Finding our Oldest Myths: The Academia behind my Work

[@Crecganford]

Is there a particular myth you would like me to trace back to its origins?

[@jasonyoung7705]

I''d love to hear the path and the roots of the dawn goddess, Eostre, Persephone, Eos, etc, through all her Eurapean aspects, right back to Africa.

[@leahdragon]

The fae/fairies could be an interesting one?

[@SpaceMonkey15]

Venusian/Promethean/Luciferian deities and personifications

[@alinaanto]

I know you did cover some of the old gods (Odin, Thor, Aphrodite and others), but I would like you to make a video tracing each one of the Indo-European gods from their roots into the mythology that is better known. I am extremely grateful for all your videos! Thank you!

[@kimberlydrennon4982]

Not origins, but I wonder what the social value of preserving the cosmic hunt is? My first guess is as a method to remember where the North Star is for navigation purposes, but I don't know if the stories mention that star.

[@19CountrySentiment72]

It feels like you are getting criticism from some who are just not going to accept your outstanding work. I would like to tell you that you should not take it to heart. You simplify the information for me and I appreciate it and the delivery as well. Thank you, Jennifer. School bus driver of 20 years in the heart of KS. 😊

[@oki9395]

That is why I love to watch your videos. I once love history channel, but not anymore. Watching your video is like being in an online class. Watching history channel is like reading a fictional novel.

[@Crecganford]

Thank you so much.

[@Red1Revival]

it's a miracle I'm able to learn about tens of thousands of years of human mythology. the work of so many people to preserve and connect these myths is incredible. I'm in awe.

[@nitzans]

I didn't know you created the database!! We used it in university when I studied my BA in literature. It's truly a great resource, thank you!!

[@Crecganford]

Thank you, it's always good to hear from students who use it.

[@davidlake1513]

For over a year absolutely in love with this channel. Thanks for the videos!!

[@Crecganford]

And thank you so much for your kind words and support.

[@Crowhag]

Wonderful video, Jon! I shared it with my own audience in the hope that more will learn about the work that goes into our scholarly endeavors.

[@Crecganford]

Thank you mydear friend, I very much appreciate your support and kindness.

[@dianarising7703]

I think "Jungian archetype" was Jung trying to explain why myths are consistent around the world without any real understanding of the time-scale of human migration.

[@dianarising7703]

I love that someone named the individual details of a myth a mytheme. I think it is cool that the study of myths, language and genetics are coming together to provide a history of human migration.

[@dangerwolfdavis]

Hey Jon I am so glad you are still here making these videos. They have really changed the way I think about mythology and religion and help me see the bigger picture. How these stories show is who they were. I am totally inspired by your work and come to it when I need to be reminded that we are all one people with one common story.

[@Crecganford]

Thank you so much for your kind words.

[@Warpcaller]

This kind of content is exactly why I love KZbin! Brilliant stuff!

[@mikkel6938]

I immensely appreciate the important work you're doing Jon! How nice to see you referring to Stefan Milo! The two of you are a legendary combo when it comes to human prehistory. Cheers!

[@AksilRebis]

Awesome, professor. I didn't know Epic of Gilgamesh was myth.

[@whitneymacdonald4396]

Fascinating and wonderful. Thanks for gathering together all of these threads. You've inspired my already strong love of stories. I look forward to exploring these databases.

[@Crecganford]

Thank you for your kind words.

[@GringoCurt]

I love mythology. Using your research is very helpful and your scientific perspectives often cause me to question my own. You are much appreciatd Jon. Thanks for all you do.

[@Crecganford]

Thank you, it always cheers me up knowing others find my work useful.

[@lbec9487]

Videos like this reignited my love for anthropology and at 50 years old I am finally finishing my bachelor’s in anthro and considering a master’s. Thank you Jon!

[@AlexaSmith]

I love learning about stuff like this…crazy to connect with people from so long ago

[@comvidnet7442]

I love how passionate you are about your work!!!

[@Baptized_in_Fire.]

I am so excited about this video topic! I love these most ancient stories! Thank you so much Jon! Your videos brighten my days.

