Chapter 3 in Tara Browner's book entitled Music of the First Nations discusses two important topics that talk about the significance of myths in certain ways. These two topics discuss how myths stand out from other Native American texts, and how myths relate to other key elements of the Native American culture. In comparison to other forms of storytelling and/or writing, myths are different in their own specific ways. One way in which myths stand out from other forms of storytelling and/or writing is evident by their main purpose, which is to inform the individuals that are familiar with them what their own personal identities are. Besides this, a myth intends to explain how certain individuals have been able to gain control over certain territories by specific changes and starting points in their lives. This goes along with the appropriate manners in which they should reside in their respective lands by themselves and with other individuals as well. These details remind me of the discussions from previous readings and in class that mentioned the idea that the internal message behind a song could explain how a certain individual might have become the way in which he or she is at the present time. This is something very personal, as also mentioned before, which highlights the concept of "insider" vs. "outsider," since an "insider" to the actual meaning of a song would be more likely able to connect with it spiritually and/or feel it in a way that an "outsider," whether it be a non-Native American or another Native American, would not be able to relate to it in such a close way as the "insider" would be able to, especially since the song lyrics tend to be based off of an actual or fantasy-like event only experienced by the "insider." Another way in which myths stand out from other forms of storytelling and/or writing is in the specific locations as to where people reside in their plots. These myths usually have people reside, "'between a world in the process of being transformed and prepared for the coming of human beings and a world rendered meaningful and spiritually potent inhabited by human beings. It is a distinction between mythic beings endowed with significance and potency and humans seeking that endowment" (Frey and Hymes 1998: 587, Sercombe and Browner 38).
In terms of their relationships with other key elements of the Native American culture, there are important things to mention. One important thing that myths can connect to in certain ways are soul ability lyrical pieces. The book mentions that despite the fact that it may not be completely clear in every version of every single myth story, certain performances that are executed in certain myths are usually carried up by an individual being in the text trying to summon his or her soul ability by engaging in his or her respective musical piece that relates to it. It mentions further that in certain cases, the effects are funny, specifically when an individual's ability ends up being inferior to achieve the sought outcome, or in a case where it happens to be obvious to other existing individuals that the specific person only possesses the general ability to conjure up his or her ability. Another important thing that myths can relate to are vocally performed ceremonial phrases and statements. The text mentions that, "Another kind of power comes from 'family wisdom' possessed and controlled by high-ranking families in precontact Coast Salish communities (and still operating in some forms). Among the kinds of esoteric knowledge they controlled were ritual words or enchantments used to control animals, weather spirits, and humans (Miller 1999b: 91). Spoken or sung 'formulas' to change the weather appear to be a special category of esoteric language among Puget Sound-area people" (Sercombe and Browner 43-44).
Before concluding, it is important to discuss two Native American stories that I picked out from the Internet and how they are important and significant in their own ways. In one of the stories I chose, entitled "The Quillwork Girl and her Seven Brothers," the two main characters that stand out from the rest are the girl who is talented in the field of quillwork and the youngest boy in a group of seven brothers that the girl ends up living with in the myth. The quillwork girl is a very skilled young lady with a kind heart, who is also a hard worker and generous to people around her. She shows these qualities in the story by creating seven different sets of clothing, one for each of the seven brothers, all from bright buckskin. After doing this, she travels a certain ways to where the seven brothers live and surprises all of them with the wardrobe that she has to offer to offer to them, which makes them very grateful to the girl and she becomes a household member in their tipi with them all. The youngest brother in a group of seven is a very courageous, protective, and fearless to a certain degree. He shows these qualities in the story by refusing to allow a gigantic group of buffalo take the girl away from him and his brothers, and he refuses to let his guard down, even when the size of the individual buffalos that greet him, one at the time, to claim the girl from him continuously increase in size and a promise of death is threatened and/or guaranteed upon him by the leader of the buffalo when he comes around with the rest of his group.
The main intent of this story is to explain how the well-known constellation called the Big Dipper happened to appear in the sky, be created, and still exist to this very day. The story says that the quillwork girl, together with the seven brothers, transformed into the Big Dipper by the youngest brother's magic after they became stranded on a cloud high in the sky after holding onto a tree (which the youngest brother continuously made grow taller and taller with a set of magic arrows that he had at the time) as part of an attempt to escape the angry buffalo that made a desperate attempt to destroy all of them by smashing into the base of the tree to bring it down after he was refused the right to take the girl from the seven brothers. Some other messages behind this myth that can possibly be observed include always being well-prepared and alert in case of emergencies, which is the case with the youngest brothers being able to efficiently provide a quick escape for himself and the others when the buffalo tried to kill them all. In addition, the myth can possibly be telling people that it is important to look on the bright side especially in a seemingly hopeless situation, which is the case when the rest of the brothers ask their youngest sibling how their future will be once they become stranded up in the clouds for eternity, to which he says for them not to worry and provides the solution of turning all of them into stars. This myth can compare to the one about Dirty Face in the sense that the myth concludes with the transformation of the main character(s) into some other form and/or being as the result of certain events that occur before this happens. Another way that this myth can compare to the myth about Dirty Face is that both of them express the idea that hard work and/or labor can produce some significant results in the context of a myth, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse.
In the other myth that I chose, entitled "Tata and Nena," the main characters that make significant appearances in the myth are Tata, Nena, and Tlaloc. Tata and Nena are together a religious pair who are portrayed as being forgetful, and pitiful. The two of them portray these qualities in the myth when they temporarily suffer a case of memory loss by forgetting to only consume two ear pieces of corn under Tlaloc's orders when they decide to retrieve a fish from the water and devour it and then afterwards recalling that they weren't supposed to do that. The two of them are pitiful in the sense that they are punished by Tlaloc who transforms them into dogs after accidentally going against his regulations, and in the general sense that two holy-spirited people like Tata and Nena don't really deserve a fate like this, especially since it wasn't there intention to screw their good image up in Tlaloc's perspective of them both. Tlaloc, who is a god, is depicted as being generous and cruel at certain parts of them myth. In the myth, he is generous by giving Tata and Nena a special opportunity to be wary of the flood that he plans to have the whole world wiped out with and giving them food and a mode of transportation to carry them both off to a certain location. However, he is also depicted as being cruel when he ends up transforming two good-spirited people, being Tata and Nena, into dogs when they accidentally let the fact that they both couldn't eat anything else but the food that was supplied to them by Tlaloc himself and really didn't deserve this future. One of the main intents of this story can possibly be that people should cherish the natural resources that are given to them and the good opportunities that they could obtain in their lives, while trying not to let themselves get carried away with abusing the rights that they have to the valuable sources and opportunities that might be given to them in their lifetimes. Another possible main intent of this story is to explain the fact that even the most good-spirited people in the world are subject to the consequences of certain actions that are considered to be unacceptable to others around them. This myth can compare to the myth about Dirty Face in the sense that the main characters are turned into animals as a punishment and as a result of a certain action(s) that they performed in the myth. These two myths definitely reflect the Native American culture in their own specific ways.
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