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Nov 23, 2015 · Creation myths, or origin stories, tell us what a culture believes about how humans came to be. They can also tell us much about what that culture values. These are often religious or spiritual explanations for human life.
Dec 5, 2017 · The researchers, led by anthropologist Daniel Smith of University College London, began their work by conducting a literature search of 89 different stories told by seven different forager ...
- Overview
- Origin Stories Introduction
All humans yearn to know where we came from and how our world began. We may have different stories, but they all serve a similar purpose.
By Cynthia Stokes Brown
All humans yearn to know where we came from and how our world began. We may have different stories, but they all serve a similar purpose.
Everywhere around the world people tell stories about how the Universe began and how humans came into being. Scholars, namely anthropologists and ethnologists, call these tales “creation myths” or “origin stories.” In comic-book lingo there is a specialized meaning for “origin stories.” They are accounts that relate how superheroes got their superpowers.
Some origin stories are based on real people and events, while others are based on more imaginative accounts. Origin stories can contain powerful, emotional symbols that convey profound truths, but not necessarily in a literal sense. In the United States, many people tell stories about Santa Claus. But everyone, except young children, knows that he is a symbol of love and generosity, not a person who actually exists. Many cultures tell stories that seem strange to outsiders but have deep meaning to group members.
When people in a culture become literate, they write down their origin stories. But the stories frequently go back way before written records, to when people told them aloud. This is called an “oral tradition.” Multiple versions of each story often exist, since people — from group to group and generation to generation — may change them slightly as they retell them. I have chosen to summarize, in writing, five origin stories from a wide number of places and eras — feel free to tell them aloud to each other.
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Cultures around the world have their own origin stories, ways in which they believe and describe how the Universe came to be. It’s important that you understand that all origin stories should be respected, as they often relate to people’s cultures and beliefs.
3 days ago · This evidence for a pan-African origin of H. sapiens is coalescing into a fascinating story that forces us to rethink what it means to be human. CONTENDERS FOR THE “CRADLE OF HUMANKIND”
Sep 6, 2016 · A broad range of themes and angles were raised at Christie Café, at the University Museum of Bergen, on 6 June, when this year’s Masterclass discussed stories of human origin: Why have humans needed to construct accounts of our earliest beginnings; what is at stake in different versions, and what can they tell us about Man’s understanding ...
By Cynthia Stokes Brown. From vast nothingness to a Universe of stars and galaxies and our own Earth. This version of modern science’s origin story is condensed and interpreted from a great body of historical and scientific information. In the beginning, as far as we know, there was nothing.
