La cosmogonía de los indios de Canadá a través de sus cuentos y leyendas

Abstract

This PH. D thesis called The Cosmogony Through the Legends and Myths of Canadian Natives, is divided into 7 chapters of varying length that deal with the study of cosmogony in its most relevant aspects and culture of Canadian natives. The titles of chapters in order of appearance are as follows: Cosmogony, The Creation of Healing Powers, The Invention of positive things for survival, The Belief in Psychological Powers, Celebrations, The Oral Tradition in Tales and the Semiotic Analysis of Creation tales according to different Canadian tribes. From these innumerable tales flowing from the different tribes that compose the literature of Canadian natives, I have chosen those that I found the most representative for the topic of my thesis. The titles are the following and are studied in this order: The History of Mik'maq Creation,The Origin of Tides, The Origin of the Medicine Lodge (Scarface), Stories of "The Elder", Blackfoot Genesis, Tale of the Blackfoot about the World Genealogy, Tale about the Origin of the Buffalo Dance, The Origin of Life, The Woman who chooses Death, The Creation, The Strange Origin of Corn, and Who was Given the Fire? Many of these tales center on the creative narrative, generally symbolized by an animal such as a buffalo or a coyote. Their Creator started placing living creatures in order of preference, in the first place the animals, then the plants and trees and at last the man and the woman. In all the tales I have analysed, the woman does not follow the instructions of the Creator which lead to humanity’s mortality. The creator sometimes appears as a close character but as regards to following the rules he is relentless. Where the Creator is not omniscient. He does not know where each creature ought to live, nor how they will harness fire. He learns though his mistakes, sympathizing with the reader. The previously mentioned tales have to do with cosmogony but I have also analysed other tales that give an explanation to the origin of things such as: the medicine lodge, the origin of fire or how to grow corn...