What are the characteristics of Neolithic Myth? What is the significance of the Zuni emergence tale and the Japanese creation myth?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Myth allows for the unification or reality and experience for a culture. Myth is not entirely fantastic because it is based on and created to explain the day-to-day experience and life of a people. In the Zuni and Japanese stories, we see a common theme of myth: the explanation of common experience through supernatural agency. These myths also demonstrate the three common elements of Neolithic Myth: 1) animism (the belief that everything is permeated by spirits), 2) anthropomorphism (the belief that natural objects behave like human beings), and 3) that humans can communicate and influence objects by communicating with them.

In the Zuni emergence tale we have a mythic presentation of the natural process of human maturity and a justification and explanation for specialization within a society. In the Japanese creation tale, we have a similar explanation of hierarchy, this time the divine creative hierarchy. Human beings can explain the specialization of society and division of labor by reference to a similar division between spiritual beings. We also see another purpose of myth, evidence here: the explanation of the origins of peoples and cultures.