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THE CREATION OF MYTH
On Myth and Ritual as Group
Responses to Natural Disasters |
On Myth and Ritual as Group Responses to Natural Disasters
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If there is indeed a historical reality behind many or most traditional myths of creation, this seems to warrant new ways of thinking about myth as a social phenomenon. Seeing as so many of these early communities’ rituals were, in effect, elaborate dramatizations of creation myths that described catastrophic devastation caused by geological upheavals, floods and firestorms, we might consider that catastrophic events are far more likely to have instigated the making of myths than everyday (or even seasonally or annually recurring) events.
Taking such myths at face value, catastrophic impacts during the past several thousand years appear to have played a critical role in shaping the major developments of human culture, serving as catalysts for profound cultural transformations and ultimately the rise of our modern technocratic civilization. Natural events leading to considerable loss of life for a given cultural group in particular became part of the sacred cosmogony or creation mythology for that group. The creation and transmission of these myths served past societies as a tool to memorialize or explain natural phenomena as well as spectacular and catastrophic events, thus facilitating the communication of important, life-saving lessons to subsequent generations. Their rituals related to these myths were performed to underscore the effectiveness of these lessons in safeguarding the cosmos, their world, and their entire way of life. — The rituals were kept up by the common group only because such activities seemed genuinely effective — i.e., they “worked” to the extent that they seemed to effectively ward off catastrophe and other unwanted changes to the communities’ cosmic, geophysical and/or social world order. — This, in a nutshell, was the ever recurrent need common to all myth-making peoples of the past — and the accompanying rituals were designed to meet that need. |
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While not all myths of creation were re-enacted in dramatically-staged ceremonies or celebrations, nearly all rituals conducted en masse by myth-making peoples can be connected back to their central cosmogonic mythos. Though many myths were made without rituals attached, there was no rituals known apart from myth.
Myths set the pattern for all theoretical as well as practical instruction. In primitive traditions, in the absence of philosophical inquiry, they formed the only available form of instruction. While mimesis (the imitation of a divine action) was being dramatized, poiesis (the creation of human meaning) was simultaneously being realized. Events from the origin of the world, as such, remained valid as the basic ground underlying these peoples’ shared certainties and assumptions concerning all human activities, including concepts of wisdom and knowledge. The myths were generally understood to be sources of useful, universal foreknowledge from which the people could continue to draw upon when making important decisions and taking decisive actions. —Indeed, mythic traditions re-enacted at annually recurring seasonal festival rites by and large constituted the principal sources of authority for peoples of the past. The truth of the mythos seemed to be authenticated by the very fact of the rituals’ collective acceptance and continued repetition. The mythos held unassailable authority not by proving itself, but by the perennial preservation and re-presentation of the mythos made possible by consensus of the entire community. |
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If the indelibly imprinted cultural memories of the community really were actually rooted in catastrophic natural events of the past, — all of the foregoing further suggests precisely why these details were considered so very important and needful to remember. On the one hand, the myths always referred to events alleged have taken place long ago. But what gave the mythos and its accompanying rituals an operational value to the community was that they not only explained the present and the past — but also what to expect in the future as well. — As such, they constituted a fervent attempt to memorialize phenomena and events of perceived vital importance to the cosmic order and the long-term stability and well-being of their culture. — In short, Bronze age man’s mythologies were designed to effectively explain, and his rituals to affectively control, the natural forces that threatened to overwhelm him.
The ancients' memorialization of the past was more than simple historical commemoration; the objective was, first and foremost, rather immediate and pre-eminently practical. Their myths were not just “silly cultural fictions;” they had an underlying purpose beyond that of simple story-telling. The myths had their beginnings in the public needs or utilities of the peoples (Vico, New Science 51); they were carriers of information deemed vitally important to all. Myths were the expression of man's total response to his encounter with reality at large; and the ritual enactments of the mythos constituted his subsequent proactive efforts to secure his own existence meaningfully in the face of that reality. Though the details differ from culture to culture, the purpose and function of mythic ritual was relatively uniform worldwide: sustaining human life and cultural institutions in a world which man did not control, or even largely understand. All of culture — all the psychological and social practices and ideals of people in response to their situation within the natural world — originated as “magical” (or magically-minded) “religious” efforts to act in harmony with the universe, its gods, its demons, and its weather — in order to help ensure the community could continue to survive (and thrive) and prosper in a treacherous and ever-changing world. In fact, man’s yearning for scientific understanding does not seem to have been sought as an end in itself, but initially was inextricably bound up with more practical, everyday aspects of life—in short, with all aspects of mundane existence — even the pressing problems of daily life. — The commonplace activities of hunting, fishing, agriculture, birth, and marriage — everything of value that coalesced into the continuance of the social unit — all of these were felt to involve the same forces beyond mankind's control, which had to be confronted and controlled for our own continued preservation. Of course, it should go without saying that planetary powers did not need — and cannot receive — placating, per se. — But ritual placation and other early religious practices served to remind the community of its common bond with the world -- and how best to be prepared when those bonds were tested again by cosmic water and fire . The communal bonding regularly enacted in this way deeply inscribed the community’s store of cultural memory in the innermost conscience of each individual, all of whom thereafter shared responsibility for maintaining and transmitting the group’s mythos to future generations to come. A group that knew how to behave in crisis situations, because it had inherited a heroic tradition that told how their own ancestors successfully resisted the forces of disaster, was far more likely to act together effectively than a group lacking such a tradition. Without such social cement no community can ever preserve itself for very long. |