Download or read book A Short History of Myth Myths series written by Karen Armstrong and published by Vintage Canada. This book was released on 2010-10-29 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What are myths? How have they evolved? And why do we still so desperately need them? A history of myth is a history of humanity, Karen Armstrong argues in this insightful and eloquent book: our stories and beliefs, our curiosity and attempts to understand the world, link us to our ancestors and each other. This is a brilliant and thought-provoking introduction to myth in the broadest sense–from Palaeolithic times to the “Great Western Transformation” of the last 500 years–and why we dismiss it only at our peril.
Download or read book How Myth Became History written by John Emory Dean and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2016-03-17 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The book explores how border subjects have been created and disputed in cultural narratives of the Texas-Mexico border, comparing and analyzing Mexican, Mexican American, and Anglo literary representations of the border"--Provided by publisher.
Download or read book Myth written by Aaron Steiner and published by . This book was released on 2012-06-01 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In an effort to answer questions about who we are, why we are here, and what the future holds in store, the author expands upon mythological explanations of the origins of man, incorporating extraterrestrial influences, Biblical references, and DNA manipulation.
Download or read book A Dictionary of Creation Myths written by David Adams Leeming and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Origin of the Gods written by Richard S. Caldwell and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1993 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presented in clear, comprehensible language, this study first explains the aspects of psychoanalytic theory relevant to the understanding of Greek myth, and then interprets, using psychoanalytic methodology, the Greek myth of origin and succession, particularly as stated in Hesiod's Theogony. Caldwell's provocative study will appeal to a wide range of classicists, teachers and students of mythology, and those interested in the application of psychoanalytic methods to literature.
Download or read book The Origin Myth of Acoma Pueblo written by Edward Proctor Hunt and published by Penguin Classics. This book was released on 2015-09-22 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Hailed by many as the most accessible of all epic narratives recounting a classic Pueblo Indian story of creation, migration, and ultimate residence, this version of the Acoma Pueblo creation myth offers a unique window into Pueblo Indian cosmology and its dramatic, ancient history. It reveals how one premodern society answered key existential questions and formed its guiding social, religious, and economic customs. In 1928 it was narrated by Edward Proctor Hunt, a Pueblo Indian man from the mesa-top village of Acoma, New Mexico, to Smithsonian Institution scholars. In this new edition, Peter Nabokov renders this important document into clear sequence, adds excerpted material from the original storytelling sessions, and explains the creation and roles of such central myths in American Indian cultures." -- Back of cover.
Download or read book Myth of Universal Human Rights written by David N. Stamos and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-11-17 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this groundbreaking and provocative new book, philosopher of science David N. Stamos challenges the current conceptions of human rights, and argues that the existence of universal human rights is a modern myth. Using an evolutionary analysis to support his claims, Stamos traces the origin of the myth from the English Levellers of 1640s London to our modern day. Theoretical defenses of the belief in human rights are critically examined, including defenses of nonconsensus concepts. In the final chapter Stamos develops a method of naturalized normative ethics, which he then applies to topics routinely dealt with in terms of human rights. In all of this Stamos hopes to show that there is a better way of dealing with matters of ethics and justice, a way that involves applying the whole of our evolved moral being, rather than only parts of it, and that is fiction-free.
Download or read book Myth written by Robert Alan Segal and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2015 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Very Short Introduction explores different approaches to myth from several disciplines, including science, religion, philosophy, literature, and psychology. In this new edition, Robert Segal considers both the future study of myth as well as the impact of areas such as cognitive science and the latest approaches to narrative theory.
Download or read book Foundation Myths in Ancient Societies written by Naoise Mac Sweeney and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2015 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout the ancient world, origin stories were told across the ancient world in many different ways: through poetry, prose, monumental and decorative arts, and performance in civic and religious rituals. Foundation myths, particularly those about the beginnings of cities and societies, played an important role in the dynamics of identity construction and in the negotiation of diplomatic relationships between communities. Yet many ancient communities had not one but several foundation myths, offering alternative visions and interpretations of their collective origins. Seeking to explain this plurality, Foundation Myths in Ancient Societies explores origin stories from a range of classical and ancient societies, covering both a broad chronological span (from Greek colonies to the high Roman empire) and a wide geographical area (from the central Mediterranean to central Asia). Contributors explore the reasons several different, sometimes contradictory myths might coexist or even coevolve. Collectively, the chapters suggest that the ambiguity and dissonance of multiple foundation myths can sometimes be more meaningful than a single coherent origin narrative. Foundation Myths in Ancient Societies argues for a both/and approach to foundation myths, laying a framework for understanding them in dialogue with each other and within a wider mythic context, as part of a wider discourse of origins. Contributors: Lieve Donnellan, Alfred Hirt, Naoíse Mac Sweeney, Rachel Mairs, Irad Malkin, Daniel Ogden, Robin Osborne, Michael Squire, Susanne Turner.
