Hello and welcome to the chapter recap on Asia-- let's go ahead and jump right into the response questions --I asked you this compare the dismemberment of pan gu's body to that of other myths that create the earth from a body --here is an excellent sample answer-- the world being made of pangu's body illustrates the concept of alloforms the world is made from his body parts this is similar to the stories of Ymir from Norse myth and tiamat from the middle east however this story is not as violent as the others pan gu quote "made the decision to die" this seems much more peaceful and suggests a willing sacrifice on his part okay so that's a great answer for this question you should have recalled both ymir and tiamat and note these very specific differences you could have added more detail but but this is concise and really good also this is an excellent answer because it points out that motif of alloforms the world being made of beings dismembered body parts so that's really good regarding the hindu creation i know this one was a little difficult to read but i think if you take your time and slow down look up any unfamiliar words eventually it should have hopefully made sense i know that they were both a little challenging but they're really interesting stories --so i asked you this -- according to the text this is quote "an account of evolution rather than creation" explain. in addition discuss the variety of creation motifs in this myth review chapter one if necessary compare this account to the purusha or Purusa the other creation myth from India --remember to use the handout on hinduism to help with definitions --here is a very thorough sample answer this mention of evolution is on page 353 quote "in this manner all things are said to have sprung from brahma they were with him in the egg hence this is an account of evolution rather than of creation" this means that the creation was more of a progression of all things coming into being together and changing not being simply made by a creator it also suggests that all the things are connected and dependent upon each other kind of like an ecosystem earlier in the myth the quote "evolution of the elements" is mentioned they quote "combined with one another" in this manner creation is accomplished elements blend together to form the egg things are transformed rather than being created-- the next part of the answer goes on to address the types of motifs-- the cosmic egg motif is present there's even the suggestion of the earth diver earlier in the myth quote "vishnu knew that the earth lay hidden in the waters he therefore assuming the form of a boar raised it upon his tusks"-- the motif of alloforms is present as well even though the world isn't exactly created from a dismembered body for example quote "the hairs of brahma were shriveled up and first falling from his head were again renewed upon it from their falling they became serpents" so here i'd like to point out a few more things in the Purusha --the body of a cosmic being is used to create the world in addition it shows the division of social classes the caste system as being present from creation this is actually mentioned in both creation stories from india the handout on the purusha mentions this at the bottom quote "there is no single account of creation in hinduism most hindus believe that all beings on earth devolved from a high state of pure consciousness" it also makes reference to the idea of evolution in creation the notion that rather than things being made they evolve from something and change into other things so hopefully you found that on the handout and used that in your answer like like this one but again i wanted you to point out all of these different things again this is a question with several parts it has the explanation of how this is a an evolution story rather than creation and it asks you to look for the motifs that are in in the myth and to compare it to the to the purusa so again here's an example of a really really concise answer so i'm hoping that you caught all of these things as well but you didn't have to to get a good score on that question but just wanted to point it out as a side note there are creation myths from other cultures that that do something similar as noting the caste system in india for example the pan gu story makes distinction between classes of people as well so there are instances where creation myths are set up to do that and to explain why things are arranged the way they are in societies --okay we're going to talk about the life of the Buddha-- I hope that you noticed in that story it was a blend of both fact and fiction and legends a lot of stories like this exist in mythology where they take the life of real person especially an important religious teacher and expand upon it elaborate it and make the true life story a little bit more fantastical and that happens often in most cases this story does fit the hero's journey or the monomyth and has an encounter for example like buddha does with mara the evil one in this case mara can be said to personify the death of the spiritual life it can also represent temptation or distraction so that's worth noting and for the question i asked you to point out the specific parts of the monomyth and look at the ways that the buddha can be considered an archetypal hero because we often think of heroes as characters that engage in battle and sometimes the battle is a bit more subtle and sometimes as i mentioned before it can also be an internal struggle but the buddha certainly does fit the hero archetype and so for this question what you should have done is gone back again to the monomyth or the hero's journey in module one you should be familiar with that by now and