Why do different societies come up with the same myths? Like the Bigfoot/Sasquatch/

[raccoon]

abominable snowman story? Like dragons.

[Fawke Em]

1. Maybe it's not a myth.

For example, gorillas weren't discovered in the Congo until 1902. They are very adept at disappearing in the brush.

It's conceivable that there are other creatures intelligent enough to do that.

Edited to add: Heck, I wish *I* was intelligent enough to disappear given the way the world is headed.

[Johnny Rico]

3. Conceivable, but extraordinarily unlikely.

Let me know when we have a sasquatch in a zoo...until then, it stays in the "myth" category!

[Atman]

2. Don't forget Jesus!

[chrisa]

7. Yeah - super human abilities

Jesus could have been a real person, but the story might be a little (ha!) embellished, especially over the centuries of edits done to the Bible, and considering how long after Jesus it was actually written.

[DefenseLawyer]

8. Born of a virgin at winter solstice, died and came back to life after 3 days?

Come on, that story can only be found in 20 or so other cultures!

[zbdent]

4. my theory was that the "dragons" came about because someone found

an old dinosaur skeleton (or more than one) and tried to picture it or describe what it had been ...

[PoliticAverse]

10. Dragons are real, and they do kill people...

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/03/24/komodo.dragon/

http://www.honoluluzoo.org/komodo_dragon.htm

[zbdent]

14. I haven't seen these dragons belching fire ...

like in the "Middle Ages" mythos, or the Chinese ...

[PoliticAverse]

20. Seems the fire breathing kind is extinct now... n/t

[Kaleva]

5. It's because they all read the locked threads in the GD forum here at DU

If it's locked, it's just gotta be true!

[chrisa]

6. Probably because humans are afraid of being eaten by predators

We let our imaginations run about fierce predators with sharp teeth, hellish beasts that are our worst nightmares. We take what we're afraid of and make them into stories (like slaying the dragon, rescuing someone from the beast's cave, etc.).

[Johnny Rico]

16. Some of those beasts were in Australia when humans first migrated there 50,000 years ago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_megafauna#Extinct_Australian_megafauna

Monitor lizards 23 feet long that weighed two tons, flightless birds 10 feet tall that weighed 1000 pounds, 10 foot tall kangaroos...

Of course, they were all extinct within a few thousand years of humans' arrival, just as happened in North and South America. When humans colonize continents filled with tasty animals that have no experience with the most efficient hunters in the history of the earth, a lot of them don't make it.

[chrisa]

19. Makes you wonder who the real monster is!

[Elad]

9. If you're actually interested in the subject...

Last edited Mon Apr 16, 2012, 05:28 PM - Edit history (1)

...go get some literature by this man:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell

[Uncle Joe]

17. I was going to post something to that effect re: Joseph Campbell's book; "The Power of Myth."

[killbotfactory]

11. Because people are remarkably similar to each other

In the way we think, in our fears and imagination, and in how we spread rumors and myths.

It's not hard to see an animal and imagine there is a giant version of it somewhere. Or how when you are a kid and see something it looks huge, relative to how it actually is years later when you are all grown up.

[Cleita]

12. Each society has it's boogieman. n/t

[MineralMan]

13. Because parents are forever scaring children with bogeyman stories?

Could be...

[MichaelMcGuire]

15. Because people take their folklore, myths and legends with them (nt)

[Spike89]

18. Amazingly, oral traditions are persistent

Considering that there is ample evidence that we co-existed with actual "giant" sentient near relatives maybe as recently as 25,000 years ago and even had at least some intimate contact (interbreeding) it really isn't that surprising that the stories persisted.

Even if that isn't how they came to be, they are great stories that tap into our fears and hopes. Details change, but as long as we've had language, we've been sharing stories (probably why we have language). There really hasn't been a truly new story told in probably 10,000 years and the best ones were all shared into every culture long, long ago.

[Odin2005]

21. Read Jung.

[Jackpine Radical]

22. I was waiting for someone to bring up archetypes.

[4th law of robotics]

23. The ones that are loosely human based make sense

probably someone got startled by another person out hunting one night and embellished the tale.

He wasn't a "kinda big guy", he was a giant. He wasn't wearing furs, he actually had black hair. And his eyes glowed red, and he probably drank blood and . . . .

People love to talk and tell stories. And part of that is embellishing the truth to get more attention.

Dragons and the like could be simply extrapolation based on fossils. Or again exaggerating real animals (snakes, lizards, etc) to the point of being ludicrous.