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An origin myth is a myth that purports to describe the origin of some feature of the natural or social world. One type of origin myth is the cosmogonic mythwhich describes the creation of the world. However, many cultures have stories set after the cosmogonic mythwhich describe the origin of natural phenomena and human institutions within a preexisting universe. Every origin myth is a tale of creation: origin myths describe how some reality came into existence. The distinction between cosmogonic myths and origin myths is not clear-cut. A myth about the origin of some part of the world necessarily presupposes the existence of the world—which, for many cultures, presupposes a cosmogonic myth. In this sense, one can think of origin myths as building upon and extending their cultures' cosmogonic myths. In some academic circles, the term "myth" properly refers only to origin and cosmogonic myths. For example, many folklorists reserve the label "myth" for stories about creation. Traditional stories that do The Origins of the Worlds Mythologies focus on origins fall into the categories of " legend " and " folk tale ", which folklorists distinguish from myth. According to historian Mircea Eliadefor many traditional cultures, nearly every sacred story qualifies as an origin myth. Traditional humans tend to model their behavior after sacred events, seeing their life as an " eternal return " to the mythical age. Because of this conception, nearly every sacred story describes events that established a new paradigm for human behavior, and thus nearly every sacred story is a story about a creation. An origin myth often functions to justify the current state of affairs. In traditional cultures, the entities and forces described in origin myths The Origins of the Worlds Mythologies often considered sacred. Thus, by attributing the state of the universe to the actions of these entities and forces, origin myths give the current order an aura of sacredness: "Myths reveal that the World, man, and life have a supernatural origin and history, and that this history is significant, precious, and exemplary. When the missionary and ethnologist C. Strehlow asked the Australian Arunta why they performed certain ceremonies, the answer was always: "Because the ancestors so commanded it. Founding myths unite people and tend to include mystical events along the way to make "founders" seem more desirable and heroic. For example: Julius Caesar and his relatives claimed Aeneas and through Aeneas, the goddess Venus as an ancestor. A "founding myth" or etiological myth Greek aition explains either:. A founding myth may serve as the primary exemplumas the myth of Ixion was the original Greek example of a murderer rendered unclean by his crime, who needed cleansing catharsis of his impurity. Founding myths feature prominently in Greek mythology. Thus Greek and Hebrew founding myths established the special relationship between a deity and local people, who traced their origins from a hero and authenticated their ancestral rights through the founding myth. Greek founding myths often embody a justification for the ancient overturning of an older, archaic order, reformulating a historical event anchored in the social and natural world to valorize current community practices, creating symbolic narratives of "collective importance" [9] enriched with metaphor in order to account for traditional chronologies, and constructing an etiology considered to be plausible among those with a cultural investment. In the Greek view, the mythic past had deep roots in historic time, its legends treated as facts, as Carlo Brillante has noted, [11] its heroic protagonists seen as links between the "age of origins" and the mortal, everyday world that succeeded it. A modern translator of Apollonius ' Argonautica has noted, of the many aitia embedded as digressions in that Hellenistic epic, that "crucial to social stability had to be the function of myths in providing explanations, authorization or empowerment for the present in terms of origins: this could apply, The Origins of the Worlds Mythologies only to foundations or charter myths and genealogical trees thus supporting family or territorial claims but also to personal moral choices. Simon Goldhill employs the metaphor of sedimentation in describing The Origins of the Worlds Mythologies laying down of layers "where each object, cult, ritual, name, may be opened A notable example is the myth of the foundation of Rome—the tale of Romulus and Remuswhich Virgil in turn broadens in his Aeneid with the odyssey of Aeneas and his razing of Laviniumand his son Iulus 's later relocation and rule of the famous twins' birthplace Alba Longaand their descent from his royal line, thus fitting perfectly into the already established canon of events. Similarly, the Old Testament's story of the The Origins of the Worlds Mythologies serves as the founding myth for the community of Israel, telling how God delivered the Israelites from slavery and how they The Origins of the Worlds Mythologies belonged The Origins of the Worlds Mythologies him through the Covenant of Mount Sinai. During the Middle Ages, founding myths of the medieval communes of northern Italy manifested the