[@Crecganford]

Thank you, I hope you enjoy it.

[@marcusandersson...]

So, some of these stories were told when Neanderthals were around. That is wild!

[@codymoon7552]

@marcusandersson... it really makes you wonder. We will never know what language Neanderthals and early Humans spoke, but they must have been able to speak to each other somehow. Some of our old and ancient stories may have taken influence from or come directly from other species of Humans

[@Thomas_H_Sears]

I found the works of Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza very useful in understanding the diasporas of genetics, language etc.

[@_S0me__0ne]

Thanks for your work Jon. Interesting and makes sense that shared knowledge has more to do with humans surviving than just evolution and genetics.

[@etunimenisukunimeni1302]

Wow, what a find for a channel. So glad KZbin recommended your videos for me, these are so calm, well presented and just damn fascinating! I'm sorry if I've missed some earlier videos on this topic, but I have a suggestion for a video: Finnic mythology, creation stories, the origins of different tales and myths. As a Finn I'm of course super interested in beliefs of my Finnish ancestors, but I guess it would a bit more niche. In any case I'm sure much of Finnic mythology is interrelated, so maybe it would be an interesting topic. Whether this ends up in your list of video topics or not, you can be sure I'll keep watching. The world needs more storytellers and science educators like you!

[@Crecganford]

I do want to talk about Finnish mythology and the creation of the Kalevala, and so I hope my future content will appeal to you.

[@etunimenisukunimeni1302]

@@Crecganford Cool, thanks! I'm sure it will😊

[@ClarkyClark]

Thanks, Jon! Love how you break down how we know the spread of myths. Fascinating as ever, and really well presented.

[@Crecganford]

Thank you so much, your kind words are appreciated.

[@jparkerfilm]

This was a fascinating video, thank you. I never knew there was such a rigorous methodology for studying the dissemination and evolution of myths.

[@BartzAJohnsonJr]

I am into the esoteric, but I’m here for the academia. The woo woo warriors can get on my nerves with the absolutism, just as bad as academics. You are a steady walk through the mythical gardens.

[@Willowdog08]

@@BartzAJohnsonJr “just as bad as the academics?” 🙄 You’re just too smart for anyone huh?

[@BartzAJohnsonJr]

@@Willowdog08 what are you set on gatekeeping? I was whining about absolutism, not academics in general, just the ones with closed minds.

[@Willowdog08]

@@BartzAJohnsonJr I’m the one with reading comprehension. Sorry

[@BartzAJohnsonJr]

@@Willowdog08 you look lost in your own complaints

[@richardburns3543]

I feel your love of mythology. Bless you.

[@michaelhealy9449]

Thank you! Fascinating to get a glimpse into the research process that leads to your results!

[@feralfoods]

fascinating video as always. i appreciate also that you type your own subtitles. that helps me a lot, as google's auto-translate often makes errors. thank you.

[@Crecganford]

Thank you for your feedback, I do take time to ensure they're correct.

[@Baptized_in_Fire.]

​@@Crecganford you really deserve a medal 🏅🥇 for going to such lengths to make your work accessible to as many as possible. Bless you, Jon.

[@hugespinner4890]

thanks Jon. really enjoyed this video but really liked the information on the website. i will definitely be looking at that and hoping to expand my knowledge thank you very much for that information. also glad you have the video to help us get the most out of our searches

[@gaufrid1956]

Jon, it's when you live the story that you know it's not just a story. I'm here in Cagayan de Oro City Mindanao Philippines, and my wife is a baylan of the Higaonon tribe. Being married to a female shaman has ensured that I feel the power of the spirits that guide her culture, and especially Magbabaya, the source of all things. Modern society has lost touch with what our ancestors taught us.

[@markmaclean1230]

The great series about the genetics and cultures

[@TheEudaemonicPlague]

If you haven't read Robert Holdstock's Mythago Wood, I think you'd enjoy it. It involves a couple of scientists who've found a patch of woods where ancient myths can come to life, by interaction with a part of the men's minds. Their big thing was to track the earliest myths to the source.

