Traditional Myths Research Articles

Regimes of Cannibality

There are many evidences of anthropophagy in the history of mankind, from the ritual preparation and consumption of the brain mass of dead men in the Paleolithic age (2), to the recent erotic rituals of a discreet German citizen. However, the cannibalistic act in itself is considered unacceptable due to reasons that can be successively referred to the intolerable and the unthinkable in most civilizations. However, the harshest rejection seems to come from Western culture. In fact, the silence about and condemnation of the cannibalistic act sets the ego of the modern individual against the cannibalistic imprint of the irrational, where one finds the morbid failure to distinguish between anthropophagy, insensitiveness and cruelty, in short, what any missionary might regard as a basic form of demonism. The effects of such a judgment are seen in the indifference and fear of researchers who approach this subject, sometimes with the best intentions. (3) Taking a different path, this essay argues that cannibalism is not just a verifiable social fact but may also clarify a considerable part of the dynamics of the death impulse in different social formations. But, instead of regarding the problem as a dilemma--about the differences between the logical formulation of arguments that guarantee a scientific 'foundation' for the thanatic impulse that characterizes cannibalism and the reconstruction of mythical traditions, ritual procedures and symbolic systems--I think it would be more productive to choose a strategy which runs in both directions: an ethnographic interpretation as well as a deconstruction of the limits that every age places on the topic of cannibalism, from a conceptual perspective that acts as a framework for the general dynamics of Latin American culture. In this sense, the denial of cannibalism by Hispanic culture is part of a general project aimed at the abolition of Amerindian thought as a prior condition for the construction of a new type of individual and the implementation of new ways of individuation. The result has been an interposed identity, that is, a simulacrum of a subject that appears before the conquered man as ideal by means of the linguistic, policing, and institutional power of the conqueror. Such a construction of the subject ends up producing a collective unconscious that, paradoxically, puts the stigma of cannibalism (4) on the initial identity of the indigenous people of America, but at the same time, refuses to recognize the trace of cannibal thought and ritual in the constitution of psychic life, as a vector that guides the destiny of the flows of desire and leaves an imprint on the processes of social inscription. (5) In the methodic search for such a relationship between the traces and the act of cannibalism, it is interesting to consider certain research guidelines set forth by Foucault and Derrida. On the one hand, according to Foucault, it would be necessary to describe the field of enunciates on cannibalism that begins with the chroniclers of the Indies and which, along with other hypotheses and results, became an important nucleus of Americanist ethnography in the second half of the 20th century. On the other, Derrida, through his proposal for interpreting the traces, footsteps and gestures that characterize language, opens up the possibility of addressing the mythical and ritual language about cannibalism and its 'cultural metonymies', as a part of a written archive preceding the spoken word and the alphabetical practice of writing. (6) The result is a paradoxical conjunction between the archaeological method that provides certain archiving techniques and dynamics, and the deconstructive obsession with pointing at everything that proves to be unarchivable in the very emergence of the archive. (7) From this point on, I assume that these two moments can be incorporated as alternating, successive motions of an archival dynamics that records the appearance--while recreating the metonymical absence--of the cannibal act. …

Las armas en la cerámica ibérica aragonesa

The depicted Iberian pottery found in the archaeological sites of Aragon (Spain) represents a prestige symbol for the Iberian society. These objects are an incalculable resource for the knowledge of his weapons, uses and customs from the daily life. Besides the depicted Iberian pottery is related with religious beliefs and mythical traditions like the foundational rites of the settlements of the middle Ebro Valley during the Roman conquest of the Iberia Peninsula.

기업광고를 통해 본 가족신화와 젠더의 기호학적 의미: SK기업광고를 중심으로

This study attempts to identify the process in which how the Myth of family and gender image are reproduced and taken in by the recipients through semiotics analysis of three versions consisting of children, husband and housewife series of SK corporate`s TV advertisements from the last half of year 2009 to the first half of year 2010. The analysis of the corporate advertisements shows that each advertisement binds and stereotypes concept of family and gender to Myth of family, especially case of female, and consequently, the result through text analysis is that corporate advertisements reproduce and restructure traditional Myth of family and role of gender. Going forward, Family study requires to realize importance of effect of mass media, especially of TV advertisement, to research diverse case studies and searching about it.

