Myth, cosmology, and sacred power

Assigned readings

A Musical View of the Universe- Kalapalo Myth and Ritual as Religious Performance

The Symbolization Process of the Shamanic Drums Used by the Manchus and Other Peoples in North Asia

Threshold to the Sacred- The Overture in Thai and Javanese Ritual Performance (focus on Lysloff)

Listenings, viewings

We will watch some films on Tuesday; please make every effort to attend class!

Your selected readings

The Mythological Background of Hindu Music, by Lily Strickland This is a useful and concise summary of Hindustani Myth in Relation to Music for those less intimate with Hindustani music. Strickland surveys the various deities/avatars and their associative instruments, as well as the inherent difference between Hindustani and Western concepts/aspects of music. No in-depth study of any specific myth-cosmology-music-ritual performance, but many are mentioned--providing an appealing index for future myth-grounded musical research.~~--Kreisha 19:11, 1 March 2006 (MST)

The R?m?yana in Indonesia by J. Kats Since we've been looking at a lot of examples of Indonesian Hindu mythology in class, I am including this article which points out the differences between Indian adaptations of the Ramayana and Indonesian adaptations of the same story. While fundamental characters remain the same, relationships between them vary greatly and recontextualize the story accordingly. --Niyati 20:49, 1 March 2006 (MST)

Theories of Myth by Percy S. Cohen I always seem to be the person putting up articles that are more general. This is no exception. This is more information on Myth within religion, focusing on how it affects religious ceremony and its music. It talks in general about Myth and Religion focusing on Myth as a narrative and the psycho-analytic theories between music, religion, and myth. --Kristen 22:42, 1 March 2006 (MST)

the Language of Power: Music, Order, and Redemption by Smith This article looks at myth as the meaningful context for music in Amuesha society. He acknowledges the importance of the understanding of local philosophical and cosmological frameworks in answering questions about the centrality of music in ritual. He situates himself in relation to Levi-Strauss. He also gives examples of the way that mythological ritual can maintain a broader social order and represent access to cosmic ideals. Ritual is a ceremonial means of acknowledging the cosmic heirarchy and the differences between human and divinity, especially by emphasizing weakness and suffering, in order to gain compassion, and thus the sharing of power, from the divinities.--Gloria 01:20, 2 March 2006 (MST)

Myths and their Magic use in Ifugao by Barton This rather short article examines the extensive use of myth and magic among the Ifugaos of the Central mountains of Luzon. Myth is recited in this culture only during ritual and never as entertainment. These people lack the dances and spectacles of other cultures and so focus on myth and the magic it brings as an outlet for exhibitionism. Perhaps the most intriquing part about this article is that it was written in 1940 and from the very outset uses the pejorative term "pagan" when describing the Ifugaos religion. It is very much an article about the "other". --KellyM 08:19, 2 March 2006 (MST)

The Myth-Ritualist Theory of Religion by Robert A Segal Segal presents the myth-ritualist theory as one that emphasizes the belief through the practice and the accomplishments of religion rather than its mandates. He offers both critisms and varying interpretations of the theory as well as other theories about myth and ritual. Throughout, he supplies reminders that even if these theories are wrong, they still show how important myths and rituals are to religion.--Lpauls 09:12, 2 March 2006 (MST)

Nak'ota m?k'oc'e: An American Indian Storytelling Performance (Brenda Farnell) The author discusses the storytelling performance of the Assiniboine people of Northern Montana, and the way in which cultural symbol and myth, as well as movement, play into this example of language performance. --Jordanv 10:17, 2 March 2006 (MST)

Music, Myth and Liturgy ath teh Lingsar Temple Festival in Lombok, Indonesia While connecting with the Balinese articles and video, Harnish focuses on the Lingsar Temple Festival on another island. It is an interesting festival since it brings together two different ethnic and religious groups: a "traditional" Muslim group amoung the Sasak and Hindu Balinese migrants who controled the island for centuries. Harnish looks at the differences between myth and liturgy in this ritual, and notes the paradox of the festival as it constructs and builds the two groups identities while at the same time transcending them into a greater whole. The myths here are founding myths that interlock with ethnicities and politics to establish which group first discovered the springs where the festival takes place, allowing that group to claim moral or divine authority and credit for success of the festival. At the same time, the actual liturgy or ritual of the festival has little to do with the myths. ~~Cari

Jill Drayson Sweet. Ritual and Theatre in Tewa Ceremonial Performances The Tewa Pueblo Indians have participated in the commercial theatrical ceremonials for over 80 years. This article investigates the ritual and theatre mode of the ceremonials, and how the Tewa have merged the two together to match the times (commercial tourism, etc), by coming to a compromise. According to the Tewa, this does not take away from the meaning of event, and the effects of the ritual performance can be achieved in the ceremonial/tourist version of the performance. --Stella 22:28, 5 March 2006 (MST)

Mythical Thought and Metaphysical Language A fairly dated article exploring the relationship between myth and metaphysics. This work is clearly influenced by once-prevailing Western theories on psychology, most notably Freudian and Jungian. Unfortunately, these may not be entirely valid means of analysis. Myth and metaphysics are deemed inseparable, at least in that myth relies on metaphysical explanations and creates them. --Andre 09:27, 7 March 2006 (MST)

- The Myth-Ritualist Theory of Religion (My apologies to LPauls - I didn't check the WIKI thoroughly before I chose this article.) Segal’s article is a survey of scholarly approaches to the interpretation of myth and ritual before 1980. His organizational framework is a review of various approaches to myth and ritual interpretation and where they stand in relation to the “myth-ritualist” approach. This approach is summarized in the preamble to the article as follows: “According to the myth-ritualist theory, religion is primitive science: through myth and ritual, which operate together and constitute its core, religion magically manipulates the world.” Segal says that even where various theories prove to be incomplete or even false, all of them contribute something to the interpretation of myth and ritual.

I was interested in what Segal had to say about Levi-Strauss, the last scholar in his survey. He says that Levi-Strauss is not a myth-ritualist, but an intellectualist – he considers myth and ritual to be “an explanation of the physical world” rather than "a magical means of controlling the... world.” Levi-Strauss sees the world as a collection of binary opposites, particularly between nature and culture. Myth and ritual in Levi-Strauss's view, says Segal, helps to resolve or explain the contradictions between the binary opposites of nature and culture.--user: starkd