What are the characteristics of Neolithic Myth? What is the significance of the Zuni emergence tale and the Japanese creation myth?

What will be an ideal response?

Myth allows for the unification or reality and experience for a culture. Myth is not entirely fantastic because it is based on and created to explain the day-to-day experience and life of a people. In the Zuni and Japanese stories, we see a common theme of myth: the explanation of common experience through supernatural agency. These myths also demonstrate the three common elements of Neolithic Myth: 1) animism (the belief that everything is permeated by spirits), 2) anthropomorphism (the belief that natural objects behave like human beings), and 3) that humans can communicate and influence objects by communicating with them.

In the Zuni emergence tale we have a mythic presentation of the natural process of human maturity and a justification and explanation for specialization within a society. In the Japanese creation tale, we have a similar explanation of hierarchy, this time the divine creative hierarchy. Human beings can explain the specialization of society and division of labor by reference to a similar division between spiritual beings. We also see another purpose of myth, evidence here: the explanation of the origins of peoples and cultures.

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_____ Antonin Artaud advocated a “theatre of cruelty” wherein “cruelty” refers to:

A). The audience being forced to confront itself in order to purge the unconscious mind of destructive impulses B). The audience being forced to witness cruel events which Artaud believed modern bourgeois comedy ignored C). The audience being forced to become more politically aware of the negative repercussions of WWII D). The audience being forced to actively participate in plays about Man’s inhumanity towards other human beings

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Which statement is true regarding this portrait of Alexander?

A. It is a work of propaganda. B. It follows Classical conventions. C. It is an imagined version of the warrior, not based upon a likeness. D. It purposely ages its subject to minimize the perception of Alexander's youth.

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