Myth

Abstract Myth, once a major focus in anthropological studies of religion, has received significantly less attention in recent times. Yet despite a general lack of theoretical interest, it is present in a range of new ethnographies concerned with place, landscape, environment, and narrative. The chapter begins by outlining some early definitional and theoretical problems and then reviews the dominant anthropological approaches to myth; in particular functional, structural, and psychoanalytic approaches. With an emphasis on Melanesian ethnography (and an example from Australian political history), it is then argued that attention to certain canonical works supports an existential approach to the study of myth that resonates with emerging perspectives prioritizing experience and emotion. The chapter concludes that myth, understood as an aspect of lived experience, continues to offer theoretical possibilities for the anthropology of religion and beyond.