Myth

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Myth

• 22.11.2006

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• 6.12
• Essay II deadline (1200)
• (not 29.11)
• 13.12
• Essay II feedback
• 10. Lecture Religious movements cargo cults
• Thu 14.12, 10-12 - ????

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Readings

• Lévi-Strauss, C. 1955. The Structural Study of
  Myth. In The Journal of American Folklore LXVII
  428-44 (Reprinted in Lessa and Vogt)
• Dundes, A. 1962. Earth-Diver Creation of the
  Mythopoeic Male. In American Anthropologist LXIV
  1032-51. (Reprinted in Lessa and Vogt)

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Discussion topics

• General
• Anthropological definitions
• Myth as a story
• Myth vs history
• Myth vs folktale, legend
• Anthropological approaches to myth
• Rationalist
• Functionalist
• Psychonalytical
• Structuralist
• Contemporary studies
• Urban myths

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Myth

• Multiple meanings ambiguity
• Traditional story
• Myth legend, folktale
• Erroneous belief
• eg. urban myth, urban legend
• Fabrication, defiance of facts
• eg. myth of Aryan supremacy
• Sacred story
• Closest to common anthropological understanding

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Mythos

• Mythos Myth
• Mythos
• "utterance," "speech," or "story"
• an ambiguous term
• Eg. Odyssey
• Odysseus' son Telemachus
• tells his mother Penelope to leave mythos to men
• "public debate and discussion"
• asks Nestor to tell him whatever mythos he may
  have heard of his missing father
• "story," "tale"

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Mythos

• Eg. Iliad
• Phoenix
• teaches Achilles to be both a speaker of mythos
  and a doer of deeds
• mythos "word"
• Eg. Electra
• Electra
• promises to tell her husband the whole mythos
• Mythos true story
• Eg. Herodotus (Histories)
• recounts a story (mythos) about Heracles which
  has "no basis in fact
• Mythos false story

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Anthropological definitions

• Frazer
• "By myths I understand mistaken explanations of
  phenomena, whether of human life or of external
  nature."
• Rose
• "We may then define myth proper as the result of
  the working of naïve imagination upon the facts
  of experience."

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Anthropological definitions

• Eliade
• Myths narrate a sacred history they relate
  an event that took place in primordial Time, the
  fabled time of beginnings.
• Keesing
• "Myths are accounts about how the world came to
  be the way it is, about a super-ordinary realm of
  events before or behind the experienced natural
  world they are accounts that are believed to be
  true and in some sense sacred."
• Needham
• "Myths are timeless stories that describe the
  origin of something - the world, a natural
  phenomenon or some aspect of culture and confront
  us with at least one event or situation which is
  physically or humanly impossible."

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Anthropological definitions

• Malinowski
• Myths are pragmatic charters of primitive
  faith and moral wisdom.
• Burkert
• Myths are traditional tales with secondary,
  partial reference to something of collective
  importance.
• Lincoln
• Mythology is ideology in narrative form.

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Myth as a story

• Two ways of conceptualisation
• Myth ? history
• Myth ? history
• Myth vs history
• Myth vs legend, folktale
• Based on comparison of variour criteria
• fictionality
• time period
• setting
• religious importance
• main characters

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Myth ? history

• Myths poor versions of history
• Originally depictions of historical events
• With time
• imbued with symbolic meaning
• transformed, shifted in time or place, reversed
• Dynamics of memory about an event
• 'dispassionate account' 'legendary occurrence'
  'mythical status'
• account takes on a life of its own
• the facts of the original event have become
  irrelevant

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Myth vs history

• Distinctive worldview
• Based on myth cyclical
• Based on history linear
• Mythical thought vs rational, scientific
  thought
• Goody (literate vs illiterate societies)
• Lévi-Strauss (hot vs cold societies)
• Sahlins (Hawaiians vs English)
• Todorov (Aztecs vs Spaniards)

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Myth vs folktale and legend

• Myth, folktale and legend folklore
• William Bascom
• The Forms of Folklore  Prose Narratives (1975)
• Donna Rosenberg
• Folklore, Myth, and Legends A World Perspective
  (1996)
• Distinction between folktale, myth and legend
• fictionality
• time period
• setting
• religious importance
• main characters

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Myth vs folktale and legend

• Myths
• sacred stories and narratives
• occurred in the remote past
• non-humans (gods, monsters) as the principal
  characters

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Recurring themes in myths

• Creation myths cosmogonic myths
• creation of universe, life and/or humanity
• creation of order from primordial chaos
• creation ex nihilo
• Big Bang theory as a creation myth?
• Trickster myths
• tricks played by gods or heroes
• sometimes maliciously
• usually with ultimately positive intentions

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Recurring themes in myths

• Cataclysmic / destruction myths
• floods
• seasonal death and rebirth
• other
• origin of fire
• coming millennium
• relations between the living and the dead
• two approaches
• Diffusion/ Existence of an original myth
  (Ur-Myth)
• Common experience of humankind