increasing self-confidence of the The Origins of the Worlds Mythologies population and the will to find a Roman origin, however tenuous and legendary. In 13th-century Paduawhen each commune looked for a Roman founder - and if one was not available, invented one—a legend had been current in the city, attributing its foundation to the Trojan Antenor. Larger-than-life heroes continue to bolster the origin-myths of many newer nations and societies. Note for example the conquistadors of the Iberian empires, the bandeirantes in Brazil, the coureurs des bois in Canada, the Cossacks and the promyshlenniki in Siberia and in Alaska, the bands of pioneers in the central and western United States, and the voortrekkers in Southern Africa. Foundational stories are accounts of the development of cities and nations. A foundational story represents The Origins of the Worlds Mythologies view that the creation of the city is a human achievement. Human control and the removal of wild, uncontrolled nature is underlined. There are two versions of foundational stories: civilization story and degradation story. Civilization stories take a view of nature as dangerous and wild. The development of the city is seen as a successful distancing of humans from nature. Nature is locked out, and humans take pride in doing so successfully. In the geographer Yi-Fu Tuan suggested ranking cities according to their distance to natural rhythms and cycles. Degradation stories also called pollution stories take a different stance. The city is seen as spoiling the landscape of the ecological relations that existed before the city was established. There is a sense of guilt for degrading the intact system of nature. In degradation stories true nature only exists outside the city. From Wikipedia, the free The Origins of the Worlds Mythologies. Redirected from Myth of origins. Myth that purports to describe the origin of some feature of the natural or social world. This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources. See also: Myth and ritual and Eternal return Eliade. Dunlap, tr. Bremmer, Interpretations of Greek The Origins of the Worlds Mythologies"What is a Greek myth? Morford and Robert J. Lenardon, Classical Mythology Edmunds, Approaches to Greek Mythpp. Identity and ethnogenesis. Consociationalism Cultural appropriation Diaspora politics Dominant minority Ethnic democracy Ethnic enclave Ethnic interest group Ethnic majority Ethnic media Ethnic pornography Ethnic The Origins of the Worlds Mythologies park Ethnoburb Ethnocracy Ethnographic film Ethnographic village Indigenous rights Middleman minority Minority rights Model minority Multinational state. Ideology and ethnic conflict. Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description matches Wikidata The Origins of the Worlds Mythologies articles with incomplete citations Articles with incomplete citations from July Articles needing additional references from July All articles needing additional references Commons category link is on Wikidata. Namespaces Article Talk. Views Read Edit View history. Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file. Download as PDF Printable version. Origin myth - Wikipedia

Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to The Origins of the Worlds Mythologies saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. The Origins of the Worlds Mythologies Preview See a Problem? Michael Witzel. Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. The Origins of the World's Mythologies by E. This remarkable book is the most ambitious work on mythology since that of the renowned Mircea Eliade, who all but single-handedly invented the modern study of myth and religion. Focusing on the oldest available texts, buttressed by data from archeology, comparative linguistics The Origins of the Worlds Mythologies human population genetics, Michael Witzel reconstructs a single original African source for This remarkable book is the most ambitious work on mythology since that of the renowned Mircea Eliade, who all but single-handedly invented the modern study of myth and religion. Focusing on the oldest available texts, buttressed by data from archeology, comparative linguistics and human population genetics, Michael Witzel reconstructs a single original African source for our collective myths, dating back someyears. Identifying features shared by this "Out of Africa" mythology and its northern Eurasian offshoots, Witzel suggests that these common myths--recounted by the communities of the "African Eve"--are the earliest evidence of ancient spirituality. Moreover these common features, Witzel shows, survive today in all major religions. Witzel's book is an intellectual hand grenade that will doubtless generate considerable excitement--and consternation--in the scholarly community. Indeed, everyone interested in mythology will want to grapple with Witzel's extraordinary hypothesis about the spirituality of our common ancestors, and to understand what it tells us about our modern cultures and the way they are linked at the deepest level. Get A Copy. Paperbackpages. More Details Other Editions 2. Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The Origins of the World's Mythologiesplease sign up. Was interested in the book for some time, but have't got a hold of it yet. I read a review by Tok Thompson that this book had racism in it, while a The Origins of the Worlds Mythologies to that claim by Dr. Koenraad Elst, a The Origins of the Worlds Mythologies. I'm not sure what to believe. I haven't started the book yet, but if someone who has read the book could shed some light on it that I would appreciate it. So was there any racism or assumptions base on it? Tok Thompson The work is not academically valid, but rather a recycling of racist notions common in German scholarship before World War 2, on which the author larg … more The work is not academically valid, but rather a recycling of racist notions common in German scholarship before World War 2, on which the author largely relies. See the academic review by eminent scholar of myth Bruce Lincon. His review ends by calling the work "ill-founded, ill-conceived, unconvincing, and deeply disturbing in its implications. This is fully in line with my scholarly review, available here: www. The Origins of the Worlds Mythologies 1 question about The Origins of the World's Mythologies…. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 4. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of The Origins of the World's Mythologies. Jan 25, Adam marked it as abandoned Shelves: non-fictionebookanthropology. I try not to be one of those guys who thinks the things studied by science-adjacent humanities like history or folklore should and will be colonized by quantitative methods and disciplinary standards. The thesis and topic of this research overlaps heavily with recent work by Julien d'Huy and Jamie Tehrani, The Origins of the Worlds Mythologies the phylogeny of individual folktales using quantitative cladistics developing in genetics. Witzel is essen I try not to be one of those guys who thinks the things studied by science-adjacent humanities like The Origins of the Worlds Mythologies or folklore should and will be colonized by quantitative methods and disciplinary standards. Witzel is essentially arguing the same thing, but for a whole pattern of myths rather than any one story. That's cool, and intriguing, but there's no earthly excuse for this book to honestly be even half as long as it is. Where a scientific paper would briefly review the existing evidence on its question, Witzel explicates every relevant guess, hypothesis, and quack theory anyone has ever advanced on comparative mythology. Say what you want about scientific writing, but at least they're not going to try to present Carl Jung's work as a serious and relevant piece of scholarship. That's an annoying writing trait, but it's not fundamentally an issue. The bigger problem is that, for whatever reason, Witzel isn't interested in quantitative analysis. Maybe the reasons for this are good, maybe they're not, but instead, he proceeds to try to do that analysis "manually. So what the book seems to be composed of The Origins of the Worlds Mythologies a list of data points, linked by narrative connecting them to his hypothesis. That may well be correct, but first of all, nobody needs to see those datapoints to get to the conclusion, and second of all, damn that's a lot of text. It's so much text. Just summarize the stat output and move on, sheesh. The author makes a good attempt to establish a family tree of myths and myth complexes. He uses techniques analogous The Origins of the Worlds Mythologies the way linguists know things about proto languages. He also draws from genetics, archaeology, and linguistics as a sanity check against his ideas. This book was published in so must have been written and compiled earlier. The author was unaware of the current consensus that H. Sapiens interbred with Neanderthals. He doesn't seem to have heard of Denisovans either. There ha The author makes a good attempt to establish a family tree of myths and myth complexes. There have been more archaeological finds since then that shed more light on early human migrations. I don't think any of that invalidates this work but could inform follow up work. This work is a great first stab and I hope more researchers add to it. Dec 22, Mirek Kocur rated it it was amazing. Original in concept, groundbreaking in ideas, but wordy. View 1 comment. May 29, Tok Thompson rated it did not like it. The work is not academically valid, but rather a recycling of racist notions common in German scholarship before World War 2, on which the author largely relies. This is in line with my scholarly review, available here: www. Dec 25, Maya rated it liked it Shelves: mythology. Aug 29, Tay rated it really liked it. Illuminating and well researched, but unnecessarily long. Jul 08, Slavenko Sucur rated it it was amazing. Shines light on who we are as humansand why we believe what we believe. Only negative about the book is its extensive, maybe not for everyones beforethesleep reading Amazing book. Nov 16, Teresa rated it liked it. Very interesting and well researched, the notes and bibliography is actually a third of the bookthe author does not force his hypothesis on the reader with absolute certainty, referring points which need further research or those which might be either proved or disproved by further research. As for the backbone of The Origins of the Worlds Mythologies