Does Myth Originate From a source or need that is common to all humanity? Does an analysis of myth lead us to an understanding of what it is to be, and how we came to be, human?
Origin
Function
source/need common in humans
studying myth give insight on humanity?
Why Myth Arises
How Myth's arise
Why myth persists
How myth persists
Theories
Contemporary theories
19th century theories
"Nineteenth-century theories tended to see the subject matter of myth as the physical world and to see the function of myth as a literal explanation of the world. Myth was typically taken to be the primitive counterpart to science..." (2)
"Science rendered myth not merely redundant but outright incompatible, so that moderns...had to reject myth." (2-3)
Subsequent theories have tended to see myth as almost anything but an outdated counterpart to science...." (3)
"A theory which maintains that myth functions to explain physical process is committed to the falsity of myth if the explanation given processes is committed to the falsity of myth if the explanation given is incompatible with a scientific one." (3)
"A Theory which maintains that myth functions to unify society may circumvent the issue of truth by asserting that society is unified when its members simply believe that the laws they are expected to obey were established long ago by revered ancestors." (3)
"Myth, whatever else, is a story...about something significant [to the culture of its origin]." (3-4)
Universals of myth
"Myth accomplishes something significant for adherents, but I leave open what that accomplishment might be." (5)
"...the need that myth functions to fulfill is the same as the need that myth originates to fulfill." (5)
"...handbooks of classical mythology that matter-of-factly connect Adonis' annual trek to Persephone and return to Aphrodite with the course of vegetation presuppose a view of myth as the primitive counterpart to science." (9)
"The main figures [of myth must] be personalities." (4)
All cultures have mythological stories
All Humans have a desire to gather and transmit stories and to explain the nature of the world or society
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