[Yang Lihui] Mythism in the context of heritage tourism-centered on the guide's lyrics and the guide's narrative performance [1]
[Excerpts
"Mythism" refers to the misappropriation and reconstruction of myths in modern and contemporary society.
Mythology has been moved from the context of daily life in the community where it originally existed into a new context, displayed for different audiences, and given new functions and meanings.
This paper takes the integrated application and retelling of the myth of Nuwa in Wa Palace Scenic Area in She County, Hebei Province as a case study.
Focusing on the guide's lyrics and the narrative performance of individual tour guides, this paper displays in detail the specific expression of mythism in the context of heritage tourism, and summarizes its four characteristics: 1.
The organic integration of oral tradition and written tradition; 2.
The narrative performance is centered on the situation and tourists; 3.
The myth is more systematic; 4.
The localization of the myth is more prominent.
The paper believes that the narrative performances of tour guides and storytellers and singers in the community have similarities, and may still be full of brilliance; mythism belongs to the "second life" of myth, and researchers should integrate the entire life process of myth for overall research.
[Keywords] Heritage tourism; mythology; guide guide's lyrics; guide's narrative performance; second life; halo [author's introduction] Yang Lihui: Professor of the Institute of Folklore and Cultural Anthropology, School of Literature, Beijing Normal University
1.
Origin of the research
"Tradition" is one of the key words in the field of humanities and social sciences research.
For a long time, one of the most popular traditional concepts has been to regard "tradition" as an objective and fixed material entity.
It is authentic and pure, pure), connected with the distant past, and a spiritual home for modern people to nostalgia and look back.
[2]But in the second half of the 20th century, academic perceptions of tradition gradually changed.
With the reflection on the objectivity and authenticity of tradition,[3] scholars began to gradually abandon the traceability of past traditions and instead explore the survival, utilization and reconstruction of tradition in modern society.
The examination of the changes and reconstruction of tradition has thus become an important part of research in many disciplines around the world.
So far, many influential academic concepts and theoretical perspectives have emerged, such as "folklore" folklorismus/folklorism, Hans Moser, Hyman Bausinger)[4],"Folklorization"(John McDowell),[5]"traditionalization"(Dale Hymers, Richard Bowman),[6]"New Tradition" Nelson Graeben)[7],"New Historicism" Yoshino Nakano)[8], etc., some scholars have also published the best-selling novels "The Lord of the Rings","Celestine Prophecy", and film and television works such as "The Lord of the Rings", The return to the mythological imagination and folk belief traditions of pre-modern society and the wave of cultural root-seeking reflected in "Harry Potter" and others are called "neo-mythism ").
[9]
The author's following research is in line with the above-mentioned shift in traditional view.
It attempts to explore the situation in which China mythological tradition has been appropriated and retold in contemporary society.
In addition, the establishment of this topic also has a direct inheritance relationship with a scientific research project that the author previously chaired.
2000-2010 In 1999, together with the four graduate students I supervised, I completed a project from the Ministry of Education,"Inheritance and Variation of Modern Oral Inheritance Myths." During field surveys on this topic, we found that-which has been paid less attention to in previous mythological studies-in some communities in contemporary China, tour guides are becoming professional mythological narrators in the new era and a new authority on local mythological knowledge;[10] In addition, the ways of spreading myths are becoming increasingly diverse, and a new trend is emerging-written inheritance and electronic media inheritance are increasingly becoming the main ways for young people to understand mythological traditions.
[11]However, although we found the above trends, we were unable to conduct in-depth investigations because the research objects at that time were mainly limited to elderly storytellers, singers and wizards in rural and township areas.
In response to this shortcoming, in 2011, I applied for the National Social Science Fund project "The Inheritance of Myths in Contemporary China-Focusing on the Investigation of Heritage Tourism and Electronic Media", striving to conduct a more detailed ethnographic examination of the utilization and reconstruction of China's mythological traditions in contemporary society, especially in the fields of heritage tourism and electronic media, from the perspective of folklore and mythology.
Different from the previous topic, this topic pays more attention to young people, mass consumption culture, urban culture and youth subculture in modern and postmodern societies.
Referring to the research results of academic sages summarized above, especially the elucidation of the concepts of "folklore" and "folklore", I refer to the misappropriation and reconstruction of myth in new contexts such as heritage tourism and electronic media including the Internet, movies, television, and video games).
The introduction of this concept aims to expand scholars 'exploration focus from the context of daily life in the community to the myths displayed and restated in various new contexts-they are appearing more and more frequently around us-consciously incorporate this phenomenon into the scope of academic research and conduct specific and in-depth theoretical research.
Specifically, this topic creatively uses the concept of "mythism"[12] to refer to the appropriation and reconstruction of mythology in modern and contemporary society.
Myths have been moved from the context of daily life in the community where they originally existed into a new context.
In the context, they are presented to different audiences, and are given new functions and meanings.
Using myth as a cultural symbol of a region, ethnic group or country and integrating it commercially, politically or culturally is a common form of mythism.
The concept of "mythology" so defined is both related and different from "new mythology".
Neo-mythism refers to a series of literary and artistic creations, film, film and animation products and various other visual cultures including the best-selling novels "The Lord of the Rings","The Tenth Insight", as well as the movies "Dances with Wolves","The Lord of the Rings","Harry Potter","The Da Vinci Code","Spider-Man","The Legend of Narnia", etc.
It mainly emphasizes that the mythological imagination of pre-modern society reflected in it is often given a very broad meaning) and the return of folk belief traditions and cultural roots, reflecting on civilized society in terms of values, and criticizing capitalism and modernity.
In these newly created works, traditional mythological narratives are often diluted to a faint breath and shadow, or even completely disappeared.
Mythology and New Mythology have a common pursuit in reflecting on the contemporary construction and vitality of mythological traditions, but in terms of its distance from mythological ontology, New Mythology has obviously gone further.
In the following analysis, the author will take the misappropriation, integration and restatement of the myth of Nuwa in the tourism industry of Wa Palace Scenic Area in She County, Hebei Province investigated in March 2013 as a case study to show the specific manifestation of mythism in the context of heritage tourism.
The base book of tour guides 'lyrics and the narrative performance of the myth by individual tour guides in specific practice will be the focus of the analysis.
The paper will end on the characteristics of mythism, This paper theoretically explores and summarizes the halo of tour guide narrative performances and the nature of mythism.
