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An origin myth is a myth that purports to describe the origin of some feature of the natural or social world. One type of origin myth is the cosmogonic myth, which describes the creation of the world. However, many cultures have stories set after the cosmogonic myth, which describe the origin of natural phenomena and human institutions within a preexisting universe. In Western classical scholarship, the terms etiological myth and ''aition'' (from the Ancient Greek αἴτιον, "cause") are sometimes used for a myth that explains an origin, particularly how an object or custom came into existence. ==Nature of origin myths== Every origin myth is a tale of creation: origin myths describe how some new reality came into existence.〔Eliade, p. 21〕 In many cases, origin myths also justify the established order by explaining that it was established by sacred forces〔Eliade, p. 21〕 (see section on "Social function" below). The distinction between cosmogonic myths and origin myths is not clear-cut. A myth about the origin of some part of the world necessarily presupposes the existence of the world—which, for many cultures, presupposes a cosmogonic myth. In this sense, one can think of origin myths as building upon and extending their cultures' cosmogonic myths.〔Eliade, p. 21〕 In fact, in traditional cultures, the recitation of an origin myth is often prefaced with the recitation of the cosmogonic myth.〔Eliade, pp. 21-24〕 In some academic circles, the term "myth" properly refers only to origin and cosmogonic myths. For example, many folklorists reserve the label "myth" for stories about creation. Traditional stories that do not focus on origins fall into the categories of "legend" and "folk tale", which folklorists distinguish from myth.〔Segal, p. 5〕 According to historian Mircea Eliade, for many traditional cultures, nearly every sacred story qualifies as an origin myth. Traditional humans tend to model their behavior after sacred events, seeing their life as an "eternal return" to the mythical age. Because of this conception, nearly every sacred story describes events that established a new paradigm for human behavior, and thus nearly every sacred story is a story about a creation.〔See, for example, Eliade, pp. 17-19〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Origin myth」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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