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Myth vs folktale and legend

• Folktales
• non-sacred fictional stories
• occur "once upon a time"
• feature both human and non-human characters
• Examples
• Fairy tales
• Fables

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Myth vs folktale and legend

• Legends
• regarded as true stories
• primarily about human heroes
• occurred in the recent past
• may feature some religious references
• Example Legends of Odysseus

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Study of myths

• First critical studies of myth Ancient Greeks
• Plato
• first to use the word mythologia
• Euhemerus
• gods renowned historical figures
• became deified in time
• Allegorical interpretations
• Greek gods moral principles
• Allegorical truths taken literally
• Eg. myth of Kronos, who devoured his children,
• kronos "time, destroys everything

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Study of myths

• 19th c
• Max Müller
• comparative mythology
• establishing origin of myth by comparative
  methods
• debate over the primacy of myth vs ritual in
  religion
• the myth school vs the ritual school

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Myth vs ritual debate

• The myth school
• Eg. Bachofen, Müller, influenced by German
  idealism
• Focus Indic Vedas and Indo-European myths
• Müller
• European culture closer to Indic than Semitic
  tradition
• Aryan culture
• Mythology mind inner forms of religion
• The study of texts

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Myth vs ritual debate

• The ritual school
• Eg. Durkheim, Robertson Smith, Lévy
• Focus on rituals of the Hebrew, and the Semites
• Robertson Smith
• Earliest religions ritualistic
• More mythical more developed
• Eg. Protestantism anti-ritirualistic
• Rituals behaviour external forms of
  religion
• Empirical research

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Antropological approaches to myth

• Rationalist
• Eg. 19 c. evolutionists
• Functionalist
• Eg. Malinowski
• Psychoanalytical
• Eg. Dundes
• Structuralist
• Eg. Lévi-Strauss

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Rationalist approach

• Myth as a primitive scientific theory
• rationalizations of the fundamental mysteries of
  life
• explanations of natural events and forces
• Eg. creation myths

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Rationalist approach

• Evolutionists
• Eg. Müller
• Myths explain origins of natural phenomena
  (naturism)
• Eg. Tylor and Andrew Lang
• Myth-producing certain stage of savage
  mentality
• No modern myths (Tylor)
• Eg. Frazer
• explanations of origin
• means by which people make sense of the world
• Golden Bough myth of the death and regeneration
  of king
• primitive explanation of natural cycles and
  political life

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Functionalist approach

• sociological approach
• myth and social reality are functionally
  interrelated
• emphasis on normative and social aspects
• Literal reading of the myth - influence of Boas
• Myth as a direct description of subject matter
• But also focus on what myths do rather than
  say
• Myths
• a type of social control
• teach morality and social behavior
• ensure stability in a society
• validate present social relations

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Functionalist approach

• Malinowski Myth in Primitive Psychology (1926)
• To understand myth
• one has to observe it in its total social context
  
• myths
• assert fundamental moral and social rules
• confirm and maintain the social state of affairs
• myth a social charter
• Malinowskis functionalism charterism
• myth a practical guide to activities

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Functionalist approach

• E.g. Trobriand origin myths
• explain and validate incest taboos
• legitimate food taboos
• justify ranks in society
• E.g. myth of the flying canoe
• making a canoe fly with improper magic utter
  failure
• assertion of proper values, norms and ritual
  behaviour

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Functionalist approach

• Malinowski
• The myth comes into play when rite, ceremony, or
  a social or moral rule demands justification,
  warrant of antiquity, reality, and sanctity
• myths have an political function
• means to justify the existing social order
• By presenting it as sacred or natural
• "disguised propoganda in the service of those
  in power"

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Functionalist approach

• Myth
• Similar functions in civilised and primitive
  worlds
• Myth is to the savage what, to a fully believing
  Christian, is the Biblical story of Creating, of
  the Fall, of the Redemption by Christs sacrifice
  on the Cross. As our sacred story lives in our
  ritual, in our morality, as it governs our faith
  and controls our conduct, even so does his myth
  for the savage.

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Psychoanalytical approach

• Emphasis on symbolic rather than historical
  aspects of myth
• Focus on universals irrespective of cultural
  context
• Freud
• Mythology psychology projected on the external
  world
• Myths - symbolic reflections of unconscious and
  repressed fears
• Myths ? dreams
• Interpretation of Dreams (1900)
• Freud Oppenheim Dreams in Folklore (1911)

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Psychoanalytical approach

• Roheim
• Dream-origin of mythology
• Eg. Creation myths excremental pressure during
  sleep
• Eg. Flood myths vesical dreams
• The Gates of Dream (1952)
• Jung
• myths are products of the collective unconscious
• Contain archetypes

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Psychoanalytical approach

• Dundes
• Earth-Diver Creation of the Mythopoeic Male
  (1962)
• Earth-diver myth
• The creation of earth from dirt or mud
• Waters cover earth
• Various animals dive to bring up sand and mud
• One animal succeeds
• mud put on surface of water becomes land
• widely spread theme especially among Amerindians