Before formally starting the following description, there are still two important concepts that need to be explained in advance.
The so-called "myth" in this article is one of the categories of human oral art (spoken art), and usually has the following characteristics: it is a narrative about gods, ancestors, cultural heroes or sacred animals and their activities.
By narrating one or a series of stories about the moment of creation (the moment of creation) and before this moment, it explains the original origin of the universe, mankind (including gods and specific ethnic groups) and culture, and the original establishment of the current world order.
[13]Mythology can be told in any occasion needed in daily life in the community, but many of them are in solemn and sacred religious rituals.
Performance performance): According to the definition of Richard Bauman, the main representative figure of performance theory, briefly speaking, performance is a model of spoken language communication, which exists in the performer's responsibility to the audience to demonstrate his or her own communication skills.
[14]From the perspective of performance, tour guides 'narratives are obviously a kind of performance mode communication: tour guides try their best to show their grasp of traditional knowledge and interpretation skills in face-to-face oral communication with tourists, and they "speak well" or "speak poorly" often become an important part of tourists' comments on the quality of their tour guides.
2.
The myth of Nuwa in the context of heritage tourism--A case of Wa Palace in She County, Hebei [15]
She County is located in the southwest of Hebei Province, at the eastern foot of the Taihang Mountains and the junction of Shanxi, Hebei and Henan provinces.
It covers an area of 1509 square kilometers and governs 17 towns, 308 administrative villages, and 464 natural villages, with a population of 400,000.
[16]The belief in Nuwa is very prevalent in She County.
Today, there are about 20 Nuwa temples in the entire territory.
Built on the mountainside of Zhonghuang Mountain in the west of the city, the Wa Palace is the Nuwa Temple with the longest historical record and the largest architectural scale.
The entire building complex is divided into two parts: the foot of the mountain and the mountain, most of which were rebuilt during the Ming and Qing Dynasties: there are three buildings at the foot of the mountain, from bottom to top, Chaoyuan Palace, Tingcan Palace and Guangsheng Palace; the main building on the mountain is Wa Huang Pavilion, which is 23 meters high and consists of four floors.
The first floor is a grotto.
On top of the grotto, three-story wooden lofts are built, called "Qingxu Pavilion","Chuangzhi Pavilion" and "Butian Pavilion" respectively.
Inside, statues of Nuwa making people and mending the sky are used.
Other ancillary buildings include the dressing building, Yingshuang building, bell tower, drum tower, Lingguan Pavilion and archway with the title "Ancient Monument of Emperor Wa".
The buildings on the mountain and at the foot of the mountain are connected by the Shibadan Mountain Road.
Every year, the Wa Palace Temple Fair is held from the first day to the 18th day of the third month of the lunar calendar.
According to the "Inscriptions on the Rebuilding of the Tang King Jiao Wa Palace"(1853), the third year of Xianfeng) records: "The gate opens on the first day of the third month of every year, and the 18th day is the birthday of the god.
Men and women gathered hundreds of miles far and far, feeling Stone, no prayer, no prayer, and the spiritual gift was clear.
It has a long history." This shows the grand occasion of the temple fair at that time.
Today, the temple fair here is still very grand.
Pilgrims from hundreds of miles nearby, as well as Shanxi, Henan, Hebei and other places, come to visit the temple one after another.
Sometimes, the number of people a day can reach as high as 14,000.
[17] After 2003, the local government has successively invested in building a new Butian Square in the scenic area.
The square stands a tall statue of the Virgin Mary of Emperor Wa.
The four bases of the statue depict the achievements of Nuwa kneading soil as a person and refining stones to mend the sky.
embossed.
In 2006, the China Folk Literary and Art Association awarded Shexian the title of "Hometown of Nuwa Culture in China." In the same year, the "Nuwa Festival" here was also announced by the State Council as the first batch of "National Intangible Cultural Heritage."
As a popular phenomenon, heritage tourism of Wa Palace emerged after the reform and opening up.
In 1979, a management office was set up here, which was under the management of the Cultural Relics Preservation Office.
The main task was to repair and protect cultural relics, but at the same time, it also tried its best to expand the number of pilgrims and attract more pilgrims.
In 2001, the Cultural Relics Preservation Office and the Tourism Bureau merged to establish the She County Cultural Relics Tourism Bureau, marking that heritage tourism has become a cultural industry that the She County government attaches increasing importance to.
During the Spring Festival Golden Week in 2009, the county's tourism industry, including the Wa Palace Scenic Area and the nearby scenic area of the former site of the 129th Division Headquarters, generated more than 500,000 yuan in fiscal revenue for the county, a year-on-year increase of 50%, and received nearly 50,000 tourists., a year-on-year increase of 170%.
[18]
According to Wang Yanru, head of the Wa Palace Management Office, the management office has been training tour guides since its establishment.
At that time, most of the tour guides were part-time and were selected directly from employees.
They generally had low academic qualifications and basically passed Mandarin.
The explanation content is mainly based on myths and legends, which is relatively simple.
In August 2001, the county publicly recruited the first batch of 10 professional tour guides.
Since then, five batches of tour guides have been recruited successively in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, and 2010, and the requirements for tour guides have also increased day by day.
Nowadays, the recruitment of tour guides is divided into two stages: written examination and interview.
The basic requirements for tour guides are that they must have a college degree or above, a height of more than 1.6 meters, standard Mandarin, beautiful sound quality, good temperament, good health, and study tourism, Chinese, history and other majors are given priority.
In addition to providing explanations in the scenic spot, tour guides are also responsible for the task of excavating, researching, and sorting out the history and culture of the scenic spot.
Today, there are a total of 18 tour guides on duty.
The guide fee is RMB 80 per visit.
[19]
Before they officially take up their posts to explain, tour guides will always receive a guide's words as a basic and example, which can be simply referred to as the "base book".
The basic book is generally written by local cultural experts who understand the situation, and its role is to provide tour guides with the basic knowledge they need to master.
For many years, the guide lyrics of the Wa Palace Scenic Area have been written by Wang Yanru.
According to her own statement and the author's textual analysis of the guide lyrics she wrote, we can find that the base book is based on three main sources: The first is the local oral tradition, which in Wang Yanru's words is "word-of-mouth narratives passed down by the elderly"; the second is relevant ancient documentary records, such as "Huainanzi" and "Customs Tongyi"; the third is the writings of experts and scholars.
