James Cook University Subject Handbook - 2003

AN2008:03

Myth and Ritual

Townsville, Cairns HECS Band 1

26 hours lectures, 12 hours tutorials. Semester 2.

Staff: Dr R Bastin (Townsville campus); Dr D Mitchell (Cairns campus).

The subject introduces students to the world of myth and ritual: aspects of human culture that are vital to the construction of self and identity as well as to the nature of the imaginative engagement between people and their worlds. Myth and ritual are universal features of human thought and practice and as such they reveal critical insights into the nature of human beings. Through the careful analysis of myths and rituals from different cultural contexts, the subject explores vital and perennial topics of Anthropology, Philosophy and Religious Studies. The subject explores questions of why people create and articulate myths, of the importance of myths for the understanding of what it means to be human, and of the significance of common themes evident in myths from different cultural, geographical and historical contexts. The subject explores the importance of ritual as a special type of human individual and collective practice. To this end, the subject explores the aesthetics of ritual–symbolism, theatre, music, dance while exploring such phenomena as initiation, trance, sacrifice, spirit possession, shamanism and sorcery. The myth and ritual traditions the subject focuses upon will vary but generally include examples ranging from the traditional Native American to the European, Asian and Indigenous Australian.

Learning Objectives:

  1. to identify and discuss the major anthropological approaches to myth and ritual;
  2. to study a number of examples of myth and ritual from different cultural contexts;
  3. to compare certain cross-cultural parallels and commonalities in myth and ritual;
  4. to examine the influence that different anthropological approaches to myth and ritual have had on other disciplines such as Philosophy, Performance Studies, Social Theory and Cultural and Literary Studies.

Assessment by tutorial participation (20%); class test (30%); essay (50%).