Azerbaijan University of Languages

Student: Aziza Amrahova

Teacher: Lala Huseynova

Group: 106

Subject: Language and Culture

Individual work: Mythological panorama of the cultural world

Baku-2020
 Introduction
As A. Losev emphasizes, myth is not a fiction, fairy tale, but it is a category of our being and
consciousness that has its own strict structure and logic . (Платон. Мифы и реальность
Алексей Лосев Аза Тахо-Годи).Mythology appears to be a common cultural background, on
which a magnificent temple of human thought arises. Indeed, mythology is the primary cultural
factor, the very core of culture. For example, the Greek worldview of the Homeric era, its
morality, law and art has a mythological background. Exploring world of mythologies, we come
to the conclusion that myth is a spiritual and practical way of mastering reality. Myth does not
reflect any kind of relation to nature and society, but only valuable for the whole society
(clan/tribe). Mythology acts as a means of spiritual interpretation and transformation of the entire
world order. Myths are generalized images of a symbolic nature that include not only the
existing world, but also the desired world, the world of hope, in which the key interests of the
tribal group are embodied. Mythology is largely focused on overcoming the fundamental
antinomies of human existence, on the harmonization of “human – nature – society” system.
Myths are the first attempt to explain the principles of the universe. The archaic consciousness
perceives any object not as equal to itself, but as a part of the other objects.

Mythology is characterized by splitting of primordial, mythical, sacred time and present, profane
time. Mythological events are far away from the present time. They personify not just the past,
but a special form of creation, the first things that precede the present. Everything that happens
in sacred time acquires special significance and turns into paradigm and precedent. Thus,
modeling is transformed into a specific function of myth. Myth exists in two aspects: diachronic
(narrative about the past) and synchronic (interpretation of the present and/or the future). Within
primitive mentality, myths are not fantastic stories; on the contrary, they are reality itself that
includes the collective experience acquired by many generations. It is a matter of faith, not a
criticism. Myths introduce a certain system of values and social norms.

Main part
The following definitions are derived from cultural anthropology, the study of human
cultures.

1. CULTURE may be defined as the abstract values, beliefs, and perceptions of the world--i.e.
a world view--that shape, and are reflected in, a people’s behavior.  Culture encompasses
all that is human-made, learned and transmitted, especially through language, rather than
what is inherited biologically.  People are not born with a "culture"; they learn "culture"
through the process of enculturation. People develop and maintain cultures to deal with
basic problems like survival and other issues (geographical, social, economic,
philosophical, etc.) that concern them. To take root and survive, a culture must satisfy the
basic needs of people who live by its rules, develop means to ensure its transmission and
continuity across generations, and provide an orderly existence for members of the society. 
A culture must develop viable ways to balance individuals' self-interests with the
community’s needs, which can be a formidable challenge because human societies are made
up of individuals and groups with different interests. Typically, the dominant group’s
interests are most influential and better served by a culture's worldview and lifeways than are
the interests of other subordinated groups within a culture. Successful cultures are
dynamic, rather static: that is, long-term survival requires that a culture be able to change in
 order to adapt to new circumstances and influences, and/or its people's changing perceptions
of existing circumstances.  

Religion, Myth and Stories -- i.e. Narratives, both sacred and secular -- Art and Aesthetics,
Language and Language Arts (including Oral Arts, Literature, and Film) are all
important expressions of a people's culture.

2. RELIGION may be defined as beliefs and patterns of behavior by which people try to

deal with what they view as important problems that can’t be solved by other means:
e.g. the need to confront and explain life and death.  All cultures have religions, which are
powerful and dynamic forces in human society.  To overcome limitations, people often turn
to supernatural beings and powers: e.g., gods and goddesses, ancestral and nature spirits,
impersonal powers.  Religion presupposes the existence of supernatural beings and powers
with interest in human affairs—so to these beings and/or powers, humans can direct appeals
for aid.  Through ritual (religion in action)—e.g. prayer, song, dance, offerings, sacrifices—
people worship, trying to ward off misfortune and/or entreat supernatural powers and beings
to aid and protect, and help humans prosper.  Most cultures have religious specialists—e.g.
shamans, priests, theologians—who are skilled at dealing with supernatural deities/powers,
and can mediate between the spiritual and human worlds.  Religion reduces human anxieties
by explaining the unknown or making it understandable, providing comfort in times of crisis,
sanctioning a range of human conduct with notions of right and wrong, setting precedents for
acceptable behavior, and/or transferring the burden of making decisions from human to
supernatural beings.

3. MYTHOLOGY can be defined as a body of interconnected myths, or stories, told by a

specific cultural group to explain the world consistent with a people’s experience of the
world in which they live. [The word “myth” comes from the ancient Greek word
meaning “story” or “plot,” and was applied to stories sacred and secular, invented and
true.]  Myths often begin as sacred stories that "offer supernatural explanations for the
creation of the world . . . and humanity, as well as for death, judgment, and the afterlife"
("Myth" 284). A mythology or belief system often concerns supernatural beings/powers of a
culture, provides a rationale for a culture’s religion and practices, and reflects how people
relate to each other in everyday life.  Creation or origin myths explain how the world came
to be in its present form, and often position "the cultural group telling the myth" as the first
people or the "true" people ("Myth" 284).  Such sacred stories, or narratives, concern
where a people and the things of their world come from, why they are here, where they are
going. Myths and mythology express a culture’s worldview: that is, a people’s
conceptions and assumptions about humankind’s place in nature and the universe, and the
limits and workings of the natural and spiritual world. 

