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hey there I'm Mike Rugnetta this is
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crash course mythology and today we're
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going to finish up our look at Pantheon
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with African gods
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now some crash course fans are already
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scratching their head because they know
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that it's very hard to speak of African
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anything without drastically
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oversimplifying if enormous and filled
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with diverse people Africa as the saying
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goes is not a country it is however a
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song by the 80s band toto maybe some
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karaoke later toe-to-toe
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since way down in Africa there is no one
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African mythology or Pantheon just like
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there's no single Native American or
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Asian mythology there are similarities
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in the stories of different groups but
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no one consistent family of gods so this
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episode is going to focus on an African
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people with a well-documented set of
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deities the Yoruba of western Africa in
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particular we're going to look at their
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pantheon of Orisha
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and one very wise chameleon
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[Music]
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yoruba is a language and the term used
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to describe the people who speak it your
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River people live in the region around
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the Bight of Benin in the countries that
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are now Benin Togo Nigeria Ghana and
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Sierra Leone these regions are important
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they're home to millions of Africans and
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we're also centers of the African slave
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trade meaning Yoruba traditions travels
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from Africa to the Caribbean Latin
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America and North America some of these
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traditions have been modified and
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translated into the set of practices
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called Voodoo in Haiti probably you know
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the best is voodoo vodoun is a word in
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the fun language that means spirit
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narubu myth however are not the
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equivalent of voodoo and most voodoo
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cults are actually a lot less intense
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than what you've seen in like horror
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movies and stuff the Yoruba region is
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currently home to many religions
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including Christianity and Islam the
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fact that the Yoruba people have
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maintained their Orisha stories in the
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face of other religious tradition is a
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testament to the power and importance of
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this cultural heritage the arisia
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stories are similar in this way to the
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Native American myths okay
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now let's meet the team Alisha's are the
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gods and semi-divine heroes of Yoruba
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culture according to Alex Koko
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there are countless deities in the
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Yoruba Pantheon of arisia
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and each one of them in one way or
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another has accomplished deed whereby
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the ancestors thought it was worthwhile
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to include them in their oral traditions
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of storytelling known as eaten out of
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the hundreds of orishas there are a
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dozen or so that feature prominently in
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the myths not unlike the twelve
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Olympians first there's ol Arun a klo
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dumar is sometimes hyphenated he's the
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great sky father it adds and ultimately
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responsible for the creation of world
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order then there is su the trickster T
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like many tricksters represents accident
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and the uncertainty of life we'll look
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at him more closely in a later episode o
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goon is the giver of iron who is also a
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hunter and a warrior like in the Greek
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pantheon not all gods pare monogamously
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ogoun had lovers including oh yeah
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or on me on a son of a goon is another
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warrior and also a fertility God of
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sorts being the creator of dry land and
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the shaper of infants
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before their births so if you know
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someone having a sonogram tell them
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about around me on that's his handiwork
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Ola kun is the god or goddess of oceans
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and Alisa is the goddess of lagoons so I
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imagine there are some arguments over
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who has jurisdiction over Inlet as with
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other pantheon some areas have dominion
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over natural phenomena as well
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the arisia Thunder God is Shango who is
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also the same as Han Fei Zeus Thor and
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Zhang Gao should meet up sometime
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I bet the conversation would be
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electrifying I'll just see myself out
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okay all right odelay is the goddess of
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Earth's soil and there's also OCO the
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god of fields farms and agriculture oh
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yeah is the goddess win and the Niger
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River
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she's one of shengo's wives Oh rĂ¼gen is
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the god of air he's the son of a Ganju
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god of the wilderness and umoja goddess
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of the river oh good and it's not all
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positive phenomena either Oh Baloo I is
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the god of smallpox disease and death so
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I bet he's a real treat at parties you
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might have noticed that there's some
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overlap in divine responsibility when
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myths exist mostly as oral traditions
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and come from such a huge and diverse
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geographic region a certain amount of
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redundancy is pretty normal
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we saw this in the Egyptian pantheon -
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for instance multiple areas are
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considered warrior gods and others seem
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to control aspects of the human
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condition
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Ahri is the God of individuality and
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fate while yah is the goddess of
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character a number of issues related to
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regional geography like forests
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particular rivers and hunting and some
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represent seemingly hyper specific with
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key aspects of African life such as ogia
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the god of crushed cassava now that is a
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God who I bet is a real treat and a
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party and just for you history fans out
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there this shows that not all orishas
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have ancient origins cassava was
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introduced to Africa as parts of the
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Columbian Exchange other than sky dad
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Ola rune the most important arecia is
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his oldest son
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Oren Mila the god of wisdom and
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divination
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according to Leonard and McClure a run
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Mila by reading pine nuts and calories
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communicates Ola runes irreversible