In the original book she wrote, oral tradition and written tradition show a high degree of integration, which will be discussed further below.
The presentation of myths in the guide's lyrics is generally relatively stable.
I compared the three copies written by Wang Yanru and distributed to tour guides over the past three years, and found that the most changes were the interpretation of myths and the introduction of scenic spots, while the myth of Nuwa remained largely unchanged.
As she herself said: "We do not modify or extend myths.
The myths we talk about are either from records in) ancient documents or from) local folklore, and they are all original versions!!" The following are the myths of Nuwa creating humans and mending the sky in the Creation Pavilion and the Butian Pavilion presented in three manuscripts:
2010 edition
Speaking of the story of Nuwa kneading soil to create humans, it is natural to first understand Nuwa's life experience.
It is recorded in ancient books that Nuwa and Fuxi were brothers and sisters with the head of a human and the body of a snake.
Their mother was a goddess named Huaxu in ancient mythology.
Shortly after the brothers and sisters were born, a flood rarely seen in the world occurred in the world, and all living beings were poisoned, leaving only Nuwa and Fuxi brothers who survived the disaster, so they married and had children to reproduce.
After they got married, they lived a sweet and happy life, but not long after Nuwa began to worry.
She said: "With me alone, pregnant for ten months and giving birth once, when can I breed those beautiful beings to manage this world?" Nuwa suddenly saw her own shadow in the river.
She had an inspiration and began the great project of kneading soil to create humans: she used yellow mud to make small clay figurines and placed them all over the Qingzhang River.
With a gentle blow, the little clay figurines became lively real people.
After a long time, Nuwa became tired from pinching it, so she dipped a willow branch in the mud and threw it on the ground.
The mud and mud spots that were thrown out turned into real people.
Nu Wa accidentally pinched and shook it, but it was added to the content of class differentiation by later generations: the people who were carefully squeezed were rich people, while the people who were thrown out of the mud were poor and humble people.
This also shows that the Taoist thought that "man's destiny is destined by heaven" has been deeply rooted in the hearts of ancient China.……
This is the highest floor called Butian Pavilion.
It is said that Nuwa refined stones here to mend the sky...
Legend has it that Shennong accidentally pierced the sky while painting the Eight Trigrams, so "the four poles are ruined, and the nine continents are split; the sky is not covered, and the earth is not supported." The world is in dire straits and people are in ruins.
It was against this historical background that Nuwa calmly fought the battle and took the five-color divine stones in blue, white, red, blue, and purple).
She exhausted all her energy and repaired the hole in the sky in 7749 days...
2011 edition
Speaking of the story of Nuwa kneading soil to create humans, it is natural to first understand Nuwa's life experience.
It is recorded in ancient books that Nuwa and Fuxi were brothers and sisters with the head of a human and the body of a snake.
Their mother was a goddess named Huaxu in ancient mythology.
Shortly after the brothers and sisters were born, a flood rarely seen in the world occurred in the world, and all living beings were poisoned, leaving only Nuwa and Fuxi brothers who survived the disaster, so they married and had children to reproduce.
After they got married, they lived a sweet and happy life, but not long after Nuwa began to worry.
She said: "With me alone, pregnant for ten months and giving birth once, when can I breed those beautiful beings to manage this world?" Nuwa suddenly saw her own shadow in the river.
She had an inspiration and began the great project of kneading soil to create humans: she used yellow mud to make small clay figurines and placed them all over the Qingzhang River.
With a gentle blow, the little clay figurines became lively real people.
After a long time, Nuwa became tired from pinching it, so she dipped a willow branch in the mud and threw it on the ground.
The mud and mud spots that were thrown out turned into real people.
Nuwa accidentally pinched and shook this way, but later generations added the content of class differentiation: those who were carefully squeezed were rich people, while those who were thrown out of mud were poor and humble people.
I can see that everyone should have squeezed it out.
There are relevant records in "Customs Tongyi" written by Ying Shao of the Eastern Han Dynasty: The custom says that heaven and earth were created and there were no people.
Nuwa kneaded loess and became a human being.
The theater work was very hard) and there was no way to supply it), so he led the rope into the mud and regarded it as a human being.
Therefore, the rich are people of the loess; the poor are people with ropes and thick ropes.
……
This is the highest floor called Butian Pavilion.
Legend has it that Nuwa refined stones here to mend the sky...
Legend has it that Zhuanxu, a descendant of the Yellow Emperor tribe, worked together with descendants of the Yan Emperor tribe, and fought hard to safeguard their respective interests.
As a result, Gong Gong was defeated and in his anger, he crashed into Buzhou Mountain, breaking Buzhou Mountain, the pillar supporting the sky, in two.
A big hole appeared in the sky, resulting in "the four poles are ruined, and the nine continents are cracked; the sky does not cover, and the earth does not support it." The world was a tragedy of people being devastated.
It was against this background that Nuwa calmly took the battle and took the five-color divine stones with colors of blue, red, white, black, and yellow).
She exhausted all her energy and took forty-nine days to fill the hole in the sky...
2012 edition
Speaking of the story of Nuwa kneading soil to create humans, it is natural to first understand Nuwa's life experience.
It is recorded in ancient books that Nuwa and Fuxi were brothers and sisters with the head of a human and the body of a snake.
Their mother was a goddess named Huaxu in ancient mythology.
Shortly after the brothers and sisters were born, a flood rarely seen in the world occurred in the world, and all living beings were poisoned, leaving only Nuwa and Fuxi brothers who survived the disaster, so they married and had children to reproduce.
After they got married, they lived a sweet and happy life, but not long after Nuwa began to worry.
She said: "With me alone, pregnant for ten months and giving birth once, when can I breed those beautiful beings to manage this world?" Nuwa suddenly saw her own shadow in the river.
She had an inspiration and began the great project of kneading soil to create humans: she used yellow mud to make small clay figurines and placed them all over the Qingzhang River.
With a gentle blow, the little clay figurines became lively real people.
After a long time, Nuwa became tired from pinching it, so she dipped a willow branch in the mud and threw it on the ground.
The mud and mud spots that were thrown out turned into real people.
Nuwa accidentally pinched and shook this way, but later generations added the content of class differentiation: those who were carefully squeezed were rich people, while those who were thrown out of mud were poor and humble people.
I can see that everyone should have squeezed it out.
……
This is the highest floor called Butian Pavilion.
Legend has it that Nuwa refined stones here to mend the sky...
