I feel that what Claire Farrer means by living in the 'mythic present' is that although most Indian culture is perceived long to have been different, it is in fact very live and active today. I will give specific examples from her book, Thunder Rides a Black Horse, to support my arguments of what the 'mythic present' actually means and list many examples of events that could be considered to be in the 'mythic present.'
First I will define the mythic present in the terms that Claire Farrer actually uses in
her book. She states, 'For the Indians I know on several reservations in theAmerican West and Southwest, life is lived in what I term the 'mythicpresent.' What mainstream Americans consider to have happened longago, if it happened at
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He explained how the Apache can look at the constellations and planets and determine what time it is, even though as the seasons change, so do the times. This was difficult for the author to understand or learn even though she spent a great deal of time at the reservation over many years. She says, 'to be a competent star watcher at Mescalero requires years of watching until the sky becomes as familiar as the back of one's own hand' (99).
There are many other examples of the Apache ability to tell time using astronomical and instinctive methods. This process has been employed by the Apache for hundreds of years and is an example of the mythic present involved in thought and application.
The second example of the mythic present is the Apache kin-system. Their method of tracing ancestry is matrilineal, meaning only traced through their mothers. This method differs from that of the western world in which kinship is traced through both mother and father, called bi-laterally.
This system also applies to Apache customs. The Mescalero homes and their
contents belong to women; only sisters and brothers in ascending generations are allowed
to chastise or discipline children (30). Farrer also states, 'since sisters and brothers are
always in the same family, it is the mother's brothers who are the disciplinarians, those with
authority' (30). One's siblings and first cousins through their mothers are all called 'sister'
and 'brother' in
“For the first time on the expedition the vista was primarily sky rather than earth. Herds of puffy cumulus raced beneath the sun, imprinting the landscape with a shifting matrix of shadow and blinding light.”
Surrounded by the crackling fire and enchanted nature of North America Native Americans told legends of early human existence, vital to their flourishing community. Among the various forms of these tales were the myth, which embodied the culture, spiritual foundation, and beliefs of many early Native American tribes. Although their myths are not told today they are still remembered and analyzed for the historical insight they provide and convey. Native American myths enabled their society to understand their relationship with the world, as well as being the fundamental attribution of their existence.
Evolution’s various events are calculated and reported in moments of time: eras, millennia, centuries, years, seasons, months, days, hours and minutes. Within those time markers are: formation of our planet, biology, Revolutions, and Homeo Sapiens. Yuval Noah Hariari’s brief history is hardly a brief narrative. However, it is an easy-to-follow delineation of educated statements surrounding humankind’s integrated journey from the beginning of “time” to the year 2014. The book takes the reader on a purposeful, witty and eye-opening account of the various time zones homo sapiens and wildlife, as-well-as biology and science, have traveled. Mr. Hariari leaves one wanting to advance quickly into the next chapter, even though the reader already knows how the story ends. Yuri chose to write about time periods, breaking down our past into orderly sections within his book. Without taking sides, the author tells the tale of how the earth’s inhabitants have evolved, all within the web of a ticking clock. In current day, we live with daylight savings, 24-hour clocks and time zones; our lives are dictated by the hour. The concept of
All The Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy is a coming of age novel centered around the protagonist, John Grady Cole as he ventures to Mexico to pursue his ideal life. The exact moment in which John Grady Cole’s character changes irrevocably, and truly comes of age, is when he stabs another prisoner in the heart while in prison in Mexico. In that moment, his youth and innocence fall away, and he gains the kind of understanding of the world that can only come when one becomes a man. In the beginning of the novel, John Grady Cole is stubborn with the foolish optimism of youth; he thinks he can run a ranch and make enough money to sustain him and his mother, and he runs away to Mexico to pursue his ideal life as a cowboy. By the end of the
Long ago, before you and I, the sun shone always. There was no night, and the sun always watched over his people smiling no matter the weather. The people were grateful for their everlasting daylight and held festivals for the sun monthly. During these festivals, there were cheerful songs and poems and the people danced in the most beautiful way. But, one of the festivals, the sun vanished and the sky became black. Confused, the people went to their town’s oracle, Ona, for answers.
Identify a modern “myth,” in 1-2 pages describe it, in 1-2 more pages explain why it is mythical/ draw analogues with myths we have read, then in 3-4 pages analyze its meaning/function in our world.
