The world on the turtle's back and Genesis

Homework of the TWTB and Genesis 

The Iroquois and the Christians both have creation myths that show how they think the world came to be. There is "The World on a Turtle's Back" (TWTB) for the Iroquois and Genesis for the Christians. These two myths have different interpretations on similar aspects such as the creation of the earth, the human kind, and all the animals.

It's amazing to see the way different cultures and religions believe our world came to being, "TWTB" and "The Genesis" are great representations of a couple of these beliefs. Even though these stories come from different parts of the world they have more similarities than you would think, such as the duality between good and evil, the sacred tree, and the women being the ones that violate the rules.

An Example of the duality between good and evil in "TWTB" are the twins the Sky Woman's daughter gives birth to. The right handed twin is the good one, he never lies. The Left handed twin however is the evil one, he always lies. In "The Genesis" there are the children of Adam and Eve which are good and evil also. Cain is jealous of Abel because God favors Abel which evokes Cain to kill. This duality shows that good and evil is needed to balance our world out. Another significant similarity between "TWTB" and "The Genesis" are the sacred trees. In "TWTB" it is known as The Great Tree. Nobody in the Sky-World is allowed to touch the tree but when the woman is pregnant and wants to eat the bark of this tree her husband doesn't get it for her so she decides to get it herself and that is when she falls from grace and her hardships begin. In "The Genesis" it is a very similar situation. The sacred tree in the Garden of Eden is named The Tree of The Knowledge of good and evil, nobody is allowed to touch or eat from this tree either, but Eve is convinced by a serpent to pick a fruit from the tree because she is told that it will give her knowledge, and make her immortal like the gods. When she eats this fruit from the forbidden tree she is punished by God. The women in both of these stories are very much alike also. They both go against the orders that have been given to them. In "TWTB" the woman is the one that touches the great tree and gets punished. We also read that in "The Genesis" the woman, Eve, is the betrayer to. Perhaps this is done on purpose because the authors are trying to show us that women are the beings that bring us to this planet which makes us go through pain and suffering just like they did, which shows that both stories might be trying to get the same message that thanks to the woman's we had a world,

The differences are, There were many gods, unlike “Genesis” where there was only one god. The Iroquois believed that there was already an earth, and the women made the land. Also Evil was welcomed and wanted in this myth, a huge difference when compared to “Genesis.” Evil was good, and helped keep a balance of nature. Another one is that in "TWTB" it already exist the ocean when the woman felt down, meanwhile in "Genesis" at the beginning their was only the darkness.

In the "TWTB" the vegetation was created by the dead body of the mother of the twins, and all the animals where created from the right handed and left handed twins, and in "Genesis" it said that all was created by God.

In Conclusion, these stories are very alike which can make us think about how this is possible when both stories came from different parts of the world where the authors had no contact with each other. For all one knows, something about these creation myths might be true after all.