{"id":268,"date":"2023-04-05T03:35:22","date_gmt":"2023-04-05T03:35:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/?post_type=chapter&p=268"},"modified":"2023-04-05T14:26:12","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T14:26:12","slug":"268","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/chapter\/268\/","title":{"raw":"1. Introduction","rendered":"1. Introduction"},"content":{"raw":"
\r\n

In The Hero <\/em>With<\/em> A Thousand Faces<\/em>, Joseph Campbell writes: \"There is no \u2026 system for the interpretation of myths, and there never will be any such thing.\"1<\/a><\/sup> Nevertheless, to engage with mythology as an academic subject of systematized study, it is necessary to have some<\/em> kind of guiding structure to help organize our thinking.<\/p>\r\n

As with most subjects, there are many directions from which you can approach the study of Mythology.\u00a0 You can look at the text and structure of the stories, in which case you\u2019re studying it as literature.\u00a0 You can look at the statues, carvings, cave paintings, mosaics, etc., left behind by past cultures, in which case you\u2019re studying it as art and\/or art history. You can look at the stories in relation to other environmental influences on the culture, in which case you\u2019re studying it as history \u2026\u00a0and so on.<\/p>\r\n

For our purposes, we want to study Mythology as an expression of the experience of being human<\/em>, so we\u2019ll look at it as art, history, theater, literature, music, sociology, psychology, philosophy, politics, and, yes, religion.<\/p>\r\n

Joseph Campbell said that Mythology can \u201c\u2026 teach you how to live a human lifetime, under any circumstances.\u201d2<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0 In other words, through the study of mythology a person can come to know themselves as fully as possible, and thence to know themselves in relation to friends and family, tribe, neighborhood, community, city, region, nation, world, and the universe-at-large.<\/p>\r\n

So, if we\u2019re going to explore Mythology as an expression of culture and society, what do those terms mean?<\/p>\r\n

\u201cCulture\u201d is defined as: \u201cthe beliefs, behaviors, objects, and other characteristics common to the members of a particular group or society,\u201d and \u201csociety\u201d is defined as: \"the people who interact in such a way as to share a common culture\".\u00a0 The two terms are intricately related: A culture consists of the \u201cobjects\u201d of a society, whereas a society consists of the people who share a common culture. More broadly, we can say for our purposes that \u201cculture is who a people are\u201d and \u201csociety is how people within a culture interact with one another\u201d. Mythology was one of the earliest ways in which humans described these interactions to themselves.<\/p>\r\n

Some things will be familiar and comfortable; other things will be different and challenging; everything will be interesting \u2014 because we\u2019ll share the exploration and adventure together.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n

\r\n
1<\/a> Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces<\/i> (New York: Pantheon Books, 1949), 381.<\/div>\r\n
2<\/a> Joseph <\/i>Campbell<\/i>, \"The Message of The Myth,\" interview by Bill Moyers, Joseph and The Power of Myth<\/i>, produced by Joan Konner and Alvin H. Perlmutter, aired 1988 (first broadcast 1988), on Athena.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"
\n

In The Hero <\/em>With<\/em> A Thousand Faces<\/em>, Joseph Campbell writes: “There is no \u2026 system for the interpretation of myths, and there never will be any such thing.”1<\/a><\/sup> Nevertheless, to engage with mythology as an academic subject of systematized study, it is necessary to have some<\/em> kind of guiding structure to help organize our thinking.<\/p>\n

As with most subjects, there are many directions from which you can approach the study of Mythology.\u00a0 You can look at the text and structure of the stories, in which case you\u2019re studying it as literature.\u00a0 You can look at the statues, carvings, cave paintings, mosaics, etc., left behind by past cultures, in which case you\u2019re studying it as art and\/or art history. You can look at the stories in relation to other environmental influences on the culture, in which case you\u2019re studying it as history \u2026\u00a0and so on.<\/p>\n

For our purposes, we want to study Mythology as an expression of the experience of being human<\/em>, so we\u2019ll look at it as art, history, theater, literature, music, sociology, psychology, philosophy, politics, and, yes, religion.<\/p>\n

Joseph Campbell said that Mythology can \u201c\u2026 teach you how to live a human lifetime, under any circumstances.\u201d2<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0 In other words, through the study of mythology a person can come to know themselves as fully as possible, and thence to know themselves in relation to friends and family, tribe, neighborhood, community, city, region, nation, world, and the universe-at-large.<\/p>\n

So, if we\u2019re going to explore Mythology as an expression of culture and society, what do those terms mean?<\/p>\n

\u201cCulture\u201d is defined as: \u201cthe beliefs, behaviors, objects, and other characteristics common to the members of a particular group or society,\u201d and \u201csociety\u201d is defined as: “the people who interact in such a way as to share a common culture”.\u00a0 The two terms are intricately related: A culture consists of the \u201cobjects\u201d of a society, whereas a society consists of the people who share a common culture. More broadly, we can say for our purposes that \u201cculture is who a people are\u201d and \u201csociety is how people within a culture interact with one another\u201d. Mythology was one of the earliest ways in which humans described these interactions to themselves.<\/p>\n

Some things will be familiar and comfortable; other things will be different and challenging; everything will be interesting \u2014 because we\u2019ll share the exploration and adventure together.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
1<\/a> Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces<\/i> (New York: Pantheon Books, 1949), 381.<\/div>\n
2<\/a> Joseph <\/i>Campbell<\/i>, “The Message of The Myth,” interview by Bill Moyers, Joseph and The Power of Myth<\/i>, produced by Joan Konner and Alvin H. Perlmutter, aired 1988 (first broadcast 1988), on Athena.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"menu_order":2,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-268","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":274,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/268\/revisions\/274"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/268\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=268"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=268"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}