Indigenous Sacred Narratives

3 credits · Undergraduate

(3 hrs Lecture) In Indigenous traditions, storytelling is an important means by which cultural values, traditional knowledge and worldviews are taught. In this course, students are introduced to the vast corpus of sacred narratives found in Indigenous religious traditions in the Americas. Narratives are examined to identify mythic themes/story types, human and non-human characters, cultural values, and traditional teachings. Indigenous and academic concepts are used to understand the importance and meaning of sacred narratives. Methodological and interpretive issues in the study of myth are explored.