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Comparing The Creation Stories Of The Mayans, Inuits, And Colonial Americans

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Module One Post-Assessment. The creation stories of the Mayans, Inuits, and Colonial Americans, are far more than simple writings. They reflect both the struggles and joys of certain people, their respective values, and their common quest to understand the world around them. The deities which are found in the writings of the aforementioned groups, apart from being a crucial element in them, are also emblematic of their respective values, customs, or way of life. For example, the Raven deity’s ability to transform itself into a man in the Inuit Creation Story could demonstrate a close connection between nature and man in Inuit culture. This also seems to be the case in the Mayan Creation Story, where the main deities (Tepeu and Gucumatz) are in communication with the animals they have created, to the extent that they are influenced …show more content…

For example, by observing the animal-like nature of the Inuit and Mayan gods, we can safely come to the conclusion that animals must have been a valued element in their cultures. If we closely observe the traits and roles of the various deities we have considered, we can derive that the Inuits, as well as the Mayans and Puritans, regarded their respective deities as immanent, or having an active role and interest in the affairs of mankind. The journal Of Plymouth Plantation, which regards the voyage of a group of separatist Puritans and their subsequent settling in the New England area of Colonial North America, well supports this claim. For example, after successfully traversing the Atlantic to reach colonial America, its author William Bradford wrote that it was “the God of Heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean" and delivered them safely to the harbor. Though we have not analyzed documents of the

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