Mythology Theories and Creation Myths

Running head: MYTHOLOGY THEORIES AND CREATION MYTHS

Mythology Theories and Creation Myths

Buster Haymen

University of Phoenix

Mythology Theories and Creation Myths

         Several types of mythology theories exist; in this paper I will summarize three, comparative, structuralism, and cultural.  I will also compare two creation myths and explain the function within the culture using the theories I have summarized.

         Johann Gottfried von Herder suggested that the environment had an influence on people’s disposition, body type, and social values associated with their culture. Which in turn influenced three related fields of mythological schools of thought which used comparative mythology; the first group used language, the second used the environment, and the third used ethnicity.  In short Comparative Mythology focuses on the similarities of myths from different cultures and tries to identify like themes and characteristics

       Mythologists also compared the structure of myths.  Claude Levi Strauss among others believed that myths were structured through literary meaning.  A contemporary of Strauss, Vladimir Propp, studied thousands of stories and came to a conclusion that there were constants and variants noted, which were the characters changed, but the functions of the characters throughout the plot were relatively the same.  Propp stated that these stories had thirty one functions; the first being the hero leaves home and the thirty first is when the hero returns, marries, and then ascends the throne, a happy ending so to speak.  Between the first and the thirty first is when the hero faces the trials and tribulations of his journey.  Strauss’ studies included South American myths, through these myths he was able to distinguish a code, associated with sociological, culinary, astronomical, and cosmological aspects of the myths.  He stated that these codes represented polar opposites or binary oppositions.  Two of his examples relate to the married versus unmarried or people versus the other.  He concluded that myths collaborates the tensions created by these opposites.

     Working in the field of cultural anthropology was Bronislaw Malinoski, he gained renown through his studies (1914–18) of the indigenous peoples of the Trobriand Islands off New Guinea (“Malinoski, Bronislaw“, 2009, p. 1-1).  He stated that myth was real and that it could be observed by oral performance, rituals, and ceremonies, and that it visibly influenced a living people’s social actions.  My understanding of his theory is; myth has a purpose in culture and is guidance for morality and beliefs, within which a specific culture has evolved.

   It is human nature in every culture to wonder about the creation of the world and how and where mankind was created.  The different creation myths try to explain the order of creation in different cultures, also called cosmogony.  Despite being separated by various geographical barriers many cultures have developed creation myths with many common elements.  The differences are usually due to racial or cultural bias because of this separation.  

  The myth of the Dogon tribe of West Africa incorporates several motifs; conjugation, dues faber, and ex nihilo.  This is just a summary of what took place throughout the myth. The story starts with one God; Amma, the creator of the universe and all life. The God Amma took a lump of clay, squeezed it threw it into the empty space.  The clay spread and fell, the north, being the top, and the bottom the south.  This body of land was in the form of a woman. Her vagina was an anthill, and her clitoris a termite hill. Amma, desired intercourse with Mother earth, and approached her.  At Amma’s approach, the termite hill rose up, displaying its masculinity. The termite hill blocked Amma, and there was no possibility of intercourse. So Amma cut down the termite hill and had intercourse with Mother Earth.  This was a breach of the natural order, completed without ritual.  From this intercourse came a single son called Jackal, a deceitful son of Amma.  Amma again had intercourse with mother earth, this time without a breach of order, twins were born called Nummo.  The twins Nummo were both male and female and could reproduce as a single being.  Nummo continued the work of Amma and created the ancestors of the Dogon.  In the beginning the Dogon new of no death, but after discord with Amma in the heavens the ancestors returned to earth and evolved into mankind.  To this date the Dogon’s customs and rituals revolve around this myth.  The families are led by the eldest male son of the ancestor’s local branch.  The custom of circumcision of both male and female still exist.  The Dogon still believe males and female are born with both sexual organs, thus the circumcision so they can assume the proper physical identity.  Their homes are built from clay usually in round form similar to the ant hill of Mother earth.