1ENGLISH LITERATURE
1. What is the setting?
After reading the stories, it can be said that all are the mythical stories or the symbolic
narratives. The narratives state how the world began and how people first came to inhabit
it. The term ‘myth’ has a popular usage in the false and fanciful stories ascribing varying
degrees of truth to the myth creation. In the society, the creation myth is considered as
carrying profound truth in symbolical or metaphorical terms. These are considered
commonly as cosmological myths which are described as ordering the cosmos out of a
state of amorphousness or chaos. The setting of all the stories is around Rangi and Papa
appearing in the creation myth which explained the world’s origin. Since , every culture
has its own traditions and stories regarding the way the world was created, the Maori
culture also has their own version. The most important stories talk about the way
darkness becomes light, earth and sky are separated, nature evolved and nothing became
something.
2. Who are the characters?
The Maori culture emphasizes on the importance of the sophisticated religion having a
mythological structure which emphasizes the spiritual subjects to be extremely important.
There are many variations of the Maori Creation which differs a little from the minor
details. However, there are major themes along with the characters that are evident in all
of the versions. It further helps to maintain a central homogeny between the different
accounts. As far as the characters are concerned, Io is the referred to as the Supreme
Being and creator of the whole universe. Ranginui and Papatuanuku or the Sky father and
the Earth mother have been created by him. The sky father and the earth mother have
created numerous offspring and Tumatauenga is the fiercest of all. Another offspring,
Tanemahuta wants to separate the father and the mother. There is a dissenting vote from

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Setting and Characters in Maori Creation Myths

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