Lecture two. What is myth?
- It is often used to mean a lie, a mistaken belief, or a misconception.
- Myths are traditional tales or stores.
- Myths are presented in narrative form.
- Myths are handed down in a society from one generation to the next. It is usually impossible to say who first “invented” a particular myth.
- Myths are set in the past.
- Myths are ostensibly “true”, that is, they present themselves as giving an accurate narrative of “what really happened”.
Myths often explain, justify, instruct, or warn.
- An aetiological (病原学的) myth may explain why things are as they are or how certain events, entities, or conditions came into existence.
- A charter myth may offer a justification for a certain rite or social institution.
- A myth may instruct its audience in how people ought or ought not to behave.
- Such instruction frequently takes the form of a waning by showing the consequences of misbehavior.
- Myths frequently concern gods and the supernatural.
- This area of myth overlaps with religion
- One useful distinction is that religion refers to what people do to honor their gods, the rites, ceremonies, and so forth, whereas myth refers to the underlying narratives about those gods.
- Obviously, the categorization of certain narratives about divinities as myths depends largely on whether the observer believes those narratives or not.
Scholars tried to define myth with two types of theories “what” and “why”.
- “What” theories attempt to explain myth by identifying it as a subcategory, derivative, or forerunner of something else.
- Ex. Euhemerus suggested that myth was misremembered history. Later called euhemerism (神化即历史论的论点).
- The theories can’t explain why transformations into myth occur in the first place.
- “why” theories look for wider explanations to identify the impetus in the human mind or human culture that motivates myth-making.
- Psychological and structualist theories fall under this heading.
- “why” theories assume that myth is an extra or transcultural phenomenon; the same narrative elements serve the same functions in different cultures.
- Some overlap exists, of course, between the two types of theories. As we shall see, “what” theories were more common in the nineteenth century and “why” theories in the twentieth.
One very popular theory that has been resurrected over and over since antiquity is that myths are a form of allegory.
- Max Muller developed the allegorical interpretation of myth into what is often called the “Solar Mythology” theory.
- Muller thought that myths were misunderstood statements about the battle between light and darkness.
- In a phrase that has become infamous, Muller said that mythology is a disease of language. He meant that as terms changed meaning, people misinterpreted them.
- The primary challenge to Muller’s theory was mounted by Andrew Lang, who saw explanation as the essential function of myth.
- He thought myth was driven by the same impulse that would later develop into science; in fact, myth was primitive science.
- Thus, all myths were basically aetiological.
Sir James Frazer.
- Myth was a part of a continuum, running from magic through religion to science. He modified the idea of myth as explanation to argue that myth, in all societies was specifically an explanation for ritual.
Bronislaw Malinowski
- Myth contributes to society by helping to maintain the social system. Its origin is less important than its function.
- Malinowski rejected the idea that myth’s primary purpose is no explain, rather than help justify and maintain the social system.
- He called such justificatory myths “charters”; i.e., they provided valideation for the social institutions they described.