Hostname: page-component-f554764f5-wjqwx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-22T08:50:09.062Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Myth as model: Group-level interpretive frameworks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2025

Cody Moser*
Affiliation:
Department of Cognitive and Information Sciences, University of California, Merced, CA, USA [email protected] https://culturologies.co/
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

I argue that while recruitment might explain some of the design features of historical myths, origin myths in general more importantly provide shared narrative frameworks for aligning and coordinating members of a group. Furthermore, by providing in-group members with shared frameworks for interfacing with the world, the contents of myths likely facilitate the selection of belief systems at the group-level.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Brand, C. O., Mesoudi, A., & Smaldino, P. E. (2021) Analogy as a catalyst for cumulative cultural evolution. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 25(6), 450461.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chesterton, G. K. (1925). The everlasting man. Hodder & Stoughton.Google Scholar
Dubourg, E., & Baumard, N. (2022) Why and how did narrative fictions evolve? Fictions as entertainment technologies. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 786770.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gottschall, J. (2012). The storytelling animal: How stories make us human. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.Google Scholar
Hayek, F. A. (1983, June 28). Evolution and spontaneous order [Speech audio recording]. Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings. Retrieved from https://mediatheque.lindau-nobel.org/recordings/31497/evolution-and-spontaneous-order-1983Google Scholar
Kuhn, T. S. (1962). The structure of scientific revolutions. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Miton, H., & DeDeo, S. (2022) The cultural transmission of tacit knowledge. Journal of the Royal Society Interface, 19(195), 20220238.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Polanyi, M. (1952) The stability of beliefs. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 3(11), 217232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Polanyi, M. (1962). Personal knowledge: Towards a post-critical philosophy. University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Smaldino, P. E. (2014). The cultural evolution of emergent group-level traits. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 37(3), 243254. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X13001544CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sperber, D. (1996). Explaining culture: A naturalistic approach. Blackwell.Google Scholar
Ward-Perkins, B. (2005). The fall of Rome and the end of civilization. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar