Mythology, Religious Symbols and Taboos. The Nature of Myths –Worldview –Stories of the Supernatural –Myths –The Nature of Oral Texts –How Myths change.

Mythology, Religious Symbols and Taboos

• The Nature of Myths– Worldview– Stories of the Supernatural– Myths– The Nature of Oral Texts– How Myths change through time

• Understanding Myths– Functional Analysis– Structural Analysis– Psychoanalytic Analysis– Common Themes in Myths

• Origin, Flood, Trickster, Hero

• Religious Symbols– What is a symbol?– The Swastika– The Pentagram– Christian Symbols

• Sacred Art– The Sarcophagus of Lord Pakal– The Meaning of Color

• Sacred Self– Body Alterations and Modifications

• The Symbolism of Music and Dance

The Nature of Myths

• Myths- religious narrative or stories that provide the basis for religious beliefs and practices.–Tell origins, creations, and history of the

world

–Worldview- the way in which societies perceive and interpret their reality.• EX: Navaho and Euro-Americans.

Stories of the Supernatural• People describe their world and express their

worldview in stories and other creative expressions.

• This may include modes as diverse as art, drama, jokes, writing on the walls of public bathrooms, folk music, and festivals.– EX: the story of Snow White.

• This story is European in origin and was first published in 1823 from oral presentations.

– EX: The Yanomamö and the Origin of Plantains

How the Yanomamö got PlantainsThis is a story of the Yanomamö, a fierce and warlike tribe of slash-and-burn cultivators who live in Southern Venezuela and Northern Brazil, as they tell it.

Plantains are a staple food of the Yanomamö today. However, it was not so always. In the beginning only Boreawa used to eat plantains. This was because no one knew about them. Only Boreawa knew about them and how to cultivate them, and he did not let the others know. So everyone else ate only earth and animals. One day, Horonama, who lived by eating earth, was caught in a downpour. It rained so much that he got lost in the forest. Then, quite by chance, he stumbled upon the place where Boreawa had hidden his plantains.

At first, Horonama did not know what to do with the plantains, but by and by he figured out that they were good to eat. Then he sought out Boreawa and asked him how to cultivate this wonderful food. Boreawa told him how to do it and since then, the Yanomamö have always eaten plantains.

Myths• In contrast, myths are sacred stories.• The tell of the origin of:

– world – humankind (regardless of the society)– the activities of gods and spirits.– the nature of illness and death– morality (good from evil)

• Myths are not negative.– people often think of them as false stories told by

primitive peoples.– they are real historical events that took place in the

remote past

The Nature of Oral Texts• In nonliterate societies, and in many literate

societies as well, texts are recited .

• They are more than simple presentations– recitation is performance– speech may change– costumes– facial expressions– body posture – changes in the quality of voice

• All this serves to create an experience.

• Some are specialists

• Oral narratives are frequently very long and complex

• Not always recited as a single, complete narrative and may not even be seen as a single entity.

• Particular segments might be recited at certain times and in particular instances.

• One of the consequences of the oral transmission of stories is that they are frequently unconsciously altered with each generation.– EX: each family may have different versions.– EX: Yanomamö and fire.– EX: Genesis 2:4-3:23 and 1:1-2:3

• Folklorist Alan Dundes notes that written texts that are derived from oral narratives frequently incorporate more that one version of a particular story.

• EX: the Old Testament opens with two creation stories– The earlier text, Genesis 2:4 to 3:23, dates from the

period of the Two Kingdoms, Israel and Judah. – It might have been written between 960 and 915

BCE and contains the story of the Garden of Eden and Man’s Fall.

– This story sets forth the order of creation as man first, then a garden for him to cultivate, next the animals for his entertainment, and finally woman.

• The later text, Genesis 1:1 to 2:3, might have been written after the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BCE during the Exile, but might have been written much earlier

• This is the story of the seven days of creation in which the plants and animals were created before man and man and woman were created together on the sixth day.

• These stories are reflections of the Judeo-Christian worldview.

• They are very patriarchal in many ways– EX: woman (Eve) is derived from man

(Adam)

– in many Western societies men dominate woman and many positions of authority, such as the priesthood, are restricted to men.

– here the religious text is acting as a social charter that explains the proper organization of human relationships.

• Genesis also expresses the Judeo-Christian worldview with respect to nature.

• This worldview appears to be based on two assumptions.

