There was a good example of ethnocentrism in the creation of myth of the Cherokee.
According to the story, the Creator made three clay images of a man and baked them in an oven. In his haste to admire his handiwork, he took the first image out do the oven before it was fully baked, and found that it was too pale.
He waited a while and then removed a second image; it was just right, a full reddish-brown hue. He was so please, with his work that he sat there and admired it , completely forgetting about the third image.
Finally he smelled it burning, but by the time he could rescue it from the oven it had already been burnt, and it came out completely black.
Other Indians myth said that the Creator made three-light skinned men, but then each washed himself soon after creation in different shades of muddy water which altered their color.
Sometimes it was simply said that God mistakenly created black and white men first but found them repugnant to look at and so created a red man ‘who was his favorite’.
Ethnocentrism in the creation of myth
