MYTHS  OF  CREATION

   1.   In the Beginning was
​              the Spoken Word

         

1.   In the Beginning was the Spoken Word

In the beginning was the spoken word. The material archaeological record strongly suggests that our ancestors lived for tens of thousands of years with spoken language, and thus with tales about the past, but without any real lasting means of writing them down. 

These same bodies of evidence similarly suggest that all successful human cultural groups told stories about the past. Deeds of gods, ancestors, heroes,  or animals sacred to particular peoples were chiseled, painted, danced and chanted -- and above all memorized -- long before there was any system of writing to record them with. The “truth” of these stories was authenticated by their continued repetition by the ever-growing number of participants in early myth-making communities.

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