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From Myth to Folklore

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Elizar M. Meletinsky

Extract

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Mythology is a very ancient, but at the same time a very vital form of creative fantasy. It is a dominant feature in the spiritual culture of primitive societies, and to some extent of ancient societies; it is the principal means of giving an overall sense to the world. In a primitive culture, mythology gives body to an as yet weakly differentiated syncretic unity of unconscious creation, primitive religion and the embryonic forms of pre-scientific notions about the surrounding world. Mythology provides the soil and the raw material for early forms of religion and of poetry.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 25 , Issue 99 , December 1977 , pp. 103 - 124
Copyright
Copyright © 1977 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

1 For further details, see my article "Pjervobytnye Istoki Slovesnovo Iskusstva" (Primitive Sources of Verbal Art) in Rannie Formy Iskusstva (Early forms of art), Moscow, 1972.

2 Stanner, W.E.H., "On Aboriginal Religion." Oceania, vol. XXX-XXXIII, 1960-1963 (published separately in the Oceania Monographs series, No. 11, 1966).

3 Stith Thompson, Types of Folklore, Helsinki, 1928.

4 The use of smoke to disperse mosquitoes.