Rethinking Animism and Myth: Comparative Models from Tylor to Lévi-Strauss
44th International RAIS Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities, New Jersey, Amerika Birleşik Devletleri, 20 - 21 Ağustos 2026, ss.359-366, (Tam Metin Bildiri)
- Yayın Türü: Bildiri / Tam Metin Bildiri
- Basıldığı Şehir: New Jersey
- Basıldığı Ülke: Amerika Birleşik Devletleri
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.359-366
- Akdeniz Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
This study offers a comparative analysis of four influential approaches to animism, myth, and
ritual in the study of religion: those of Edward B. Tylor (d.1917), James G. Frazer (d.1941), Mircea Eliade
(d.1986), and Claude Lévi-Strauss (d.2009). Using the symbolism of plant and tree animism as a model, the
study examines how these four theorists conceptualized the relationship among belief, myth, and ritual.
Tylor’s theory of animism is presented as a foundational model that explains religion as an early rational
response to experiences such as dreams and death. Frazer’s myth–ritual theory expands this framework by
prioritizing ritual action and fertility symbolism within an evolutionary schema. In contrast, Eliade’s
phenomenological approach rejects reductionism, interpreting sacred symbols as manifestations of
transcendent reality and rituals as reenactments of sacred time. Lévi-Strauss’s structuralist perspective
further challenges evolutionary interpretations by analyzing myth as a system of symbolic oppositions
embedded in human cognition. By comparing these four paradigms, the article highlights both the enduring
influence and the methodological limitations of classical theories, arguing that contemporary scholarship
benefits from integrating comparative data with phenomenological and structural insights while abandoning
unilinear evolutionary models.
Keywords: Animism, Myth–Ritual Theory, Sacred Nature, Symbolism, Comparative Religion