Myth, Symbolism & Taboo
Weeks 3 & 4- Chapter 2
Lehman & Myers
•Leonard- The Study of Mythology
•Douglas- Taboo
•Daugherty- Serpent Handling as a Sacrament
Myth, Mythic Beliefs, Mythic
Narratives & Mythology
• Myth:
• Metaphorical method of knowing & affirming
reality without empirical data
• Mythic Beliefs
• Mythic Narratives
• Factual or non-factual accounts
• Significant to the cultural tradition
The Study of Mythic Narratives
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Myths are survivals of the irrational past
Mythic narratives are allegories
Mythic narratives are social charters
Mythic narratives are symbolic representations
of the dominant values of society
Mythic narratives are rationalizations for rituals
Mythic narratives are expressions of
unconscious/subconscious wishes
Mythic narratives are logical, mediating models
Mythic narratives are epic dramas of
supernatural beings.
Folklore & Myth
• Folklore: Tales, legends, proverbs, riddles, &
myths important in the study of culture.
• Myth- a statement of primeval reality among
institutions, justifying the existing order & gives
a retrospective pattern of moral values, of
sociological discrimination & burdens, & magical
belief.
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Function: strengthen tradition.
Myths development
• Set up oppositions
• Set about to resolve these oppositions
Myth
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Important in the analysis of comparative religion
Parts of larger ideological systems
Creation stories
Divine/semi-divine animals and culture hero characters
Performance element
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Example--Adam and Eve
Need not be scientifically or objectively true
Validity within cultural context
Approaching Myths
• Considered to be truthful accounts of the past
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orally transmitted or textual accounts
• Studied in the West since the Greeks
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Platonic confusion of myth as fallacy
• Anthropological emphasis on culture-specific
meanings
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Joseph Campbell
• looking for universal themes in myth
• modern study of myth
• multidisciplinary
Symbolism
• Symbol is something that represents
something else (i.e. Human language ability).
• C. Geertz
• Religious system-cluster of sacred symbols
possessing a power or force (mana)
emanating from the spiritual world
Study of Symbolism
• Important to the study of religion
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less than clear definition
something that represents something else
enhancement of the importance of what is symbolized
• Symbols
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multivocalic nature
often considered to have mana, force, or power
provide people with an emotional and intellectual
commitment
• Durkheim
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stand for revered values, reaffirm cultural value system
Taboos
• Term (Tabu & Kapu) originated in the Pacific
Islands, anthropologists associated it with images
of “savage” Polynesians observing mystical
prohibitions.
• Every society has restrictions that limit behavior
in one respect or another, usually associated with
sex, food, rites of passage, sacred objects &
people.
• Most taboos are reinforced by the threat of
punishment by supernatural forces.
Incest Taboo
• Incest Taboo is the absolute forbiddance of
sexual contact between certain close
relatives.
• Variations across cultures & time
• Present in almost all societies
The Study of Mythology
By S. Leonard & M. Mc Clure
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What are Myths and Why Study Them?
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Inquiry into meaning making
Open-ended living texts
• Intertwined nature of the uses of myth in diverse cultures
• Ways that myths can be seen to embody cultural attitudes, values &
behaviors.
• Apparent rewards of answers
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Modern Anthropology
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The Rise of Psychology
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B. Malinowski
“real” in performance
Myth and the unconscious
Sigmund Freud & Carl Jung
Joseph Campbell: Literary & Cultural Clinic
Claude Levi-Strauss & Structuralism
Class Activity
• Identify a myth in your or some other
culture, analyze and describe it on an short
essay.
• Think of various taboos that exists in many
societies, describe them and their
functionality.
• Draw and describe a symbol meaningful to
you.
Taboo
By Mary Douglas
• Taboo
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definitions
appears “irrational” to outside observer
19th century misconception of “false science”
breach of conduct has repercussions
theories of contagion
Taboo
By Mary Douglas
• In the Eye of the Beholder
• culturally defined conceptions of reality
• “dirt” or “beauty”
• contextualizing taboos within the larger
system
• modern approach as a problem of human
learning
• no objective view of the world
Taboo
By Mary Douglas
• Learning
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filtering, organizing, and classifying process
culturally constructed universe
unique worldviews of relatively isolated groups
the universe is a system of rules
Western differentiation and classifications
• The Seat of Mana
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taboos can express political ideas
gradings of power
Polynesian belief about the head
Taboo by Mary Douglas
• Fluidity
• context of taboos
• recognition of dynamism
• classifying process is always active and
changing
• Rules of the Game
• social life with no classifications?
• social life is the process of building
classification systems
Taboo by Mary Douglas
• Injecting Order Into Life
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William Burrough’s “Naked Lunch”
taboo injects order drawn from social categories
dilemma of individual freedom
Article: Serpent Handling as
Sacrament by Mary Lee Daugherty
• Serpent Handlers of West Virginia
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background
small, independent Holiness-type churches
“long conclusion” of the gospel Mark
physical, economic, and social environment
enabled by the power of the Holy Ghost
• Modern changes
• economic improvement
• effects on expressions of faith?
Serpent Handling as Sacrament
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ritual celebration of life, death, and resurrection
proof of Jesus’s power to protect and heal
serpent as a symbol of victory over death
dangerous (yet rarely fatal)
hypothesis about the future of serpent-handling
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legality issues
• Cultural Isolation
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limited travel, media, etc.
primarily oral/Biblical traditions
life centered on church gatherings
Serpent Handling as Sacrament
• The Approach to the Serpent
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not evil serpent of the Genesis story
serpent as life over death
sacrament
respect for the snake
• The Faith
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willingness to die for beliefs
coping with and confronting real fears
seeking harmony with Nature
centered in small communities
Serpent Handling as Sacrament
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Longing for Holiness
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The Person of the Holy Ghost
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enables serpent-handling, speaking in tongues, preaching,
curing diseases, etc.
lends a sense of power to lives
approachable and relatable figure of Jesus
Churches and Services
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Power of the Holy Ghost and the courageous individual
arena of empowerment
direct personal experience of God
Holiness churches
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view of the secular world
based in very small communities
Serpent Handling as Sacrament
• Symbolism of the Serpent
• suggests ambiguity and transcendence
• varying representations
• Conclusion
• a unique ritual in church history
• new economic and social environment
• ritual continues as a form of sacrament