[@tyler1234321]

Now this is the kind of work a.i. Tools are perfect for! Amazing research and great videos!

[@simonfenton56]

Your channel is genuinely wonderful and thank you for sharing your knowledge

[@timothygervais9036]

Hi Jon, another great video of what you do. I haven't left a comment lately due to the fact, other people have already stated what I planned to say. Keep up your great work on teaching us these things. Have a great day!

[@Crecganford]

Thank you for your kinds words, they're always appreciated.

[@demoncore5342]

When you say, it were people who upheld their culture who survived... The future seems dark.

[@Baptized_in_Fire.]

Indeed

[@Hunting4knowledge]

I feel that framing is too simplistic. Knowing what we do of cultures, "upholding culture" means spreading theirs and destroying others. All modern humans (post ice age) are the descendants of humans that were savage enough to conquer and enslave all others.

[@oldylad]

He’s not saying they survived because they upheld their culture, well not in the way you’re thinking. He’s saying that we know about them because their culture was recorded or continuously repeated. Upheld as in not wiped out because of diligent record keepers or storytellers or whatever. We can say a lot about ancient Egypt but far less about the Mycenaeans. Survived as in still exists in a way that we can study or work things out, hope this helped, but honestly I’m not sure your bias will get out of the way so you can understand this

[@demoncore5342]

@@oldylad Such a posh way to call someone a knuckle head... But are we not trying to erase history cause someones feelings nowadays? Yeah, hope that gets over your bias.

[@_moodrings_]

I’d love to see a video on “rainbow” myths. You’ve referenced Robert Blust before in your video on dragons. I highly recommend reading his book “The Dragon and the Rainbow”. He goes through great detail to show (with substantial evidence) that the Rainbow Serpent complex is not unique to Australia & that it’s fairly widespread (in Africa as well). Rainbows have a ton of myth/folklore around them that flies in the face of a westernized view of rainbows. You’ve got rainbows controlling the rain, living in caves, living in waterfalls, eating people, disliking menstruating women, being androgynous, not pointing at it, it representing aspects of hot/cold, having fire breath, having toxic breath, etc. Rainbows had to have been an incredibly mysterious thing to prescientific Paleolithic peoples that has no readily available natural thing to tie it to besides it existing between sun/rain.

[@Salem1000-xf2fb]

@@_moodrings_ I second this! I would also love to hear more about rainbow myths

[@MatthewCaunsfield]

I love when you do these dives into deep history 👍😊

[@thishandleistacken]

Thank you very much for your academic approach

[@OmegaWolf747]

It seems rather sad to me that we've forgotten all those old myths and rituals.

[@jackrorystaunton4557]

Still skeptical but glad you made this video addressing the methodology as it was left unexplained in some previous videos

[@Crecganford]

I'll probably make a very technical video next year explaining the detail, and I hope it gives you more confidence om this field's methods.

[@Akio-fy7ep]

Tim Rowe's Hartley mammoth site is securely dated to 37kya. Unfortunately there are no human remains, and only 6 lithic flakes, but lots of discarded mammoth-bone-chip tools, and the bones not burned for fuel, emptied of marrow, were left piled on top of the skull, which had been split, things scavengers are not known to do. Would any stories they told still be preserved anywhere? Are any descendants alive today? We may never know. They might even have been Denisovans.

[@nemoaxe2305]

Thank you for such an accurate and interesting exposition

[@hestiathena4917]

Oddly enough, I'm having a little difficulty wrapping my head around the concept of "sacred truths." Being raised atheist, how the sacred is defined has always been a bit mystifying, despite my endless fascination with myths and religion. I have some very rough ideas, but I'd really like to get some more opinions and insight into the topic. I'm not sure if it's something you'd have the time/inclination to make a full video on, but I'd be very interested in any related books or channels you (or others) may suggest. Thanks as always for your incredible work!

[@Crecganford]

Sacred truths, are statements made within religious doctorine that are regarded as true but require supernatural help to be such. They're not actual truths or historical facts that are also regarded as sacred. I hope that helps.

[@hestiathena4917]

@@Crecganford Hmm... I'm not sure, but I'll mull it over for a while. Thanks so much for the reply!