Throughout our existence, mankind has looked up to the stars with a fantastical wonderment that excites a feeling of the unknown. In order to understand the heavens above us, ancient cultures created grand mythologies utilizing valiant heroes, gods, and life practices and then imbedded these stories into the stars in the form of constellations. One of these cultures is the Navajo Native American tribe that resided in the southwest region of the United States. By viewing these constellations and the myths behind them, we can learn about what they Navajo held scared and how they viewed the world around them.
By the end of Wallace Thurman’s novel, “The Blacker the Berry,” the main character Emma Lou has a revelation about herself. Her whole life she thought her dark skin color prevented her from good opportunities. She was hyper-sensitive towards her color and tried to make up for it by fitting in with the right type of people. She has economic freedom and have fit in with the right type of people. Emma was desperate to fit in with type of people that treated her inferiorly, but once she came to terms with the strength of her African American background, she is able to identify with who she is, a black woman.
An individual’s need to renounce a decision or a course of action can often lead to an individual forsaking themselves and choosing to live in their own fantasy, and not living in reality. In the short story “The Horses of the Night”, Chris has to deal with his below average life, in his below average house, and to do so he creates his own delusions by renouncing what his life is now. As the story progresses, the life of Chris progressively gets worse, with no job and no college education, Chris continued to create more delusions until finally, Chris could no longer handle it and chose a life outside of reality, leaving his body behind. Chris chose to renounce his life in its entirety and to live in a false reality in which he created in
The Native Americans believed that in the story “Coyote Places The Stars”, a coyote wonders why his wolf brothers look up at the sky every night. Well when the wolves finally tell the coyote that there are animals up in the sky. The coyote shot arrows up into the sky to create a ladder to be able to climb to the stars and visit the animals above. As they climbed to the stars they found two bears roaming the skies. The coyote decided to leave the wolves with the bears and as he climbed down the arrows he took one out at a time so the wolves couldn’t leave. As the coyote looks up at the night sky, he is pleased on how the arrangement of the stars look so he begins to arrange other stars as well, pleased with work he told Meadowlark to tell people who looks at the stars that it was the coyote who has placed the stars, now Meadowlark tells everyone about coyote and the stars ("Native American Legends").
Well, the word myth brings to my mind fantasy tale of good and evil and how good wins over evil. I was reading the material’s for the class but however it has brought me to a new form of thinking. For me it was like playing in the woods as a child with my older brother and younger sister they would say to me to the boogey scare, I would hurry and run home scared out my mind, crying to my mother to help me and she
Myths contain the archetypes that dwell upon the deeper, much more significant human patterns of characterization, action, and circumstance; to maintain their essences despite manifold variations. Both the literal and figurative coexist with great comfort and both have meanings that transcend time, and are simultaneously embedded in a particular time-a standpoint moment- at a particular place. It truly makes one wonder whether it is truly fate or just a game of the subconscious mind, where the focus of one’s subconscious mind is within a losing battle. The language, image, and choices in any presentation are conditioned by prevailing cultural norms, along with his/her personal relations in history. As myths are meant to be told and retold,
If you ever get a chance to visit Chaco Canyon National Monument in New Mexico, you should take the time to just stand in the desert and listen. The silence in this place is physical; you can feel it surround you. This is a silence with depth and layers that are unbroken even by the wind, which moves through emptiness and speaks only in occasional sighs through the canyons. The air itself is very clear—the lack of humidity gives the cliffs and buttes sharp lines, and the colors of the earth, though muted, stand in stark relief to the blueness of the sky. Night comes gradually to this place. The height and dryness of the air allows the stars to appear before the sun has set—creating an odd
Hearing, seeing and visualizing the future and our present is frustrating. Believing in what is called “reality” and “society” based off decisions that weren’t made by us, but by the past to protect the outcome of what should happen later. People search for clues to help stabilize and move forward in life in myths and many other sources. Myths are traditional stories that deal with a historical explanation of some natural or social event, usually associating with supernatural appearances. The ancient Greeks told their cosmos through teachings and tales concerning their gods and heroes, and the importance of the culture and ritual practices to show their natural state. The myth of the Amazons and the great story of Hercules explain the
In many of tradition, a myth carries within it a sense of sacred tradition and primordial relation. These myths are also serving as model for chosen tradition. Myths are extremely complex cultural reality that can be approached and interpreted from various viewpoints. These viewpoints are often related to the whole of