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Monday, November 15, 2010

Why do we Study Myths & Folklore?

After perusing over some website stats, the other day, looking for keywords used and/or pages visited, etc., I came across a query that someone typed into the search bar which took them to the home page of this particular blog site: "Why do we study myths & folklore?"

I thought to myself, "Ya know, that's a good question that many people may often ask." Even though, I thought that I briefly answered it in the past, when I did my post "Why Myths are Noteworthy..."

To supplement my short post "Why Myths are Noteworthy," I found another good explanation for this query online, below:

"Mythology is the study of myth. Myths are ancient stories that have been handed down from generation to generation in a certain culture. By studying myth, a person can learn how a culture thought, lived, and expressed themselves. HISTORY can tell you facts about various types of people, but MYTH shows you the personality, their beliefs, fears, and hopes. Relying solely on HISTORY to tell you about different races, tribes, groups, etc., is like reading a person's driver's license instead of meeting him/her face-to-face." [ I only made a few edits from the original source: http://teacherweb.nixa.k12.mo.us/~zakhamby/Why.html ]

This next link provides a page with a little more elaboration upon the subject. The web page is entitled, "Why Study Folklore?" And you can find it here: http://www.siskiyous.edu/class/engl12/whystudy.htm [Link is no longer valid]

Basically, without all the excess verbiage: We study myths, legends, & folklore because it is interesting and because we can. I find no surprise in the fact that other human beings like to study other people's emotions, feelings, and beliefs. Besides, what deeper dimension is there to delve into, other than the vast imagination of mankind and the human expressions therein...?

---End of Post "Why do we Study Myths & Folklore?"

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