Page "Mythology" Paragraph 11

According to the myth-ritual theory, the existence of myth is tied to ritual.

In its most extreme form, this theory claims that myths arose to explain rituals.

This claim was first put forward by the biblical scholar William Robertson Smith.

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.

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.