Original subtitles

hi I'm Mike Rugnetta this is crash

course pathology and today rather than

focus on how the earth said what's

around it was created we're going to

look specifically at what's on it more

specifically people and even more

specifically men and women people also

the occasional animal no not you Thoth

you're a God with an animal head it's

different anyway we're going to see how

myths explain our origin and our

relationships with each other or at

least how they try to explain them it's

couple therapy myth style

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you

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myths don't usually incorporate

contemporary ideas of gender fluidity

although sometimes they do

Tiresias ancient fear looking at you

know as we've seen from the Chinese and

Zoroastrian creation stories myths often

tend to focus on dualities or binaries

and one of the key ones that we find is

a distinction between men and women and

this binary opposition frequently sets

women as subordinate to men at least on

earth and that has been a little bit

more complicated as it tends to be let's

start with a story that is probably well

known to many of our viewers the

creation of man and woman from the Bible

close readers of the book of Genesis

will know that there are two or even

three creation stories and at which

according to biblical scholars reflects

different writing traditions we're going

to focus on the second one and in

Genesis 2 as we join our story God has

already created the earth and the

heavens and man to till the earth

because as we established last time gods

don't like weeding unlike the first

version of creation in Genesis man is

created near the very beginning which

suggests that he's actually pretty

important in the grand scheme of things

but apparently one man wasn't enough for

all of that endemic gardening Genesis 2

verse 21 begin so the Lord God caused a

deep sleep to fall upon the man and

while he slept took one of his ribs and

closed up its place with flesh and the

rib the Lord God had taken from the man

he made into a woman and brought her to

the man then the man said this is the

bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh

she should be called woman because she

was taken out of man therefore a man

leaves his father and his mother and

Queens to his wife and they become one

flesh here we see an early justification

for men being superior to women and it

kind of made some bad wordplay in the

rest of the Genesis story one of the

things that mark men's dominion over

other creatures is that he's given the

power to name them just as he's

permitted to name woman here the

wordplay here also works in the original

hebrew where the word for man is ish and

the word for woman is ISA so get it she

was taking on a man so even her name

taking on a man yep hilarious just F

Jayla Greek god of laughter

yeah okay this passage also explains

marriage although only between a man and

a woman and describes a social order in

which men leave their parents household

when they marry to have their own home

whether this describes a family

structure that already existed or it was

written in order to encourage such a

family structure we can't say for

certain but it's likely that this was an

after-the-fact description providing a

rationalization for what people

encounter in their daily lives is an

important function of man the Bible goes

on to refine the natural relationship

between men and women and not in an

especially fun or feminist way after

they eat the fruit of the tree of

knowledge got his mist and he punishes

them to the woman he said I will greatly

multiply your pain in childbearing in

pain you should bring forth children yet

your desire shall be for your husband

and he shall rule over you and to Adam

he said because you have listened to the

voice of your wife and you have eaten of

the tree of which I commanded you you

shall not eat of it cursed is the ground

because of you in toil you shall eat of

it all the days of your life thorns and

thistles it shall bring forth to you and

you shall eat the plants of the field in

the sweat of your face you shall eat

bread till you return to the ground for

out of it you were taken you are dust

and to dust you shall return there is

just a lot going on here one way to

interpret this is that it provides

justification for man's dominance over

women at punishment for what one woman

did in disobeying God the first

punishment directly affects the

experiences of women causing the pain of

childbirth and a desire for a husband

that shall rule over her establishing a

patriarchal order that just really

caught on men are punished too by having

to work hard in order to eat toiling and

bringing food out of the ground more

gardening and what's the reward for all

this hard work death and returning to

the ground not even dental benefits

worth yet as far as solidifying male

dominance goes all of this is because a

man listens to the voice of his life so

that sets a pretty nasty precedent Greek

mythology creates a similar rationale

for misogyny with the story of Pandora

even before she

opened the jar bringing sorrows to all

of the world

Zeus made her as a punishment for

Prometheus who stole fire and gave it to

the humans this is in addition to having

his liver eaten by an eagle for all of

eternity according to Hesiod she would

be another gift to men an evil thing for

their delight Hermes endowed Pandora

with lies and persuasive words and

cunning ways probably also like the

absolute perfect shade of lipstick but

before we agree to this image of women

as conniving and untrustworthy let's

pause to remember that it's hermie a

male God and one of the great

misogynists of the ancient world who

bestows these qualities on Pandora so

this is a dude hateful vision of women

anyway Zeus gave Pandora as a gift to

Prometheus his brother Epimetheus who

accepted her even though Prometheus had

told him to never accept a gift from

Zeus maybe Zeus gifted lots of socks

according to Hesiod here's what happened

before this time men lived upon the

earth apart from sorrow and from painful

work free from disease which brings the

death gods in but now the woman opened

up the cask and scattered pains and

evils among men inside the casks hard

walls remained one thing hope only which

did not fly through the door the lid

stopped her but all the others flew

thousands of troubles wandering the

earth

unfortunately this concept that a social

order of male dominance and female

subordination resulting from women

acting out of turn is not unique to the

biblical or Greek tradition we find a

similar story in Japan just without an

evil serpent or an all-powerful deaf

chest let's go to the thought-bubble one

Japanese creation that starts with a

young not fully formed earth that looks

something like a jellyfish three

invisible gods came into existence and

taka mother harm the high plains of

heaven these three gods called comi

were led by the lord of the center of

Heaven monoamine a canoe she no commie

after them or seven more generations

followed finally by the primal couple

Izanagi

and his wife Izanami who

also his sister Eva Nagi and Izanami

were commanded by the gods to solidify

the drifting land so they went to the

floating bridge of heaven and stirred

the soupy liquid below with the fear

drops congealed on the tip of the spear

and formed the island of onigoro the

first dry land the final couple went

down to onigoro and built the heavenly

pillar and they decided to procreate

even I be asked his sister how her body

would form and she told him that there

was an unfinished part between her legs

he replied that between his legs was an

excess and perhaps the two should join

there they devised a marriage ritual

whereby each would walk around the

pillar and when they met they would

exchange complement and have intercourse

a child was born but it was a deformed

leech child called Haruko if parents put

shiruko on a boat and set it out to sea

the Gods determined that the reason but

the first child was born deformed was

that even nami had spoken first a

tsunami and ether man he returned to the

heavenly pillar in onigoro and repeated

the ritual only this time ISA Nagi spoke

first

in due time even Ali gave birth to an

abundant number of children Island gods

and goddesses thank you thought bubble

this rationale established male

precedence and female subservience in

Japan not only does this myth explain

Japanese gender inequality it may also

explain an ancient Japanese ritual in

which the birth of a first child was

celebrated by putting a clay figurine

into a reed boat and floating it away

there's often a strong connection

between myth and ritual many creation

stories begin with the idea that human

beings are immortal until something or

someone in true biblical humans were

immortal until Adam and Eve ate from the

tree of knowledge for example it was

human error that brought death into the

world so sorry about that everyone so we

see another theme emerging here the

biblical Japanese and Greek explanations

place the blame for human toil pain and

disease on women it's a pernicious idea

and it's one that has had two profound

consequences for gender relations

perhaps what we're seeing is a

justification for a system in which men

feel it is

right to rule over women and find

stories to tell to support it after all

there's no logical reason why women

should be blamed men make mistakes too

we're going to get to Phaeton and the

time that he almost burned down the

entire earth eventually but until then

thanks for watching we'll see you next

week

crash course mythology is filmed in the

chad and stacey emigholz studio in

indianapolis indiana and it's produced

with the help of all these nice people

our animation team is thought cafe

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forget to be mythological