| According to the myth-ritual theory, the existence of myth is tied to ritual.[30] In its most extreme form, this theory claims that myths arose to explain rituals.[31] This claim was first put forward by the biblical scholar William Robertson Smith.[32] According to Smith, people begin performing rituals for some reason that is not related to myth; later, after they have forgotten the original reason for a ritual, they try to account for the ritual by inventing a myth and claiming that the ritual commemorates the events described in that myth.[33] The anthropologist James Frazer had a similar theory. Frazer believed that primitive man starts out with a belief in magical laws; later, when man begins to lose faith in magic, he invents myths about gods and claims that his formerly magical rituals are religious rituals intended to appease the gods.[34] |
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