culture. Though no one knows what stories are correct, and which stories aren’t, the stories give people hope and stablity. These stories also give people somewhat of a guideline as to how their life should be. Without origin stories, I think people would be clueless as to who they are as a person, but more importantly, what their goal is in life.
The Orgin Stories reflect culture because they basically create reasons for why stuff came into existence through stories. One in particular that I liked was The Chinese Creation Stories. I felt that the Chinese Creation Stories were both entertaining. I liked how the first story used vivid details that painted a picture in my mind of what was happening in the story. In the story it states, “After another 18 thousand years, the sky was higher, the earth thicker, and P’an Ku stood between them like a pillar 9 million li in height so that they would never join again.” It made me actually picture how far the sky is from earth, making the story further interesting to read. The story also did an excellent job of using parts of speech. For example, the author used the metaphor, “His veins became far stretching roads and his muscles fertile land.” The author did a great job of comparing body parts to the acts of nature. In the second part of the Chinese Story, I also liked how liked the use of situational irony because the reader already knew that the dog was planning to kill King Fang, but King Fang thought that the dog was just abandoning King Gao Xin. Overall both stories grasped my attention and made me want to continue to read more of it.
Origin stories affect a culture because that is what makes the culture unique and different. In my opinion i believe orgin stories were first created as some type of record or recording of events that actually occured in the past. Dont get me wrong some stories just sound outlandish and absurd. For example in the text i read that in one culture a crab jumped into the ocean brought up a piece of the earth and from that piece of earth the first man was created. Also the story of the god who spawned two children through masturbation, following the birth of the two children (who were giants like the god) they birthed children who were smaller. Who in return birthed children smaller, this cycle continued until man our size today were created. Now this is strictly my opinion and i am not trying to knock or disrespect anyone’s cultural background cause honestly these origin stories promote personal growth and set the foundation of beliefs and thought process. This was an interesting assignment, you actually got to experience and walk into another cultures shoes.
Keierica Howard
Origin stories effect culture tremendously. It decides what kind of lifestyle people live. In the Bible Story God created Adam and Eve. They were disobedient and introduced to the real world and all the evil in it like violence, sexual shame, good and evil, etc. Now Christians today live to obey God so life is not as hard as it would be if they disobeyed him. Another example is India as their religion is Hinduism. They believe a man sacrificed by the gods was the act of creation. The sky was his head, the earth was his feet, and his eyes were the sun and the moon. This is what they believe there. It is a big influence on their culture and how they live.
Origin stories effect culture more than people realize. They are the background to all cultures and religions as a matter of fact. They are the guidelines to the mind state, mentality, and way of living for all people. They are also the reason why people cherish certain things about nature more than others. For instance, in the Bible, it is believed that if you do right on Earth you will go to heaven. Christians as well as others try to live their lives carefully following the bible so that they get that reward. What a person believes is extremely important. Some Origin stories teach that the heavens and earth were derived from dismembered parts of people’s bodies. Not everyone will believe stories such as those but thats not what matters. What matters is what that culture believes. Everyone has their own story just as well as everyone has their own culture and although most are different, in some way they are linked.