Mythology and Folklore MLLL 3046

Image on  Gratitude Anansi was a great spider who excelled in trickery. This was long ago when spiders only had two eyes. He obtained his food by putting up a bright, shiny net that attracted his prey, whether or not he was already full. Anansi was hindered in his deceitful, greedy ways, however, by his own son, Kweku Tsin. Good of heart, Kweku Tsin frequently foiled his father’s plans. If he caught his father lying, he would tell the truth. If his father put up a net to catch prey when he was not hungry, the young spider would take it down. Thus the father and son lived in animosity for some years. One day, after his son had removed one of his nets from a smartly located position, Anansi grew fed up with his son’s actions. For this, Anansi sought out the chief of gods, Nyankopon. He spoke flatteries to the god and asked him, “Good chief, I am but trying to procure food for myself, yet my ornery son keeps taking my nets down. Perhaps this is because ...

Image on  Wikimedia This is a continuation of my Week 7 Reading Notes on the West African Folktales. As I mentioned in my previous set of notes, I chose these tales because one of my best friends is from Ghana and I would love to know more about her culture. As the last set of notes were about Anansi (Spider) and his trickery, the majority of the second sections of stories were not about Anansi and were more like Aesop’s fables. A lot of these tales had important morals to be learned, and some of them were origin stories. I really love reading about origin stories because it is interesting to learn about how peoples from long ago perceived the world around them and made sense of things. I am also in an Archaeology course right now, so the course material from these classes bleed into each other in a way. The first tale in this section, however, was still about Anansi and his son, Kweku Tsin. I think the contrast between father and son is interesting, and I ...

Anansi on  Wikipedia For the Week 7 Reading, I chose West African Folktales. I chose this unit because one of my best friends is from Ghana, and she is a brilliant girl. These tales were collected from the capital of Ghana, Accra, at a teacher training center in the 1900s. There are many ethnic groups in Ghana, including my friend’s, Ashanti. I thought that it would be interesting to read and learn about her culture. All of these tales were of Anansi who was originally a Spider. The first tale is an origin story of why all of these particular tales are about the Anansi, a trickster. Throughout this reading, I learned that one of the most common characteristics of tricksters is their selfishness, which was very apparent in many tales. Sometimes Anansi uses his cleverness to obtain what he wants, but other times he gets what is coming to him by his rude behavior. I also enjoyed the character Kweku Tsin, Anansi’s son. It seems like in whichever tales the boy appear...