In ancient Greek legends, there are several theories about the origin of human beings. Most Greek legends were also narrated by poets, so they were handed down in the form of poems, and later generations would sort them out on that basis.
One of the sayings is this: The gods entrusted the task of creating humans to Prometheus and his brother Ibimis. Prometheus's name means 'think first', and his wisdom even exceeds that of the gods, while Ibimis means 'hindsight'. He always acts impulsively and is impetuous by nature, often doing I'll regret it after it's over.
Before creating humans, Ibimis gave the advantages of physical strength, speed, courage, and feathers, fur, wings, and hard shells to animals. When humans arrived, they did not have the same advantages. Human beings have no auxiliary coverings to cover their bodies, nor do they have any advantages that can rival animals.
He regretted it again and asked Prometheus for help. So Prometheus took over the work of creation, and he came up with a good way to make humans superior to animals. He made the appearance of human beings as noble as gods, went to heaven to borrow a little fire from the sun, lit a torch and brought it to the world, becoming the best self-defense for human beings, which is comparable to fur, physical strength, speed, courage more useful.
“Human beings have fire,
can acquire various arts”
The legend of the origin of human beings
Legend 1: Nuwa He is the Fuxi clan, with the head of a human and the body of a snake, he makes a human by rolling earth, and he practices five-color stones to mend the sky.
Legend 2: Nuwa was the female chief who unified the tribes in the matriarchal society after Fuxi. Later, she controlled floods and advocated reproduction and fertility. Therefore, she was mythologically regarded as the mother of creation and the god of repairing the sky. .
Legend 3: Pangu created the world. The sky and the earth were originally chaotic, and Pangu was among them. Later, the sky gradually became ten feet taller, the earth gradually became ten feet thicker, and Pangu also grew ten feet taller. Over time, Pangu became taller and taller, until when Pangu was about to die, his left eye turned into the sun, his right eye turned into the moon, his blood turned into rivers, his muscles turned into soil, his hair turned into stars, and his fur turned into vegetation. The lice and insects turned into human beings. ＊These legends all show the ancient people's speculations about the origin of human beings and gods
Answer: 13408366 - Trainee Magician Level 2 12-10 16:25
Myths and legends about the origin of human beings, Various ethnic groups are quite rich, and some of their myths are quite similar, but of course there are also many differences. In these myths, it is very interesting that we can find similarities with the theory of evolution.
Summarizing various myths, the origin of human beings can be divided into five types: "called out", "originally existing", "changed from plants", "changed from animals" and "made from soil". Let’s describe them separately.
"Egyptian Mythology" says that humans are called out by gods. Since ancient times, Egypt has been a mysterious place. It is the most self-enclosed among all ancient countries. It has its own way of life, and it is difficult for external civilization to affect it. Therefore, its theory of human origin is also different from other theories. The people are different.
The Egyptians believed that long before Egypt appeared in the world, the almighty god "NU" existed. He created everything in the world. When he called "Subi", the wind came into being. ; Calling "Tefuna", there will be rain; calling "Habi", the Nile River will flow through Egypt. He calls again and again, and all things appear one by one. Finally, he speaks "man and woman", and in the blink of an eye, Egypt and it was filled with many people.
After the creation work was completed, Nu transformed himself into a man's shape and became the first Pharaoh, ruling the earth and mankind and creating peace and prosperity.
Myths that have always existed in human beings are scattered among the North American Indians and the Maori people of New Zealand. Indian myths say that God created the heaven and the earth, and then led humans up from the underground to live on the earth. Maori mythology says that "Ranchi" and "Baba" are heaven and earth and the source of all things. At that time, heaven and earth were not separated and everything was dark. His son longed for light, so he pushed the heaven and earth away with force, and light appeared. Human beings who have always been hidden in the darkness are discovered. It turns out that they are also born from heaven and earth.
The belief that humans are transformed from plants has become a Germanic myth. It says that the god Odin (ODIN) was walking on the beach with other gods one day and saw two trees growing on the sandbank, one of which looked like a tree. The other tree was majestic, and the other tree had a graceful posture, so he ordered the two trees to be cut down and made into men and women respectively. Odin first gave life to them, and the other gods gave them reason, language, blood, skin color, etc., becoming the ancestors of the Germans.
The myth that humans were transformed from animals is quite common. Australian mythology says that humans transformed from lizards; American mythology says that humans transformed from mountain dogs, beavers, apes, etc.; Greek mythology also says that a certain tribe of people transformed from swans, and a certain tribe of people transformed from cows.