identify the different parts that you see in the story very specifically like this the story of the buddha fits the monomyth in the following ways first of all he has a special birth his first meditation could be a call to adventure when he leaves the palace this can be seen as a threshold crossing the monk can be seen as a herald the road of trials can occur in a couple places he goes through trials in his competitions when he's young he also experiences erotic trials on his journey as a hermit his defeat of mara can be seen as a supreme ordeal the time he spends meditating before enlightenment can be a belly of the whale experience he was tempted by women meeting with the goddess he achieves apotheosis by becoming enlightened he also has allies and enemies so again a very concise answer pointing out some specifics from the story and identifying the parts in the monomyth you don't have to summarize the entire story to do this and you didn't have to catch all of these that are in this example and you may have found different ones or labeled things in different ways as long as you were as thorough as you could be and found as many instances on the monomyth that you can so anyway i wanted to also point out that the reason we're doing this is this is a literature class and so one of the things that we aim to do here is compare the stories across cultures looking for similarities comparing their differences and the monomyth is just one of the tools that we use to do this especially when it comes to heroic epics so identifying these parts helps us make these connections now one thing that this question is lacking is the second part of the question in what ways can the buddha be considered an archetypal hero and so that is something that is missing here and what needs to be pointed out there is again just this the fact that this is more of an internal struggle than than physical fighting but it is still heroic and he does still have this amazing achievement so again there are a lot of different ways that you could have answered that but that did need to be addressed okay let's take a look at izanagi and izanami even though i didn't ask you a specific question about them i hope you noticed this story contained an underworld journey and before i continue some people have confusion separating who's izanagi and who's izanami which one is he and which one is she so the way i remember it is izanagi has a g in it and he's the guy and izanami has an m and she's the mom so if that helps i hope you can use it anyway i want you to think about other stories that have underworld journeys or quests and you can certainly make comparisons between the descent of ishtar and others who go to the underworld include odin, heracles, again we'll keep reading stories the rest of the semester that have underworld journeys this is an important motif in myths underworld journeys are typically undertaken for several reasons the most common reasons being like this one to rescue a loved one but sometimes the journey is to seek answers or wisdom or go on a quest for an object some characters go there to seek immortality itself --the point is this is a common motif. Here's an image of amaterasu the sun goddess daughter of izanagi and izanami she's a primary deity in the shinto pantheon i hope you noticed that, the dominant heavenly kami, in fact. What's interesting about this fact is that she is neither male nor the firstborn of her parents which is noteworthy in a patriarchal society-- she's considered the ancestress of the imperial house-- all emperors of japan are said to be descended from her so that's important to remember-- also the fact that she is what's classified as kami-- i hope you looked at that website i linked to in the module-- i have a really good book here if you're interested it's on japanese mythology-- it's -- from oxford university press it's called the handbook of japanese mythology so i'm going to read you a couple of lines from it because the concept of kami can be hard to wrap your head around but in simple terms they are a power or a deity the number are infinite while some sources say 8 million or 8 million million -- but that's that's general just a way to express that they're infinite and have multiple names so anyway i'll just read you a few lines from that " the term functions as both noun and adjective as a noun kami means powerful being with an interest in the lives of humans and the ability to intervene in human affairs either directly or indirectly by influencing the activities of other kami, animals, or natural events, and features. In short, a deity, as an adjective, the term means something close to holy a mysterious and elevating quality that various living beings, including animals and humans, possess to varying degrees. kami as an adjective is closely associated with purity-- polluting one's self or others lowers one's store of kami, contrarily purifying oneself by austerities washing in pure seawater use of salt and fire etc avoiding polluting substances will add to one store of kami-- the shinto mythological actors are individual deities, humans, or animals who have greater or lesser degrees of kami --the deities among them often have intensely human characteristics -- all actors require purity in order to retain their position whether they are deities or humans. In fact the borderline between the two classes human and divine is a very thin one --humans can be pure and thus possess more kami than certain deities" so there's more to it of course it's kind of sometimes hard to grasp but it is a subject worth studying and i just wanted to point that out. All right let's take a look at a trickster figure -- here's the question--explain the fox's trickster characteristics