Response to Malinowski reading

Portfolio Assignment #2

When I think of Myths, my first instinct is Greek mythology. I have an aunt that lives in Greece, and for every gift-giving holiday, I received some sort of book on Greek mythology. I think of mythology as folklore, or storytelling. I think that the reason why the myths were created we to teach the people in that society important life lessons. It's function is to prove by example that acting a certain way will lead you to a certain place. I always considered these myths some what universal, I thought the morals and ethics they used could be applied to everyone, and that each persons perspective could use the myth for their own purpose.
However, Malinowski begs to differ. He states that above all Myths and Magic are "cultural forces". He says that these two things can be used to analyze how people lived, their relationship with nature and the unknown, and the economic concerns of man. Malinowski says, "...We have realized that myth serves principally to establish a sociological charter, or a retrospective moral pattern of behavior." By studying myth, we can backtrack to figure out these things from civilizations that have long been assimilated into industrialized culture. Malinowski explains that myths are constantly regenerated, rewritten from generation to generation in order to keep cultural relevance.