Department
of Religious Studies
RS 136:
Creation Myths
MW
3:30-4:45 Arts
1241
Books for Purchase at UCSB Bookstore:
Joan
O'Brien and Wilfred Major, In the
Beginning: Creation Myths from Ancient
Barbara C.
Sproul, Primal Myths: Creating the World
Xeroxed
The Holy
Bible, Revised Standard Edition (
Mircea
Eliade, “Time and Eternity in Indian Thought”
George
Johnson, Fire in the Mind
W. G.
Lambert and A. R. Millard, The
Atra-Hasis. The Babylonian Story of the Flood
Wendy
Doniger O'Flaherty, Hindu Myths [HM]
_______________________,
The Rig Veda [RV]
Benjamin
Ray, African Religions
____________,
Myth, Ritual, and Kingship in
David C.
Yu, "The creation myth and its symbolism in classical Taoism"
Books on Reserve/Reference in Davidson Library:
Yves
Bonnefoy, ed. (translation editor Wendy Doniger), Mythologies, 2 vols.
Mircea
Eliade, From Primitives to Zen
Joan
O'Brien and Wilfred Major, In the
Beginning
Jaan
Puhvel, Comparative Mythology
Barbara C.
Sproul, Primal Myths: Creating the World
Course Description: Who/what started it? Are we going to
make it? Where are we going to put it? Who's going to clean it up? These are not idle questions, as the
perennial prestige of creation accounts--from 10,000 year-old petroglyphs
engraved into the living rock down to the mind-boggling theories of late-twentieth
century astrophysicists--makes plain.
Human beings have a deep, existential need to know where they came from,
and the answers they elicit to their questions of origins often guide them in
their religious precepts, everyday attitudes, ethical outlook, and long-term
aspirations. Therefore, however fanciful
they may appear, cosmogonic accounts, i.e. creation myths, are to be taken very
seriously by anyone interested in human thought and behavior. In this course, we will approach the world's
creation myths from comparative, historical, and philosophical perspectives,
and seek to understand how they are grounded in, even as they serve as
conceptual foundations for, systems of belief, ritual, social structure, and
political domination.
Course Requirements and Grades:
Students are required to attend lectures and prepare for classes by fulfilling
reading assignments. There will be four
quizzes in the course of the quarter: these will count for 30% of the total
grade for the course. A paper-writing
project will count for 60% of the total grade.
This is broken down as follows: four preparatory assignments are worth a
total of 30%; and the final draft of the paper, due in class on Wednesday,
March 14, is worth 30% of the grade. The
remaining 10% of the total grade for the course will be based on attendance and
class participation.
Schedule of Quizzes
January
24 quiz #1
February
7 quiz #2
February
26 quiz #3
March
14 quiz #4
Due Dates for Research Papers on Comparative Cosmogony:
January
22 choice of traditions
(title and brief description)
January
29 bibliography
(minimum 5 sources)
February
14 outline (3 pages)
February
28 rough draft (12-15
pages)
March
14 final draft
(12-15 pages)
Schedule of Class Meetings
Date Lecture Topic Assigned
Jan. 8 Introduction:
Creation Myths
Jan. 10 Where
Did We Come From? Johnson,
Fire, pp. 11-28
Jan. 15 Martin
Luther King Holiday: No Class
Jan. 17 Hopi
Emergence Myths Sproul,
pp. 268-84
Jan. 22 The
Cosmogonic Dive Sproul,
pp. 189-92; 215-16;
title and brief description of term paper 253-57
Jan. 24 God
and his Adversary Create Together Sproul,
pp. 218-29; 237-42;
quiz #1 245-48
Jan. 29 Ordering
by Division/Divided Order, 1 Genesis
1-5
term paper bibliography O'Brien,
pp. 34-38
Jan. 31 Ordering
by Division/Divided Order, 2 O’Brien,
pp. 89-96
Revelation
12.1-10;
20.1-15;
21.1
Sproul,
pp. 141-42
Feb. 5 God
Slays the Dragon Exodus
15.1-18
Isaiah
51.9-11
Job
38.1-41
RV,
pp. 148-56
Feb. 7 Creation
through Sacrifice Genesis
15.9-19
quiz #2 O'Brien,
pp. 145-58
RV,
pp. 29-32
Feb. 12 Library
Resources Workshop, Davidson Library (attendance mandatory)
Feb. 14 World
Parents and Cosmic Generation Gaps O'Brien,
pp. 48-66; 159-72
outline of term paper Sproul,
pp. 172-76
Feb. 19 President’s
Day: No Class
Feb. 21 World
Parents and Cosmic Generation Gaps O'Brien,
pp. 10-31; 125-44
Sproul, pp.
136-41; 308-13;
339-44
Feb. 26 Flood Myths Genesis 6-9
quiz #3 Millard, Atra-hasis,
pp. 73,
89-103, 138-45
Sproul, pp. 236-37
Feb. 28 Confucian
and Taoist Creation Accounts Sproul,
pp. 199-215
rough draft of term paper Yu, pp.
479-500
March 5 Hindu
Creation Cycle: Wheels within Wheels HM,
pp. 43-46
March 7 Creation
and Social Order O'Brien,
pp. 108-21; 173-94
Sproul,
77-80; 179-81; 243;
295-96;
315-20
March 12
Creation
Myths Ray,
African, 24-32
Ray,
Myth, pp. 54-73
quiz #4 257-58;
298-301; 307;
final draft of term paper 327-30