All cultures create and tell stories, and myth-making is an important human creative
activity.  Myths, stories, legends, folklore, tall tales give valuable insights into how people perceive and
think about their world.  "Even when a culture no longer believes that its myths are true explanations,
however, these stories often survive as receptacles of important cultural values" ( "Myth
284).  Language arts, oral and literary traditions express how people order their experience and the
universe, set standards of behavior, shape and reflect cultural values.  These arts and traditions are
important means to preserve and transmit a culture’s customs and values, to contribute to the
cohesiveness and solidarity of society—as well as to critique the status quo and stimulate
change.  Poets, storytellers, writers, as well as other artists and performers, make and use symbols to
shape and interpret experience, create works of beauty and significance—whether religious or secular
—and exercise the human imagination in a rich diversity of ways the world over. Some poets--notably
William Blake of the late eighteenth-century, and William Butler Yeats of the late-19th and early 20th
century Modernist period--have even created their own personal mythic systems.

            Cross-cultural comparisons of the world’s myths have uncovered striking similarities in themes,
structures, images, and characters; "in the types of phenomena they seek to explain and the types of
questions they address" ("Myth" 284).  These cross-cultural similarities raise provocative questions: Do
certain universal myths, or “monomyths,” organize and connect the mythic narratives and their literary
forms across different cultures, past and present, around the world?   Why do these similarities occur? 
Do all human beings inherit a common, if unconscious, set of mythic figures, forces, patterns,
implications, and structures from our common ancestors?  

Myth critics draw upon philosophy, anthropology, psychology, history, folklore, linguistics, and
literature to study these correspondences and speculate on the reasons why.  They approach myth, as
well as language, as a way of responding to the world and creating a worldview.  They describe myth
as non-intellectual, primal, emotion-laden, experiential, and imagistic.  They suggest that literature and
orature (or oral arts) tap into a universal human mythic consciousness and reveal the dynamics that
have given meaning and intelligibility to our world.  In The Golden Bough (1890-1915), James
Frazier identified common elemental patterns of myth and ritual found across seemingly disparate
cultures and times and places.  Carl Jung (1875-1961) developed depth psychology, proposing that
humankind has a “collective unconscious,” or racial memory in which archetypes, or “primordial
images,” survive as a kind of “psychic residue” of our ancestors’ repeated patterns of experience. 
These archetypes are expressed in myths, religion, dreams, private fantasies, as well as in works of
literature.( Smith, Huston.  The World's Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions.  1958.  San
Francisco and New York: HarperCollins, 1991.)

Archetypes can be defined as a set of universal and elemental mental forms or patterns—e.g.

recurring narrative plots, patterns of action, character types, images—found in a wide variety of the
world’s literary and oral traditions, myths, dreams, and ritualized modes of social behavior.  The
archetype of archetypes has been identified as the death-rebirth theme, connected with the cycle of
seasons and the organic cycle of human life and death.  Other archetypes include sacrifice of the king,
gods who die to be reborn (e.g. as avatars), the journey underground (e.g. into hell), the ascent to
heaven, the scapegoat, the earth goddess, the search for the father, the fatal woman, the wise old man,
the divine child, the cross, the mandala, the quest.  Such archetypes express a mythic conception of
human life.  As such, they cannot be understood by intellectual, rational, or logical methods or
procedures; rather, archetypes are the stuff of dreams, the unconscious, ceremony, trance, and ritual. 

Drawing upon anthropology, linguistics, and psychology, Claude Levi-Strauss proposed that the

meaning of myths lies not in their content, but in the structure of relationships that myths reveal. 
Myths work to mediate among life’s extremes (e.g., life-death, agriculture-warfare), allowing humans
to overcome life’s contradictions.  Levi-Strauss believes that myth patterns arise out of the structures
and operations of the human mind—not racial memory. ("Myth."  In The Bedford Glossary of Critical
and Literary Terms.  2nd ed.  Ed. Ross Murfin and Supryia M. Ray.  Boston: Bedford-St. Martin's,
2003.)

This “mytho-poetic imagination” produces structures and symbols expressed in oral and

literary myths.  Another notable myth critic of the mid-20th century, Northrop Frye is not particularly
concerned with why or how these universal mythic patterns arose: the fact is, the patterns are there, "so
deeply ingrained in most cultures that literary works typically rehash the same general mythic
formulas" ("Myth" 284-285).  In The Anatomy of Criticism, Frye traces recurring mythic formulas
embedded in the genres and plot patterns of literature, and myth criticism aims to reveal how such
mythic patterns persist and continue to re-enact themselves across cultures in human imaginative works
today.

Conclusion
Mythology is one of the ways to comprehend and interpret the world around us. Its basic
concepts are the “world” and “human”. Through the lens of these concepts, people realized their
destiny in the world and formed life attitudes during the early stages of human development.
Giving place to philosophy and science, mythology has not lost its important place in human
history. Mythological narratives were borrowed by many religions. In recent decades,
representatives of literature and art have intentionally used myths to express their ideas. They
have not only rethought ancient myths, but have created new mythological symbols. Nowadays,
an interest in myths and mythologies has dramatically increased, and it is not by chance. The
famous researchers of the primitive cultures and mythologies as the ways of mastering and
interpreting the world have demonstrated the creative power and heuristic potential of myths that
will be manifested in the future.

Sources

Haviland, William A.  Anthropology.  7th ed.  Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers,

1994.

"Myth."  In The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms.  2nd ed.  Ed. Ross Murfin and
Supryia M. Ray.  Boston: Bedford-St. Martin's, 2003.

Reeves, Charles Eric.  “Myth Theory and Criticism.” In The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary
Theory and Criticism.  Eds. Michael Groden and Martin Kreiswirth.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University Press, 1994. 520-523.

Smith, Huston.  The World's Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions.  1958.  San Francisco and
New York: HarperCollins, 1991.

Платон. Мифы и реальность, 2004.Moscow Алексей Лосев.Аза Тахо-Годи