1. The universe is mechanistic and human are its masters.

2. Humans are a categorically different form of creatures than all other forms of life.

How Myths Change Through Time

• Written narratives tend to be very stable, especially if they are not translated into other languages.

• EX: Qur’an forms the foundation of Islam– Muslims believe that the Qur’an represents

the workd of God as revealed to Mohammad by the archangel Gabriel in the early 7th century.

– It was spoken to Mohammas and was initially handed down orally but was soon set down in written form.

• Wogeo Narratives– Inhabit a small island off the coast of New Guinea.– Their myths are called nanasa.– Took place before recorded time.– For the Wogeo they are historical and reflect actual

events.– They are stories of the ancestral gods or nanarang.– The nanarang created the world and the landscape.– Invented important material objects.– Set forth customary behavior.– The look and behaved as people do.– Eventually, they disappeared and were replaced by

the Wogeo ancestors of the people living on the island today.

• Read excerpt

Understanding Myths

• Approaches to Analysis of Myths–Functional Analysis

–Structural Analysis

–Psychoanalytic Analysis

Functional Analysis• The functional school analyzes cultural

traits in terms of the function they serve the society.

• In this view myths are seen as a force to help maintain the society.– EX: Emile Durkheim focused on the impact of

myth on social structure.

– He emphasized the role of myth as the basis for rituals and saw rituals as the means by which individual come together and bond with one another.

• Bronislaw Malinowski wrote:– “Myths fulfils in primitive culture an

indispensable function; it expresses, enhances, and codifies beliefs; it safeguards and enforces morality; it vouches for the efficacy of ritual and contains practical rules for the guidance of man. Myth is thus a vital ingredient of human civilizations; it is not an idle tale, but a hard-working active force; it is not an intellectual explanation or an artistic imagery, but a pragmatic charter of primitive faith and wisdom”.

Structural Analysis• This analysis focus on the underlying

structure of myth.

• This approach is based on the work of Claude Lévi-Strauss.– he pointed out that humans tend to think and

categorize the world in terms of binary opposites

– ex: Genesis 1:4-8

– This focused on structure, not content

– Ex: Gururumba Creation Story

What does this Myth tell us?

• Nature vs culture dichotomy is related to the differences between the sexes.

• Women associated with nature

• Men associated with culture

• Sugarcane is symbolically male changing a unuseful woman to a useful cultural wife.

• Her son.

Psychoanalytic Analysis• Freud saw individual dreams as symbolically

expressing unconscious wishes and a similar process occurring with myths for groups.

• Myths are therefore a type of shared dream.

• Much of his analysis is sexual in nature.– Ex: Little Red Riding Hood

• Girl who is sexually mature• The red cap represents menses• The unbroken wine bottle represents virginity• She meets a wolf/man in the forest• The trees represents phallic symbols• The wolf eats her representing aggressive intercourse.

The Oedipus Complex• This story is most associated with the

psychoanalytic analysis

• Oedipus is a Greek tragic hero who unknowingly kills his father and marries his mother.

• Freud argued that this story represented a deep psychological conflict experienced by all boys.

• Freud believed that these were universal developmental issues.

• As a result, he expected to find these stories cross-cultureally.

Common Themes in Myths• Carl Jung

– In contrast to Freud, Jung thought the myths stemmed from something beyond the individual unconscious.

– Collective unconscious- inborn elements of the unconscious that are manifested in dreams and myths.

– The main characters are called archtypes

• Origin Myths• Flood Myths • Trickster Myths• Hero Myths

Origin Myths• Some common metaphors:

– The birth metaphor• When the supernatural creating power is female,

generally a spontaneous and independent birth.• When the supernatural creating power is male, the birth is

more symbolic– EX:The god vomits or excretes the world or perhaps sacrifices

part of his own body to make the world– EX: Bushongo, a Bantu people from Zaire (read).

• Creation out of Chaos, Darkness, or the Void.– EX: Yoruba, West Africa (read)

Flood Myths

• Stories of floods are widespread.

• One reason lies in the fact that floods are likely to be frequently experienced, as people need to live near a water source.– EX: Noah

– EX: Aztecs (read)

– The Aztec flood story is also a story of apocalypse, or the end of the world , another common theme in religious narratives.

Trickster Myths• Unlike origin myths, Trickster myths tell of other

smaller things.• They usually provide explanations of why things are

the way they are.• How people should and should not behave• They are found in stories all over the world.• Best know:

– Raven (Northwest Coast)– Coyote (American Plains)– Spider (West Africa)

• They are adventurers, gluttons, searchers of sexual pleasures, lazy, and easily bored, dishonest and impulsive.

