Religion:Awonawilona

From HandWiki

In the myths of the Pueblo Zuni people of New Mexico, Awonawilona is known as the "Supreme life-giving power" and the creator of all[1] with a name translating to "All Container".[2][3] The deity's gender is not specified in myth and referred to as either he or she.[1][4] In the beginning, Awonawilona created and became all configurations of water in the world; as a result fog, clouds, large bodies of water, and air were formed.[1][2][3][5] In other versions, fog and steam were already existent before Awonawilona.[4] The new combination of light, clouds, and air allowed for vegetation and made Awonawilona the "essence" of life[1] as they created the universe.[4] The universe was made up of 9 layers: the first layer was the earth and the other 8 were homes for various animals, birds, and trees.[4] Eventually Awonawilona chose to embody the sun and created the deity the Sun-father, which lead to the formation of several other gods such as Awitelin Tsita (The Four-Fold Containing Mother Earth), and Apoyan Tachu (All Covering Father-sky)[1] from green scum formed over the waters.[2] As the myth unfolds, the deities created by Awonawilona leads to the creation of humans and all living creatures.[1][2]

Like all mythologies, there are many different versions of the Zuni creation story. In one version, the creature Poshaiyankya escapes from the four-fold womb of Awitelin Tsita and convinces the Sun father, Awonawilona, to send the Ahayuta, the twin gods of war, to bring the rest of womb dwellers into the light.[2] Other versions of the myth say that Awonawilona sent the twin gods of war to bring forth people that would give him offerings and prayers.[4]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Gray, Louis Herbert; Moore, George Foot; MacCulloch, John Arnott (1916) (in en). The Mythology of All Races .... Marshall Jones Company. https://books.google.com/books?id=uuQWAAAAYAAJ&dq=Awonawilona&pg=PA206. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 "Awonawilona". Oxford Reference. http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095437543. 
  3. 3.0 3.1 Markovich, Nicholas C.; Preiser, Wolfgang F. E.; Sturm, Fred G. (2015-06-03) (in en). Pueblo Style and Regional Architecture. Routledge. ISBN 9781317398837. https://books.google.com/books?id=lA3ICQAAQBAJ&dq=Awonawilona&pg=PA23. 
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Bonvillain, Nancy (2014). The Zuni. ISBN 9781438163369. OCLC 940588711. 
  5. Stevenson, Matilda Coxe (1898). "Zuni Ancestral Gods and Masks" (in en). American Anthropologist 11 (2): 33–40. doi:10.1525/aa.1898.11.2.02a00000. ISSN 0002-7294. https://zenodo.org/record/1448976.