Original subtitles

hey there i'm mike rignetta this is

crash course mythology and today we're

wrapping up creation myths over the past

four episodes we've seen the universe

created from nothing via the actions of

earth mothers sky fathers and of course

vomiting supreme beings we've seen

creation used to explore the

relationships between parents and

children and between men and women

and snakes and on that note today we're

going to examine the earthly

interconnection between humans and

animals high five tote

what

yeah yeah i know humans are also animals

you know what i'm saying

[Music]

before we get into the creation myths

let's start with a little scientific

mythology about man's best friend of

course i mean dogs sorry tote dogs were

if not the first then among the first

domesticated animals and they play an

important role in mythology romulus

remus look in your direction one of the

stories that we tell about the

domestication of dogs is that it started

when early hunter-gatherers chose to

tame and then breed some of the less

aggressive wolves in order to increase

the hunter's capacity to capture game

eventually these cross and interbred

wolves became

dogs who's a good boy who's a good boy

it's any canine that doesn't bite off

your hand that's who a good boy is it's

a nice story and it seems to make sense

but there are some problems with it in

an article in national geographic brian

hare and vanessa woods argue that some

scientists are flipping this narrative

on its head and saying that it was

wolves that sought out humans rather

than the other way around it doesn't

make much sense for humans to try to

capture wolves and get them to work for

us early hunter-gatherers were pretty

good at hunting which is why they might

have been to blame for the destruction

of the megafauna of the prehistoric

world also why would humans want to

share the spoils of the hunt with a wolf

they're hungry like the wolf hair and

woods explain that scientists think it's

more likely that wolves approached

humans probably by scavenging around

their garbage pits these would have been

the friendliest wolves aggressive ones

would have been killed by anxious humans

so it was the friendly wolves that over

many generations were bred into the

lovable vacuum-hating rap scallions that

we

know and love don't ask me about cats

though i got nothing there

are cats even really domesticated i feel

like they're hiding something there's

some plot they're up to something let's

return as we so often do to the

judeo-christian biblical story of

creation from genesis in chapter one

after creating the heavens and the earth

and the stars and all the animals god

said let us make man in our image after

our likeness and let them have dominion

over the fish of the sea and over the

birds of the air and over the cattle and

over all the earth and over every

creeping thing that creeps upon the

earth so god created man in his own

image in the image of god he created him

male and female he created them and god

said behold i have given you every plant

yielding seed which is upon the face of

all the earth and every tree with every

seed in its fruit you shall have them

for food and to every beast of the earth

and to every bird of the air and to

everything that creeps on the earth

everything that has breath of life i

have given every green plant for food

and it was so sounds like more gardening

to me surprise surprise in the second

chapter of genesis god grants humans

control over other earthly creatures in

a slightly different way in this version

god creates man before the animals then

the lord god said it is not good that

man should be alone i will make him a

helper fit for him so out of the ground

the lord god formed every beast of the

field and every bird of the air and

brought them to the man to see what he

would call them and whatever the man

called every living creature that was

its name isn't that nice giraffes and

sharks and biting flies made just to

help us both creation stories set up a

clear hierarchy in the animal world with

human beings at the top given the power

to do whatever they want with all the

animals below them basically there are

interns the second version of the story

affirms human control over animals in

two ways first by having man created

prior to the animal kingdom humans are

granted literal primacy then their power

is increased over animals by the first

man receiving the privilege of naming

them and i mean he did a pretty good job

especially with

hippopotamus but not all myths about

humans and animals employ this strict

hierarchy in a number of creation

stories from native american tribes

animals are partners in creation often

acting as guides or even as the key

participants in creating the earth the

tribes of what is now the southwestern

united states have creation stories that

follow a model we haven't seen yet the

emergence myth in these stories humans

or creatures that become humans are led

from an original underground world into

a series of interim worlds until they

emerge into the surface world that is

recognizably earth in a hopi version of

this story various animals including the

spider grandmother and a chipmunk helped

to find the entry hole or sipapuni to

the land beyond the sky apparently

there's one of these entryways in the

grand canyon in a navajo version of the

emergence story the people who are also

sort of insects fly through the sea

papuni into the higher world assisted by

swallows i really like these myths

humans working with nature literally