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Psychoanalytical approach

• Dundes
• relies on orthodox Freudian theory
• Two theoretical assumptions
• (universal) male pregnancy envy
• desire to give anal/cloakal birth

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Psychoanalytical approach

• Numerous cross-cultural examples
• Genesis
• Woman born from a man
• Noah builds a womb-ark
• Hinduism
• Ganesh formed from the excrement of his mother
• Chukchee creation myth
• Raven defecates and creates the world
• Cosmic egg myths
• Spider creation myths

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Psychoanalytical approach

• Numerrous cross-cultural examples
• Clinical data of male fantasies
• Freud, Jung, Lombroso, etc
• Nahuatl
• gold as the excrement of gods
• teocuitlatl gold
• teotl god
• cuitlatl excrement

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Structuralist approach

• Emphasis on structure rather than content of myth
• Myths not necessarily true stories based on facts
• Focus on the relations between constitutive
  elements of myth
• Cracking of the myths code
• Vladimir Propp
• Morphology of the Folktale (1958)
• breaking down folktales into narrative units or
  narratemes
• Russian folktales 31 generic narratemes

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Structuralist approach

• Lévi-Strauss
• Emphasis on universal binary opposites
• Application of structural linguistics (Saussure)
• Two ways to study language
• diachronical / syntagmatic
• historical development
• synchronical / paradigmatic
• components and their interrelations

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Structuralist approach

• Lévi-Strauss
• Structural approach to myth
• Two seminal essays
• The Structural Study of Myth (1955)
• The Story of Asdiwal (1961)
• The Savage Mind (1962)
• Mythologiques (1964-72)
• Etc.

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Structuralist approach

• Meaning of the myth
• not in their manifest content
• but in the underlying structure
• beyond and beneath the emic description
• Myth
• not a true story based on facts
• cultural code
• direct insight into the ways the human mind
  operates
• underlying structure
• not evident at the empirical level

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Structuralist approach

• Myth
• To be studied in relation to other myths
• Myth summation of all its variants
• No original version of myth, all versions equal
• transformations (history)
• Synchronic over diachronic reading
• Reveals recurring themes and substitutions
• Makes repetitions meaningful

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Structuralist approach

• mythemes
• minimal meaningful units of the myth
• arrangable into thematic columns (bundles of
  relations)
• Eg.
• 1 2 4 7 8
• 2 3 4 6 8
• 1 4 5 7 8
• 3 4 5
• 6 8

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Structuralist approach

• Reading of the myth
• Chronological / diachronic reading
• Rows (top to bottom)
• Understanding the myth
• de-chronologized / synchronic
• columns (left to right like an orchestral score )
  
• Reveals a historical structure
• Retained in additions, translations
• Correlation of columns
• reveal contradictions on an ideological level

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Criticism of structuralist approach

• False bases
• structural linguistics
• challenged by Chomsky
• cybernetic model of the brain
• binary computer not a good model for intelligence
• Decontextualised and arbitrary choice of
  ethnographic material
• Static nature
• Wendy Doniger in Myth and Meaning (1995)
• We must jump off the Lévi-Strausss bus one stop
  before he does. And once we have jumped off, we
  find that we are not there yet. We have to get on
  another bus (theological, psychological), or,
  indeed several buses.

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Criticism of structuralist approach

• Douglas
• Against the butterfly collecting approach in
  the study of myths
• Importance of context
• Who tells it?
• To whom it may concern?
• On what occasion?
• Red Riding Hood An Interpretation from
  Anthropology (1995)
• Childrens vs 19th c French version
• different routes to the grandmothers house
• the girl gets to bed with the wolf
• the wolf and the girl eat parts of the
  grandmother
• Story as a metaphor of female initiation

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Monomyth

• Joseph Campbell The Hero with a Thousand Faces
  (1949)
• Study of heroic myth
• Search for a grand theme and unifying theory
  between cultures
• monomyth
• a universal pattern that lies beneath all heroic
  myths
• Three chanracteristic stages of heros journey
• Departure (separation) Inititation Return
• a threefold rite of passage
• Feminist critque (Bowie)
• Applies to male stories only

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Contemporary studies

• Urban legend/myth A type of modern folklore
• supposedly-true stories
• circulate by word of mouth / FOAF
• play on or reflect peoples fears
• fear of change, new technology, etc.
• Jan Harold Brunvand
• The Vanishing Hitchhiker American Urban Legends
  Their Meanings (1981)
• legends, myths, and folklore also in modern
  societies

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Urban myth

• An example of classic urban legend
• Papal Tiara the pope's crown
• Vicarius Filii Dei
• Vicar of the Son of God
• If numerised 666
• No clear proofs"

• d

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Urban myth

• Scheper-Hughes Theft of Life The Globalization
  of Organ Stealing Rumours (1996)
• International trade of organ transplants / body
  parts
• global rumours of body-snatching
• Russia organs sold to rich Arabs
• Sub-Saharan Africa vampires steal organs
• Italy black ambulance
• Metaphoric substitutions, the basic story line
  the same
• Stories more common at times of upheaval and
  crisis