Mythical Entity Research Articles

Digitization of myth: The HimmapanVR Project's role in cultural preservation

This study investigates the visitor experience at the '3D HimmapanVR' virtual museum, which focuses on the preservation and dissemination of cultural heritage related to Thai mythical entities, specifically the Himmapan animals. Despite their cultural significance, information about these creatures is limited and fragmented. The HimmapanVR initiative aims to mitigate this issue by establishing a virtual museum that curates and exhibits these entities via a virtual reality (VR) platform, thus enhancing their accessibility, educational value, and conservation. The project entails the digitization of artwork, the creation of 3D models of archaeological artifacts, and the utilization of digital paintings and animations to depict the three primary and fifteen subsidiary types of Himmapan creatures. The hypothesis posits that the virtual museum will influence users' Effort Expectancy (EE), Performance Expectancy (PE), and the perceived authenticity of the archaeological objects. Data collected from 30 participants indicate that the virtual museum effectively augments knowledge and engenders a sense of authenticity. However, enhancing the VR user experience remains a challenge. Conclusively, this study presents the inaugural virtual museum dedicated to Himmapan animals, which occupy an essential niche in Thai cultural heritage. To date, no existing physical or virtual museum offers an exhaustive compilation and presentation of various Himmapan creatures, a gap this project endeavors to fill.

Observing Mythical Entities

Abstract Sellars has taught us that we do not have direct epistemic access to sense data. Therefore, the latter cannot work as the bedrock of our knowledge. At the same time, through the myth of genius Jones, Sellars has tried to explain how we become able to rationally refer to sense data. What is more, it even seems that, following Jones’ teachings, the Rylean folk have become able to observe sense data. How could this be possible if sense data are merely mythical entities? By making use of some ideas and reflections from Husserl on perceptual experience, categorial intuition, and knowledge, I suggest a way to overcome the riddle. My solution, however, will partially contrast with Sellars’ idea that sense data are, in the end, something internal to the subject.

ЗОЛОТО В ПОЭТИКЕ АЛТАЙСКОГО ФОЛЬКЛОРА (на материале мифов, легенд, сказаний, сказок и загадок)

В статье впервые на материале алтайского фольклора рассматривается мифопоэтическая символика золота как важного элемента металлического кода языка и культуры алтайцев. Актуальность исследования обусловлена неизученностью мифопоэтической символики наименований металлов в алтайской лингвокультуре. Целью статьи является выявление символики золота в фольклоре алтайцев. Материалом исследования послужили разножанровые тексты алтайского фольклора: сказания, сказки, мифы, легенды, загадки, пословицы. Анализ показал, что лексема алтын ‘золотой’ используется для обозначения признаков строений, различных предметов быта, утвари, конского и воинского снаряжения, одежды и украшений, необычных, духовных животных, птиц, человека, географических объектов, а также употребляется в составе личных имен. Автор приходит к выводу, что благодаря своей материальной и эстетической ценности, образ золота получает широкое символическое значение в алтайской мифологии. С применением структурно-семантического метода на основе контекстуального анализа выявлены 3 основные мифологемы, вокруг которых группируется символические употребления лексемы алтын ‘золотой’: «золото как символ Верхнего мира», «золото как признак сверхъестественных предметов и сущностей» и «золото как символ богатства». Признак ‘золотой’ выступает атрибутом небесных светил, мира светлых божеств. Золото соответствует дневному светилу, т. е. солнцу, серебро – ночному, т. е. луне. Золото в большей степени мужской металл, а серебро – женский. Составляя бинарную оппозицию с железом, золото соотносится с символами Верхнего мира, а железо – с символами Нижнего мира. Золото выступает и признаком предметов волшебства и мифических сущностей Нижнего мира. Волшебные предметы, сделанные из золота, обладают магической и целительской силой. Золото является эквивалентом денег, мерилом силы, власти, богатства, и с ним связаны представления о достоинстве, превосходстве, величии, совершенстве. Исследование символики других наименований металлов представляется перспективным для понимания металлического кода алтайской лингвокультуры.

