“Iroquois Creation Story” by David Cusick Literature Analysis Essay

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Updated: Jan 3rd, 2024

The way the various writers talk about their creation stories in comparison to the one in the Bible shows the different people have their values to protect in their communities and that the world cultures are similar in some way.

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The Iroquois creation story talks about the life that certain cultures believe in, the way the writer narrates the creation story shows how the “world” look at the way God created the world with varied perspectives (Cul 22). However, the way this story is narrated in comparison with the Christianity creation story is an indication that different person and cultures of the world have their own beliefs in the way the Christianity story is presented.

These stories moreover show that the forefathers have always believed in them and it is our responsibility too to trust in them and our duty to “take care of the universe” (Cusick 34). Creation stories can be characterized by several “extraordinary” things that make them similar to the ones in the Bible (Cul 18).

The Iroquois vs. Christian Creation Story

The interpretation of the “Iroquois Creation Story” by David Cusick has a variety of similarities with the common Christian version regarding the creation of the world ( Cusick 18). Nevertheless, there existed the common differences between the two creation stories but it is still unknown whether Cusick intended to use them in his creation story.

Other writers suggest that the existence of the similarities between the two creation stories shows that Cusick had an “ideology” in mind that acted as a motivation of putting his translation in such a manner (Cusick 35). However, from a critical point of view the writer of the Iroquois creation story wanted to show how their cultures had started to exist.

Research shows that Cusick has been criticized for putting other Christian values into his creation story but it is not clear whether this was intentional or not. Cusick continues to assert that despite the various criticisms to Cusick’s works the fact remains that his story has similarities to the Christian myth ( Cusick 34).

Duality is one of the most common characteristics among the various religious myths. This is present in both the Iroquois version of creation and the Biblical context. The idea deals with the powers of the light against the powers of darkness. However, the Iroquois story describes things in “thusly” manner (David 30).

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This describes the world as in the beginning there existed two worlds, the lower world had great darkness while the upper world had humanity in it. In contrast to this, the Biblical story describes the world as having heavens and the earth created by God.

Duality issue can be interpreted as the present practices in society where racial prejudice has been a problem. More so, the white and the black races are seen in the way the writer talks about “duality” (Cul 18). However, the issue of a human being made by God being given authority over nature is not that common in the two creation stories.

The language used in the two creation stories is however similar and this cannot be taken as being “coincidental” (Cusick 23). To make this clear, taking the description of when man was created in the King James Version of the Bible, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (cul 18).

However, it might be said that Cusick might have decided to use the Christian creation Version intentionally in coming up with his creation story; it might not have been possible without the consent of plagiarism.

In comparison to the Biblical story of creation, it is written in the Iroquois context that, God formed two images of the dust of the ground in his own likeness, male and female, and by his breathing into their nostrils he gave them the living souls (Cusick 22). The critics who might argue that Cusick sought to use the Biblical context intentionally then the question should be why he must have decided to do it that way. This question becomes further complicated when the Iroquois story is taken as a creation myth (Cul 31).

In the world today, the various races of the world believe that they are superior to the other and are full of self interest. They dislike color and do not mix freely with the others. This shows the reason behind the Iroquois creation story based on the white race.

This is shown by how the two creation stories are different when talking about darkness and light. Darkness and light are a reflection of the white and the other races present in the world. The way the darkness issue is presented in the Iroquois creation story is how the two races treat each other unlike what is proposed in the Bible story.

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Similarities exist in the Christian context and the Iroquois creation stories in the way they explain about the existence of evil. The Christian story of creation talk about Satan being the controller of the “underworld” and this was because of disobedience to God (Cul 20).

However, research shows that there are various interpretations regarding the powers of Satan. Christians however attribute Satan’s powers to those of evil beings while other Christians insist on being taken to hell only to have powers over the dead souls. The Iroquois creation story places Satan’s powers of evil to rule just one evil and that is then dead soul.

The connection to the Christian story that this would only imply having powers just like God in the “Good Mind” is an important similarity to the Christian myth (Maloney 65). While the bad minds are made to undermine the role of good creation by coming up with evil and obstacles in the world, but they are not successful in whichever way.

This is in line with the ideology in the world that every evil exists in a necessary manner. However, both the Christian stories and the Iroquois stories do not give a full explanation of free will ought to include having the chance of doing good or bad otherwise the given being not fully free. Nevertheless, there must be a result of doing bad.

However, the Bible is clear that the results of worshipping Satan is being taken to hell where all those who do sins are taken for punishment leaving the world free. This shows that even in the present societies those who do not do according to the culture are punished for their bad deeds. However, in the Iroquois story, evil is being controlled by the bad mind that can be compared to the “power of the good mind” (Cul 18).

This can be expounded that only those who do good in the world shall only be rewarded by the Good Mind and those who do against the will of the most powerful-God shall be rewarded by being punished by the Bad Mind. This implies that the Iroquois story has some similarity in the Christian story of creation. The inclusion of such stories in the Iroquois context was only to “heighten” the Christian context of creation (Maloney 67).

However, critics might again argue about why the writer would opt to do so. Several research shows that the Iroquois creation story was intended to place this idea of Good Mind and Bad Mind in line with the Western cultures by coming up with a stronger way to match their myths of origin.

This implies that religion existed in the early days and it was important to the Western culture and therefore the Iroquois creation story believed that the only way to reduce the “savagery” of their tribe was to make their own creation story to be similar to that of the Christian creation myth (Maloney 57).

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Research indicates that Cusick might have been attracted by the Christian creation stories in the attempt to come up with the Iroquois story of creation that share similarities to the Biblical creation stories. Such similarities have made us believe that the correlation of the Christian creation story and the Iroquois ideologies are meant to stress on the reality that in life there does not exist any “wholly” unique creation myth that might share elements with any other creation myth (Maloney 65).

Conclusion

The Iroquois creation story gives an account of the good and the evil deeds that are common in the world today. The creation myths presented in most of the creation stories emulate the Biblical creation stories and are important in the everyday culture of the various communities in the world. The Iroquois creation stories show what the world people understand regarding their origin and the various incidences that happen in their communities as seen in the Iroquois creation story (Maloney 67)

Most of the creation stories have a vital role to play in the society for the people who believe in them. Therefore, these creation stories that exist in our cultures can be interpreted as to what people believe to be “scientific” source of knowledge (Cul 23). This is true since with even the advancement in technology, most cultures till believe in their creation stories.

Works Cited

Cul, Moks. The Book of Genesis: King James Version, NY: Rutledge, 1998. Print

Cusick, David. The Iroquois Creation, California: Sage Publications, 1996. Print

Maloney, Suzanne. Iroquois Creation Story vs. Christianity, New York: Brookings Institution Press, 2011.Print

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