[@ellen4956]

This might be a good tool to help figure out what language Linear A was used for, and any other texts that haven't yet been deciphered. It would be amazing to find any stories and myths from Crete before it was hit with the tsunami that wiped out most of the north coast. I would love to know more about the history of the people of Crete through their stories and myths, before they were taken over by Mycenae. Arthur Evans pushed his image of "King Minos" and wiped out the actual archeology. And of course that's what we're left with - the myth of the minotaur, which is Greek, not of Crete. The same culture was on Thera, but we don't have stories from there since most of it sank into the sea. One city has been excavated on a remnant of the island - Akrotiri. The frescoes show blue monkeys, a goddess who was given saffron as an offering, one young woman who fell while trying to take the offering up the mountain. Those frescoes obviously told a story. Wouldn't it be great to find out what that story was?

[@Crecganford]

Yes, I would love to find out more about all cultures, but certainly ones more recently lost in history would be the place to start as it feels we would have a better chance of interpreting their myths.

[@lindsayheyes925]

Marvellous. Exactly what I've been looking for.

[@Crecganford]

If you are looking for other information let me know as I can make another video going deeper into the math, or explain research.

[@lindsayheyes925]

@@Crecganford Thank you for the offer. I understand the theory and congratulate you on your work. I really appreciate the scale and scope. About 40 years ago I stumbled on a journalists' tool which used hyperlinks to aid composition of stories (Times or Telegraph, the program ran in CP/M on my Amstrad). I used it to link mythings (didn't know the word then) with contextual symbols and their published meanings. My aim was slightly different. I was trying to decode the purpose of labyrinth geoglyphs from metadata after Hermann Kern published his catalogue. Up popped the answer: They were consistent with representing chthonic paths, used for exorcism or apotropeia, and while rituals were rarely described I found that their myths had features consistent with them being incantations within the notional framework of sympathetic magic described by Frazer. That hypothesis predicted features of labyrinths and their myths which had not invited interest, for example I conjectured that an eclipse should feature in the mythology... which I duly found in Mahabharata. In the same way I found a maze in Nazca, Peru, illustrated in a book by Kern, but not in his catalogue - the only evidence of precolombian use in the New World. I never went to University, and my research papers were destroyed in a flood, but the narrative features with the evidence in the exhibition at The aMazing Hedge Puzzle in Symonds Yat, Herefordshire - mazes.co.uk. So... Your techniques are powerful. I will be using your database, and may finally publish a book on the mazes.

[@lindsayheyes925]

​@@CrecganfordThank you. I feel a winter rabbit-hole coming on...

[@denismichel8385]

Thanks for the video. The database is really fantastic. I'm a bit skeptical with the notion of mythemes. Any complex system will match with any other complex system if we over-simplify both of them. The more simple a pattern extracted from stories, tales or legend is, the more links a reseach in a database will find. But does it prove a cultural link in the past ? Not sure at all. If I say for example "a strong warrior", I will find many occurences. But each community could have imagined a glorious ancestor who was a strong warrior. It doesn't mean that this warrior is the same ancestor of previously connected groups. A,cultural influence is more likely if we find clusters of mythemes between two stories.

[@Tymbus]

Fascinating stuff, thank you

[@mitchellclark3070]

We should be looking into Lullaby.

[@oceanusprocellarum1119]

Came to your channel for serpent myths, stayed for the anthropology

[@scsarmiento9423]

With Science any wished conclusion can be proven and become true knowledge = Scientific knowledge. MAGIC !

[@jencisick]

This was fascinating!! Thank you 😊 🙏

[@sergioromanomunoz8155]

Oh, how I love this channel.

[@astrogallus]

So the Cosmic Hunt is a Laurasian myth, based upon Witzel's schema. Great video. Thank you! 👍

[@dragongirlguitar]

I really love your videos. Awesome work!

[@a.v.7797]

Geweldig goede ondertiteling in het Nederlands. Heel fijn. Dank voor de verhelderende video.

[@BartzAJohnsonJr]

1:24 No time for tea, in bed soon and I’m old. Carry on.

