American Literature / Unit 3 AML 0208 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Origin of Disease and Medicine
Captions available
The idea
In the Cherokee account, printed from Mooney's collection of eighteen ninety-one, animals and people once talked together and lived in peace. People multiplied until the animals were cramped, and the bow was invented. The animals answer by inventing diseases, and the plants answer by providing cures.
In practice
Animals invent illness; plants invent the remedy.
Where people slip
The story explains a balance, not a punishment.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Something wrong in this lesson? Flag it