When I was younger I used to be afraid of the creatures and mythological characters that would roam around me, regardless of no matter how much I wanted to pretend I didn't believe such creatures existed. Growing up in a Hispanic/Latino family, stories were never not told. The legend of the Chupacabra, the creature that roamed sucking out the blood of farm animals is a common one. How about one of the most famous myths of all? The legend of
La Llorona, The Weeping Woman. A legend such as this one never fails to send shivers down my spine. Do these creatures have more in common than one would think?
I believe it to be interesting to try to understand how these legends and myths transcend to other cultures. The aforementioned myths are very popular in Latin America, but what about ones in other places of the world. Asia? Europe? What are the commonalities. For my topic I would find it interesting to look at the stories of these myths. What brings them together? What sets them apart?
This sounds interesting. A classic study of material like this is The Devil and Commodity Fetishism in South America by Michael T. Taussig, which looks at how these myths often come out of feelings of workers or indigenous people being exploited. That book might give you ideas.
ReplyDeleteTaussig's book appears to be available online through the Rutger libraries:
ReplyDeletehttps://ebookcentral-proquest-com.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/lib/rutgers-ebooks/detail.action?pq-origsite=primo&docID=565708