Ford Motor Company and Accounting

Ford Motor Company and Accounting

It is in the nature of humans to wonder about the unknown and search for answers. At the foundation of nearly every culture is a creation myth that explains how divine inspiration created the world, nature, and humanity. Within each culture, creation mythology provides the very basis of fundamental structure -- who are we? From where did we come? Why are we here? What is our purpose? Creation myths, in fact, influence the way cultures viewed themselves and their place in nature and with the divine.

In fact, myths from different cultures seem to tell the same story -- the nuances may be different, but overall themes are the same; Chinese myths have similar themes to those of native American tribes; Ancient Sumerian mythology has commonalties with many Mesoamerican mythos (Sproul, 1979). How is this possible? How can cultures that have had little physical contact present us with such analogous narratives? These questions grow more perplexing when time is considered. Many of these tales are not only from separate corners of the earth, but also seem to have been written in vastly disparate time periods. This being said, it is still a fact that these cultures do rely on a number of shared stories. The hero exists universally; and often shares a number of elements across cultural boundaries. All cultures have a creation story. Many also possess a mother goddess who relates to fertility. These seemingly universal tales all share one significant element: they answer a fundamental question. How did we get here? Why do our fields yield us a bountiful harvest one season and leave us to starve the next? (Campbell, 1991).

Perhaps it is more imperative that the world be organized in a way that can be universally explained that drives the power of comparative myth. It is this very similarity and thematic commonality that not only poses questions, but proves, in some small way, of the universality of human though patterns, of the way humanity structures its idea of the universe, and of the cross cultural importance of a shared set of basic beliefs. Three of the most interesting creation myths; one from the Zuni tribe in North America, one from China, and one from the very heart of Middle Eastern Civilization, Mesopotamia, show interesting commonalties and perceptions about humanity.

The Enuma Elis is the Sumerian/Babylonia creation myth. Rather than simply an oral tradition, the Enuma Elis was recovered in 1849 from the Mosul, Iraq area, on seven clay tablets, no all of which have been recovered and translated. It is one of the seminal studies for understanding the early Mesopotamian worldview, which was centered on the supremacy of the Gods, and the creation of man to serve those Gods. However, modern scholarship holds that rather than being a sole exposition of the power of a certain religion or philosophy, the primary purpose was to unify the city-states into a nation in which the chief god, Marduk, became the prime God of the culture (Dalley, 2009).

The title of the story comes from the first line, Enuma Elis, meaning "when above," or "when on high," and begins:

When in the height heaven was not named,

And the earth beneath did not yet bear a name,

And the primeval Apsu, who begat them,

And chaos, Tiamut, the mother of them both

Their waters were mingled together,

And no field was formed, no marsh was to be seen;

When of the gods none had been called into being,

And none bore a name, and no destinies were ordained;

Then were created the gods in the midst of heaven (1-9).

As a creation plot, the basis of the Seven Tablets of Creation are that Apsu (male, fresh water) and Tiamat (female, sea water) sire Lehmu and Lahamu (male and female) who are silt deposits as well as Anshar (rim of the sky) and Kishar (rim of the earth). These elements mate to birth Anu (Sky) and so on, creating all the elements of the earth and heavens. Strife ensues, but Marduk (or Bel) triumphs, splits the world into above and below, decides to create lullu (savage humans) to serve the gods, and humans are shaped out of the blood of the executed Gods (Hamilton, 1991).

Note that this explains basic chemistry (the elements combining) and how the world is organized. It also indicates that humans, while made to serve the Gods, were created "out of the image" of Gods themselves.

For the early Chinese, Nu-Kwa, or the Serpent Creator Goddess of Mankind, forms the basis of human creation. After Pan-Gu formed the Universe, the primordial earth was filled with mud, and only dumb animals lived. Nu-Kwa decided to create a new species out of the colors of mud; so she fashioned a new being. This new being did not look quite right to her, too reptilian, so she gave the new ones legs. Generation after generation was required to make these "people" beautiful, but finally, they were acceptable, and worshiped Nu-Kwa, a fact of which she was pleased. Nu-Kwa decided she wanted more humans, so she dipped a vine into foul mud, and swung it around the world to create more people. She told the beautiful batch not to worry, these "outsiders" can do all your work, after all, and someone needs to do it. Now that there was race and class, Nu-Kwa invented sex and marriage, so that she would no longer need to sling mud across the world (Zhang, 1994; Hamilton).

Note the concept of mud resembles the scientific explanation of the primordial ooze, and the idea of moving from dumb animals to reptiles to several varieties of humans corresponds well with the Darwinian theory of evolution; new species evolving over time. Class structure, too, is explained since the early Chinese would likely see people shaped and colored differently as being "similar" but not quite. Too, we have a hierarchy, a worship of Gods, and the need of the Gods, like in Mesopotamia, to have humans to worship and serve (Sproul, 1979).

For the Zuni tribe of North America, creation was more of an emergence. Their mythos is quite complex as a very lengthy story, but the basis of the creation story may summed up as a way for nature to organize itself to produce "eggs" -- the eggs of which then became different species:

In the beginning, there was only moisture, which became clouds. The Great Father Sun, the Creator Awonawilona, thickened the clouds into water that then formed a great sea. With his own flesh Awonawilona fertilized the sea and green algae grew over it. The green algae produced the earth and sky. The marriage of earth and sky and the action of the sun on the green algae produced all living things.