First Man (Áłtsé Hastiin)
Also known as: Atsé Hastín (Matthews's spelling)
Mythological Narrative
One of the first beings of the lower worlds, who with First Woman leads the people through the emergence, helps order the world above, and in many tellings finds the infant Changing Woman.
Scholarly Commentary & Evolution
## In the lower worlds
Áłtsé Hastiin, First Man, is formed in the lower worlds, in many tellings together with First Woman, and he is a leader of the beings who journey upward through successive worlds into this one, the Glittering World. Tellings differ on the number and colours of the worlds and on how First Man and First Woman come into being.
## Ordering the world
In the world above, First Man takes part in shaping and ordering things: setting the sacred mountains in place and, in many tellings, arranging the stars in the sky, a careful work that Coyote disrupts by scattering the rest. He holds a medicine bundle of great power.
## An ambiguous power
First Man is not simply good. In some tellings he is associated with witchcraft as well as with protective knowledge, and he is linked to the origin of the monsters that later threaten the people. Diné tradition treats power as something that can be used for good or ill, and First Man embodies that ambiguity.
## Finding Changing Woman
In many tellings, including Zolbrod's, it is First Man who finds on Chʼóolʼį́ʼí the turquoise figure that becomes the infant Changing Woman, and he and First Woman raise her; Matthews's version has no such fostering.
Academic Discussion & Critique
Exchange peer-reviewed hypotheses, comparative Indo-European etymologies, and archaeological field interpretations regarding First Man (Áłtsé Hastiin).
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