The other day I realized that the only deep clutural study we did in public school was on ancient Greece. While we studied a lot of history throughout the world, the study of Greek culture was the only true anthropological study of a people’s philosophy, religion, ethics, and culture. I think we studied it in 6th, 8th, and 10th grade. I especially remember spending a lot of time learning about various myths and gods in 8th grade.
This was really my only exposure to “religion” and how those beliefs reflect or shape a culture. From what I remember, the Greek gods mostly explained supernatural things that they couldn’t yet explain with “reason”. The “gods” were basically as unruly as people but with more power and more drama.
Now I see why so many people approach religion as some kind of mythological understanding that “less reasonable” people need to explain the world around them.
I’ve been thinking about this a bit more.
I think this also fosters an environment where cultural-historical information – especially from myths or religious beliefs – are overlooked.
For example, nearly every culture around the world has myths about dragons (or as you might call them, dinosaurs). Many cultures record a flood myth with many things that line up with the story of Noah. However, modern interpretations have overlooked this information because it doesn’t fit well within their hypothesized timeline of history.