MYTHS OF CREATION
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19. From Cosmogonic Myth To Cultural History
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Regardless of the idiosyncratic peculiarities that distinguished each cultural account from the others, all mythopoeic peoples accepted their traditional cosmogonic lore as being factually, historically true — and countless other etiological myths and legends concerning the origins or causes of many other features and properties of the world at large were likewise directly related to their core cosmovisions or came to be derived from them.
In each case, their Myths of Creation explained not only the cosmic changes brought about during prehistoric primordial times — they also accounted for the historical process thro which the world’s present state of affairs eventually came into being. As a matter of course, these cosmogonies tended to be central to the very identity of these peoples — setting the pattern around which most (if not all) of their communities’ cultural institutions were oriented and arranged — and serving as the basis for the foundation of the annual and seasonal ritual activities so pivotal to the general way of life in every myth-making Bronze Age society. |