Creating life from clay

Father Snake, Mother Bird is based on a traditional creation myth from Vietnam, but just as importantly, it also provides the perfect opportunity to let children experience the magical modelling qualities of clay.

Sofoklov in Senekov Kralj Ojdip: kulturnozgodovinski in individualni momenti hermenevtike

Primerjava Sofoklovega in Senekovega Kralja Ojdipa ponuja možnost široke osvetljave podobnosti in kontrastov med kulturnima okoljema, v katerih sta deli nastali. Prav zaradi zvrstne in tematske podobnosti teh del (ki seveda kaže na utemeljenost rimske dramatike v grški) se še zlasti jasno razkrivajo velike kulturne razlike: družbena vloga gledališča, razumevanje mita in religiozno-duhovno obzorje so bili v zgodnji dobi rimskega cesarstva zelo drugačni kot v klasičnih Atenah. Šele na ozadju teh splošnokulturnih razlik je mogoče relevantno presojati o tistem, kar je za literarno hermenevtiko najbolj zanimivo: o nezvedljivo individualnem momentu obeh avtorjev, Sofokla in Seneke, o njunem slogu.

Outcaste by Choice: Re-Genderings in a Short Story by Oka Rusmini

Ida Ayu Oka Rusmini is a major contemporary Indonesian author. She has published two novels, Tarian Bumi (2000) and Kenanga (2003a), a collection of short stories, (Sagra, 2001), and a volume of poetry, Patiwangi (2003b, republished in 2007 as Warna Kita, with the omission of some 12 poems). Born in Jakarta in 1967 of Balinese parents, she was a member of the highest Balinese caste, the brahmana caste, but renounced this status, including her title, after her marriage to the East Javanese essayist and poet Arif B. Prasetyo. Oka Rusmini is a graduate of the Indonesian Studies Department, Udayana University, and lives in Den Pasar where she works as a journalist for the Bali Post.
 
 Most of Oka Rusmini’s prose works explore the constraints into which the socioreligious practices of caste place all members of society, but most especially women. Both of her novels tell of a woman’s abandonment of her brahmin caste status as the result of her marriage to a sudra. The title of the poetry book, Patiwangi, refers to the ritual practice by which this degradation is confirmed, and the poem which gives the book its title bears the footnote: ‘Patiwangi: pati = death; wangi = fragrant. Patiwangi is a ritual that is performed on a noble women in her Village Temple to remove her noble status as a consequence of having married a man of a lower caste. The ritual often has a serious psychological impact on noble women’ (107). In both novels, and many short stories and poems, their loss of status brings enormous scorn and hardship to the major woman characters. Nevertheless, as we shall see, stepping outside patriarchally-dominated caste ties may also provide an ambiguous freedom for any woman who is positioned to take advantage of the opportunities which the modern, potentially secular, nation state of Indonesia, offers her.
 
 In this paper, I am interested in the way in which the short story, ‘Cenana’ (Sagra, 270-318), uses a traditional myth to deal various cross-caste transgressions in contemporary Balinese society. The story draws on one of the foundation myths of medieval Javanese history, the story of Ken Angrok, founder of the dynasty of Singhasari, East Java, in 1222 AD, and his consort, Ken Dedes, the wife of Ken Angrok’s predecessor. To my knowledge, although the myth has been the subject of a number of modern literary works, Oka Rusmini’s is the only account by a Balinese woman. Through its focus on the transgressions committed by strong female characters of all caste backgrounds, and dissolute male characters, Oka Rusmini’s narrative in ‘Cenana’ allows for a revision of conceptions of feminine agency in a society based on respect for high caste men and marriage to them.

