Creation Myths: English Essay need help urgently!?

Question

I have an English essay due tomorrow which I still haven't started and I'm completely stuck. Does anyone have any ideas??
Heres the question:
In your opinion, based on the evidence in three selected creation myths, which aspects of mythological explanation are common to all people and which reflect human adaptations to particular environments?

Does anyone get what its asking? or have any good ideas/sites/information that could help me get this stupid thing started and finished?

It also asks for two additional sources of information eg archaeological findings, historical documents, works of art etc.. to use as evidence as well.

Answer 1

Go to Encyclopedia Mythica: http://www.pantheon.org/
and type in creation myths in the search box--here is that direct link http://www.pantheon.org/articles/c/creation_myths.html

This will provide you with valuable information. I think your assignment is asking you to pick three creation myths (from different cultures) and compare them. (Compare means to find the similarities). A good way to do that is to read them and then make a list of things that are similar--

Good luck.

Answer 2

For scientific articles about the origins of the Earth, the Universe, and Life see: formation and evolution of the solar system, Big Bang, and Origin of life respectively.

An origin belief, or creation myth, is a supernatural story or explanation that describes the beginnings of humanity, earth, life, and the universe (cosmogony). [1]
Bill Reid's sculpture The Raven and The First Men, showing part of a Haida creation story. The Raven represents the Trickster figure common to many mythologies. The work is in the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver.
Bill Reid's sculpture The Raven and The First Men, showing part of a Haida creation story. The Raven represents the Trickster figure common to many mythologies. The work is in the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver.

Origin beliefs are mytho-religious stories which typically explain the beginnings of the universe as a deliberate act of "creation" by a supreme being.

The term creation myth is sometimes used in a derogatory way to describe stories which are still believed today, as the term myth may suggest something which is absurd or fictional. While these beliefs and stories need not be a literal account of actual events, they may yet express ideas that are perceived by some people and cultures to be truths at a deeper or more symbolic level. Author Daniel Quinn notes that in this sense creation myths need not be religious in nature, and they have secular analogues in modern cultures.

Many accounts of creation share broadly similar themes. Common motifs include the fractionation of the things of the world from a primordial chaos (demiurge); the separation of the mother and father gods; land emerging from an infinite and timeless ocean; or creation ex nihilo (Latin: out of nothing).

Some religious groups assert that their accounts of creation should be considered alongside, supersede, or even replace scientific accounts of the development of life and the cosmos. This assertion has proven highly controversial (for one example, see creation-evolution controversy).



This site has pix as well.
Heaps of info.
BB

Answer 3

I have told a few select other people this secret, but here is what i did whenever i forgot my essay and it was due the next day. Start writing about whatever your topic is, make good topic sentence and opening paragraph. Then for the details to fill up space and actually make the writing somewhat fun(here is the secret) write about Ninjas!!! I am so serious! you can write more about ninjas then you think, the thing is, most teachers will have so much to read that they read maybe the first and last paragraphs of each essay. So do those good, the middle I would just get very creative, and if they would read the whole thing, and mark it bad, i would go ask them and tell them something like "But you told us to go Above and Beyond what was given! thats what i did" I am not joking when i tell you this, the lowest grade i have gotten from doing this is an A-.

Answer 4

Were I to begin, I would look into the Aborigines of Australia, The Inuit of the arctic, and the Bible of Christianity. Google should give you enough info to pick up commonalities and contrasts easily as the environments are very different.

Answer 5

{Assuming this is genuine.} I'd take a Social Scientist POV.

Google Indigenous Creation myths. You'll have Anthropological evidence. (Australian "Rainbow Serpent" etc)

Recognise _WHERE_ the Bible's Myth was indigenous. AND recognise _WHERE_ the Evolution Theory was indigenous too.

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Answer 6

And again:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AvxgbYsKEn4sbsrtp3bFNVPty6IX?qid=20070824044632AAQoM4c&show=7#profile-info-vFhn0QuTaa

Answer 7

Spam, spam, spam, everybody loves spam. :) Third post...keep going and get the record.