Against mythical backward-looking creationism

ABSTRACT I want to hold an original position as regards the metaphysics of mythical entities, a kind of fictional entities that, typically at least, are not recognised as such by their purported authors, for they entertain no relevant act of make-believe. This position is weak mythical creationism, which lies between straightforward mythical creationism, the position holding that all mythical entities are on a par by being created by their purported authors (Braun, David. 2005. “Empty Names, Fictional Names, Mythical Names.” Noûs 39: 596–631; Salmon, Nathan. 2002. “Mythical Objects.” In Meaning and Truth: Investigations in Philosophical Semantics, edited by J. K. Campbell, M. O’Rourke, and D. Shier, 105–123. New York: Seven Bridges Press; Zvolenszky, Zsofia. 2016. “Fictional Characters, Mythical Objects and the Phenomenon of Inadvertent Creation.” Res Philosophica 93: 311–333), and mythical anticreationism, for which mythical entities are no artefactual creations (Goodman, Jeffrey. 2014. “Creatures of Fiction, Objects of Myth.” Analysis 74: 35–40; Goodman, Jeffrey. 2017. “On Inadvertently Created a, Fictional Storytelling, and Scientific Hypothesizing.” Res Philosophica 94: 177–188). According to weak mythical creationism, one must draw a distinction between standard and nonstandard mythical entities, i.e. legendary entities and post-empirical posits. For unlike legendary entities, a post-empirical posit is an artefact created only later by an audience. Thus, weak creationism rejects the form of mythical backward-looking creationism that straightforward mythical creationism entails: namely, the idea that the merely purported authors of post-empirical posits are nevertheless their original creators.

Water spirits within the fishers\u2019 worldview: implications for fishing management in Northeast Brazil

BackgroundHistorically, aquatic environments are linked to the worldview of many local people, where there is an interconnection between the natural world, the supernatural, and the social organization. In this study, we provided a discussion on how the supernatural beings that inhabit the freshwater systems interact with artisanal fishers and fishing resources in the riverine community of Parnaíba River middle course, in Mid North of Northeast Brazil. We also provided the implications of these interactions on the fisher’s behaviors and how the acculturation process (e.g., introduction of new religions) can affect the fishers’ worldview.MethodThe selection of participants was done through intentional sampling. The content qualitative analysis was carried out to interpret the data from semi-structured interviews with 29 artisanal fishers.ResultsThe mythical representations that inhabit the aquatic environments in the surveyed area were as follows: Mãe d’ água, Cabeça de cuia, Muleque d’água, Visage, Piratinga, Sucuiuiu, and Luz e Arco-íris. These beings have distinctions regarding the form and attributions and can be associated with seasonality (temporal markers) and specific habitats (spatial markers). The respect and fear feeling of the mythical beings were striking among the fishers interviewed. For instance, we have record offering practices in order to obtain protection and success during the fisheries. These practices suggest that there may be local conservationist habits in fisheries management. However, the advancement of urbanization and the introduction of new religions that deny the existence of mythical entities are factors that can generate the acculturation process among the fishers.ConclusionsIt is therefore necessary to carry out more studies in the surveyed area in order to evaluate the existence of possible patterns in the relationship between fisher and mythical beings. This information could confirm the role of mythical beings as environmental regulators. Consequently, it could be considered in the conservationist policies of fishery resources, reinforcing the importance of local knowledge and cultural factors for fishing management approaches.

