MYTH AND RITUAL IN PRELITERATE SOCIETY ANT 4360
Garrett _Cook@baylor.edu
254-710-4433
MMSCI 318
Office Hours: T 12:30-3, W 10-2, Th 12:30-2, F 1-3
I sometimes have to attend meetings during office hours. You are welcome to
drop by, but an email in advance may be used to confirm an appointment.
SYLLABUS AND PROSPECTUS
INTRODUCTION
This is really a course in the anthropology of religion, but as the title suggests we
approach this topic mainly through myth and ritual, especially in the context of
the religious life of traditional societies. The term mythology refers to the stories
which explain and justify a way of life, and account for the origins of a people,
their culture and its major institutions, and the world order.1 Perhaps most
importantly in my view a myth is the story that an individual or a community
believes that it is living. Defined in this way, myth may be understood as a
special kind of literature, even when it is not written. In traditional societies
where myths take on conventional relatively static forms and endure for long
periods of time they recount the exploits of culture heroes, of exemplary beings
whose lives and doings establish and justify a way of life, and they also offer
guidance and models for living. Myths are the charters for cultures and for their
constituent institutions, and often provide scripts for rites of passage and of
renewal. They are one important medium for the expression of the culture's
principal themes.
Rituals may be any stereotyped behaviors called forth in predictable
circumstances2, but within the larger set of rituals there are more elaborate core
rituals. They are enactments of the major themes of a culture, providing
armatures, symbolic metaphorical models, which are clothed with cultural detail
and trappings that add richness to a culture's institutions. Core rituals occur
predictably at crisis points in temporal cycles, eg. seasons, political accessions,
life cycle transitions, etc. Some rituals are direct enactments or re-enactments of
narrative mythology and may take a quasi-narrative form, for example a dance
drama or a pilgrimage that re-enacts the activities of founders of the world order.
Often in major cultural performances narrative mythology and ritual are
combined in multi-media events that mark the most significant temporal
passages.
1For the native participant the core (often religious) mythology is conceived as "history" and is
unquestionably true. For the analyst mythology is understood as ideological and psychological
material having a history and related to the history of the carriers of the tradition, but not "true"
in the empirical scientific or historical sense.
2 One useful way to separate ritual from habit is to stipulate that ritual refers to the symbolic
expression of the sentiments attached to a situation.
In anthropology myth and ritual are the principal documents from which
thematic interpretations of cultures are derived. This course offers a review of
the major findings of cultural anthropology about the roles and meanings of
myth and ritual as elements in expressive cultures and religions, technical
instruction in describing and analyzing myth and ritual, and an overview of
several influential theoretical frameworks for relating myth and ritual to social
functions, to processes of societal change, and to emotional, developmental and
cognitive psychology. The examples and case studies that will be investigated
emphasize traditional tribal and peasant societies, but you will also be
challenged to try to apply the models and methods to contemporary American
expressive culture.
REQUIRED TEXTS
The Heathens by William Howells
The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
Ritual and Belief by David Hicks
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EVALUATION AND GRADING
Unit exams and unit writing assignments (60%)
Structuralism and cosmogony-Genesis and the Popol Vuh
The morphology of the hero tale- Propp, Campbell and Popol
Vuh
An analytical comparative essay on pilgrimages
Ethnographic and interpretive account of a ritual
Ritual symbols and their meanings- the Holy Ghost People
Exams on readings from Howells and Hicks
Research Project (30%) Combined ethnographic and literature research or
literature research on a narrative myth or core ritual describing it in
cultural context and explicating its symbolism, meanings and social and
psychological functions.
Class participation and formal presentations (10%)
Attendance Bonus: 2 points added to final grade if you do not miss any
classes.
UNITS AND COURSE STRUCTURE
Natural history of the supernatural
Morphology of myths and rituals: structuralism and psychoanalytical theories
Functionalisms: sociological and psychological theories
Cross cultural patterns of belief and practice: animism, magic, and souls,
shamans and priests, witches and sorcerors, ancestors, gods, priests
The emergence of new cults and religions