[@dragongirlguitar]

I read a book called “history of the worlds mythologies” this summer. It was written by a professor of Sanskrit at Harvard. Would love you hear you review that book!

[@Crecganford]

Yes, it was written by Witzel who leases Vedic Studies, and it was he who inspired the mythology database. And I have mentioned his book a few times on my channel, and will do again very soon.

[@dragongirlguitar]

@@Crecganford thanks, man. I have a background in studying philosophy and religion when from when I was younger. Somehow I never got into studying the type of things you talk about until a few years ago when I started finding folks like you on youtube. Wonderful content. Best channel on KZbin!

[@DorchesterMom]

You are awesome Jon 😊❤ TY

[@Crecganford]

Thank you.

[@dextersdemise5549]

Really fascinating. Many thanks.

[@Crecganford]

Thank you.

[@fibbes7900]

Thank you for your explanation! I follow your content since years and sometimes I wasn't sure, If I hearing esotoric nonsense. I'm happy learning by a professionel. Cheers from Germany!

[@Crecganford]

Thank you.

[@PlanetDeLaTourette]

My project is to look at language development in a mechanistic and granular way. The word star seems to mean fixed point, in formative language families. A satisfying result, stepping into the shoes of the ancient. It was a most remarkable feature, "fixed", in a changing rough nature. They looked up: always the same. With some exceptions. Firmament has the same meaning for the whole thing. Stable. In language research I also look for fixed points. Like the term star. It is probably a stable term. In this fashion I suspect that the word tree also refers to it being quite fixed, in human perception. These are there for a life time, kinda like stars. The etymologist may say: the firmness refers to wood. I say: it refers to tree. Data points.

[@lesliewells-ig5dl]

Thanks for another fascinating video!! Like they all are!!

[@Crecganford]

Thank you.

[@lesliewells-ig5dl]

@@Crecganford You're welcome!!

[@michelottens6083]

I'd love more info on this scientific field as a whole. If it is such and not still a fringe, or personal project. What's its history, the paradigm shifts, big names and relation to other fields? How has it been critiqued or made part of global consensus? What are its future prospects? That sort of stuff has been hard to glean from these videos and some of the sources so far, for me.

[@banjogyro]

My answer to this problem is to read all the myths assumed to be the oldest, and one of them would be the oldest)))

[@andyventures6574]

At this point 16:31 , now would want a Crecganford collab with North02 and stefan milo . Jon to do the myth side , Stefan the archeology side and N02 to look at cultural evidence. His stuff focusing on cave art for example. Jon delivers at 17:50 .

[@JM-The_Curious]

It would be great to compare some of North02's work with the myth phylogenetic trees and see if we could connect the myths and changes in them to the movement of peoples.

[@JM-The_Curious]

Thinking more about North02's work, he talks about how people were living and which areas they were living in in Europe, what animals they hunted etc. It seems like it might be possible to look at a myth's origin point, or the origin of a version of it, and compare it to how the people were living at that point in time. Nortg02 should pop over to the UK and do such a collab talking about people who lived in an area, and he and Crecganford can dress appropriately and sit by a campfire together and Jon can tell us some stories they might have told while sitting around just such a campfire 10,000 or 15,000 years ago. That would be cool!

[@andyventures6574]

​@JM-The_Curious I did make a comment under his latest video re the cave paintings, saying maybe done (amongst other things) as stories were told about hunts , myths etc .

[@Crecganford]

I have respect for both of those creators, some of the best on KZbin.

[@bensondavido4525]

Out of Africa theory is disputed? I didn’t know that. I have noticed some similarities in west African and some IndoEuropean myths. I wonder if there is a correlation between them.

[@Crecganford]

We do see some dispersal of myths between North West Africa and Spain/SW Europe in the Middle Ages.

[@oakstrong1]

Humans migrated back and forth from Africa, just as (most likely) did the Neanderthals... It makes me wonder if some of our myths were actually inherited from them or at least the seeds for those stories during the time we lived side by side and interbred with them? After all, we know now that their intellect, technology, they had burial rituals and possibly did cave paintings, their brains were bigger than ours and their vocal cords were able to produce at least some kind of human language. So, if Neanderthals had a concept of death and afterlife/spirits and the ability to speak, wouldn't it make sense that they also had passed at least some their mythology to us Sapiens?