Competing narratives, gender and threaded identity in cyberspace

Using a blog corpus, the current study of weblog writing explores changing cultural norms surrounding technology-mediated formation of interpersonal relationships and aims to gain insight into important aspects of online female behaviour. More specifically, this article analyses the way in which British and Spanish female adolescents disclose personal information about their love-lives. In doing so, I argue that these bloggers create competing narratives which consist of either crediting or puncturing traditional love and relationship myths. The study of these competing narratives, in turn, reveals that these female adolescents live out different gendered discourses when they are entering, and when they are leaving, love relationships. Furthermore, this study examines the contemporary association between laddish attitudes in female adolescents and the involvement of verbal aggression in their personal weblogs.

Contemporary myth and its aesthetic consciousness

现代社会的实用理性和科技发展共同终结了古典神话，将之送入精神文化的历 史博物馆。然而，神话思维和神话意识则共时性地隐匿于人们的心理结构之中，对 文明和文化依然施加了重要影响。在现代和后现代的历史文化语境中，神话以变形 的方式潜藏于人类的精神文化活动里，演变为一种当代意义的神话形式，继续发挥 着强大的心理功能和扮演着意识活动与形态助产士的角色。当代神话的典型表现是 科技神话、消费神话、英雄神话等样式。它承袭了传统神话的符号和结构形式而又 有所发展和变异，尤其是借助于科技手段,它获得了更广泛、更丰富的社会内容和迅 捷密集的传播方式，对于社会的方方面面都产生了广泛而深刻的影响。 关键词: 当代神话 审美意识 科技神话 消费神话 英雄神话 Pragmatic rationality and scientific and technological developments in modern society have jointly put an end to classical myth and consigned it to the historical museum of the spiritual culture. However, mythical thinking and consciousness are synchronically hidden in our psychological structures and still exert an important influence on civilizations and cultures. In the modern and postmodern historical and cultural context, myth hides in our spiritual and cultural activities in various altered forms. Having evolved into a mythic form in the contemporary sense, it continues to play a powerful psychological role and to act as a midwife of conscious activities and forms. Contemporary myth typically comprises science myth, consumption myth and hero myth. It has inherited the symbols and structures of traditional myth, but with some developments and variations; in particular, by means of science and technology, it has acquired broader and richer social ingredients and swift and intensive modes of transmission, producing a widespread and far‐reaching influence on various aspects of society.

‘Nec tibi, diva parens’: un thema virgiliano di Anthologia Latina (c. 255 R = 249 SB)

The poem 255 R (= 249 SB) - Thema vergilianum: ‘Nec tibi, diva parens’ - is one of the three themata trasmitted by Anthologia Latina which arises from Aen. IV 365 sgg. (Dido’s speech to Aeneas before his departure). Textual and metrical analysis underlines that the anonimous poet follows the Vergilian model - in form and content - but, at the same time, creates an independent composition of its immediate literary context, adding variations, making explicit what the model doesn’t clearly refer or leaves unexpressed, introducing allusions to alternative mythical traditions (using rhetorical means of expression and language as well).

