All societies have origin stories, accounts of creation that address fundamental questions about the beginnings of the universe, of nature, and of human beings. Each story is rooted in the values and beliefs of the society that created it, telling as much about how its authors saw their own world as it does about how they viewed the distant past. In a sense, the first chapter of this textbook is an origin story. Building on core ideas about biological, social, and cultural change, it offers an explanation of how human history began. As you read the three origin stories included in this chapter, ask yourself what they reveal about the societies that created them. What do they tell you about their authors’ central beliefs about human beings, nature, and the divine?