Insects in the Choctaw Emergence Mythology

A creation myth is a cosmogony, a narrative that describes the original ordering of the universe. A given culture’s cosmogony or creation myth describes its sense of how the cosmos (order, existence) was established. Just as individuals and families are preoccupied with their origins, cultures need to know where they and the world they live in originated. So it is that virtually all cultures have creation myths (Leeming and Leeming 1994). The story behind all creation myths is simple but absolutely essential: we have what we have now because of what happened then. This is why we value the past and tell stories of the world’s beginnings over and over again. We see our existence as rooted in the world’s origin. If we lose touch with the past, we don’t just risk the loss of an engaging, entertaining tale: it’s the whole cosmos that’s at stake, and we with it (Krupp 1991). In preliterate cultures, insects were important as participants in creation myths. Worldwide, cultures give insects a role in the creation of the world. There are at least two possible explanations for this widespread phenomenon. One is that the creative activities of insects are readily visible (i.e., webs, tunnels, nests, etc). There may also be an innate recognition of the relative evolutionary age of insects, a recognition of the ancient origin of arthropods (Berenbaum 1995). The occurrence of insects in creation myths is similarly explained by Hogue (2003) who wrote, “Insects figure prominently in the creation myths of many cultures. The widespread recognition of insects in this role probably stems from an innate recognition of insects as ancient members of the living world that must have been present at its creation or soon thereafter.” One type of creation myth describes the emergence of a people into this world by way of one or more underworlds. In emergence myths, the earth is described as containing within itself all of the potencies of life. The basic motif of these myths is not how the earth came into being, but the symbol of the earth as the source of all life and forms. Humans and the forms of life are as seeds within the body of the earth. The birth of man and the world are described as a metamorphosis in which the individual progresses from the nonhuman forms of life through the various worlds until becoming a human being in a human world. The symbolism of Mother Earth is present in the emergence myth, but the male element is given no prominence (Long 1963). Insects in the Choctaw Emergence Mythology