Legend has it that Zhuanxu, a descendant of the Yellow Emperor tribe, worked together with descendants of the Yan Emperor tribe, and fought hard to safeguard their respective interests.
As a result, Gong Gong was defeated and in his anger, he crashed into Buzhou Mountain, breaking Buzhou Mountain, the pillar supporting the sky, in two.
A large hole appeared in the sky, resulting in "the four poles are ruined, and the nine continents are cracked; the sky does not cover, and the earth does not support it." The world was a tragedy of people being devastated.
It was against this background that Nu Wa calmly fought the battle and took the five-color divine stones (blue, red, white, black, and yellow).
She exhausted all her energy and took forty-nine days to fill the hole in the sky.
……
The myths of Nuwa creating humans and mending the sky presented in the above three versions all have the following two obvious points in common: First, the organic integration of oral tradition and written tradition: The mythological plot in the base book not only directly uses or quotes the myth of Nuwa making humans in the article "Customs Tongyi" and the myth of Nuwa mending the sky in "Huainanzi·Lan Mingxun", but also integrates and misuses the local oral tradition.
In the saying that Nuwa created humans along the Zhanghe River in the Qing Dynasty and that Shennong's paintings broke the sky.
Oral and written traditions are connected with each other, blended in harmony, and melted into a new mythological variant of Nuwa; Second, the basic plots of myths are stable and unchanged.
Especially in the story of Nuwa's creation, the composition of the main motif chain to the secondary motif has almost no change at all.
But the "stable inheritance" is not completely changed.
What is more obvious is the myth of Nuwa mending the sky.
One of the secondary themes in the 2010 variant texts-the reason why the sky fell apart was that Shennong painted the Eight Trigrams and accidentally pierced the sky.[20] In the 2011 and 2012 editions, it became the more common plot of "Gong touched Buzhou Mountain in anger" in ancient documents.
It can be seen that the original book will also change during the process of stable inheritance, rather than being completely rigid.
An analysis of the three original books shows that the most common changes in the original books are the interpretation of myths, folk customs, and cultural relics, while the basic plot of mythological stories remains stable, but changes in details will also occur.
This is also consistent with the general inheritance law of folk oral art: during the inheritance process, the core motif of folk narrative and the combination, type and basic content of its motif chain all show strong stability, while the secondary motif often changes and leads to the emergence of a large number of exotic texts.
[21]
Many people in society and academia have deep prejudices against tourism.
An important reason is that tour guides follow the script well.
They stick to the script, making the vivid and rich traditional culture increasingly rigid.
So, will individual tour guides completely copy the original copy in the actual work process? Or will you create something? What are the characteristics of their performances?
During the investigation, the author found that although tour guides each have a guide guide's lyrics, they do not completely rely on it in actual work.
Their creative contributions to the original copy are mainly reflected in three aspects: First, based on their own understanding and the information they searched for, they made written supplements and changes to the original copy.
For example, the guide Qi Jiajia showed me her original copy.
It is densely filled with supplementary text.
She explained that "this guide copy is all condensed and refined.
If there are some things that you don't understand, you have to take it out to find it; Other tourists) also need to explain the places you ask, such as who the person is, what his last name, where he lives, etc., you have to check it yourself "; Second, take the initiative to collect relevant knowledge in life and work to enrich your own personal" corpus "repertoire).
Their sources of knowledge are not limited by the media.
Books, the Internet, tourists, village elders and even colleagues working together are all effective sources of information for them.
According to Wang Yanru: "Their nerves are very sensitive and their tentacles are pervasive.
As long as there is information about Nuwa, they will never let go.
For example) There are many small business vendors in the scenic area who are people in surrounding villages and towns.
They have stayed in Wa Palace for twenty to thirty years.
They have seen and seen many examples of burning incense and fulfilling their wishes and so-called effectiveness.
Because they are personal experiences, it is very vivid to say."Tour guides often listen to it and constantly add fresh experiences to it during the explanation process.
When I asked,"Where did you see these myths you love to tell?" In the book?" At that time, tour guide Zhang Yamin replied:
In books, we can also read books, check computers, and find some information.
And what some old people told us.
We don't spend much time in the village.
We usually chat with old people who know Nu Wa better.
We often go to chat with them, and as a result, we will listen to them tell some mythological stories.
In addition, tourists are actually our teachers.
Tourists sometimes know a lot and sometimes tell me something.
If I don't know, I won't.
If I don't know, I'll learn.
It doesn't matter.
Tourists know a lot.
The third and most important creative contribution is that during the actual explanation process, the tour guide will actively adjust the narrative content and strategies according to the situation and the needs of tourists, reflecting the performance characteristics of "situational and tourism-centered".
For example, the tour guide's narration is often carried out closely in conjunction with the current situation, and is generally not endless and too loose.
Although most attractions in the Wa Palace Scenic Area are related to Nuwa, tour guides usually do not tell the myth of Nuwa at every attraction.
The basic plot of the relevant myth is generally told to tourists in front of the embossed base of the statue of the Virgin Mary of Emperor Wa in Butian Square.
The more detailed story narratives take place in the Creation Pavilion and Butian Pavilion of Emperor Wa Pavilion, facing the statue of Nuwa making humans and mending the sky or surrounding murals, reflecting the strong "situational" performance characteristics.
With this characteristic, the author made a similar discovery when inspecting the guide's narration of Fuxi's creation myth in Taihao Mausoleum in Huaiyang, Henan Province-the mythological narration there is mainly told in front of the embossed of Fuxi's achievements carved in the temple.
Another manifestation of situational performances is that tour guides will choose different narration content and genres based on the situation.
Zhang Yamin said: When going on a pilgrimage up the mountain, the explanations are generally more formal and serious, and the knowledge introduced is more formal; when going down the mountain, it is more relaxed, and you can tell stories about unofficial history or jokes.
Unlike listeners who tell myths in daily life, tour guides mainly serve tourists from outside the community.
Of course, a small number of locals sometimes pay for the tour guides to provide detailed explanations.) Therefore, tour guides 'performances have obvious "tourist-centered" characteristics: they will actively adjust their performance content and narrative strategies based on the differences in tourists' interests, identities and fatigue levels, such as whether to speak or not, the depth of content to speak, the popularity of language, etc.
In Zhang Yamin's words:
After we finish a myth, tourists may say,"Keep talking, keep talking", and I'm sure they like it too.