as illustrated in the japanese fox legends in what ways does this character fit the archetype see chapter one and in what ways is this character different from the traditional trickster as defined in chapter 1? Here's a really good answer --chapter 1 explains that some of the main characteristics of the trickster are that they're rule breakers they test boundaries and taboo behaviors help us laugh at ourselves and sometimes teach lessons they are a paradox because they are both honored and feared they almost always act without regard for the consequences of their actions they challenge authority and the assumptions of a culture and can be agents of transformation and you'll see that that passage is quoted from the text in many ways the fox fits the description of a trickster in how tokutaro was deluded by foxes the fox teaches tokutaro a lesson with some dark humor in a fox's gratitude the fox saves a child's life in return for compassion that was given to her offspring in the death stone the fox is depicted as a demon this is different from the ambiguity of the traditional trickster archetype so again a very simple answer that points out not only what the trickster characteristics are but how this particular creature both embodies them and also kind of defies them a little bit as well before we close i want to leave you with some images of the fox and japanese myth also called the kitsune because the fox is my favorite animal -- when i first started reading stories about the fox and japanese mythology i was really intrigued by it and we put the fox stories in this book in the trickster section because they obviously fit that archetype but this particular fox is much more than that --one reason they're so interesting is that they're kind of a folklore character that became associated with a god, Inari, who is by the way associated with more than just rice if you recall the notes in the module-- i'm going to return to the handbook on japanese mythology for a second to mention a few words about that: "Foxes in general, and white foxes in particular, were reputed to be the messengers of Inari, kami of wealth and harvest and worldly success"-- see he's associated with more than just rice -- "this may be because the rice harvest was associated with the yearly migration of the yaman okami, the mountain deity, from the mountains to the rice fields, or he assumed the title of rice paddy deity. Similarly the fox moves between the wild areas of the mountains and the areas of human behavior on the plains sorry human habitation" so like other tricksters you know he moves between boundaries Some say that possibly the shape of the tail could represent rice sheaves so again another association or running through the fields caused the tail to help fertilize the fields-- that kind of thing --who knows? but there are lots of different reasons why the fox became associated with inari --but aside from that they still have these reputed magical powers even when not associated with the god inari-- the kitsune though may have more complex qualities than the typical trickster --the name kitsune means fox but also means quote "come and sleep" due to the legend behind its origin and this is the brief legend from the handbook of japanese mythology: "A man once met a beautiful woman; they married and had a child; they had a dog who gave birth to a litter at approximately the same time but when the puppies grew a bit older they started barking whenever the wife was near --she begged the man to kill them but he refused --then one day the wife was startled by a puppy that that had come too close that she had come too close to sorry and it started barking and she jumped onto the fence and turned back into her natural form of a fox-- the husband loved his wife dearly and vowing never to forget her begged her to return to sleep with him at night --that's why kitsune means come and sleep --which she agreed to do --so also sometimes the 'foxwife' in japanese mythology is she is called sorry the 'foxwife' in japanese mythology again so the kitsune we see some pictures here with all the multiple tails are both feared and admired and some stories say that when the kitsune is in the form of a woman sometimes it gives her away by the sight of the tales that are that are peeking out from her cloak or her dress --sometimes they're not good at hiding their tails --another really good source on this subject is a book called Come and Sleep: the folklore of the japanese fox, by christopher kincade --he really outlines the distinction of the different types of foxes --so according to his text the common fox is still a troublemaker but can change into a good fox with time and good deeds and in this way they can earn up to nine tails over time --some stories say they must live for a hundred years to earn an additional tail each hundred years and they grow in wisdom and power with each time they get a tail-- the nine-tailed fox has gained the ability to see and hear anything happening in the world and reach infinite wisdom and some say that when they get that ninth tail they turn to a white or gold color and become a celestial or heavenly fox --other sources say both white and black foxes are associated with inari --so again really interesting information. while european folk tales such as reynard the fox and even some native american myths feature the fox for its cleverness and yes sometimes mischief, the spectrum of its personality is not nearly as extreme as in japan where they range from evil and capable of possession to helpful and eventually divine --so again a very fascinating character --all right i hope you enjoyed reading those stories and that's all for our recap on asia-- i'll see you next time