The common usage of the word myth often carries the meaning of something false or misleading. Those who study myths, however, recognize the universal appeal of these stories and use the word in a more refined way. All peoples create myths to explain various aspects of their surroundings and to identify themselves within a cultural context. In their most general meaning, myths may be thought of as widely repeated explanations of how some cultural institutions came to be the way they are.
More specifically many myths address the ultimate questions of identity, including difficult questions such as Why am I here? Such questions of perspective and attitude can never be answered by the mere accumulation of facts; they must be addressed by myths.
A peoples' cosmological understanding of the universe generally consists of a rather complex and interrelated network of myths. These myths appear to the people as imaginative stories full of vivid imagery, graphically portrayed by meaningful metaphors and symbols. These myths are, in fact, based on the primal convictions and beliefs of the people, and the myths themselves reflect and convey the deeply held social and political values of the culture. These networks of myths further provide an account of the role of human beings within the cosmos and give these humans a standard by which to measure achievements and interpret experiences. Most myths relate to a primeval time during which supernatural gods frequently intervened in the affairs of human beings and contributed to many aspects of the people's culture.
An important aspect of every system of myths is the public ceremony that myth invites. Myths are enacted, reacted, and acted out in rituals, ceremonies, and various forms of drama. Myths are told, songs shouted, chanted, danced, and enjoyed by all the emotions and senses. As William Doty points out in his recent book, Mythography: The Study of Myths and Rituals, myths also provide "images or reference points for a subsequent story, such as a folktale, historical legend, novella, or prophecy."
Another important aspect of myths - and one usually peculiar to them - is that they generally deal with the supernatural. These kinds of stories usually require a suspension of belief in the immediate reality. What is told in myth, then, seems at first to be somehow removed from ordinary reality. Yet myths remain strikingly relevant for the lives of those who create and receive them. Myths somehow create their own reality, a reality that comes in various layers of experience and which is related to everyone in the society in a way that is often more real than straightforward narrative. It is, indeed, precisely because myth is metaphorically removed from reality that, through myth, literally everything can be discussed. All the hidden and unmentionable dimensions of human experience are exposed and made palpable.
Since myths convey a profound truth in the form of a story, they outlast the telling of the story. Also myths are revelatory and acquire the characteristics of religious truth. Since myths are universally valid, they tell us about the nature of reality itself. As Jacques Waardenburg says, "Myths transpose events happening on earth into another realm of reality where they obtain another meaning, and this meaning is transmitted back again through ritual plantation."
Anna
...
Read Full Article
|