[@Baptized_in_Fire.]

Out of Africa theory is politically motivated drivel. There's plenty of evidence that it's nonsense. Certain ones that control media and such really do not like certain truths and peoples. Look what they're doing to the West. That's all I'll say about that.

[@JM-The_Curious]

There's masses of evidence for the Out Of Africa model. Overall it is not scientifically disputed. Particular routes and dates might be disputed, but not the basics that H. sapiens arose in Africa and moved out from there. Archaeology and genetics agree on this. Before genetics could be used as a tool, then it was hypothesised that, for instance, people in China might have evolved from a H. erectus in that area, but that doesn't hold up when you compare it to genetics, which is why OOA is the accepted model today rather than the old regional hypothesis.

[@withnail-and-i]

​@@JM-The_Curious Genetics are pointing to possible genetic drift that means that we don't all just share common ancestors from Africa, that there was significant admixture. OOA is a provisional hypothesis, although scientists present it as dogma for political reasons.

[@yts70r135]

Great as always

[@robynlouise6017]

I am always confused around Australia and Dreamtime though I have heard Jon mention this .Today in Australia, we learn frogs spewed water ,rainbow serpents and humans misbehaving with magical critters.Of course the indigenous do not tell whitefellas.

[@Crecganford]

These arew amazing stories, and different traditions treat them and tell them differently.

[@araucaj7]

You're doing a great job! 💯👏✨

[@Crecganford]

Thank you.

[@Mordian_57]

Fantastic video. Have you read and what's your opinion on Robert Blust's "The Dragon and the Rainbow: Man's oldest story"? He was a well-known linguist for Southeast Asian languages (that's where I know him from) and had apparently written it in secrecy and it was posthumously published after his passing 2 years ago, but I haven't gotten around reading it.

[@Crecganford]

A story based on the Rainbow Serpent, which is based on an old story indeed.

[@AD-zcvnt]

I really love your work. I have a story that I'm pretty certain i can prove it to be a minimum of 115,000 to 140,000 yrs old. I'm trying to make slides to show how i have come up with this. I used a different method to work it out. It's a story i learned as a child. If I'm correct in my calculations, it implies a lot of things that will need to be re-examined. It even explains some familiar symbols.

[@Crecganford]

Having a reliable method with a significant amoutn of unbiased data is essential. Good luck.

[@AD-zcvnt]

@Crecganford Thank you so much for replying back & i understand what you mean & how much it matters. As an engineer, im quite sad about logic, too much for many people lol. So, what ive found needs someone competent, honest & open minded to assess it. The method comprises astronomy & interpretation. The former is undeniable & really will fascinate you. This part explains the symbols also. The interpretation is so very convincing, as it describes events & repetition so very clearly to me & makes so much sense. The difficulty is how it could be possible, that is, until I seen your work. I look forward to sharing it with you, but I don't know how to do that, as I don't want it to go public if it's wrong. I have worked out other stuff too that is fascinating also. I was never a historian or anthropologist & would never claim to be, but I'm a very experienced engineer in construction & methodology. This is what sent me on an accidental journey a number of years ago, due to a question from my son & an ancient megalith. Thanks again.

[@melpaper]

In my mid-sixties, I'm in the process of creating a family library for my grandchildren; can you please suggest a 10-12 book list on mythology?

[@Crecganford]

I will be making a library tour video, that will definately give you some ideas.

[@stargatis]

❤❤❤❤thank you Jon❤❤❤❤

[@Crecganford]

And thank you so much for all your support and watching so many of my videos.

[@stargatis]

My favorite subjects are prehistory and etymology and all religions plus your voice is so nice to hear! I can’t believe people think your content is anything esoteric. I’m interested in that, too, but taken as symbolic, as in, whatever “magic” they do is in their head, but it does help like a placebo.