• Responsible from creating or bringing certain elements into the world (fire or the sun).

Hero Myths• Monomyth (Joseph Campbell; The Hero with a

Thousand Faces)– All heroes follow a basic theme– “A hero ventures forth from the world of common

day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and as decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”

• The monomyth is a common theme encountered in many myths.

• Can you name others?

Religious Symbols• What is a Symbol?

– Like myths, symbols too are important for the study of religion

– Minimally, a symbol may be though of as something that represents something else.

• We can also use symbols to stand for things that are more complex than simple objects.

• Symbols can stand for emotions and complex philosophical concepts that exists only in out minds.

• Symbols can create a supernatural world or create myths about the past.

Religious Symbols

• The Swastika– Basically a pattern of lines set at right angles to one

another, and as such, carries no inherent meaning.– A person seeing this symbol for the first time will

have no idea of its meaning.– However, this symbol can stand for complex ideas

and can carry an emotional resonance.

• Meaning for Nazis, Europeans, Jews

• Meaning for Japanese Buddhist.

The Pentagram• Comes from the Greek pente,

meaning “five”, and gamma which is a letter in the Greek alphabet.

• It can refer to any five-sided figure but is generally used to refer to a five-pointed star called a pentacle.

• Pentagrams are among the most widely used religious symbols, both historically and cross-culturally.

• Some believe it originated as a symbol of a pagan goddess.– her sacred fruit was the apple

• Was associated with Hebrew Scriptures as a symbol of the five book of the Pentateuch (The Torah).

• Early Christians had a variety of meanings– Five wounds of Christ– Star the prophesied the birth of Jesus

• It was only during the Witchcraze that the pentagram began to take on a connotation of evil.– During this time the symbol was referred to as the

“witch’s foot.”

• This association with evil became stronger for many when 20th century Satanists adopted the pentagram as their symbol.

• The Satanist symbol is an inverted pentagram, shown most commonly with a goat’s head in the center.

Christian Symbols• The cross is the symbol that is most associated

with Christianity.

• However, the cross did not gain general acceptance for many centuries after the founding of the Christian religion.

• The cross that is widely used today is the Roman cross.– However, there is considerable variation in the

exact look of the cross symbol.– However, the cross was not the earliest important

symbol in Christianity.– What was it?

• It was the simple fish symbol• One reason given for this is because

Jesus was labeled “fisher of men.”• The most commonly given reason is

that the letters of the Greek word for fish, icthus, form an acrostic.

• icthus is derived from:–Iesous Christos Theou Uiou Soter–(“Jesus Christ of God the Son the

Savior”)

Sacred Art• Artistic representation are often used

to illustrate and supplement religious texts.

• The Sarcophagus of Lord Pakal

• 1949 Mexican archaeologist Alberto Ruiz working at a temple in Palenque.

• By 1952 workers finally reached the bottom of the staircase to find a large stone blocking the passage.

• In side the tomb was perhaps the greatest king who ever ruled Palenque.

• Hanab-Pakal, Pakal the Great

• He was 80 when he died on August, 31 683, after having ruled for 67 years.

• The sarcophagus lid measures 12×7 ft. and is the epitome of Mayan religious art.

Meaning of Color• Colors have cultural meaning. • The ancient temples of the Greeks, Romans,

and Mayans at one time, all contained color.• In English we have 11 basic color terms:

– Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, black, white, and grey.

• A color term, such as blue, is a symbol.• Symbols, including color terms, are arbitrary

and learned; they are parts of cultural traditions. • EX: Navaho ideal blue is turquoise. That color

is considered as celestial and earthly attainment, of peace, happiness, and success.

Sacred Self• Symbols are also used to create sacred realities:

supernatural worlds, sacred spaces, sacred divisions of time, and interpretations of self.

• All people have cultural images of themselves.• These images serve to separate humanity from

the rest of the animal world– That is, an expression of anthropocentrism.– These images serve to distinguish a particular society

from other societies (this is an expression of ethnocentrism).

• All cultures change their physical appearance to conform to cultural images (either good or bad)

• Permanent alterations of the human body.– Infibulation or body piercing

– Tattoos- James Cook 18th century

– Tahitian for ta-tu (“to mark or strike”)

– Karen Padaung of Northern Thailand

– Chinese foot-binding

– Cranial modification

• Body modification in religious practice.– Male circumcision