If he wants to hear something interesting, I will tell him something historical; if he doesn't fully know it, I will talk about it in detail.
Since the tourists have raised it.
Yang: It is not very recommended to tell the story of the marriage of Fuxi and Nuwa brothers, right?
Zhang: This needs an explanation...
If tourists do not raise this question, I may not mention it and just skip it.
But if tourists continue to ask questions, I will still talk about it.
Many times, it's just over in a word, right there in Fuxi Temple.
If you take the normal road, there is usually such a saying in Butian Square.
Tour guide Qi Jiajia did the same:
Yang: When you see these murals, do you tell them one by one? Or do you say it in general terms?
Qi: It depends on the situation.
If tourists are interested, they can talk.
If they are tired of listening, they can not talk.
Yang: So every time you talk about refining stones to mend the sky and kneading soil to create people, is it the same content? Or will there be changes?
Qi: Not quite the same.
Yang: Then why is it different?
Qi: Because sometimes the content is easier to understand, and sometimes it is deeper.
I like to talk about different content every day.
Shen Jinru, a local scholar): I think that different speeches should be given to different groups of people.
The common people may speak in a more easy-to-understand way; if you have more qualifications, you will have to speak in a more advanced way and polite manner.
Isn't it?
Qi: Well, that's right.
Different explanation occasions, different objects, explanation) Sometimes more, sometimes less, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, so it is different every time.
The main difference is that one is difficult and the other is shallow.
In terms of language and content, sometimes it is a little more complex and sometimes it is a little simpler.
It can be seen that the tour guide's performance does not follow the script, but constantly adjusts its narrative content and strategies according to the situation and the needs of tourists.
An actual tour guide will show this more clearly.
On March 9, 2013, I went to Wa Palace with two graduate students.
The young tour guide Qi Jiajia guided us throughout the journey.
We stated in advance that we were studying Nuwa culture, so it was obvious that her subsequent narration added a lot of content to suit our interests, many of which were not in the original book.
For example, after briefly introducing the basic content of the embossed "Compounding Soil to Create Man", she wanted to continue to talk about the next embossed "Refining Stone to Make Sky", but one of my questions interrupted her: "How did Goddess Nuwa create man? What is the local explanation for this?" So she told the following mythical story:
She created humans after marrying Fuxi.
Because) the reproduction speed was slow, Nuwa thought of kneading earth to create humans.
She squeezed out a handful of loess from the Qingzhang River at the foot of Zhonghuang Mountain and on the banks of the Qingzhang River.
After grabbing a handful of loess, she made a small clay figurine in her own shape, and then placed it on the banks of the Qingzhang River.
As long as the wind blows, these clay figurines become lively real people.
However, as time went by, Nuwa became tired from pinching it, so she simply threw the wicker with the mud dots on the ground, and the mud dots that were thrown out became a lively real person.
However, these squeezed and thrown out have been added to the content of class differentiation by later generations, believing that those squeezed out with their hands are rich and those thrown out are poor and humble.
This is kneading soil to create people.
This story is the same type as the story of Nuwa Kuan Tu and a person in the original book, but the details are more vivid and the local characteristics are more distinctive.
Seeing that we were very interested in the myth of Nuwa and asked the truth, when introducing the next embossed, she no longer wrote it through as in the original book, but took the initiative to tell the story of Nuwa repairing the sky in detail:
It is said that there are the water god Gonggong and the fire god Zhurong.
These two often fought to dominate the world.
Once) After a fierce battle between the two, the water god Gonggong was defeated by Zhurong.
In a fit of anger, he crashed into Buzhou Mountain, a pillar in the northwest pole.
Immediately a hole appeared, so the beast came out of the hole to attack the people.
Moreover, there were floods, which made the people miserable.
Against this background, Nuwa stepped forward to refine stones and mend the sky.
Moreover, this stone is the five-colored divine stone taken out from the Qingzhang River.
Nuwa) exhausted all her energy and spent 49 days melting the colorful divine stone into colorful auspicious clouds, thus filling the hole in the sky.
The source of this myth) is something said by the old man and something I came up with after consulting the data.
I have integrated the two together.
Compared with the original version, this variant of the myth of Nuwa mending the sky has more prominent oral expression characteristics and more vivid detailed descriptions.Next, when she introduced the embossed made by Nuwa's sheng reed, I then asked if there were any legends in it.
She told a strange text that was not found in the original book and I had never heard of-Nuwa's assistants Zixia Yuanjun and Bixia Yuanjun created the sheng reed:
At first, after people got married, men and women had no feelings, so Nuwa sent two of her assistants, Zixia Yuanjun and Bixia Yuanjun, to go to the north and south sky respectively, to bring Sheng and Huan, and combine the Sheng and Huan together to create the musical instrument of Sheng and Huan.
The wonderful music conveyed through this Sheng reed brought happiness and love to mankind, and made men and women have admiration, which thrived from generation to generation.
Yang: Did you read this in a book or where did you hear it?
Qi: In the book, it is mainly ancient books.
Halfway from the foot of the mountain to the mountain, she saw a mountain opposite, and she told a myth about the marriage of Fuxi and Nuwa brothers, which was also not found in the original book and widely circulated among the local people:
Among the eight villages behind this mountain, one has the longest history, called Mopan Village.
This is the place where the story of Nuwa and Fuxi rolling on the millstone took place.
Because they were brothers and sisters with a human head and a snake body, a major flood occurred in the world and all lives were drowned, leaving only Nuwa and Fuxi who survived.
However, in order to reproduce, the siblings decided to get married.
However, the marriage of brother and sister must be in accordance with God's will.
Two people rolled down two millstones from the two mountains of Zhonghuang Mountain.
If these two millstones could be combined after rolling down, it means that this was in accordance with God's will and they could get married.
In the end, the two millstones) really rolled together, and the two got married...
After this millstone rolled down, it rolled to Mopan Village.
This village was named after this millstone and was called Mopan Village.
The tour guide practice this time clearly shows that during the actual explanation and performance process, although tour guides have a copy as a reference, they do not completely follow the script.
Like storytellers and singers in the community, they will also constantly adjust the narrative content and performance strategies according to the situation and tourists.
The needs of the tourists can keep their performances flowing and vitality.
From this point of view, heritage tourism does not necessarily lead to the erosion and rigidity of traditional culture, as many people criticize.
[22]
3.