Download or read book Racial Myth in English History written by Hugh A. MacDougall and published by Harvest House, Limited, Publishers. This book was released on 1982 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Origin of Myth written by William Preston Johnston and published by . This book was released on 1872 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Origins of the Specious written by Patricia T. O'Conner and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2010-08-24 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do you cringe when a talking head pronounces “niche” as NITCH? Do you get bent out of shape when your teenager begins a sentence with “and”? Do you think British spellings are more “civilised” than the American versions? If you answered yes to any of those questions, you’re myth-informed. In Origins of the Specious, word mavens Patricia T. O’Conner and Stewart Kellerman reveal why some of grammar’s best-known “rules” aren’t—and never were—rules at all. This playfully witty, rigorously researched book sets the record straight about bogus word origins, politically correct fictions, phony français, fake acronyms, and more. Here are some shockers: “They” was once commonly used for both singular and plural, much the way “you” is today. And an eighteenth-century female grammarian, of all people, is largely responsible for the all-purpose “he.” From the Queen’s English to street slang, this eye-opening romp will be the toast of grammarphiles and the salvation of grammarphobes. Take our word for it.
Download or read book Transformations of Myth Through Time written by Joseph Campbell and published by Harper Perennial. This book was released on 1990-02-28 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The renowned master of mythology is at his warm, accessible, and brilliant best in this illustrated collection of thirteen lectures covering mythological development around the world.
Download or read book Between History and Myth written by Bruce Lincoln and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2014-09 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Medieval accounts of how Norway was unified by its first king provide a lively, revealing, and wonderfully entertaining example of this process. Taking the story of how Harald Fairhair unified Norway in the ninth century as its central example, Bruce Lincoln illuminates the way a state's foundation story blurs the distinction between history and myth and how variant tellings of origin stories provide opportunities for dissidence and subversion as subtle - or not so subtle - modifications are introduced through details of character, incident, and plot structure.
Download or read book Explaining Human Origins written by Wiktor Stoczkowski and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2002-06-20 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wiktor Stoczkowski, a palaeo-anthropologist, argues that the theories of human origins developed by archaeologists and physical anthropologists from the early nineteenth century to the present day are structurally similar to Western folk theories, and to the speculations of earlier philosophers. Reviewing a remarkable range of thinkers writing in a variety of European languages, he makes a convincing argument for this case. Even though the book criticises the lack of development in theories of human origins, its conclusion is optimistic about the power of the scientific approach to deliver more reliable theories - but only if the influences of popular discourse on its thinking are properly identified.
Download or read book The Evolution Myth written by Jiří A. Mejsnar and published by Karolinum Press. This book was released on 2014-10-01 with total page 115 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The origins of life, species, and man continue to interest scientists and stir debate among the general public more than one hundred and fifty years after Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species. The Evolution Myth approaches the subject with two intertwined objectives. Jiří A. Mejsnar first sets out to convey the advances made in cosmology, molecular biology, genetics, and other sciences that have enabled us to change our views on our origins and our relationship with the universe. Scientific advances now allow us to calculate, for example, the age of the universe, the period in which biblical Eve lived, and, with good justification, to reconsider the possibility that the Neanderthals and primates might be our ancestors. The author’s second objective is to use biology to explain why evolution cannot have taken place in the way that is most commonly assumed. Mejsnar builds his case around gene stability and on the sophisticated modern techniques for gene manipulation, the complexity of which make these modified genes inaccessible to nature. Development of life on Earth is a discontinuous, saltatory progression that results in stages following from preceding latent periods in which new forms suddenly appear and possess new types of genome. This, the author argues, is difficult to reconcile with the hypothesis of continuous biological evolution based on the natural selection of random variations. Taking a new approach to a much-debated subject, Mejsnar distills complex information into a rreadable style. The result is a book that as sure to get readers talking.
Download or read book Myth written by G. S. Kirk and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2023-09-01 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book attempts to come to grips with a set of widely ranging but connected problems concerning myths: their relation to folktales on the one hand, to rituals on the other; the validity and scope of the structuralist theory of myth; the range of possible mythical functions; the effects of developed social institutions and literacy; the character and meaning of ancient Near-Eastern myths and their influence on Greece; the special forms taken by Greek myths and their involvement with rational modes of thought; the status of myths as expressions of the unconscious, as allied with dreams, as universal symbols, or as accidents of primarily narrative aims. Almost none of these problems has been convincingly handled, even in a provisional way, up to the present, and this failure has vitiated not only such few general discussions as exist of the nature, meanings and functions of myths but also, in many cases, the detailed assessment of individual myths of different cultures. The need for a coherent treatment of these and related problems, and one that is not concerned simply to propagate a particular universalistic theory, seems undeniable. How far the present book will satisfactorily fill such a need remains to be seen. At least it makes a beginning, even if in doing so it risks the criticism of being neither fish nor fowl. Sociologists and folklorists may find it, from their specialized viewpoints, a little simplistic in places; and a few classical colleagues will not forgive me for straying far beyond Greek myths, even though these can hardly be understood in isolation or solely in the light of studies in cult and ritual. Others may find it less easy than anthropologists, sociologists, historians of thought or students of French and English literature to accept the relevance of Levi-Strauss to some of these matters; but his theory contains the one important new idea in this field since Freud, it is complicated and largely untested, and it demands careful attention from anyone attempting a broad understanding of the subject. The beliefs of Freud and Jung, on the other hand, are a more familiar element in the situation and have given rise to an enormous secondary literature, much of it arbitrary and some of it absurd. The author has tried to isolate the crucial ideas and subject them to a pointed, if too brief, critique; so too with those of Ernst Cassirer.
