Primal Myths: Creation Myths Around the World

This work is a must for anyone seeking greater knowledge about cultures, stories, and myths around the globe, and how we’re all interconnected.

This is a fairly large, but by no mean exhaustive, collection of creation myths from around the world. In some cases, one could quibble about the translation Sproul has chosen, but they should be accessible to everyone. The Introduction is particularly good in dispelling some of the "myths" about myth and warning about the dangers of taking myths literally. It also addresses, and offers a resolution to, the science versus religion debate: science deals with "facts", religion with "values" or "attitudes" towards those facts. This Introduction could well serve as the introductory reading for a variety of Religious Studies courses, especially those dealing with texts. My only wish is that the book itself were designed a little more attractively. Some illustrations might have helped.

I am a professional storyteller and teacher of history. The stories in this book are fascinating. I've learned 6 new stories to tell in my class on World History. The African stories are the most interesting because of their view of humanity. Human beings are just no good! And the gods left us, we did not leave them. The universal story here is that god or gods created the universe and us. Cannot get way from that, the Divine. Those who deny god are in the minority, NOT the majority.

I have read a few books of this type, and although it's not my favorite overall mythology collection, for creation mythology specifically it can't be beat. I used it for an anthropology paper comparing creation myths from around the world and bought this just to for the paper but will definitely be holding on to it. The translation and presentation strikes the fine line that most books miss, most are either too focused on making the myth exiting and readable, or too focused on giving just the facts and the story becomes too boring. This book is right in between, the stories read like they are meant to: interesting and entertaining and at the same time loaded with information specific to the society who created them. the only thing I wish it had were some pictures, but overall I was very happy with my buy.

This book is a profound analysis of the earliest mythological interpretation of the world around our ancient ancestors, what they saw and how they saw and understood it, which was the foundation of human psychology into the modern era.

Who knew there were so many, and such unusual, creation myths? This was a required book for a Mythology class I took, and I enjoyed reading how other cultures traditionally explained creation. Our professor used the study of these creation myths to help explain how different cultures view themselves, their environments, their relationships, and the world around them. Interesting addition to the study of other cultures!

In the history of man, before religion, people believed in G-d. He was not the G-d that we are taught about today. This book examinees their beliefs. It also shows that they had stories about creation and the flood. Now something’s may be controversial to the average person. I am not saying everything contained in this book is all unquestionable truth, but you can learn about our ancestors and even see parallels to the common church teaching of today. Just keep your mind open.

There are a lot of indigenous tribes where she uses the word God which make me think that she has recorded their myths after contact with Europeans. I would like to know the myths before contact with Europeans. In other words, their primal myths that is the title of this book.

Nice global perspectives, but not the most animated stories. Has good conversation questions at the end of each.