The social impact of myths includes that they give answers to questions about life, why we are here, who put us here and what we should or should not do with our lives as a result of our having been created. These myths give people reason. My group discussed question two for the most part. For example, many Chinese myths place China within the centre of the world and this would have affected the way that Chinese people saw themselves when they were first told these myths. Also, a lot of time in Chinese myths, they talk about how the world came to be and how the landscape was created but base the world off of the landscape in China.
Pangu retrieved from: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pan-Gu
one Chinese myth in particular talks about the creator of the world being a man named Pangu. The narration says that Pangu’s blood was turned into rivers, and his veins into roads. When Pangu died, his elbows, knees, and head were turned into five sacred mountains. Seeing as there are mostly rivers and mountains in China, this is the time of landscape that is usually talked about with in Chinese myths.
In addition to question two a classmate of mine discussed “Origin of the Japanese Islands”
She portrayed her opinion and stated that this myth was extremely sexist and degrading to women. Izanami says that “My body was made in one place insufficiently.” Indicating, that because she is a woman, she is not complete, or good enough. Then, Izanami and Izanagi are not able to have good children because when they went to mate, she spoke before him. When they asked the heavens for help they were told “They were not good children because the woman spoke first. Go back again and correct your words.” We discussed how this is sexist because the myth is telling anyone who reads it that if a woman speaks her mind before a man, there will be a bad outcome. The myth continues and explains that “So long as there was an incorrect order of things, with the woman speaking first, there could be no proper offspring. Once the male takes his own correct precedence over the female, all is in order.” This reflects the way many men still view the world today and it is quite obvious that it was a man who wrote this myth to begin with. If there were ever a man to read this myth and believe that this is how the world truly came to be, he would be influenced by the sexist behaviour within the myth. Today, this is still a problem ranging from more minor cases, too extreme. I can relate to this myth because I have seen so many stories on the news where women are treated as “objects”. An example is Jeffrey Epstein who molested young girls with the help of his girlfriend.
portrait of Jeffrey Epstein retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/04/effrey-epstein-settlement-lawsuit-sex-abuse-pedophilia-charges-latest
We next discussed similarities between Chinese mythological narratives and Greek mythology. Both mythic narratives involve the use of heroic characters, and a class of titan gods that created the universe and have high authority. Both mythological systems feature semi-people or semi-animals: hybrid creatures that combine the features and body parts of more than one real species. Additionally, both mythologies have multiple gods or figures that each play different roles, as opposed to one commanding figure that governs everything. The mythological systems are dissimilar in their creation stories. In Chinese mythology, the creator of the world was a man named Pangu, who emerged from an egg and separated Yin from Yang, creating the Earth and the sky. Upon further research, my classmate also found that in Greek mythology, it was believed that in the beginning, the world was in a state of nothingness known as Chaos. Then, Gaia emerged from the light and from her came Uranus, Pontos, and other old gods
The extent at which a mythical origin story affects the worldview of modern society varies. In some cases, mythology is practiced as a core part of one’s religion/worldview, whereas in other cases, mythology is simply treated as stories non-different then fairy tales. The Hopi origin story serves as the basis for the purpose of life: humans are instructed to find the Centre Place from birth. In Greek mythology however, mythology is strictly traditional tales. My classmate discussed how in many cases, we choose to take and ignore certain elements from mythological origin lore. Specific practices such as the worship of ancestors, attention to detail, etc. are examples of mythological thinking observed in modern Chinese society. In conclusion, the extent to which a society takes from its cultures mythological narratives widely varies from culture to culture.
References:
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2020, February 11). Pan Gu. Retrieved July 17, 2020, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pan-Gu
Press, A. (2018, December 04). Jeffrey Epstein: Sex offender reaches settlement, averting victim testimonies. Retrieved July 17, 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/04/effrey-epstein-settlement-lawsuit-sex-abuse-pedophilia-charges-latest
https://www.theoi.com/Protogenos/Gaia.html
origin of Japanese islands and Amaterasu
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