the human quest:

• as long as there have been people, people have asked questions such as…
  • where did we come from?
  • where will we end up?
  • why are things the way they are?
  • how are all these things i see related?

connection to nature:

• people usually look to their environment when asked these questions
• plants are a major component of the environment, so many of the answers involve plants

folklore and myths

• folklore and myths are stories
• religion incorporates stories, especially myths
• “story” is derived from the latin word historia
• historia originally meant both “story” in the fictional sense, and “history,” the nonfictional or factual narrative of events that actually occured

folklore and myths:

• little consensus on the functions or definitions of folklore and mythology
• generally agreed that folklore and myths
  • began as oral traditions
  • have multiple origins among peoples of diverse cultures over millennia of time
  • incorporate forms of narrative
  • are products of the human imagination

folklore and myths, as oral traditions, persisted because the stories were of great significance to their cultures

• people do not continue to tells tories that are not useful to them in some way
• “evolutionary” element to folklore and myths
  • useless ones get weeded out and disappear
  • useful ones persist through time