From this myth of "animals turning into humans", we can find something very close to the theory of evolution. Especially in the American mythology, it is said that humans were transformed from apes, which is completely consistent with the theory of evolution. This coincidence , very intriguing.
There are several myths about the origin of human beings in our country. The earlier one is "Huainanzi Spiritual Chapter": "There are two gods (yin and yang) mixed together, and they are in the camp of heaven... Similar to Qi. Insects (turbid gases turn into insects, fish, birds and beasts), and essence becomes humans (pure gases turn into humans). ” This argument did not receive much attention.
The later theory refers to the fact that when Pangu was dying and transformed into all things, the parasites on his body turned into humans. Yishi Volume 1 quotes the Five Movement Calendar Years: "The insects in (Pangu's) body turned into humans (people) due to the influence of the wind." ” This statement has not spread.
Another theory is that human beings were created by the Yellow Emperor, and then were given limbs and five senses by other gods, Shang Pian and Mulberry. See Huainanzi's chapter on Lin: "The Yellow Emperor gave birth to yin and yang, and Shang Pian gave birth to ears and eyes. Sang Linsheng’s arms and hands…. "This statement is very interesting and very similar to what Germanic said. Unfortunately, what kind of gods Shang Pian and Sang Lin are are not described in other ancient books, leaving only a mystery.
Among all the myths, the theory of "creating man from clay" is the most common and the most popular. For example, the New Zealand myth says that man is made of red clay and his own blood by the god Tiki; Mera The Nicene people also said this; Greek mythology said that God took out earth and fire from the inside of the earth, sent the two brothers Prometheus and Epimetheus to create animals and humans respectively, and endowed humans with various personalities and wisdom.
The Maidu Indians in western North America believe that after the "founder of the earth" created trees, birds and beasts, he said, "I am going to create humans." ” Then he took some dark red soil and mixed it with water to make a man and a woman.
Among all the myths, the most fascinating stories about the creation of humans from clay are the Nuwa of my country and the God of Jewish mythology (the Bible).
It is said that after Pangu opened up the world, I don’t know how many years passed, but Nuwa suddenly appeared between the heaven and the earth. Nuwa felt lonely in this desolate world. One day, she looked at the water and saw herself. She thought it would be great if there were a few people like her in the world who could talk to each other, so she unconsciously grabbed the soil. , mixed with water, made a clay doll according to his own shape, placed it on the ground, and when the wind blew it, it became a living thing, so he named it "man".
It turns out that Nuwa continued to create humans one after another, but the progress was slow and she finally felt tired. When she was thinking about how to create humans quickly to fill the vast land, she leaned against the cliff and made her way. He took off the cane and stirred it lazily in the mud mixed with water. Then he shook the cane and scattered a lot of mud dots. These mud dots fell on the ground. When the wind blew, they all turned into people, so he kept going. The ground waved the cane, and the number of people on the ground continued to increase.
The story of God’s creation of man in the Bible is recorded in the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament. It is said that God spent five days creating all things on earth. On the sixth day, He said: "Let us create man in our image, according to our likeness..." So he created man from the dust of the ground and breathed life into it. After the man's nostrils, he became a living man and was named Adam.
Soon one of Adam's ribs was taken out and made into a woman. Adam said: "This is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. Let us call her woman." 』
In the myths about Nuwa and God creating humans, we can find that the only difference is that they both created humans in their images. This shows that Nuwa and God look similar to humans. . The difference is that the Bible describes woman as being made from man's rib, not clay.
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Answer: Yanwu - Chief Operating Officer Level 12 12-11 08:51
Pangu opened the world
Original text
The heaven and earth are as chaotic as chicken eggs, and Pangu is born in them. Eight thousand years old, the sky and the earth were created, and the clear yang became the sky, and the yin and turbidity became the earth. Pangu was in it, and it changed nine times a day. Divine in heaven, holy in earth. The sky is ten feet taller, the earth is ten feet thicker, and Pangu is ten feet longer. For eight thousand years, the sky is extremely high, the earth is extremely thick, and Pangu is extremely long. Therefore, heaven and earth are ninety thousand miles away.
——Excerpted from the "San Wu Li Ji" cited in the second volume of "Taiping Yu Lan"
The first born was Pangu, who was incarnated when he was dying: his Qi became a phoenix cloud, his voice was thunder, and his left eye was The right eye is the moon, the limbs and the five bodies are the four poles and the five mountains, the blood is the rivers, the tendons are the geography, the muscles are the soil, the hair is the stars, the fur is the vegetation, the teeth and bones are the gold and jade, the essence is the pearls and stones, and the sweat is the rain. Ze.