The Lady Vanishes: Collective Traumatic Memory in the film Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors

How does traumatic memory of bloody events of the first half of the 20th century, which had to but could not be worked through in the cultural texts of its second half, makes its appearance? The mother of the main character of the film Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Serhiy Parajanov disappears without a trace, and without a funeral, despite the structuring rule of the film, which makes the mourning of its numerous deaths obligatory. The article analyzes this disappearance as significant. It is seen as a symbolic failure of the screen reality; as a symptom of what Aleksandr Etkind refers to as a “warped mourning,” an unfinished work of mourning for the victims of Stalinism. It is shown that the main character’s mother in the screen version of Shadows (unlike in Kotsiubynsky’s novel) becomes an embodiment of the collective traumatic memory; in this respect she merges with the lyric person of Anna Akhmatova’s Requiem on the intertextual level. Yet, despite this association, the mother in Parajanov’s film accumulates the dark energy of resentment and ancestral feud, which is present in Kotsiubynsky’s novel as an impersonal mythic background. The role of mother has changed from novel to film not only in terms of the quantity of her presence but also in terms of the quality of her relation with her son and her overall family. A secondary character, who makes only one appearance in the novel, she represents the distant relation of a traditional family; on the contrary, the mother in Parajanov’s film turns out to be a very significant figure, who holds her son very tightly through the first half of the film, as it is more typical for the modern nuclear family. Parallel to this transformation, the article follows the transformation of an object-symbol of invisible exe, the voice of which could be heard throughout the film. The invisible exe is what Michel Chion refers to as “acousmaton,” a character with the voice but without a visible body. This complex object-symbol, the only mythical entity that was taken by Parajanov from Kotsiubynsky’s novel densely populated by natural spirits, finds its body (not as an ordinary object, but as an incarnation of the doom) in the episode of the last appearance of the mother. This episode reveals the aberrant presence of this object-symbol, which marks erasure of the mother from the screen reality. Unraveling the intertwining texture of the meanings of these characters that emerge in the film as opposed to the source novel one can see the working of the collective traumatic memory both on the conscious level of this cultural text as well as in the gaps and ruptures that appear in it. Analysis of the complexity of maternal image in Parajanov’s film helps to unpack the “unconscious” of this cultural text, its nonverbalized visual subtext: what is shown, but not told. As in Alfred Hitchcock’s spy film The Lady Vanishes the disappearance of an older woman reveals a dense ring of silence that blocks the work of memory.Article received 27.04.2019

The Sympathetic Vampire:A Study of Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire

The myth of the vampire has continued to frighten and fascinate people all over the world. The idea of an undead night-stalker that feeds on human blood has been around for centuries and endures to this day. Numerous countries and cultures across the globe have personal deviations of a similar mythical entity. No matter the variation, all the vampire tales have a key commonality ‒ the lust for human blood. The cornerstone upon which all the vampire characters now turn was established in 1897 byBram Stoker in his novel Dracula which, since its publication, has never been out of print and its title character, Count Dracula, has become an icon of terror that inspired many subsequent novels and stories of the vampire fiction genre. However, only a handful of these novels were considered of literary merit. That handful includes the works of Anne Rice (1941‒) in which she develops a new way of portraying the vampire in fiction. The figure of vampire has changed from the evil and menacing figure of Dracula to a kinder and more sympathetic vampire who questions the meaning of its existence.

Early modern supernatural: the dark side of European culture, 1400-1700

Devils, ghosts, poltergeists, werewolves, and witches are all covered in this book about the of supernatural beliefs in early modern Europe, tapping period literature, folklore, art, and scholarly writings in its investigation. The dark side of early modern European culture could be deemed equal in historical significance to Christianity based on the hundreds of books that were printed about the topic between 1400 and 1700. Famous writers and artists like William Shakespeare and Albrecht Durer depicted the dark side in their work, and some of the first printed books in Europe were about witches. The pervasive representation of these monsters and apparitions in period literature, folklore, and art clearly reflects their power to inspire fear and superstition, but also demonstrates how integral they were to early modern European culture. This unique book addresses topics of the supernatural within the context of the early modern period in Europe, covering mythical entities such as devils, witches, ghosts, poltergeists, and werewolves in detail and examining how they fit in with the emerging new scientific method of the time. This unique combination of cultural studies for the period is ideal for undergraduate students and general readers. * Illustrations from rare books on witchcraft and demonology * An annotated bibliography of primary and secondary sources * Appendices address early modern supernatural art and artists who depicted the dark side as well as important historical individuals

