Do myths ever die? Social-cultural changes and mythical transformations in Indigenous Amazonia: a dialogue with Peter Gow
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This is the first Peter Gow Memorial Lecture, given at the University of St Andrews in February 2024. Based on the analysis of different versions of Wari’ myths (Rondônia, Brazil) collected over forty years, the paper has two central objectives. The first is to engage with Peter Gow’s analysis of the mythical transformations resulting from the historical changes experienced by the Piro/Yine Indigenous people of Peru. The second is to discuss Lévi-Strauss’s suggestion that a myth can “die” after successive transformations, exhausting itself, taking the form of romantic tale or legendary tradition.
Author: Aparecida M. N. Vilaça
Institution: Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
Funder: University of St Andrews
OpenAlex ID: W4411520729