——Excerpted from "The Years of the Five Movements" quoted in Volume 1 of "Yi Shi"
The ancient Confucians said that Pangu's weeping was like rivers, his breath was like wind, his sound was like thunder, and his eyes were like lightning. . It is said in ancient times that Pangu's happiness is sunny and his anger is yin. ——Excerpted from "Shu Yi Ji"
Notes
①. Pangu created the world. There are countless legends about this from ancient times to the present. However, since Pangu created the world, the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors have come to this day. This statement is recognized by modern people. I started from this recognized common ground, so I only selected these three paragraphs to explain their essence.
②. The first one was commonly used with the word Tao in ancient times. The first one is Tao. This sentence is: Dao Sheng's Pangu. Pangu is a personified thing. On the contrary, it is the product of the personification of things.
③. Mustache is also called a beard.
Translation
When the chaos of heaven and earth was as chaotic as an egg, Pangu emerged from it. When Pangu lived to be 18,000 years old, the first thing he did was to create heaven and earth, which made the pure and light things rise to become heaven, and the heavy and turbid things sink to become earth. Pangu was in the heaven and earth, changing nine times a day. The god Pangu is as high as the sky and as broad as the earth. The sky is ten feet taller, the earth is ten feet thicker, and Pangu is ten feet longer. Therefore, this situation lasted for eighteen thousand years, so the sky was extremely high, the earth was extremely thick, and Pangu grew extremely long. This is the reason why the distance between heaven and earth is ninety thousand miles.
Taosheng transformed Pangu. After Pangu completed the creation of the world, he achieved immortal incarnation: his energy turned into wind and clouds, his voice turned into thunder, his left eye turned into the sun, and his right eye turned into the moon. , its limbs turned into the four directions of east, west, north and south, its five internal organs turned into the Five Mountains of Dongyue Taishan, Xiyue Huashan, Nanyue Hengshan, Beiyue Songshan, and Zhongyue Hengshan, its blood turned into rivers, its tendons turned into the veins of geographical mountains, and muscles turned into For the sake of the soil, hair and beards turned into stars, fur turned into vegetation, teeth and bones turned into gold and jade minerals, essence turned into pearls and gems, and sweat turned into rain.
Pangu’s immortal incarnation: the tears turned into rivers, the gas turned into wind, the sound turned into thunder, and the pupils turned into lightning. Pangu's joy turned into a sunny sky, while his anger turned into a cloudy sky.
Answer: niu00139 - Assistant Level 2 12-13 17:53
“Asia may have served as a huge stage for human evolution and was the oldest huge diffusion center of human industry. To understand complex issues such as the origin of human beings, it is almost unimaginable to leave Asia."
"China discovered Yuanmou Man in 1965, but in the context of that time, it took a long time. In China, the country is closed, and international experts have poured into Africa, resulting in a large number of archaeological discoveries in Africa. We can no longer work alone!”
In fact, in recent years, researchers in Asia, especially China, are Setting off a "catch-up with Africa" ??campaign, many of their discoveries are directly comparable in age to those in Africa that are considered to be the world's earliest human fossils and Paleolithic tools.
"We have reason to believe that with the discovery of more new materials and more in-depth research in Asia, a true picture of human origin and evolution will be revealed to people."
Of course , everything awaits the unearthing of the most important human fossil.
Answer: EVEmy - Magic Apprentice Level 12-16 14:07
Myths about the Origin of Humanity
Myths and Legends about the Origin of Humanity
< p>The origin of human beings can be said to be the most vexing academic issue. Anthropologists, archaeologists, historians, biologists, chemists, and even philosophers and religionists have all discussed The origin of human beings has been studied from various angles, but so far there is still no most convincing explanation.Ethnic groups have quite a lot of myths and legends about the origin of mankind. Some of them are quite similar, but of course there are also many differences. Among these myths, it is very interesting that we can find that there are differences with the theory of evolution. A place of coincidence.
Summarizing various myths, the origin of human beings can be divided into five types: "called out", "originally existing", "changed from plants", "changed from animals" and "made from soil". Let’s describe them separately.
"Egyptian Mythology" says that human beings are called out by gods. Since ancient times, Egypt has been a mysterious place. It is the most self-enclosed among all ancient countries. It has its own way of life, and it is difficult for external civilization to affect it. Therefore, its theory of human origin is also different from other theories. The people are different.
