Myth & Knowing - Kevin Gontkovic

For this post, I’d like to talk about Scott Leonard’s and Michael McClure’s book entitled Myth & Knowing. In this book, the authors discuss the intricacies of myths. They try to figure out what exactly is going on in myths. Many of the religious artifacts that we have seen in class are based on myths in a particular religion. The authors classify myths into different categories based on what the myth is trying to explain. A myth, in general, is a story that explains something that is unknown to the society. For example, the creation myth of Japan explains how the world and country of Japan came into being. Something like this is unknown to the people; so, there are myths to help explain this. Creation myths, of course, are not the only types of myths. There are ones for different archetypes like the Trickster god.
This book also goes over different specific myths that fit in the categories that they are talking about. For example, there is a myth that focuses on the coyote, which is seen as a trickster archetype. The myth is about an anthropologist that has written his doctorate thesis on the coyote and he is camping out in a sagebush near his informant. He hears the howl of a coyote and wonders what the coyote would think if the myths about him were read aloud. A voice says that he would not think much about it, and out of the shadows appears an old man with furry ears coming out of his hat. The trickster usually likes to tease people so the old man coyote holds some conversation with the anthropologist where he teases with him, until the coyote tries to help him with his work. The anthropologist tells the coyote what he wants to know and the coyote pretends that he heard different words that sounded similar and proceeds to fool around with the guy. So the anthropologist gets specific and asks about creation myths. The coyote answers with, “If you think Creation’s a myth, you just might be in serious trouble. It’s not the learning that’s important, but the leaning. You must lean toward your questions, your problems; lean slowly so that you don’t bend the solution too badly out of shape” (250). This shows how myths usually have morals that it teaches to people. Here the coyote is saying that it is okay to go searching for the answers to one’s own questions but one should not try too hard because one may bend the answer in ways that it isn’t supposed to be.
Many myths are narratives that could be considered artifacts in and of themselves. This would fall under the word art form according to Van der Leeuw’s model. Some myths are very powerful in just their meaning. The words chosen for the myth can create much power because they can follow a certain rhythm that controls the power of the gods. This book does a great job of trying to figure out myths, which are not easily understandable and indefinable.


Reference: Leonard, Scott and McClure, Michael. Myth & Knowing. Boston: McGraw Hill. 2004. 394 pages.