The Emergence of Land

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."

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."

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." 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.

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." 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.

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. 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."

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."

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. 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."

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. (metareligion.com)