Curio, Juba and the Limits of Myth in Lucan's <i>Bellum Civile</i>

In his comments on Lucan’s treatment of Curio at B.C. 4.581-824, Fred Ahl writes that the narrative is “key to the entire epic” (1972, p. 1000, cf. Saylor 1982). Curio’s defeat is certainly a marked moment in the text – not only does it further demonstrate the decay of Roman power and mores, but, in including a description of the wrestling match between Hercules and the African giant Antaeus, the narrative also contains one of only two extended mythological excurses in Bellum Civile (the other is the description of Medusa at 9.619ff.). The story of Hercules’ victory over Antaeus is juxtaposed with Curio’s defeat in a way that suggests we are to read them in light of one another. Accordingly, correspondences between the two scenes and the characters themselves have been proposed and discussed with varying conclusions as to who represents whom (e.g., Saylor 1982, Thompson and Bruere 1970, Grimal 1949). In contrast to this approach, I argue that Lucan deliberately confuses the correlations between the mythic narrative and Curio’s defeat, and in doing so, he denies us the satisfaction of interpreting Curio’s struggle in light of the myth. Lucan even uses Curio, who hears the story from a Libyan local and then subsequently misinterprets it, as an example of the “misreading” of the mythic tale within the context of civil war (B.C. 4.661-5). In the end, both Curio and Juba fail to measure up fully to either Hercules or Antaeus, who belong to a remote and unattainable mythic tradition. Lucan’s depiction of Hercules and Antaeus in itself emphasizes this distance. Not only does the wrestling match contain many comic elements and quickly devolves into a paradox (B.C. 4.646-9), but Lucan explicitly models the match on Ovid’s Hercules and Achelous (Met. 9.1-88, esp. 9.32-61). Lucan’s gestures toward the Ovidian model imbue the narrative with hints of parody that further complicate any attempts to take the description seriously. Curio and Juba fare even worse. Both vacillate between representing either Hercules or Antaeus at different points in the narrative (B.C. 4.723, 748, 754-58), and their battle concludes with a paradoxical outcome of its own: Curio’s men, surrounded and packed the enemy into a tight circle, wound and kill themselves with their own weapons (B.C. 4.779-7). Unlike their mythic counterparts, neither Curio nor Juba are victores: Curio’s army is the instrument of its own defeat and a re-enactment of Rome’s act of turning the sword inward upon her own viscera through civil war (in sua victrici conversum viscera dextra B.C. 1.3). Lucan’s treatment of myth in this episode certainly gives new meaning to the commonplace idea that one of Lucan’s stylistic goals is to “out-Ovid Ovid.” Insofar as Ovid’s own often flippant adaptations of myth, especially in the Metamorphoses, are a reaction to the serious historicizing treatment of Vergil, Lucan takes the process one step further by even more explicitly severing the bonds between myth and history. In the Bellum Civile, myth itself is ridiculous, but even more so is the historical truth that has been defined by and arisen from civil war and Caesar’s ascent to power. Select Bibliography Ahl, F. 1972. “Hercules and Curio: Some Comments on Pharsalia IV, 581-824. Latomus 31: 997-1009. ______. 1976. Lucan: An Introduction. Cornell University Press. Ithaca, NY. Grimal, P. 1949. “L’Episode d’Antee dans la Pharsale.” Latomus 8: 55-61. Martindale, C. 1981. “Lucan’s Hercules: Padding or Paradigm? A Note on De Bello Civili 4.589-660” Symbolae Osloenses 56: 71-80. Phillips, O.C. 1962. The Influence of Ovid on Lucan’s Bellum Civile. Diss. University of Chicago. Saylor, C. 1982. “Curio and Antaeus: The African Episode of Lucan Pharsalia IV.” TAPA 112: 169-77. Thompson, L. and R.T. Bruere. 1970. “The Vergilian Background to Lucan’s Fourth Book.” CP 65: 152-72.

Strange animals: extremely interspecific hybridization (and anthropopoiesis) in Plutarch

Speaking of hybridization between humans and animals, in the ancient world (and not only in the ancient world), means referring to dealing with genetic chaos logoi of the mythic tradition. But it also means constructing human-animal boundaries in a view which anthropologists call anthropopoietic. If Aristotle, in his De generatione animalium, had rationalized all the beliefs dealing with extremely interspecific crossbreeding, secularizing also the ancient concept of teras and teratodes, Plutarch, in several loci of his work (e. g. Sept. Sap. Conv. 149 C ff., Bruta anim. 990 F ff., or even Per. 6, 1-5), seems to go back to a more flexible idea of nature, where prodigious births are again permitted. This does not mean an abjuration of the natural history principles which Greek philosophical tradition has fixed. Simply these principles - which are also used as rhetorical and polemical tools in the ancient debate about animal reason - are embedded in a larger theological framework, which in some ways constructs the animal as the human ideal. What happens is that, just when the animal is used in a positive light as a reversed mirror of the human, it creates a still anthropocentric moral perspective, while blurring the boundaries between anthroposphere and zoosphere.

