Am I the only one who gets tired of reading reductionist thinking in mythology studies? Yes, lots of myth are etiological in nature, that doesn’t mean that all mythology is some crappy proto-science, and nothing more than a primitive man’s explanation of the universe, that all myth is somehow outdated and irrelevant today. And this crap doesn’t just apply to mythos, we see it over and over again, myth, and dreams, language, sex.
How many times are we told that dreams are just the leakage of the brain shifting in and out of higher and lower states of consciousness creating bizarre sensory input that means absolutely nothing? Or that languages are “flawed” and that languages need to be reduced to factual information, of purely one dimensional core concepts with as unambigious and simple a structure as possible? As if somehow emotive or flowery language detracts from our ability to communicate rather than enhances our ability to relate to one another? And don’t get me started on sex. Sex is apparently nothing more than a pelvic sneeze, an expulsion of mucus, and the begrudgingly necessary mechanism for spawning with the fun side effect of variable genetic combinations. As if somehow none of these things have implicit effect or value to the psyche, to our physiology and psychology, to our social bonding, or our spiritual selves. Myth is sacred. Dreams can be sacred. Languages, words, diction can be sacred. Sex can be sacred. And I am sick of reading about these things as a form of attrition.