Ala from Zeljin: Results of the recent research of folk mythology in Zupa

The paper presents the results of the recent ethnological research, conduced in Aleksandrovacka Zupa and other areas. In this paper, the emphasis has been placed on notions on mythical beings, i.e. alas and dragons, which in the context of the materials collected take up one of most prominent positions, indicating the specific nature of the micro-regional unit, but also a symbol of the local identity. Namely, there are recordings of numerous and extremely interesting variations of the myth and ideas on the ala from Zeljin which, as the definitely most exposed mythical entity, is certainly a Zupa-specific property.

Pigeon-vole ! Re-connaissance d'une gravure armoricaine du Ve millénaire

A "flushed " bird is engraved on the Bronzo stela, in full flight, its head turned to the exterior, superposed over a white quartz vein; a crook, equally treated in cut-away engraving, bars its passage. At a first reading, a plausible identification of the bird seemed to prevail and the Columbidae met with our approval. However, more deliberate analysis and an effort at the graphic deconstruction of the motif allows the identification to be reconsidered and improved, by describing the various filters authorising the rejection of such or such a category, finally preserving the best claimants to the only possible confrontation, opposing Corvidae to Columbidae. The Bronzo representation is equivalent in substance and in structure to the scenes on the neighbouring stelae where a phallus is opposed to the sharp edge of an axe blade (Mané Rutual), while a sperm-whale confronts the coalition of animals and human tools (Table des Marchand). However Bronzo is a deformed toponym, untranslatable as such; why not search in a more or less recent past, through some unavoidable semantic or linguistic evolution, for traces of a probable or possible mutation of the word ? At the end of a brief investigation, we suggest that the expression Men Bran Sao, "The Stone of the Standing Raven", known from the early 19th century, is the name of this monolith. Nevertheless, the last time that a bird was directly observed on this stela was during the 5th millennium; the two closely connected fragments, on the model of the neighbouring Grand Menhir, prove that the stone has not been displaced since that distant period. We consequently propose this explanatory hypothesis to explain in Bronzo such a radical change of name: a zoomorphic mythical entity that we recognize as a pigeon, attached since time immemorial to the stela in question, passed under the influence of the Brittonic language and the new culture to the designation of another ornithological entity, the raven. If a bird as clearly identified as the Bronzo has played a determining role in the mythical Neolithic Armorican bestiary, like the sperm-whale, a scientific step is now necessary to find some hidden occurrences in other poorly understood signs, since such an important representation in our interpretive schema, unique in Brittany, cannot remain isolated. We correspondingly claim, in this coherent and logical research prolonging the Bronzo discovery, that the only possible appropriate solution for the famous "horn" signs is a bird shown full on, inflight, with spread wings.

Mythical creatures of the Tamnava region: a basic mythological code in the serbian folk religion

Based on the fieldwork data and literature on Serbian ethnicity, the author argues that a unique mythical pattern exists among Serbs. This pattern represents the basic global set of mythical entities in Serbian folk religion. After serious structural-semantic analysis of a number of various mythical entities and motives, the author discovers a unique mythological base, established in firm semantic categories and relations. In this sense there are four basic mythical relations found at the base of the corresponding semantic systems: a four-member base of the first and foremost mythological code. The cited mythical sets are found also in other areas occupied by Serbs; therefore, they should represent the base of the whole Serbian folk mythology. Some other specific mythical entities also exist, neither so universal nor a part of this set, and therefore are excluded from the discussion.

Quests for a Scientific Mythology: F. Creuzer and K. O. Muller on History and Myth

Quests for a Scientific Mythology: F. Creuzer and K. O. Muller on History and Myth

New York dans le cinéma de science-fiction : le personnage de l’alien dans sa relation à la ville

Science fiction films show New York City through the eyes of a foreigner, an « alien », be it an extraterrestrial, an earthly monster or a super-hero. The alien's presence in the city underscores the shortcomings of civilization — New York is ridden by violence, crime and corruption — while reinforcing the mythical appeal of the world's most recognizable city. The various images of New York on the screen actually give us a glimpse of the « real » city, as the cinema blends all visions into a unique, multi-sided, mythical entity, a city that draws its reality from the fiction that invents it.