Discussion and Conclusion: Characteristics and Nature of Mythism
The above takes the misappropriation, integration and restatement of the myth of Nuwa in the Wa Palace Scenic Area in She County as an example, centered on the guide's lyrics and the narrative performance of individual tour guides, and shows in more detail the specific expression methods and characteristics of mythism in the context of heritage tourism.
It points out that the guide's lyrics often have the characteristics of organic integration of oral tradition and written tradition, and their presentation of myth changes slightly in stable inheritance, which is also consistent with the general inheritance and variation of folk narrative.
consistent; The narrative performances of individual tour guides are characterized by being "situational and tourist-centered".
Like storytellers and singers in the community, they do not rely entirely on the basics in specific practice, but will adjust the narrative content and strategies according to the specific situation and tourists.
Needs, so that their performances maintain a certain flow vitality, so that they do not necessarily lead to traditional rigidity.
From the above cases, we can further arouse thinking on the following important issues.
First, the characteristics of mythism in the context of heritage tourism.
When the myth is transplanted from the context of daily life in the community where it originally exists, for example, when it is first told to members of the incense club or neighbors during the temple fair, when parents tell it to their children during ordinary worship occasions, or when grandparents tell it to their grandchildren before going to sleep at night), what changes will happen when it is transplanted into other new contexts and presented for different audiences? What are the new characteristics? These issues should be thought deeply when studying mythism.
Judging from the heritage tourism practice of Wa Palace Scenic Area, the base book and the mythological texts told by the tour guides have the following characteristics: 1.
The organic integration of oral tradition and written tradition.
This point has been discussed a lot above, but here is a few more words.
In the continuous process of oral tradition, it is difficult to maintain its pure oral nature, but often permeates and co-exists with written tradition.
In the field of heritage tourism, this feature is even more prominent.
Tour guides often consciously integrate oral traditions and written records, expand information sources, and enrich commentary content, making the tour guide's words show a distinctive feature of high integration of oral and written traditions.
2.
Narrative performances are centered on the situation and tourists.
This point has been analyzed a lot above and will not be repeated again.
3.
Myths are more systematic.
China's classical myths are generally scattered and fragmented.
Although systematic work began as early as the Pre-Qin period, it has never been possible to form an organic China myth system.
[23]The tourism industry is committed to integrating fragmented folk knowledge.
Needless to say, even every ordinary tour guide is like Homer of the local folk tradition.
They will connect and integrate the oral tradition with the scattered and fragmented myths in the written documents, and explain them in the specific explanation process.
Tell them eloquently, making the myths appear systematic.
The appearance of the Nuwa myth in the literature was originally sporadic, but after the integration of the base book and tour guides, it has formed a systematic story with certain inherent logic.
4.
The localization of myths becomes more prominent.
Oral myth is becoming increasingly localized in the process of spreading, which is a rule of myth variation.[24] However, an important feature of tour guide narrative is to highlight the local nature of heritage and shape heritage into a symbol of a place or ethnic group, or country.[25] Therefore, in the context of heritage tourism, misappropriated myths often bear a more distinctive local imprint.
This is also highlighted in the mythological texts cited above.
Second, the halo of tour guide narrative performance.
German cultural critic Walter Benjamin once proposed the famous "halo fading" theory in response to the impact of reproduction art on traditional art in the era of mechanical reproduction.
In his view, traditional art has cult value, authenticity and unique characteristics, so it has an unreplicable "halo" aura.
In his poetic and metaphorical style,
If you look at the mountains on the horizon while resting on a summer afternoon or stare at the branches that cast a shadow on you, you can feel the halo of the mountains or branches.
[26]
Benjamin uses halo art to refer to the entire traditional art.
Halo can be reflected in the art of storytelling, or in the vivid performance and unique atmosphere on the theater stage [27].
Different from traditional art, reproduction art in the era of mechanical reproduction only has display value, and its authenticity and uniqueness no longer exist.
Therefore, with the rise of technical reproduction art, the halo of traditional art has gradually declined.
Benjamin clearly asserted in his article "Storyteller-On Nikolay Leskov" that "the art of storytelling is about to die out." [28]。
Many scholars have expressed opposite opinions on Benjamin's theory of the disappearance of halo, such as Adorno Theodor W.
Dr.
Adorno believes that halos are an essential part of contemporary art such as movies.
[29]
In an era of mass tourism that regards heritage as a consumer good, how to understand the artistry of tour guides 'narrative performances? Do they still have halos?
I think that even in the era of mechanical reproduction, it is too absolute to assert that the halo of all traditional art has disappeared; when the tour guides each have a copy of the guide's lyrics, the tour guide's narrative performance may still be full of halo.
One of the main reasons why its halo still exists is that tour guides generally come from within the community and mostly respect the gods worshipped and values respected by the community.
This makes the myth that has been misappropriated in the community's heritage tourism context not completely lost its worship value and completely reduced to an exchangeable commodity.
For example, in the Wa Palace Scenic Area, although the tour guides charge 80 yuan for each explanation, they are in awe of Nuwa and follow traditions and dare not make up related myths at will.
Another more important reason is that, as pointed out above, the tour guide's explanations are conducted face-to-face communication with tourists, and are situational and tourist-centered, which gives the performances a sense of intimacy and flexibility of on-site communication, making them often unique "this time" performances.
Benjamin once compared the halos of stage art with the disappearance of film art, believing that the charm of stage art lies in the fact that "the artistic performances of stage actors are undoubtedly presented to the public by the actors themselves...
Film actors lack the kind of opportunity that stage actors have, that is, to adjust themselves according to the audience's reaction during performance." In this art, the audience can "experience personal contact with the actors"[30].
Tour guides 'performances also have similar characteristics to stage art performances-tour guides stand on the stage of heritage tourism, face mass tourists who usually come from outside the community, misappropriate, integrate and personally disseminate local knowledge within the community, and adjust their narrative content and performance strategies in a timely manner according to the situation and tourists' needs and reactions.
This kind of narration undoubtedly has a unique and agile aura.
Third, the nature of myth: the "second life" of myth.
How to theoretically define the nature of mythism? Can the myth of tour guide performances still be called a "myth"? Regarding these issues, the view of the "Folk Process" put forward by Finnish folklorist Lauri Honko is important enlightening.
Hang Ke pointed out: Folklore scholars of today's era must be placed in a broader context than our own research, and must be able to view tradition with a broader understanding than before.
The concept of "folk process" is a holistic theoretical framework.
