JcFoster Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 The question of exactly how folk religious beliefs are transmitted has been discussed most effectively in the Cognitive Science of Religion field. I have contributed a bit to this debate with a participation observer ethnography in rural southern Japan. The results of that work were presented in 2014 in summary form here: "Arakabu and the Arakawa Mountain Kami, Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford (Available online) and other places. The basic summary is that religious type concepts are applied to problems just as any other concept is, though they provide something extra that can be encapsulated in the definition of myth that I hold to: 1) some form of oral transmission; 2) presentation of religious concepts that within the local belief system still maintain a firm grip on the community; and, 3) unfolding events in the story that maintain a clear relevancy to how the community understands itself to be constituted. I invite disagreement, discussion, etc. of any kind. Another angle of this discussion is linked to a documentary film I have just completed called "Dance of the Tanokansa." (Tanokansa is in the southern Japanese Kagoshima dialect the rice god). The ultimate question is this: How do communities maintain traditional beliefs amidst the social environment of modern urbanization and mechanization? I am currently uploading serially sections of the film at my Minds site JcChristopher under the project name 'Rock's Second Blossom,' which is to be a longstanding discussion of myth from the perspective of freedom (Though it is starting now only with the film so that I can get used to the new media). If anyone has interest in this topic, please watch Parts 1-3, now available at the site, and comment here or there. Best regards, JCF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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