试论蕴涵于印第安创世传说的印第安传统信仰

On the Traditional American Indian Belief Embodied in American Indian Creation Legends

印第安创世传说大致可以分为三类。第一类传说描绘创世神灵在自然界生灵协助下创造世界的过程,第二类讲述自然界生灵如何帮助来自天空或地底的印第安始祖开拓生存空间,而在第三类中,则是以动物形象出现的文化英雄创造了世界。虽然所有这些创世传说的具体内容不尽相同,但它们全都形象而具体地彰显出独特的印第安传统信仰。印第安人认为,创造世界的神灵既超越世间万事万物,又融入万事万物之中;而因其对创世进程的积极参与,万事万物一方面被创世神灵赋予精神力量,另一方面又与神灵构成交互关系,共存于一个神圣环形之中。因此,印第安人不仅尊崇创世神灵和自然界万物生灵,而且崇拜把宇宙间万事万物统一于自身的神圣环形,把神圣环形之中的和谐平衡统一视作最完美的境界。

American Indian creation legends can be roughly classified into three kinds. The first kind of legend describes the creation process during which the creation deity makes the world with the aid of natural beings, and the second kind recounts how natural beings assist the Indian ancestor who either descends from the sky or emerges from the underground to open up a living space, while in the third kind, creation is accomplished by a culture hero that assumes an animal image. Despite the diversified accounts concerning the beginning of the world in these creation legends, all of them reflect, vividly and specifically, the singular traditional belief of American Indians. According to American Indians, the creation deity dwells beth above all natural beings and within all of them; as for all natural beings, because of their active participation in the creation process, they are alive with the spiritual power breathed into them by the creation deity on the one hand; on the other hand, they share reciprocating relations with the creation deity and coalesce with the latter in the sacred hoop. Consequently, American Indians not only honor and revere ＇ the creation deity as well as all natural beings, but also worship the sacred hoop that unifies all things of the universe into itself, viewing the quintessential condition of harmony, balance and totality within the sacred hoop as the most ideal state.