Darwin and Modern ScienceSeward, A. C. (Albert Charles)
Philosophy
Darwin and Modern Science
Seward, A. C. (Albert Charles)
Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882; Evolution (Biology); Science -- History
human race. (W. Ellis, "Polynesian Researches", Second Edition (London,
1832), I. 110 sq. "Ivi" or "iwi" is the regular word for "bone" in the
various Polynesian languages. See E. Tregear, "The Maori-Polynesian
Comparative Dictionary" (Wellington, New Zealand, 1891), page 109.)
However, the same tradition has been recorded in other parts of
Polynesia besides Tahiti. Thus the natives of Fakaofo or Bowditch Island
say that the first man was produced out of a stone. After a time he
bethought him of making a woman. So he gathered earth and moulded the
figure of a woman out of it, and having done so he took a rib out of his
left side and thrust it into the earthen figure, which thereupon started
up a live woman. He called her Ivi (Eevee) or "rib" and took her to
wife, and the whole human race sprang from this pair. (G. Turner,
"Samoa" (London, 1884), pages 267 sq.) The Maoris also are reported to
believe that the first woman was made out of the first man's ribs. (J.L.
Nicholas, "Narrative of a Voyage to New Zealand" (London, 1817), I.
59, who writes "and to add still more to this strange coincidence, the
general term for bone is 'Hevee'.") This wide diffusion of the story
in Polynesia raises a doubt whether it is merely, as Ellis thought, a
repetition of the Biblical narrative learned from Europeans. In Nui, or
Netherland Island, it was the god Aulialia who made earthen models of
a man and woman, raised them up, and made them live. He called the man
Tepapa and the woman Tetata. (G. Turner, "Samoa", pages 300 sq.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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