[@jandobber316]

Thanks, brilliant channel. 👍

[@Crecganford]

Thank you so much.

[@ViskasVelniop]

Great stuff. Cheers

[@robertsykes660]

See E J Michael, “The Origins of the World’s Mythologies,” Oxford Univ. Press, 2012, for a genaeology of some truly ancient myths

[@Crecganford]

Michael Witzel's book, yes, he is the reason I created the Mythology Database, it is a great book.

[@Мира-ю1ц]

Мы живём на платформе, где много ячеек . эта платформа, построена несколько светлых цивилизаций. Архитектура созвездие Лира, Лебедь. Это некий парк. Где жили и делились опытом. Но её захватили. Чтобы вы понимали. Это как фильме пираты карибского моря. Захват был именно пиратами тёмными цивилизациями. Нексиктоиды, рептилоиды, архонты. Всё что имеем здесь, это жемчужина мироздания. Та самая жемчужина корабль.

[@Book-bz8ns]

Dream collaboration: Crecganford & Dan Davis

[@Crecganford]

I like Dan's work and books, and have exchanged messages in the past. Pehaps something will happen in the future.

[@deborahborlase7100]

@@Book-bz8ns That would be a cool collaboration!

[@Book-bz8ns]

@@Crecganford that would be amazing

[@soupbonep]

I wonder if Dennis R. MacDonald who wrote books that claim the gospels barrow from Homer used your data base for research? I've seen some of his charts and they remind me of the mytheme charts you show in this video, but they only compare Homer and the Gospels' mythemes. I'm so glad that you made this video but I wish you had it up when I first came upon your channel. Back then, I wanted to see what your scholarship was. I was flabbergasted at the facts about the consensus about myths (mostly about the Judeo Christian religions) that is known in academia, yet not in the wider public and I wanted to know if I could trust your claims, (of which I can). I have known for some time now about you being a respected academic, but I'm still amazed at what I've learned in this video!

[@Crecganford]

Gobekli Tepe has sacred events and ritual happening at it, but the idea of a temple probably was not in the socieity's thoughts at the time it was made. Instead it is probably best looked at filling a gap in our knowledge of societal evolution as opposed to changing how we viewed that evolution.

[@soupbonep]

@@Crecganford Did you mean to post this to some other comment?

[@melaniecastle5850]

What about a video about the spirits/guardians of the forests around the world. They all seem to have some sort of link 🌳❤

[@ajkaajka2512]

An interesting video, full of information and detail, really well explained. Thank you for lifting the curtain on how it's done. I wish you lots and lots of healthy and productive years. (so you can educate us 😊) ps: I wonder how myths will survive our ''modern'' age... only as stories in books? or they changed and now they live as Marvel and DC superheros...

[@Crecganford]

Myths will change to match society and the landscape, and so we have to go back to our first recordings of them to have a better chance to understand them in the future.

[@chuzzbot]

I'm inclined to think that when we cook the meat and tell the story of the hunt, the smoke and embers go up to the sky, transporting the spirit of the animal into the stars.

[@chuzzbot]

Surely that's how it went down, it's so poetic and obvious that believing it isn't even the point.

[@Crecganford]

Indeed, that is what some of our ancestors also thought.

[@HorrorMakesUsHappy]

Because their cultures haven't survived, we may never know enough about the cultures (or lack thereof) of the other branches of the homo tree to be able to say whether we had significantly different culture, or that it was what made the difference in our survival. Such a statement might just be survivorship bias. Re: The survivability of myths, while it's true that humans can remember poems better than prose, I think the analogy that really drives that understanding home is to remind people that almost every single person can live their entire lives remembering the lyrics from hundreds of their favorite songs from childhood, but basically no one remembers very much text from even their most favorite book. These myths weren't just these peoples' favorite songs, they were their favorite songs AND they had extremely important meanings.

[@Crecganford]

Yes, exactly, so many myths have been lost, and you could also argue those myths that remained were the ones that help as survive as humans.

[@blackfoxesuk]

I know of the myths of silver fox, being creator of the world and black fox being the guardian of boundaries... If anyone knows of any black fox myths or myths of the fox and moon, please do let us know!

