How Mythic Narratives Explain and Affect Lifestyles

Symbolism of death/disease in tradition

Our group’s discussion for Week V consisted of many different cultures and traditions which made for fascinating insights on how other traditions utilized symbolism, along with similarities between each of them. We went back to analyze one of the myths explored in Week II, the “Rye and Salem Witch Trials”. Dating back to the 1690s, medical knowledge was very limited, and the doctors of Salem concluded that the supposed Rye induced disease was in fact people becoming witches. The symbolism present in this myth are witches symbolizing disease, more specifically, ergotism and its side effects.

We also discussed the Greek origin myth of disease, plague and sins which was the myth of Pandora’s box. Upon the opening of this box/jar (due to Pandora’s curiosity), disease, plague and sins were released, symbolized by the Nosoi Spirits. Pandora’s box draws parallels to a Christian Myth, the Apple of Eden. When Eve took a bite of an apple in the garden, it released all types of sins and misfortunes upon the world. These two myths share similarities in that both Pandora and Eve did not intend to release evil into the world, and the creation of all sin and disease were by women. The fact that women are portrayed as the source of all evil may give the worldviews of gender during those times, with their societies believing women played a lesser role compared to men.

I covered the Chinese traditional belief of the Wen Shen, who were a group of deities (or one deity in some beliefs) that brought about illness, plague, and disease. Due to the lack of medical knowledge, the Chinese used to believe that illnesses were caused by evil spirits sent by the Wen Shen (Wen Spirits). The Wen Shen typically only release these spirits as punishment for the misdeeds of humans, and the humans must keep them appeased so that nobody would get ill. The Wen Shen and Pandora’s box are similar in that disease is portrayed as spirits. The Wen Shen is like the Salem Witch Trials in the sense that doctors lacked medical knowledge, so they conclude it must be the work of something supernatural. A clear pattern can be seen in all of these, which is the attempt to explain diseases and other misfortunes without proper prior knowledge.

It seems that the creation of origin myths is more comforting than being left in the dark without any explanation, even if the myth itself is not factually correct. In other words, people would rather have something to believe in rather than being faced with the unknown.

Body practices as an extension of mythic narratives

When we explored the concept of “body practices as an extension of mythic narratives”, we covered the Egyptian belief of life after death, as well as Kapsiki healing rituals being affected by myths. Since the Egyptians thought of death as the beginning of a new life (in the afterlife), they took burials seriously and decorated them to help the dead transition from the living world to the afterlife. To sum it up, the Egyptians carried out body practices on the dead as an extension of their belief of the afterlife. I looked deeper into this concept of Egyptian belief and found that this worldview of theirs affects them so much, that a lot of Egyptian economy is either directly or indirectly associated with the business of death. Many people’s lines of work would one way or another correlate to the business of everything involved with the burial process of the dead.

The Shamans of the Kapsiki healing rituals had a belief where a boy was afflicted with a disease where a frog had entered his body through his feet. This led to pseudo-medical rituals in the ways the Shamans cured the boy of his affliction. In the Kapsiki healing rituals, the Shamans carried out body practices in the way of pseudo-medical treatment to patients afflicted with disease as an extension to their belief of a frog entering a boy’s body through his feet.

All in all, it seems that many narratives explain how things are/occur based on their current understandings and beliefs (etiology). It gives the people a sense of reassurance in their ways of life and reaffirms the reasons why they do certain things. I believe that mythic narratives from any tradition or culture have their own unique ways of describing the world, which allows people to make sense of their worldviews and to understand their cultures better. These narratives are the foundations of the societies we study, and to me, are extremely interesting as you wouldn’t initially guess that stories would hold so much meaning. We know now that these are much more than stories and you can “read between the lines” of almost all these narratives to see the bigger picture.

Real world example of pseudo-medical treatment

In reference back to the pseudo-medical treatment of the Kapsiki healing rituals, pseudo-medical practices still exist today. Although to much controversy, acupuncture has been labeled as a pseudo-medical treatment as there is no scientific evidence in the effectiveness of acupuncture. As a small background, acupuncture dates to around 100 BC China centered around the belief of qi (life force energy) and qi points on the body. Acupuncture aims to insert small needles in these qi points on the body to increase the flow of qi and helps to heal individuals and relieve individuals. Here we can see a modern example of “body practices as an extension of mythic narratives” through acupuncture. Some scholars conclude that the effectiveness of acupuncture is mainly attributed to the placebo effect, where since people believe that acupuncture is helping them, they say its effective when in reality it isn’t really doing much.

References

Atsna, A. J. (n.d.). NOSOI. Retrieved August 2, 2020 from https://www.theoi.con/Daimon/Nosoi.html

Dow, G. (Jan 19, 2017). Pandora’s Box 2017. [Picture]

Cox, C. E. (July 31, 2019).  Acupuncture for Angina? Chinese Study Backs Targeted Approach. [Picture]

Lohnes, K. (n.d.). How Rye Bread May Have Caused the Salem Witch Trials. 1-2. https://d2l.ucalgary.ca/d2l/le/content/309867/viewContent/4059310/View

Matthew, P. G. (May 3, 2017). Acupuncture: A point in the right direction, or a stab in the dark? Retrieved August 5, 2020 from https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/acupuncture-a-point-in-the-right-direction-or-a-stab-in-the-dark-2017050311672

Teeter, E. (2011). Religion and ritual in ancient egypt. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca

van, B. W. E. (2015). The forge and the funeral : The smith in kapsiki/higi culture. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca

Welcome Collection. (1800-1899).  Wen Shen (?), god of epidemics. Watercolor. [Picture]. Attribution 4.0 international

Wikipedia contributors. (July 24, 2020). Wen Shen. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved August 1 2020 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wen_Shen