Mike Zang - Ethnology: The Archaeology of Myth

Preserving our ancestral roots is apparently important. For what reason, I'm not sure why, but we as humans have an almost instinctive urge to reconnect with our past and understand indigenous motives. One way to achieve this is through the study of myth and tradition. The customs and beliefs of a culture are often imbedded within the celebration and retelling of certain stories, along with enactments that embody the underlying morals. Ethnology, a field that has sprouted from anthropology, is one method in which humans uncover these archaic belief systems.

In an article entitled "The Significance of Mythology and Tradition," the authro Livingston Farrand explains how psychology and ethnology are two magical disciplines that have the ability to dig through primitive societies, both present and past, and exhume the cultural significance behind them. By studying the myths of native tribes, ethnologists throughout the last century have noticed basic unifying themes across indigenous cultures from Siberia to South Africa. At first puzzling, this notion became more and more sensible seeing as to the overarching theme of oneness that grappled the reins of traditional myth.

Today, according to Farrand, several groups of ethnologists are trying to piece together mythical universals through rigorous field work. By taking the archetypes of traditional myths and correlating their cultural meaning, the ultimate objective is to create a cohesively compiled myth that collapses boundaries, both physical and cultural, and establishes a more unified outlook upon life of the indigenous. This is obviously not easy, and perhaps inconceivable, as many postmodern linguistics might say due to the very nature of interpretation and reinterpretation, however, I find their aspirations good-natured and their fundamental goal to be quite heartening especially during a time where religious myths are tearing political landscapes apart.