[@lisakullack4055]

Love your content

[@Crecganford]

Thank you.

[@basilistsakalos9643]

Good content. Perhaps, a discussion with Dr. Jordan Peterson who's on a similar path concerning the meaning of old stories, might have some value.

[@Crecganford]

I would love to talk to Peterson about myth, I've been following his work since Maps of Meaning, and some things I like, but other things irk me a little.

[@basilistsakalos9643]

@@Crecganford I understand what you mean..

[@davescearce799]

Do the Iliad and Odyssey qualify as myth even though they have a relatively recent setting? They seem to have many of the properties of myth vs. folk lore. Thanks

[@Crecganford]

These Greek texts are definately myth, due to having gods within them. However, as these texts are so large, they may also contain folklore, and even history as well. Much like the Bible, a mythical book, but also contains folklore and some history.

[@RJ420NL]

Great video 🫖🫖🫖

[@Crecganford]

I love the teapots!

[@ericst-gelais60]

At 39 min, could this be why we are so incline and get strong emotions toward music ?

[@lionofthemorning7997]

I’d like to hear what you can find out about Cu Roi.

[@RYOkEkEN]

awesome😻

[@PercyTinglish]

It's interesting to see why you think what you think, I'd be more interested in hearing why you think you're right. Mythemes seem pretty arbitrary and I could imagine would give different results if carved up differently, and when you make things so granular, it's easy for random effects to compound. As an example, since you compared genetics (and it's my background), there are a lot of ways to misinterpret the data and we only know this because we're able to test them. As a result of horizontal gene transfer, you will get different relationships between species depending on what genes you look at which is why a lot of genetic elements aren't used in those comparisons. I could imagine something analogous and other unknown effects taking place in storytelling. And there is a level which can be shown mathematically (usually around 25% identity but it's different depending on the size of a gene) where it is impossible to tell whether two genes are similar due to ancestry or random chance. I'm not sure how you could even calculate that in principle for stories but would be interested to hear more.

[@Crecganford]

I will talk about this more in a deeper video next year, but we increase confidence in results by understanding migration routes and linguistic evolution patterns and seeing how they match where the myth disperses, but of course distance can corrupt myths and we are aware of that. But as we can look at a significant amount of data at different resolutions, in context we can have strong confidence in the output of our research.

[@PercyTinglish]

@@Crecganford could you do something like predict what a myth would look like in some Amazonian tribe then go ask them and be accurate? Has anyone tried such a thing. Seems like all you've described so far is consistency of data (which of course is great) but it doesn't tell you anything about whether the assumptions you make from those data are accurate. And yes, they are assumptions if they aren't prediction and validation.

[@PercyTinglish]

@@Crecganford I'd be particularly interested (not sure how you'd do this in practice but would be extremely relevant) in a study that gave different groups the same prompt, a constellation, an eruption, a particularly bad harvest, etc and got them to come up with campfire stories. Maybe if you do it in scout troups or something and see how similar their initial ideas are (if there are similar motifs we independently jump to in similar situations) and how the stories evolve year by year as kids age out and new ones come in to see if different stories are prone to independent homogenization (how likely the fireside setting affects storytelling, etc.) just to see. Have people tried to test these kinds of effects?

[@usergiodmsilva1983PT]

The Dawkins concept of "Meme" is vey similar to the mytheme you mention.

[@Mr-__-Sy]

I like the first recomadation but I think that his hystory of religions is better

[@Crecganford]

The cost of them maybe out of reach to many, but if we want to go there, his actual Encylopedias are fanstastic, and a great addition to any library.

[@Mr-__-Sy]

@@Crecganford yeah as someone who has almost all his works in the bookshelf, he is the one you'll want to go for the mythology

[@Fearghous]

ILLYRIANS!! Can you make a video on ILLYRIAN MYTHLOGY? :D

[@moel59]

nice keep it up!

[@JM-hr4xp]

Thanks!

[@Crecganford]

Thank you so much for your support, it really is appreciated.

[@Dosadniste2000]

such nice guy

[@Crecganford]

Thank you.