A Polynesian Creation Myth

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Morgan Dolan 9/23/13 “A Polynesian Creation Myth” There are many versions of “A Polynesian Creation Myth” due to the fact that many people were migrating from one island to another at around the same time (Sources, 69). The societies were, however, fairly connected because of the trading of goods and the general migration of people (Patterns, 112). “Yet these myths are never finished; each island had their own versions of them, and as people migrated between islands, and continued to trade with one another, the versions were shared, passed back and forth, altered in subtle ways by time and experience” (Sources, 69). There were not many cities in Oceania, which meant that there was a lack of written evidence. This lack of written evidence in Oceanic culture is much like that of the civilizations in Chapter 2 of Patterns. In Mexico, a large stone was discovered in 2006 that is thought to have Olmec writing on it. However, it is extremely hard to decipher. It was easier for myths to be transmitted verbally (Patterns, 128). Likewise, in Chapter 2, stones and clay tablets were also used in the Middle East since the late Paleolithic. Even though they are hard to read and “historians are still researching and arguing” about its specifics, it is clear that in both societies writing was beginning to emerge and was used as another way of communicating (Patterns, 38). “The god of hurricanes and storms dreads also that the world should become too fair and beautiful… He next sends forth fierce squalls, whirlwinds, dense clouds, massy clouds, dark clouds, gloomy and thick clouds, fiery clouds which produce hurricanes, clouds of fiery black, clouds reflecting glowing red light, clouds wildly drifting from all quarters and wildly bursting, clouds of thunder storms, and clouds hurriedly flying in the midst of these Tawhri-ma-tea himself sweeps widely on” (Sources, 70). The
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