JUNGIAN ARCHETYPE

Our primitive past becomes the basis of the human psyche, directing and influencing present
behavior. They were introduced by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, who suggested that these
archetypes were archaic forms of innate human knowledge passed down from our ancestors.
Archetypes represent universal patterns and images that are part of the collective unconscious.
In other words, myths express wisdom that has been encoded in all humans, perhaps by means
of evolution or through some spiritual process. For Jungians, this common origin in the
collective unconscious explains why myths from societies at the opposite ends of the earth can
be strikingly similar. A Jungian analysis of classical mythology would claim that the main gods
and goddesses express archetypes that are common to human thinking everywhere. The main
Olympian gods can be seen as expressions of archetypes of different stages of life within the
archetypical family. Nature has a cycle of death and rebirth, and these archaic and mythic
characters that make up the archetype myths explain this natural phenomenon. The four main
archetypes described by Jung are the persona, the shadow, the anima and the self.

Why is it considered in myth?

Jung's ideas have not been as popular as Freud's and his archetypes have not been viewed
favorably in modern psychology. This might be because his work tended to veer into the
mystical and pseudoscientific, and are therefore often studied more as a historical artifact and
in realms of literary criticism and popular culture applications of mythology than as a major
contribution to the science of the mind and behavior. They are overly stereotyped,
reductionistic, and culturally biased. To sum it up, Jung believed that myths and dreams were
expressions of the collective unconscious, in that they express core ideas that are part of the
human species as a whole.

Diffusionism

With the realization of the limits of cultural evolutionism in the early part of the twentieth
century, there arose the new paradigm of diffusionism represented by George Elliot Smith and
William James Perry in Great Britain. Diffusionism refers to the diffusion of discrete cultural
traits, practices, and inventions, that are transferred from one society to another. Man's first
myths were invented in several culturally ripe mythogenetic zones. Myths, like artifacts,
alphabets and etc. spread by migration, trade, war, or other contact. As cultures move around,
people take their cultures with them which is how we get parallel myths and are culturally
connected to our ancestors. Different type of diffusion are relocation, hierarchical, contagious,
expansion, and stimulus. Curiously, this paradigm was not popular in other countries and
besides, the diffusionists in the two areas were not in league but showed open hostility to each
other. They assumed that all myths arose a few major cultural centers and spread throughout
the world. But diffusionism in the past has been criticized as speculative, neglecting
geographical historical realities and lacking in originality and creative power. Their diffusionism
was a myth created to make people accept human prehistory, when scientifically there was
insufficient material to make such reconstruction possible. Those who advocate diffusionism
inevitably had to be speculative. In a sense, they invented a pseudo scientific myth without
realizing it. (Meaning the beliefs or practices claim to be both scientific and factual are
incompatible with the scientific method). In the end, diffusionism has proved to be right and its
concept strengthened in its opposition to the more powerful concept of evolution, which
proposed that all human beings possessed equal potential for innovation. Thus, It is often easier
to copy an invention, than to create a new invention.

Naturalism

Naturalism was a literary movement taking place from 1865 to 1900 that used detailed
realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in
shaping human character. The attitude of naturalism is the belief that only natural laws and
forces (as opposed to supernatural ones) operate in the universe. All myths are thought to
arise from an attempt to explain natural phenomena. People who believe in this theory narrow
the source of myths by tracing their origins from the worship of sun or moon. The term
naturalism was coined by Emile Zola , the French writer and theorist who is universally as the
founder of literary naturalism and it was introduced to America by American novelist, Frank
Norris. Naturalistic writers were influenced by from Darwin's theory of evolutionism which
holds that life is like a struggle and only the fittest survive. In principle, naturalism can be
explained and understood by science and philosophy. It suggests a pessimism in which writers
use scientific techniques to depict a deterministic view of a character's actions and life.
Naturalistic works exposed the dark harshness of life, including poverty, racism and disease. It
portrays realistic views of the world to the extreme by looking at how humans are powerless
animals driven by the natural forces pushing on them. The characteristics of naturalism are a
new and harsher realism, a surprising twist at the end of the story, pessimism, determinism,
and objectivism. With naturalism: what you see is what you get.

Histrorical-critical theory

This theory propose that there are a multitude of factors which influence the origin and
development of myths and that no single explanation will suffice. We must examine each story
individually to see how it began and evolved. It is also a branch of criticism that investigates the
origins of ancient texts in order to understand "the world behind the text". While often
discussed in terms of Jewish and Christian writings from ancient times, historical criticism has
also been applied to other religious and secular writings from various parts of the world and
periods of history. The primary goal of historical criticism is to discover the text's primitive or
original meaning in its original historical context and its literal sense or sensus literalis
historicus.

In conclusion, it appears that man created myths for quite a few reasons. These reasons
include explaining the unknown, natural events and forces, to show the duality and pureness of
human nature and the human mind, and to help societies maintain order and remain stable.
There are more reasons of exactly why myths should have arisen.

Discuss the relevance of the multiple pantheons of the ancient people in relation to the
acceptance of a God/gods in world religion today.

From the vast pantheon of ancient people, God/gods already existed for people believe
in them.