MYTHOLOGY AND ECOLOGY: A Problematic ’Pas de Deux’

• Main Author: Selma Van Londen
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Rasmussen; inuit
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.1026.5234; http://cdy.sagepub.com/content/8/1/25.full.pdf

The aim of this article is to highlight the ecological function of mythology, starting from Laughlin and Brady’s adaptation model. After giving an outline of this model, key problems involved in the analysis of myths are described. Then the Sea Woman myth and accompanying ritual of the Inuit are analysed in terms of an ecological coping mechanism. This analysis reveals that the message of the myth is to prepare for the onset of the following season and the corresponding change in the strategy of survival. The conclusion is drawn that the adaptive strength of the myth of the Sea Woman lies in the aware-ness of the need to overcome the mythological oppositions. It is precisely through everyday cooperation that the Inuit manage to survive. The great sea stirs me. The sky’s height stirs me. The great sea sets me adnft, The strong wind blows through my mind. it sways me like the weed It carries me with zt,on a river stone. so I shake with joy.OM n ~ ~f c ~ / ~a~c ~/: Uvavnuk, Iglulzk woman. (Rasmussen, 1973: 27)