hypothesis, it is fully established by the author. I believe it to be the most comprehensive focusing no only in myths, but in genetics, archaeology, etc. The reading is not fascinating, as the author repeats himself a lot, but the subject as presented is not easy, so this is also a good strategy to help readers fully understand. He refers other scholars hypothesis and approaches, explaining his own in comparison to the others. A work that employs methods honed in comparative linguistics to make the case that common mythological themes found throughout the world have their origin in a common religion of our latest common ancestors. I was always suspicious that the flood story being everywhere was more than happenstance. Also, as a Mormon, I was fascinated by the fact that multiple generations of Gods, pre-existing earths, sacrifices, and some version of the Fall made it onto the common mythological motif list. Jan 06, Brian Cham rated it it was amazing. This is a very comprehensive and mind-blowing hypothesis about the ultimate origins, patterns and structures of all the world's mythologies. It posits a "family tree" of mythological structures that points to some ultimate common origins for many of humanity's cultures. There are some doubts about its validity and while I am aware of the criticisms, I think at the very least it is a mighty attempt that should lead the way for further work. Jul 28, ! Greek Mythology: Gods, Characters & Stories - HISTORY

As a global organization, we, like many others, recognize the significant threat posed by the coronavirus. During this time, we have made some of our learning resources freely accessible. Our distribution centers are open and orders can be placed online. Do be advised that shipments may be delayed due to extra safety precautions implemented at our centers and delays with local shipping The Origins of the Worlds Mythologies. Oxford Scholarship Online. This book is available as part of Oxford Scholarship Online - view abstracts and keywords at book and chapter level. Request Examination Copy. This remarkable book is the most ambitious work on mythology since that of the renowned Mircea Eliade, The Origins of the Worlds Mythologies all but single-handedly invented the modern study of myth and religion. Focusing on the oldest available texts, buttressed by data from archeology, The Origins of the Worlds Mythologies linguistics and human population genetics, Michael Witzel reconstructs a single original African source for our collective myths, dating back someyears. Identifying features shared by this "Out of Africa" mythology and its northern Eurasian offshoots, Witzel suggests that these common myths-- recounted by the communities of the "African Eve"--are the earliest evidence of ancient spirituality. Moreover these common features, Witzel shows, survive today in all major religions. Witzel's book is an intellectual hand grenade that will doubtless generate considerable excitement--and consternation--in the scholarly community. Indeed, everyone interested in mythology will want to grapple with Witzel's extraordinary hypothesis about the spirituality of our common ancestors, and to understand what it tells us about our modern cultures and the way The Origins of the Worlds Mythologies are linked at the deepest level. Chaos and darkness 2. Water 3. Earth diver and floating earth 4. Giant 5. Bull 6. Egg 7. Combined versions 3. Creation of land 3. The slaying of the dragon 3. Linguistics 4. Genetics 4. Archaeology 4. Gondwana mythologies 5. Melanesia 5. Individual Gondwana myth types and their common characteristics 5. Conflicting myths in Gondwanaland 5. Changes from Palaeolithic to state societies 7. Boldly swimming upstream against the present scholarly emphasis on difference and context, Witzel assembles massive evidence for a single, prehistoric, Ur-mythology. An astonishing book. By all rights, this book should provoke debate and is, therefore, indispensable to any research library. Summing Up: Essential. Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Academic Skip to main content. Search Start Search. Choose your country or region Close. Dear Customer, As a global organization, we, like many others, recognize the significant threat posed by the coronavirus. Please contact our Customer Service Team if you have any questions. Ebook This title is available as an ebook. To purchase, visit your preferred ebook provider. Oxford Scholarship Online This book is available as part The Origins of the Worlds Mythologies Oxford Scholarship Online - view abstracts and keywords at book and chapter level. The Origins of the World's Mythologies E. Michael Witzel Demonstrates the prehistoric origins of most of the Eurasian and Laurasian mythologies. Establishes a basis for much of our ancestral spirituality. Michael Witzel. Also of Interest. Children of Lucifer Ruben van Luijk. John of God Cristina Rocha. Humanism and the Death of God Ronald E. Tree of Salvation G. Ronald Murphy. Belief without Borders Linda A. Contemporary Shamanisms in Norway Trude Fonneland. High Culture Christopher Partridge. Visions of Religion Stephen S. American Gurus Arthur Versluis. Among the Scientologists Donald A. Singing the Rite to Belong Helen Phelan. Faith No More Phil Zuckerman.