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intention and therefore personifies fate
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so think of that the next time you're
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having pesto many of the arisia myths
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feature a ramela including the one that
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explains how the arisia got there
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powers oh yeah let's go to the
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thought-bubble the Eurasian lived on
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earth and before they each had unique
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powers they were equal whenever they
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needed some special knowledge they would
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ask ol Arun or Allen me laughter health
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one day an Orisha named oka wondered why
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he should have to do that he thought
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that if he had a special knowledge of a
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certain thing then people could ask him
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and not have to hassle Lauren Mila so
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OCO asked a Rinella for special powers
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to distinguish him from humans
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a goon also asked over Mila for special
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power to keep the world going soon
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all the orishas wanted powers a room
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Milla was distressed he held all the
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orishas in equal esteem he thought there
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are many powers to be shared to whom
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should I give one power or another one
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day he went for a walk and met a game of
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the chameleon who asked Arun Mila what
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was wrong
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Arun Mila explained and a gamer
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responded perhaps it would be best to
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leave the distribution to champ return
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to the sky then send messengers to
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announce that on such-and-such a day you
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will pour the powers down on the earth
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let each arecia catch what he can or
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retrieve it from the place where it
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falls whatever power under Isha collects
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in this way will be his by sending your
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messengers you will have given everyone
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equal notice and no one can say a wooden
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wheel only collected me or remember
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followed this advice when he sent out
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the messengers the arecia said Arun Mila
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does a good thing thank him for us we
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will receive what he rains down on us
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five days later the powers fell from the
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skies the arecia waited in the field and
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ran to catch them they weren't all
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equally fast strong or persistent so not
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all were able to get as large a
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desirable a portion of a rhythm of
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bounty but everyone got some thanks
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thought-bubble
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so man I love this origin story it
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explains how the orishas came to have
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their roles
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unlike the Greek Olympians who were
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seemingly born with their attributes the
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aresia
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well not exactly human don't have any
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special abilities or knowledge until a
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room Mila rained them down and after he
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does they're not all equal in their
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abilities explaining why some areas have
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a lot of power and why some just get to
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make really delicious side dishes think
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about arugula for a second he seems to
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be all powerful he could easily assign
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special characteristic
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aresia as he sees fit thus increasing
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his influence over them or he could just
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ignore them altogether he's powerful why
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help these noobs but no not only does he
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distribute divine favors but attempts to
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be fair in the process providing a
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lesson for how humans and especially
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rulers should behave and despite his own
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power a remulak can't solve his problem
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without the help of a very wise
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chameleon demonstrating the style
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ability of her Isha and the connection
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between their world and the world of
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animals animals play a big role in many
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African stories and we're going to see
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more on that in a later episode this
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story
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echoes another are--some s featuring
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olerude that explains the human
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condition in this story olivine responds
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to the humans of the first city la Issei
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who demand inequality as one man claimed
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there's nothing that is unequal among us
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and there is nothing to differentiate us
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we speak the same language we live in
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the same town we each own equal amounts
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of possessions no one among us has more
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than any other and yet no one has less
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than anyone else there's absolutely no
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variety in anything in our lives why is
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it that we are all the same like arugula
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Oh Lauren didn't want to give in to the
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humans demands he knew that differences
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between people would lead to strife he
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sent a shoe to explain this but the
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people of Elah FA wouldn't listen
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and eventually all Arun relented he sent
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a shoe to hand out differences to people
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in the marketplace and whoa big surprise
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here chaos ensued people complained
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about their individual differences one
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woman saying why are men treating us so
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badly and another why are they acting
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superior to us so the next time someone
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makes a sexist comment blame a shoe but
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also the person making a sexist comment
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to chaos and war were bred from other
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rooms inequality eventually the people
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couldn't even get along with each other
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and they had to leave alyssay this
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caused the formation of new nations
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tribes cities and kingdoms and according
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to the story in this manner inequality
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prevailed among the people of earth this
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story is a direct echo of the origins of
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the reaches powers and shows just how
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similar the gods and humans are
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with the other Pantheon's we've seen God
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in human form have human frailties which
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may make them more relatable as objects
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of worship but also makes it easier to
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criticize them or see them as salable
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perhaps this helps explain why much of
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the world that worships a divine being
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has chosen to put its faith in a power
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that for the most part issues human form
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and human emotion but can they make
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delicious cassava thanks for watching
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crash course mythology tote tote bag and
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with the help of all of these nice
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feeling unsolvable problems remember
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just ask the chameleon
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you
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