He finely divided the life history of folk customs into 22 stages, of which the first 12 stages belong to or belong to the "first life" of folk customs, and the remaining 10 stages constitute its "second life".
The first life refers to "the natural and almost intangible existence of folk customs in traditional communities." It is not noticed, recognized or emphasized because it is an integral part of everything that happens,"while" second life "means" the resurrection of folklore from the depths of archives or some other hidden place "," it will be performed in a new context and environment that is usually far from its original environment,"and this second life includes the commercialization of folklore.
Hang Ke called on folklore scientists to view tradition and folklore as a dynamic process.
[31]
From the perspective of "folk process", mythism obviously belongs to the "second life" in the life history of myth: myth is removed from the context of daily life in the community where it originally existed and integrated and used in mass tourism.
In the context, it is presented to audiences who usually come from outside the community and is given the value of a commodity.
However, what I want to add here is: The so-called division of "first life" and "second life" should not be diametrically opposed and incompatible.
Myths that have been misappropriated and reconstructed in the new context may also return to the community and become an expressive means for expressing self-identity within the community and revitalizing the community.
[32]For researchers, the entire life process of myth should be integrated for an overall study, rather than just exploring its "first life".
Only in this way can we better understand the vitality of myth and human creativity.
[1][Fund Project] This article is a phased achievement of the general project of the National Social Science Fund "Contemporary Inheritance of China Myths: Focusing on the Inspection of Heritage Tourism and Electronic Media" hosted by the author.
Project number: 11BZW131.
[2]See Hermann Bausinger: Folk Culture in a World of Technology, trans.
Elke Dettmer.
Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1990, “Author’s Preface,” xi; Regina Bendix.
In Search of Authenticity: The Formation of Folklore Studies.
Madison and London: the University of Wisconsin Press, 1997; Richard Bauman: "The View of Tradition" in the Definition and Study of Folklore ", see Richard Bauman," Oral Art as Performance ", translated by Yang Lihui and An Deming, Guangxi Normal University Press, 2008, pp.
208-221.
[3]See cited above Hermann Bausinger: Folk Culture in a World of Technology,"Author's Preface," xi; Regina Bendix.
In Search of Authenticity: The Formation of Folklore Studies; eds.
Hobsbawm and Langer: Traditional Invention, translated by Gu Hang and Pang Guanqun, Yilin Press, 2004.
[4]The term "folklore" appeared in the early 20th century, and in the 1930s and 1940s, French ethnographers began to use "neo-folklorisme" as a new view of expressing culture.
However, when German folklorist Hans Moser proposed it as an academic concept in 1962, it attracted the attention of folklore scholars.
Later, German folklorist Hermann Bausinger further clarified it.
In the fifth chapter, section 2,"Tourism and Folklorism" of his book Folk Culture in a World of Technology, he specifically discusses folklore.
In Bausinger's view, folklore refers to "the use of past folklore", which is separated from its original context and implanted into new contexts; folklore is a by-product of the modern cultural industry, and it represents the commercialization of folklore and the process of folk culture being experienced secondhand.
Folklore Dr.
Regina Bendix once gave a very concise summary of what the word "folklore" means: "folklore that is divorced from its original context, or a fake folklore." The term is used to refer to folk materials that are visually and audibly attractive or aesthetically pleasing, such as festival costumes, festival performances, music and art, including food), which are extracted from their original context and given new uses to present them to a different, often larger audience.”Regina Bendix.
"Folklorismus/Folklorism," In Folklore: An Encyclopedia of Beliefs, Customs, Tales, Music, and Art, edited by Thomas A.
Green.
Santa Barbara, California; Denver, Colorado; and Oxford: ABC-CLIO, 1997, 337.
For the origin and origin of the concept of "folklore" and its revolutionary significance to the discipline of folklore, please refer to my article "The Meaning and Application of the Concept of" Folklore "and Its Significance to the Construction of Folklore in Contemporary China," Folk Culture Forum ", No.
1, 2007.
[5] John H.
McDowell.“Rethinking Folklorization in Ecuador: Multivocality in the Expressive Contact Zone.”In Western Folklore, Vol.69, No.2, Spring 2010，181-209.
In this article, the author points out that today's folk customs are increasingly being intermediated into a wider field.
The concept of "folklore" emphasizes the process of processing and transformation from local artistic production to intermediated cultural display.
In this process, organic cultural expressions are processed for artistic, tourism, commercial, political and academic purposes.
[6]Dr.
Dell Hymes, an American folklorist, talked about the concept of "traditionalization" earlier in his book "Folklore's Nature and the Sun's Myth" published in 1975, pointing out that "we can find various expressions of traditionalization in any category of life such as occupation, system, belief, individual and family...
Our task is to reveal these forms of expression in the process, to explore all the behaviors people do to maintain a traditional living identity, to universally adapt the rules of our discipline and deepen their results." Dell Hymes.“Folklore’s Nature and the Sun’s Myth,” in the Journal of American Folklore, Vol.88, No.350 Oct.- Dec., 1975), pp.354.
Dr.
Richard Bauman, a representative figure in performance theory, further clarified this: "If we understand tradition as an interpretable creation of discourse, then 'traditionalization' is created between current discourse and past discourse.
Effective link." He advocated that the focus of folklore scholars should shift more to "the means and processes to achieve tradition and give new meaning to discourse." Richard Bauman.
A World of Other’s Words: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Intertextuality, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2004, pp147.
For more sorting out the concept of "traditionalization", please refer to Kang Li's "From Tradition to Traditionalization Practice-Thoughts on the Survival of Folk Culture in Modern Villages in Beijing,""Folklore Research", No.
2, 2009;"Traditionalization and Traditionalization Practice-Thoughts on the Study of Contemporary Folk Literature in China","Research on Ethnic Literature", No.
4, 2010.
[7]In his article "Today's Japan's Past-Nostalgia and Neo-Tradition in Contemporary Japan's Domestic Tourism", Dr.
Nelson Graburn, an American tourism anthropologist, described the method and process of Japanese tourism using tradition to create tourist attractions full of nostalgia.
It is called "neo-traditionalism" and pointed out that the enthusiasm for large-scale construction and participation in such neo-traditionalist tourist attractions is an important part of Japan's modern struggle to express and establish its own uniqueness.
Nelson Graburn: Anthropology and the Times of Tourism, translated by Zhao Hongmei, Guangxi Normal University Press, 2009, pp.
