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Summary. Folklore in the United States, also known as “American folklore,” consists of traditional knowledge and cultural practices engaged by inhabitants of North America below Canada and above Mexico, states of Alaska and Hawaii, and the territories of American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands.
- Aetiological Myths
- Historical Myths
- Psychological Myths
Aetiological (sometimes spelled etiological) myths explain the reason why something is the way it is today. The word aetiological is from the Greek word aetion(αἴτιον), meaning “reason” or “explanation”. Please note that the reasons given in an aetiological myth are NOT the real (or scientific) reasons. They are explanations that have meaning for u...
Historical myths are told about a historical event, and they help keep the memory of that event alive. Ironically, in historical myths, the accuracy is lost but meaning is gained. The myths about the Trojan War, including the Iliad and the Odyssey, could be classified as historical myths. The Trojan War did occur, but the famous characters that we ...
Psychological myths try to explain why we feel and act the way we do. A psychological myth is different from an aetiological myth because a psychological myth does not try to explain one thing by way of something else (like explaining lightning and thunder with Zeus’ anger does). In a psychological myth, the emotion itself is seen as a divine force...
These myths include the myth of »discovery,« the Pocahontas myth, the myth of the Promised Land, the myth of the Founding Fathers, the melting pot myth, the myth of the West, and the myth of the self-made man. The chapters provide extended analyses of each of these myths, using examples from popular culture, literature, memorial culture ...
- Heike Paul
- 2014
US-American identities. These myths include the myth of Columbus and the ‘discovery’ of America, the Pocahontas myth, the myth of the Promised Land, the myth of the Founding Fathers, the myth of the melting pot, the myth of the American West, and the myth of the self-made man. Each of these foundational
the concepts of “tale type” and “motif index” began to be applied to North American myths.7 During the 1930s and 1940s, Bronislaw Malinowski’s functionalism greatly influenced the study of mythology in other parts of the world, but, because of Boas’s considerable influence, it had little impact in North America.
- 886KB
- 350
This book offers an introduction to American studies by examining ‘the myths that made America,’ i.e., popular and powerful narratives of US-American national beginnings which have turned out to be anchors and key references in discourses of ‘Americanness,’ past and present.
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The Handbook of Mesoamerican Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs of Mexico and Central America. Kay Almere Read and Jason J. González. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, Denver, Oxford, 2000. xi + 325 pp., references, glossary, index. $18.95 (paper). Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2017. Hilary E. Kahn.
