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Message: <blockquote data-quote="William Ronald" data-source="post: 2468003" data-attributes="member: 426">I think you should include Joseph Campbell's definition of myths as a story that explains how we live our lives and explains how that influences a culture.  For example, the ancient Egyptians believed in an afterlife with some sort of physical form.  This lead to even poor people making some provisions to preserve a body (even if it was just with desert sand), and the placement of some items to help the deceased in the next life.  As the Pharoah was considered to be a divine being, ensuring his place in the afterlife became a national priority -- less the gods be angered at the ill treatment of their representative.  This attitude probably helped explain some of the cultural stability of ancient Egypt, where there were often long centuries without internal dissent.Among the Incas, the emperors were considered to be descendants of Viracochoa.  One can imagine that the conquest of the Incan Empire by the Spaniards was a great cultural shock -- as the divine representative on Earth was defeated by strangers from a far land.Or consider the world views of the Celts and the Norsemen -- with a belief in multiple worlds, nonhuman inhabitants of those worlds who would interact with our world, and a sense of a world where the fantastic lay just over the next hill (if not in the hill.)  Perhaps one way to get into this mindset would be to try to imagine what it would be like for us to know there was intelligent life in the universe and that they could come to our world and vice versa.  I think we also need to remember that the medieval mindset in Western Europe a millenia ago also included concepts of various nonhumans and other worlds/dimensions but from a much more monotheistic bent.I believe that Green Ronin's Testament and Hamunaptra show how belief can influence cultures.   RangerWickett, I hope these musings help you.</blockquote>

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