When They Severed Earth from Sky: How the Human Mind Shapes Myth

摘要: Why were Prometheus and Loki envisioned as chained to rocks? What was the Golden Calf? are mirrors believed carry bad luck? How could anyone think that mortals like Perseus, Beowulf, St. George actually fought dragons, since dragons don't exist? Strange though they sound, however, these "myths" did not begin fiction. This absorbing book shows myths originally transmitted real information about events observations, preserving sometimes for millennia within nonliterate societies. Geologists' interpretations of how a volcanic cataclysm long ago created Oregon's Crater Lake, example, is echoed point in local myth its origin. The Klamath tribe saw it happen passed down story - nearly 8,000 years. We, have been literate so we've forgotten encode reality.Recent studies our brains work, applied wide range data from Pacific Northwest ancient Egypt modern stories reported newspapers, helped Barbers deduce characteristic principles by which such tales both develop degrade through time. Myth fact quite reasonable way convey important messages orally over many generations although reasoning back original possible only under rather specific conditions. Our oldest written records date 5,200 years ago, but we speaking mythmaking perhaps 100,000. groundbreaking points restoring some lost history teaching us human storytelling.