The Egyptians believed that long before Egypt appeared in the world, the almighty god "NU" existed. He created everything in the world. When he called "Subi", the wind came into being. ; Calling "Tefuna", there will be rain; calling "Habi", the Nile River will flow through Egypt. He calls again and again, and all things appear one by one. Finally, he speaks "man and woman", and in a blink of an eye, Egypt and it was filled with many people.
After the creation work was completed, Nu transformed himself into a man's shape and became the first Pharaoh, ruling the earth and mankind and creating peace and prosperity.
Myths that have always existed in human beings are scattered among the North American Indians and the Maori people of New Zealand. Indian myths say that God created the heaven and the earth, and then led humans up from the underground to live on the earth. Maori mythology says that "Ranchi" and "Baba" are heaven and earth, the source of all things. At that time, heaven and earth were not separated, and everything was dark. His son longed for light, so he pushed the heaven and earth away with force, and light appeared. Human beings who have always been hidden in the darkness are discovered. It turns out that they are also born from heaven and earth.
The belief that humans are transformed from plants has become a Germanic myth. It says that the god Odin (ODIN) was walking on the beach with other gods one day and saw two trees growing on the sandbank, one of which looked like a tree. The other tree was majestic, and the other tree had a graceful posture, so he ordered the two trees to be cut down and made into men and women respectively. Odin first gave life to them, and the other gods gave them reason, language, blood, skin color, etc., becoming the ancestors of the Germans.
The myth that humans were transformed from animals is quite common. Australian mythology says that humans transformed from lizards; American mythology says that humans transformed from mountain dogs, beavers, apes, etc.; Greek mythology also says that a certain tribe of people transformed from swans, and a certain tribe of people transformed from cows.
From this myth of "animals turning into humans", we can find something very close to the theory of evolution. Especially in the American mythology, it is said that humans were transformed from apes, which is completely consistent with the theory of evolution. This coincidence , very intriguing.
There are several myths about the origin of human beings in our country. The earlier one is "Huainanzi Spiritual Chapter": "There are two gods (yin and yang) mixed together, and they are in the camp of heaven... Similar to Qi. Insects (turbid gases turn into insects, fish, birds and beasts), and essence becomes humans (pure gases turn into humans). ” This argument did not receive much attention.
The later theory refers to the fact that when Pangu was dying and transformed into all things, the parasites on his body turned into humans. Yishi Volume 1 quotes the Five Movement Calendar Years: "The insects in (Pangu's) body turned into humans (people) due to the influence of the wind." ” This statement has not spread.
Another theory is that human beings were created by the Yellow Emperor, and then were given limbs and five senses by other gods, Shang Pian and Mulberry. See Huainanzi's chapter on Lin: "The Yellow Emperor gave birth to yin and yang, and Shang Pian gave birth to ears and eyes. Sang Linsheng’s arms and hands…. "This statement is very interesting and very similar to what Germanic said. Unfortunately, what kind of gods Shang Pian and Sang Lin are are not described in other ancient books, leaving only a mystery.
Among all the myths, the theory of "creating man from clay" is the most common and the most popular. For example, the New Zealand myth says that man is made of red clay and his own blood by the god Tiki; Mera The Nicene people also said this; Greek mythology said that God took out earth and fire from the inside of the earth, sent the two brothers Prometheus and Epimetheus to create animals and humans respectively, and endowed humans with various personalities and wisdom.
The Maidu Indians in western North America believe that after the "founder of the earth" created trees, birds and beasts, he said, "I am going to create humans." ” Then he took some dark red soil and mixed it with water to make a man and a woman.
Among all the myths, the most fascinating stories about the creation of humans from clay are the Nuwa of my country and the God of Jewish mythology (the Bible).
It is said that after Pangu opened up the world, I don’t know how many years passed, but Nuwa suddenly appeared between the heaven and the earth. Nuwa felt lonely in this desolate world. One day, she looked at the water and saw herself. She thought it would be great if there were a few people like her in the world who could talk to each other, so she unconsciously grabbed the soil. , mixed with water, made a clay doll according to his own shape, placed it on the ground, and when the wind blew it, it became a living thing, so he named it "man".
It turns out that Nuwa continued to create humans one after another, but the progress was slow and she finally felt tired. When she was thinking about how to create humans quickly to fill the vast land, she leaned against the cliff and made her way. He took off the cane and stirred it lazily in the mud mixed with water. Then he shook the cane and scattered a lot of mud dots. These mud dots fell on the ground. When the wind blew, they all turned into people, so he kept going. The ground waved the cane, and the number of people on the ground continued to increase.
