THE CULTURE OF MYTHS IN SANTAL COMMUNITY: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
Keywords:
Myth, Santal mythology.Abstract
A traditional, typically ancient story dealing with supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes that serves as a fundamental type in the worldview of a people, as by explaining aspects of the natural world or delineating the psychology, customs, or ideals of society: the myth of Eros and Psyche; a creation myth. Santal Mythology is the study of myths. A myth is a story that has significance to a culture (or species), a story that addresses fundamental and difficult questions that human beings ask: who and what am I, where did I come from, why am I here, how should I live, what is the right thing to do, what is the universe, how did it all begin? Myths are stories that are peopled by great men and women; by forces of good and evil; by animals, large and small; by trees, the sea and the wind; and by giants, gods and other supernatural beings. Santal mythology comes to mind, with its stories of a powerful Thunder god named Thor and a trickster named Loki. Santal mythology comes to mind, with its evening of the Gods, its Gotterdammerung, where the gods destroy the entire universe, only to begin anew in a thousand years or so. Santal culture pantheon of mythic characters was the super-family that every man and woman of that culture was born into; these creatures were as familiar as their parents and grandparents, their siblings, and their aunts and uncles and cousins.
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