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 Plantains
This 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 JudeoChristian 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 JudeoChristian 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
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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
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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”)
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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