The story of God’s creation of man in the Bible is recorded in the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament. It is said that God spent five days creating all things on earth. On the sixth day, He said: "Let us create man in our image, according to our likeness..." So he created man from the dust of the ground and breathed life into it. After the man's nostrils, he became a living man and was named Adam.
Soon one of Adam's ribs was taken out and made into a woman. Adam said: "This is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. Let us call her woman." 』
In the myths about Nuwa and God creating humans, we can find that the only difference is that they both created humans in their images. This shows that Nuwa and God look similar to humans. . The difference is that the Bible describes woman as being made from man's rib, not clay.
Answer: cestina - Magic Apprentice Level 12-20 20:03
As for the theory of human origins, people have proposed the following theories:
Divine Creation On
Asian Origin Theory
Sea Origin Theory
African Multiple Origin Theory
African Single Origin Theory
Theory of Extraterrestrial Origin
Creationism: It means that God created man. The most famous legend is "God created man". In medieval Europe, whoever dared to question the authenticity of this legend would Okay, I won’t continue to elaborate. I wonder how many people here support this theory?
Asian origin theory: Since Asia is the origin of advanced apes, some people It is believed that humans also originated in Asia. With a series of discoveries such as Javanese Man and Peking Man, this theory became popular for a while. However, with the comprehensive development of ancient human archeology in Africa, and the fossils of ancient apes in China (such as Lufeng Hominin) , great apes) are not considered to be the ancestors of humans. The "Asian origin theory" has declined. I wonder how many "patriots" here still support this theory?
The theory of sea origin: for a long time We have not found any human fossils from 8 million to 4 million years ago. In addition, some physiological characteristics of humans are close to those of marine mammals. Some people believe that human ancestors lived in the sea during this period. However, , with a series of discoveries in recent years, the so-called "fossil blank period" has been filled, who else will support this theory?
African polygenesis: With the archeology of ancient humans in Africa With the full development of the world, many fossils of ancient humans and hominid animals have been discovered in Africa. The theory that "Africa is the origin of human beings" has no one in the mainstream scientific community. The theories of African origins include "multi-origin theory" and "single origin theory". Divided into "origin theory", the multi-origin theory believes that after human beings evolved to the Homo erectus stage, they spread all over the world and then evolved independently. With the frequent human interactions, different ancient humans began to mix and interbreed, and then they became They have become all kinds of modern humans. According to the "multiple origin theory", Peking Man and other Chinese Homo erectus are still the ancestors of modern Chinese people. The "African multiple origin theory" is the current mainstream theory of human origin in China. < /p>
African Monogenetic Theory: In the era when "polygenetic theory" was prevalent, many people could not figure out how the various ancient humans with huge differences around the world could evolve into modern humans with such huge differences. A small species? Although the appearance of modern humans around the world is very different, the physical differences are very small in nature. They cannot have evolved from different ancestors! With the development of DNA technology, people have finally This unsolved mystery was solved. It was discovered that the ancestors of all modern humans were an East African woman 200,000 years ago, codenamed "Eve". Later, the descendants of "Eve" spread to the world, wiping out The original various ancient humans from all over the world became the modern humans who now rule the entire earth. A series of discoveries in recent years (such as pioneers and Homo sapiens) have also proved the correctness of the "single origin theory" .According to the "single origin theory", the ancestors of modern Chinese people looked nothing like monkeys when they arrived in China 50,000 years ago. Peking Man is not our direct ancestor! The "single origin theory" is the current world view. The mainstream theory of human origin.
The theory of extraterrestrial origin: What can I say about this?
And scholars are more focused on debating the "African origin theory" and "African origin theory" Multi-regional evolution theory (African multi-origin theory)”. The theory of African origins believes that modern humans first originated in Africa. They walked out of Africa about 130,000 years ago, spread to Asia, Europe and other places, and replaced the local indigenous people. The multi-regional evolution theory holds that 1 million to 2 million years ago, Homo erectus expanded from Africa to other continents and independently evolved into modern Africa, Asia, Oceania, and Europeans. However, since the 1980s, the results of several genetic studies have made the multi-regional evolution theory less convincing. The origin of human beings in Africa has been basically recognized by foreign anthropologists, but Chinese anthropologists tend to prefer the "multi-regional origin theory"
Answer: Ignore the Night Sky - Beginner Disciple Level 12-21 21:30
The Mystery of Human Origins Europe, especially Western Europe, was once considered the birthplace of mankind since Darwin created it