145 - 158.
[8]Japanese sociologist Keno Yoshino calls the creation of cultural heritage in modern society "new historicism" and points out that it actually "maintains and promotes national self-identity through the creation of cultural heritage in a global consumer society." A sense of continuity with the past." Kanagu Yoshino: "The Sociology of Cultural Nationalism-The Trend of Self-Identity in Modern Japan", translated by Liu Keshen, Commercial Press, 2004, pp.
62 - 66.
[9]For more introductions and comments on New Mythology, please refer to Ye Shuxian's series of articles, such as "Anthropological Imagination and New Mythology","Frontiers of Literary Theory", Volume 2, Peking University Press, 2005;"Revisiting New Mythology-Also on the Academic Lack of Retelling Mythology in China","Chinese Comparative Literature", No.
4, 2007;"New Mythology and Cultural Roots Seeking","People's Political Consultative Conference Newspaper", July 12, 2010, etc.
[10]The final result of this project was published under the title "Ethnographic Research on Modern Oral Myths-Taking Four Han Communities as Cases", written by Yang Lihui, Zhang Xia, Xu Fang, Li Hongwu and Tong Yunli, Shaanxi Normal University Press, 2011.
See the "General Introduction" section of chapter 1 of the book, page 24.
[11]"Ethnographic Study of Modern Oral Inheritance Myths-A Case Study of Four Han Communities", pp.
29 - 31.
[12]The term "mythism" has been used by scholars.
For example, in his book "The Poetics of Myths", former Soviet mythologist Ye Mo Meredinsky called the phenomenon of writers drawing on the mythological tradition to create literary works.
It is called "mythism", believing that "it is both an artistic technique and a perception of the world based on this technique." See "The Poetics of Myths", translated by Wei Qingzheng, Commercial Press, 1990, Part 3; Zhang Bi in "Modern Myth: The article "From Mythology to New Mythology" borrows the concept of Meredinsky and defines "Mythology" as "modern literary and artistic techniques that use classical mythological factors to create" and "Quest", No.
5, 2010).
The term "mythism" used in this article refers more to the definition of concepts such as folklore and folklore, emphasizing that myth is extracted from the context of daily life in the community where it originally existed and is presented to different audiences in the new context and given new functions and meanings.
Mythism is obviously not limited to the category of literature and artistic creation, but exists widely in many fields in modern and contemporary society.
[13]Yang Lihui, Zhang Xia, et al.:"Ethnographic Research on Modern Oral Myths-A Case Study of Four Han Communities", Shaanxi Normal University Press, 2011,"General Introduction", p.
1.
[14]Richard Bauman: "Oral Art as Performance", translated by Yang Lihui and An Deming, Guangxi Normal University Press, 2008, p.
12.
[15]Unless otherwise specified, the ethnographic materials in this article are all from field surveys conducted by the author and graduate students at Wa Palace in March 2013.
In particular, I would like to thank Wang Kuongqing, Wang Yanru, Qi Jiajia, Zhang Yamin, Shen Jinru and others for their great help to our investigation work, as well as my two graduate students Bao Yuanyuan and Yang Zejing for their assistance!
[16]She County Party and Government Information Network, http://www.example.com, updated on November 5, 2013.
[17]For the architectural pattern of the Wa Palace, the grand occasion of the temple fair, and the spread of the local myth of Nuwa, please refer to my book "The Myths and Beliefs of Nuwa," China Social Science Press, 1997, pages 155 - 161.
The individual information quoted here has been updated based on my survey in March 2013.
[18]"Tourism during the Spring Festival Golden Week in She County is booming", Handan Daily, February 9, 2009.
[19]Private correspondence between the author and Wang Yanru.
[20]When we were investigating the Wa Palace in 2013, tour guide Qi Jiajia also made this statement.
According to her, this is one of the popular local explanations to explain the reasons for "the sky collapsed and the earth broke".
[21]Zhuo's article,"Validity and Limits of Context-A Summary and Reflection on the Study of Mythological Tradition in Three Communities", Folk Studies, No.
3, 2012.
[22]Scholars such as Grayburn and McDowell have refuted this profound stereotype popular in society and academia.
See Grayburn's Anthropology and the Times of Tourism, pp.
311 - 326; John H.
McDowell.“Rethinking Folklorization in Ecuador: Multivocality in the Expressive Contact Zone.”In Western Folklore, Vol.69, No.2, Spring 2010，181-209.
[23]There is a lot of discussion on this in my book "Myth and Mythology", which can be referred to, Beijing Normal University Press, 2009, pp.
121 - 126.
[24]My book "The Myth and Faith of Nuwa", pages 106 - 109.
[25]American folklorist Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett pointed out that "heritage" is an industry with the purpose of exporting "local" and is one of the ways to produce "heretic" heritability.
See his "Theorezing Heritage," in Ethnomusicology, Fall 1995, 393): 367 ‐ 380.
[26]Benjamin: "Works of Art in the Era of Mechanical Reproduction", edited by Hannah Arendt, Enlightenment: Selected Works of Benjamin, translated by Zhang Xudong and Wang Ban, Beijing: Sanlian Publishing House, 2nd edition, 2012, p.
237.
[27]Fang Weigui: "A Textual Research and Explanation of Benjamin's Concept of" Halo "", Social Science Forum, No.
9, 2008.
[28]Edited by Hannah Arendt, Enlightenment: Selected Works of Benjamin, pp.
95 - 118.
[29]See Fang Weigui: "A Textual Research on Benjamin's Concept of" Halo ", Social Science Forum, No.
9, 2008.
[30]Edited by Hannah Arendt: Enlightenment: Selected Works of Benjamin, 246.
[31]Laurie Hangke: "Cultural Identity and Research Ethics in the Process of Folk Customs", translated by Huashi Hui, Folk Culture Forum, No.
4, 2005.
[32]John McDowell keenly observed the situation in which folk books and music tapes after "folklore" were re-introduced into the community and creatively used by local residents.
John H.
McDowell.“Rethinking Folklorization in Ecuador: Multivocality in the Expressive Contact Zone.”In Western Folklore, Vol.69, No.2, Spring 2010，181-209.
During field surveys, the author also found that local residents sometimes listen to the explanations of tour guides to enrich their understanding of relevant culture.
The impact of mythism on the community will be the next focus of the author's research.
(This article was published in Folklore Research, No.
1, 2014)