Rejoinder--Assessing the Type and Severity of Psychological Problems: An Alternative to Diagnosis

All three comments claim that we deny the reality of mental and emotional problems, even though Line 1, Paragraph 1 reads, Psychological problems are real, but are not entities. All three also equate assessment of a person's specific type of problem (depression, schizophrenia, phobia, paranoia) with categorical assessment. We think that both of these errors are encouraged by the traditional categorical concepts of medicine, in which symptoms are the manifestations of specific, unseen organisms or lesions. If psychiatric diagnoses are mythical entities, how can psychological problems be real? The answer is that depression, schizophrenia, paranoia, and the like are human attributes. As such they are just as real as height, weight, age, and a host of other attributes by which we characterize people. The myth, suggested strongly by medical language and concepts, is that the essential problem is the presence of an unseen thing which disturbs the normal functioning of the organism and thus produces the observable feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. Thus a word such as is not just a name for bizarre thoughts and behaviors. It is implicitly the name of the unseen thing believed to cause those bizarre thoughts and behaviors. Our view is that the thoughts and behaviors called schizophrenia (e.g., thought broadcasting, thought insertion, hearing voices) are real. They are also distinct in that they are

In Response to "Psychiatric Diagnosis as Reified Measurement": An Invited Comment on Mirowsky and Ross (1989)

The Mirowsky-Ross article Psychiatric Diagnosis as Reified Measurement is most remarkable for its derisive attitude toward clinical psychiatrists and their fellow travelers among the ranks of workers, psychologists, nurses, and even sociologists. The emotional thrust of this article seems to be that psychiatrists have foisted the of on unwitting co-workers, patients, and the nosologic field, constructing mythical entities for the social construction of the need for mental health services. Thus the language of categories is the language of the psychiatric guild. Unfortunately, the hortatory message of the article promulgates its own guild polemic. We are hard pressed to discern where the authors stand on the existence of these mythical Are they suggesting that mental illnesses and the need for treatment are themselves myths or mere constructions? If this was not intended, it should be made absolutely clear: there truly are mentally ill people with tormented families who do not give a hoot about measurement but who care a great deal that we are slowly, too slowly, finding effective somatic and psychological treatments for these entities. The simple assertion of a model of the causes and nature of psychiatric illness, as presented by the authors, is a nonscientific position. Their wish to ignore the contributions of biology to current psychiatric classifications calls into question their appreciation of the relevant data. Biologic treatments for provisional diagnostic categories have, in

The Translator and the Myth of the Public: "Introductory Remarks" to the First French Translations of Swift, Young, and Shakespeare

In this essay, I propose to examine how a reliable tool of history and criticism-the concept of the horizon of expectations mediating between particular works and their public reception-may prove to be a fictitious and mythical entity. I will show that the notion of is used, avant la lettre, paradoxically and at cross-purposes by the first French translators of Swift, Shakespeare, and Young. I will argue that Desfontaines, La Place, and Le Tourneur set out, not unlike the modern historian-interpreter of reception, to articulate the collective background of expectations (against which new works are subsequently silhouetted).1 They struggle both to structure the prevailing horizon and to prepare it for a potential transformation. Yet, their attempts remain suspended in a state of self-defeating tension. The discovery of a short-circuit in the process of establishing a reliable horizon for the reception of alien works implies, at the same time, a novel and highly selective approach to the study of translations. Contrary to suggestive current critical practices (inspired by both Russian Formalism and theories of reception), no attempt will be made here to assess either the historical function or the mode of insertion of 18th-century translations from the English into a prevalent French literary system.2 Nei-