The economic proposals of Charlotte Perkins Gilman and gender budgeting in Italy

Charlotte Perkins Gilman anticipated Amartya Sen's theories on the economy of wellbeing and the theory of the capabilities by placing humanity at the centre of economic politics, the full development of abilities of the entire population and the participation in all the social, economic and political activities of men and women, as a premise for social progress and genuine democracy. In particular, she highlighted the value of women's competences and female innovative contribution towards the achievement of these goals. Today, the European Union considers these issues as a priority but in Italy they are not fully taken into consideration. Gilman, the American authoritative sociologist and economist, defined in 1993 by the Women's Hall of Fame as one of the 10 most influential women of the twentieth century, thanks to her studies and her in-depth analysis of women's real conditions of life, reached the conclusion that the origins of the traditional sexual roles – and of the female ‘natural’ subordination to man – are not due to nature, but to the economic dependence on man. Consequently, she believed that true freedom and effective citizenship for women are possible only with economic independence. Through the denunciation of the myths and traditional stereotypes that tie women to the so-called ‘natural roles’, Gilman showed the damages that the exclusion of women from socioeconomic activities cause to the progress of human society, and proposed the new woman. The new woman is well-educated – and thus endowed with a critical mind – and professionally prepared, and is aware of the necessity of her full citizenship. Women are also aware of the fundamental social value of maternity. Consequently they are aware that the ‘unpaid caring works’ should not be exclusively assigned to women but rather should be shared by both family and society. Gilman's theories and proposals for the social and economic reorganization, and her criticism of the traditional myths and stereotypes, supply a valid contribution to the present gender politics and in particular to the affirmation of gender budgeting in economics. These policies Gilman had indicated in her study Women and economics, published in 1898!

The Sybmols of National History in Lithuanian National Imagination: the Images of National Heroes

The article concerns the issues of the symbolic re-imagination of the nation – how the symbols of the national narrative of Lithuanian past are re-constructed in the popular imagination of the society and its groups. The popular reception and interpretations of the images of the heroes of the narrative of national history as well as trends of their change are analysed on the basis of the data of longitudinal quantitative research conducted in 1991, 1992 and 2007. The questions of the authority of the traditional heroes in the conditions of the erosion of metanarratives, the trends of changes of popular interpretations of the heroes, the tendencies of continuity and discontinuity of those interpetations as well as the divisive and unifying potential of the popular images of the heroes are examined in the analysis. Though the symbolic power of the images of national heroes is less than in 1991–1992, they still evoke sentiments and exert influence. The tendencies of erosion of traditional myths as well as continuity of the basic structures of the “pantheon” of Lithuanian heroes as well as the tendencies of hybridization of popular narratives of Lithuanians and Polish minority are observed. The contradictory interpretations of some images by Poles and Lithuanians seem to function as the relicts of memory of interwar conflict mostly located in the collective memory of the older generations living in the regions that former belonged to Poland.

Performative Symbols and Structures in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things

This study aims to show that language performativity and performance (with direct references to the mythical traditions of Indian theatre) pervade Arundhati Roy’s writing and that the Kathakali scene in chapter 12 is pivotal to her novel The God of Small Things. In this light, the various forms of exclusion seen in the novel are exposed as cultural functions of role-play and performative language, which create reality rather than just describing it.

An assessment of family care for people living with schizophrenia in Delta State of Nigeria

This study aimed to assess attitudes and beliefs affecting family care for people living with schizophrenia. The research design was observational through in-depth interviews and family group discussions. The participants were sixty family members sampled from the five ethnic groups that constitute Delta State in Nigeria. Data were generated via a structured interview schedule and family discussions reflecting Expressed Emotion of family members. The findings show that deeply held cultural beliefs and traditional myths significantly hamper care for family members with schizophrenia. A model of holistic family care is proffered.

