Читать книгу The First Americans: Legends, Folklore & Myths Across the U.S.A. - Phyllis Ph.D. Goldman - Страница 3

Introduction

American Indian culture is comprised of a wide range of thoughts on both spiritual and moral subjects often using animals, the environment, and nature. In some legends, animals were characterized to help humans understand lessons of morality. Native American storytelling and legends are mysterious, witty, and subtle, in order to convey relationships between people and nature.

Many legends, myths, and folklore are still told today. Some are old, some are new, but all are part of the beautiful culture that the indigenous peoples of North America have had for thousands of years.

The materials in this book have been arranged according to the region in which their storytellers lived.

Legends:

A legend is a story that is passed down orally through multiple generations of people. They are often believed by the storyteller and audience to have actually taken place within their cultural history, but they are actually a mixture of both fact and fiction.

Legends are usually set in a specific time and place with a main character that is often seen as heroic.

Myths:

A myth is a story dealing with supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes that are used to explain the meanings of events in the natural world. Mythology has a very rich cultural history. It is not just a collection of stories. It is used as a way for the storytellers to share their beliefs, their ways, and how they lived.

Folklore:

Folklore is a collection of stories that can contain tales of a culture's traditional beliefs and cultural practices. The stories were preserved and passed from generation to generation and were constantly changed due to memory, immediate need or purpose, or the degree of talent of the storyteller.