Myth

Bibliographic Data

ID20073466
AuthorsDeborah Van Heekeren (0000-0001-8620-5290, corresponding author)
Year2026
Pages541-554
Publication date2026-02-19
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueThe Oxford Handbook of the Anthropology of Religion (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University PressOxford (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/9780191822285.003.0032
OpenAlexW7124870888
ISBN9780191822285
LanguageEN
References cited22

Myth, once a major focus in anthropological studies of religion, has received significantly less attention in recent times. Yet despite a general lack of theoretical interest, it is present in a range of new ethnographies concerned with place, landscape, environment, and narrative. The chapter begins by outlining some early definitional and theoretical problems and then reviews the dominant anthropological approaches to myth; in particular functional, structural, and psychoanalytic approaches. With an emphasis on Melanesian ethnography (and an example from Australian political history), it is then argued that attention to certain canonical works supports an existential approach to the study of myth that resonates with emerging perspectives prioritizing experience and emotion. The chapter concludes that myth, understood as an aspect of lived experience, continues to offer theoretical possibilities for the anthropology of religion and beyond

Ethnography · Existentialism · Mythology · Politics · Psychoanalytic theory · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Interdisciplinary Cultural and Social Studies

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