‘Grüße vom Bären’. Die russische Internet-Folklore als narrativer Nährstoff der Literatur

Communication via internet has produced an “internet-lore” or “web folklore”, which is of great interest not only to cultural sociologists but also to those who study folklore and literature. The currently circulating illustrated tale Medved (Bear) serves as an example of the emergence and dissemination of web folklore on the Russian internet. Traditional fairy-tale motifs and media-generated myths mingle here in a multi-layered process of reception, and they meander through forums, websites and blogs on the worldwide web. In the process, they undergo (re)folklorization and a parodic literarization. The hybridity of this massive “grass roots” production of creative texts flits between written, oral and pictorial traditions. It is predestined to become literature's narrative feedstuff.

The Making Of in the American West

In the American West was a landmark in the career of New York photographer Richard Avedon and in the history of photography. It consisted of a series of larger-than-life black-and-white portraits of men and women living in rural America, posing in front of an immaculate white background and gazing intently at the camera. Instead of playing to the traditional myth of the openness and grandeur of the West as the title might imply, Avedon had focused his camera on people who were the antithesis of that myth: miners, housewives, farmers, and drifters. The large prints were mounted onto aluminum and exhibited without glazing, which intensified the gaze of the sitters. Unveiled in 1985 at the Amon Carter Museum, which had commissioned the project, the work was acclaimed and criticized with equal fervor. This paper focuses on the materials employed and the aesthetic choices made by the artist for the printing, mounting, and display of the photographs, and their impact on the long-term preservation of the work.

Out of the alleyway: Nakagami Kenji and the poetics of outcaste fiction

The writer Nakagami Kenji (1946-1992) rose to fame in the mid-1970s for his vivid stories about a clan scarred by violence and poverty on the underside of the Japanese economic miracle. Drawing upon the lives, experiences, and languages of the burakumin, the outcaste communities long discriminated against in Japanese society as a defiled underclass, Nakagami's works of fiction and non-fiction record with vitality and violence the realities - actual and imagined - of buraku culture.In this critical study of Nakagami's life and oeuvre, Eve Zimmerman delves into the writer's literary world, exploring the genres, forms, and themes with which Nakagami worked and experimented. These chapters trace the biographical thread running through his works while foregrounding such diverse facets of his writing as his interest in the modern possibilities of traditional myths and forms of storytelling, his deployment of shocking tropes and images, and his crafting of a unique poetic language.By bringing to the fore the literary urgency and social engagement that informed all aspects of Nakagami's creative and intellectual production, from his works of prose and poetry to his criticism, this book argues eloquently and effectively for us to appreciate Nakagami as a distinctive and relevant voice in modern Japanese literature.

Heroic and Athletic Contest in Bacchylides

The traditional myth of Theseus, Minos, and the Minotaur is the story of a heroic conflict ending with physical defeat. The conflict of Minos and Theseus, too, as it is told in Bacch. 17, starts like a heroic contest suggesting a physical fight with deadly consequences, but ends like an athletic contest when Theseus achieves the winner's prize. So the poem may be understood as a substitute for the traditional story of Theseus and the Minotaur.

Rozpad świata i podmiotu – czyli o pewnej (po-)nowoczesnej opowieści

The aim of this article is attempt to reconstruct the model of Western Culture, which appears on field of contemporary philosophy of culture. This view basis on the division of the culture into 3 periods: pre-modernity, modernity and post-modernity. Modernity is initiated with intensive increase of rationalization, disenchantment of the world, as well as with faith in reason and improvement. Post-modernity stems from disappointment of reason and fear of consequences of technical progress. Reason and Progress are treated as substitute for traditional myth and religions. Pre-modernity are background for those analyses. Nowadays this is the model of interpretation for social and intellectual events observed in Western culture. That model deals with general and permanent crisis of culture. The essence of this crisis is fragmentation of the human world (break-up of fundamentals of philosophical and scientific inquiry as well as everyday morality) and 'myself'.