rising towards creation it's a really

nice breath of fresh air almost

literally after all of the vomiting and

death that we've had so far another type

of creation story featuring animal

helpers is called the earth diver myth a

good example comes from the iroquois

indians of the northeastern woodlands of

the united states let's dive into the

thought bubble a long time ago humans

lived up in the sky in what we now

consider heaven the daughter of their

great chief became very sick and they

were unable to cure her in the village

was a great tree on which grew the corn

that had fed all of the people one of

the chief's friends had a dream in which

he was told to tell the chief to lay his

daughter beside the tree and dig it up

the chief did as the dream said while

this was going on an angry young man

came along the angry young man didn't

have the best bedside manner he pointed

out the tree provided the fruit which

fed the people and gave the sick

daughter a push with his foot she fell

through the hole that had been left when

the tree had been dug up the young woman

fell into this world which at the time

was all water on this water floated

ducks and geese and all the other water

birds as there was no earth on this

water at the time there was no place for

the falling woman to land so the birds

joined their bodies together

into a sort of duck island where the

falling woman landed after some time the

birds grew tired and asked who would

care for the woman the great turtle took

the woman and when he grew tired he

asked who would take care of her they

decided to prepare land on which she

would live the earth the toad after some

convincing dove to the bottom of the

primal sea and collected soil which was

placed on the broad carapace of the

great turtle it increased in size until

it provided the land to accommodate all

the living creatures thanks thought

bubble and nice work water birds also

toad tote me toad

so there's a lot more to the myth than

this but it captures the key elements of

the earth diver story although it has

some things in common with other

creation myths we've seen especially the

idea that the world began as water the

relationship between human beings and

animals is quite different for one thing

far from being dumb creatures waiting to

be named and tamed by men these animals

can talk think deliberate and plan

animal empowerment they also have

emotions similar to the ones we feel

especially getting tired and bored of a

tedious task think about this the next

time you watch a horse pull a cart or

you're trying to entertain your cat by

waving that feathery thing in front of

them i'm telling you they're getting fed

up just as important as being given real

agency in this creation story though

it's the animals who both save the

humans progenitors and create our home

without the helpful turtle and the brave

toad there would be no land to live on

and also no earth to grow food the

creation of the world requires animals

and thus it is crucially important to be

grateful to them these native american

myths are very intricate and when you

read them and you should it's important

to remember that they're very different

from many of the other creation stories

because

they're living stories communicated by

way of a constantly evolving oral

tradition unlike more or less stable

written texts still one of the

interpretive takeaways from these

emergence and earth diver stories is

that native americans perceive a

different relationship between animals

and nature and humans than people from

other traditions according to the

biblical tradition human beings have a

special relationship with god who

prefers them to all other creatures

according to mythology professors eva

thuri and margaret divini this privilege

has been interpreted by some as giving

believers the right to dispose of nature

as they please on the other hand also

according to these scholars native

americans view this world as the place

where their destinies will be fulfilled

not by domination but by maintaining a

balance achieved by living in harmony

with themselves and other humans as well

as with animals and the exterior world

some of you might be saying wait this

sounds like a stereotypical view of

native americans like they have some

mystical connection with nature and that

we should look to them for a way to

understand how to better live in harmony

with it and you would be right that is a

cultural stereotype one that has often

been uncritically linked with the idea

of native american peoples as being

primitive but i will say maybe in

comparison to the other stories we've

heard so far with all of the vomiting

and wars and the eating of children

it's kind of nice to think of the

universe as a place of collaboration and

not one of acrimony except of course for

the jerk who kicked the daughter down

the hole thanks for watching we'll see

you next week

check out our crash course mythology

tote tote bag and poster available now

at dftba.com

crash course mythology is filmed in the

chad and stacy emmigolds studio in

indianapolis indiana and is produced

with the help of all of these very nice

people our animation team is thought

cafe crash course exists thanks to the

generous support of our patrons at

patreon patreon is a voluntary

subscription service where you can

support the content you love through a

monthly donation and help keep crash

course free for everyone forever thanks

for watching and just for the record i

have a cat and that's precisely why i

think they're up to something

[Music]

you