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Re: Turtles all the way down
Michael John Evans (g8726246@MCMAIL.CIS.MCMASTER.CA)
Wed, 3 Aug 1994 07:53:36 -0400
Heather [not mike] writing:
David Counts [of Mcmaster] tells a story to his intro anth.
classes, about an anthropologist eliciting cosmological information, and
being told that the world rests on a turtle's back. "And what is the
turtle sitting on?" the anth. asks. "Another Turtle" is the reply. "And
that Turtle?" "On another turtle" "And underneath the turtles?" "Its
turtles all the way down". [appologies to D. C. who can tell the story
much better!]
Iroqouis cosmology relates the story of Sky Woman who falls from
a hole in the sky. Three animals try to find earth under the waters to
provide her with a place to rest, but only the turtle is successful. Thus
to present day Mohawks, Cayuga, Onondaga and I think, all Iroquois, this
earth is called "Turtle Island".
Heather
'Oku fia 'amaua 'etau ngaue pupula pea nofo masiva
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Mike Evans, Anthropology &/ Heather Young-Leslie, Anthropology
McMaster University, Hamilton /or: York University, North York,
Ontario, Canada. L8S 4L9 Ontario, Canada. M3J 1P3
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