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Iroquois Creation Story Analysis

1400 Words6 Pages

Tianhao Li
ENG 100
Professor Light
4/7/2015
Creation Story
Introduction
Creation stories are defined as supernatural explanations that describe the beginnings of the universe, life, earth, and humanity. According to biblical definition it was God’s acts that lead to the creation of the universe and everything that exists within it. Stories about creation are very important to a culture because they tell people more about whom they are by telling them how they came into existence. Creation stories often give members of a community a sense of faith, how the world came into existence and offer religious information that can be relied on by the entire community.
Summary of the Creation Stories
The Iroquois story
The Iroquois creation story talks …show more content…

In the Iroquois story, a woman is the creator while in the Book of Genesis God is described as a man. In the Iroquois community women are perceived as the source of sustenance and life, and the mother to men who have contributed to shaping the physical world. The Iroquois give credit to the woman for creating the world because women are perceived as givers of life and the people who sustain a man’s existence. Among the Native American tribes the earth is described to as a woman because women are viewed as producers of life; therefore it is not unnatural for the community to view a woman as a creator. Compared to the Iroquois creation story, in the Biblical creation story there is a belief that God created the world. Bible describes God as a …show more content…

The main purpose of these accounts of creation is to share community beliefs and to strengthen their faith in their community beliefs. Despite their differences both creation stories are true to the communities that believe in them and understanding the different belief systems is essential in respecting and appreciating an individual’s belief. In both creation stories there is a belief in the sky world or heaven, which is described as a pleasant place, occupied by different spiritual beings that are special but are not defined to as divine. Both accounts of creation believe in a Great Spirit or God and in the existence of evil. Creation stories are conveying societal opinions and ideas of creation, neither account is better than the other one but it is true to the people who believe in them. Despite the fact that the Iroquois creation story has been described as a myth and there are evident differences in both creation stories, these two stories share similar ideas, which are founded in the faith of the people who believe in

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