In the beginning, long time ago...

            There are many different views, beliefs and stories that one has come about in some way or another in a lifetime.  The three creation stories from the Reader (“Remaking the World”, “The Origins of Ottawa Society Recalled by Nicholas Perrot” and “The Indians of New Netherlands Account for the Creation”) all show different perspectives on how the world and mankind came about or were created. With the differences of the three stories, comes one central similar fact; all stories were trying to answer questions that science could not.  Each story goes about telling a different way that creation of the world and mankind came about.  All three stories have similarities and differences due to the time, region and European impression.       

             The difference in time plays a major role in the altered views of stories.  One cannot help but think the 285-year different has some effect on the stories variations.  A lot can happen in about three hundred years.  Development in technology and scientific outbreaks come about over time.  Once can the difference between “The Indians of New Netherlands Account for the Creation” and “Remaking the World: A Sioux Story”.  “The Indians of New…” is a little less complex than “Remaking the World…”  “The Indians of New…” discusses water existed before the earth was created.  A goddess arose from the water and land appeared under her, where she had been sitting.  “ But immediately at the place where she descended some land appeared under her, whereon she remained sitting.  This land increased…” (“The Indians of New Netherlands…”).  When comparing this idea to that of “Remaking the World…” the idea seems simplistic.  In “Remaking the World…” the creating power (which is not known to be male or female) creates and destroys and recreates the world.  “The first world I made was bad…so I burned it up. The second world I made was bad too, so I drowned it. This the third world I have made.” (“Remaking the World.”).  This story discusses taking all kind of animals and scattering them.  There seems to be an adaptation (from the Christianity point of view) of Adam and Eve to Noah and the Flood.  Seeing how England was dominantly Christian at the time, it appears that they did have some influence over the native’s beliefs.

The differences in agricultural placement in the North America Region play a foundation in the difference explanations in the three stories. Although Indians in the Northern region wrote all three stories, there is still a significant difference between New York and South Dakota.  All of these factors play a vital role in the basis of the difference in the three stories. 

            The major and most obvious change over time in the stories is the role of the woman in the society.  In the earlier story women are seen as Goddess and respected providers, “God loves her supremely above all things.”(“The Indians of New Netherlands Account for the Creation”).  “In The Origins of Ottawa Society Recalled by Nicholas Perrot”, women were degenerated from the story before.  They were of a lesser position than the man was.  And finally in the final story woman were hardly even spoken of.  As for the text there is not much discussion on women.  What is spoken of them is only household and how they fed the family.  Also in the final story the vocabulary was more technology advanced in speaking of guns and such.  This was not the case in the other previous stories.  There were also biblical references in the final story, and not in the previous.  The use of biblical references shows maturity and vast improvement in society, which could not have been found in the other stories.  In the previous two stories, animals seem to play a much superior role then that of which they did in the final story.  It is truly amazing how the difference in time and environment changes the view of creation.

Comments

[Sean Banks]

Nice blog, I dig the whole foresty nature feel. Your post is good too, you've got some solid ideas and back them up with a lot of evidence. Your third paragraph also doesn't seem as......meaty as the others. I think he's got an eating disorder. You might want to fix them with another quote out of the text, or maybe another sentence repeating what you said somewhere else in the log. Those both tend to work really well for starving paragraphs. Also that change in font size at the end scared me. I was reading the blog, and then I scrolled down and jumped out of my seat because the letters were so big. And my last tidbit of peer enlightment is to make sure you number your posts. I want you to have a good grade here Kyle, since that way you won't be yelling at me because you got a bad one. Spiffness............

[Colleen]

I enjoyed reading your post. The title was very creative. Having a creative title, rather than a boring one, will entice readers. Don’t forget to number your posts, like Sean said. Numbering your posts will make it easier for you to go back and find the exact post that you want to review. Being organized is always helpful. Also I felt that your thesis was not very strong. Maybe you could have added something about the role of women as part of your thesis. Also, pictures are always fun to add to a post. They help make the text not look so bland. Other than those few suggestions, your post was great. You gave really good supportive details, especially in the second paragraph, and used direct quotes from the stories, which is always good. I can tell you are working hard and I know you will improve with each post you write.

[Benjamin Lewis]

Very good blog, I enjoyed reading it. As the other two said, you need to add a post number and some pictures. I liked how you used the quotes directly from the text. Only thing else I might add is maybe saying what the animals did in the thrid story, how they went down in the water to find the earth. This shows the domestication of animals which was a European thing. Great blog, it was hard to find any mistakes.