This article is informative on a number of points for Japanese mythology and royal chronicling traditions, for example, the mytheme of “don’t look” in on someone’s private nakedness taboo and consequences of breaking that taboo …resounds with a number of Japanese myths. Context and motivations surrounding the scribal production of a nation’s (tribal) genealogy may also be helpful in understanding Japanese genealogical tradition behind the Kojiki and Nihin shoki.
For good or bad, the western world has had its spiritual interpretations shaped largely by ancient Hebrew myths. This is a hard pill to swallow for certain hard-line types who cling to the priestly sales pitch that every word of scripture is revealed truth. Literalists who insist that the Bible includes no myths whatsoever may be excused on the technicality that most other ancient-culture myths concern gods and goddesses that had a tendency to take sides in human affairs. The Bible, however, expands upon the premise of a single universal Creator—who, nonetheless, is portrayed as having sided consistently in the distant past with the Hebrews-Israelites-Jews—his alleged chosen people out of all the world’s populace.
Myth is a vital ingredient in the presentation of any organized belief system; mythic material provides the means of presenting concise validation of puzzling laws, rites, traditions and social customs. The passage of time and…
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