ABSTRACT
Religion, meaning belief in superhuman or supernatural beings, long has been understood to concern peoples and nations as well as individuals and formal doctrines. Typically, religious “creation myths” are ripe with social themes. In Judaism, for example, the story of the earth’s creation and of Adam and Eve is immediately followed by the long, unfolding epic of God’s chosen nation-Israel-whose collective behavior is as important in seeking divine favor as the behavior of individuals. Similarly, the origin myth of the 16th-century Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico moves quickly from a story about Thought Woman, who nursed the world’s first two sisters, to the acquisition of seeds for plants and animals, then to the birth of sons and daughters and to the creation of families and clans, all their interactions shaping society as well as relations with the gods.
