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Feminist Reinterpretation of Folklore: Examples from Greek and Chinese Myths
Before starting
Just like my last garbage, this article is my final assessment for the forklore class. I personally do not have too many words to say, as I know how poor it is. The proposal for uploading this article is just for those who read it can acquire the idea about cross-subject, knowing how far feminism can go with other subjects.
Here, personally, I want to thank my professor Georgios Kouzas, who provided me another chance to write something about gender. Even though this article seems in a really poor quality.
ABSTRACT
In this article, I will present the retelling or reinterpreting of a Chinese and a Greek myth, specifically the myths of mother goddesses, Nüwa and Gaia, from the feminist perspective. The two examples are not used for comparison but to show how dynamic folklore could be when it meets other subjects after reinterpretation. By examining those examples, I hope we can realise the importance: why we need to reinterpret them, how feminists reinterpret the contents of folklore, how their interactions have influences on other subjects, and finally, what effects and contributions can be or have already been achieved.
I
Thanks to the development and spread of Internet tools, Fourth-wave feminism, which began around 2012, has drawn much more attention and has had much more influence than those movements ever before. Some campaigns and hashtags like #MeToo are still active even today. Meanwhile, the wide use of the Internet makes the spread of folklore, especially myths, tales, and legends, quicker, allowing folkloric to interact more with other subjects, including feminism. However, among all those folklore genres, why is myth always one of the main choices for feminists to retell? According to Joseph Campbell, the functions of myth include:
- The Mystical Function: awakening a sense of awe and gratitude to the mystery of the world,
- The Cosmological Function: explaining the rules of the universe,
- The Sociological Function: stipulating the social structure and order,
- The Pedagogical Function: guiding to the different stages of life.
In simple words, myth plays a fundamental role in running a society. It tells a certain group of people that lives in the same environment how the world was created and how it works, how people should behave themselves, and how society should work.
Therefore, it is essential, necessary, and even vital to retell the myths with a feminist or female perspective because the retelling, if succeeds, can really change some people’s minds to make them realise that the world works in a way that males and females are equal and so does the society, by which the issue can be significantly reduced, as what it changes is the root of prejudice and discrimination.
II
Before examining the two examples, it is better to talk about the two goddesses themselves: why are the two exact goddesses chosen, and what kinds of joint they share?
It is known that Gaia, whose name came from the ‘Earth’ itself in the Greek language (Γη), is the Mother Goddess in Greek mythology. She is not only considered the goddess of the Earth but also the mother of all life on Earth: according to Hesiod’s Theogony, Prometheus shaped human beings with mud, and Athena gave those clay figures life. In other words, humanity came from the body of Earth, the equivalent of Gaia.
Although Nüwa is also the mother goddess in Chinese culture, the creation story is slightly different. There are various versions of the creation story. In the article, I will refer to a Chinese encyclopaedia called Taiping Yulan 1 (太平御覽, translated as Imperial Reader), which finished during Song Dynasty in AD 984.
In that encyclopaedia, the entry about Nüwa is under the part of emperors, which means that besides being a goddess, she was also treated as an emperor. In most descriptions, Nüwa had a human head and a serpentine body. It said that
1) Nüwa created humanity through clay, but as it was a vast work, she decided to pair males and females, which created marriage;
2) there was a time that the sky was broken and the world was in chaos and Nüwa repaired heaven and fixed the world.
The two stories may have different time orders in different versions, but the stories are almost the same (In Taiping Yulan, no time orders are mentioned).
III
From those brief descriptions above, it is easy to recognise the commonalities they share. It is time to start talking about the two examples that have been retold before.
Myth of Gaia and Uranus
Regarding Gaia, no one can ignore her son and husband, Uranus. According to Theogony, Gaia gave birth to Uranus by herself and later mated with him, giving birth to the twelve Titans, the three Cyclopes, and the three Hecatoncheires.
In traditional interpretation, Uranus is a dominant figure for his cruelty, as he was Father Sky and imprisoned his offspring, the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires, in Tartarus just because he didn’t like their monstrous appearance. People usually pay more attention to Uranus’ actions, treating Gaia as a passive recipient of his actions. Also, Gaia’s ‘revenge’ may focus more on Cronus, the son who castrated his father, Uranus.
In feminist reinterpretation, Gaia is an active participant in shaping the world, and the story can focus on the struggles and resistance of Gaia against Uranus’s oppressive rule. As she can be seen as the embodiment of the natural world itself, a symbol of female empowerment, Gaia’s nurturing qualities as essential elements in the creation and sustenance of life can be emphasised.
Gaia’s efforts to free herself from Uranus’s dominance can be seen as a metaphor for women’s liberation from patriarchal structures. It was her own will that drove her to do so, as before asking Cronus for help, she had made a sickle and had devised the plan to rebel. It encourages a shift in challenging traditional gender roles, promoting equality and recognition of women’s contributions to the creation and evolution of the world.
Stories about Nüwa
The myths about Nüwa creating humans and repairing the world represent female power, creativity, and autonomy as usual. Still, the myths of Nüwa contribute more to theology, more exactly, the evidence and sample of worshipping goddesses in ancient times.
There are two pieces of evidence. Firstly, as mentioned above, Nüwa was the goddess of marriage in ancient times. Every year when it was time to do the ritual, people provided the highest level of rites and sacrifices. People there were allowed to have sexual intercourse freely, under music and dance. Secondly, in some versions, the ancestors of humans are Nüwa and Fuxi. Fuxi is the brother and husband of Nüwa. Examining the stories of Fuxi and Nüwa, it is easy to find that Fuxi, more like a human, only taught humans to tell fortune and to make tools. Compared to Nüwa, who repaired the world and can change herself 70 times daily, he looks more degradative and weaker.
We all know now that the worship of goddesses was no longer popular after matrilineality was replaced by patrilineality. In China, the situation is the same; as more religions came out later and became popular, those myths were adapted into other religions to fit the new society, surely a patriarchal one. However, although the rituals have already disappeared, the myth of Nüwa is still well known today.
IV
How can these myths be used in practice? Besides telling different stories, what can they do to change our world? In this part, I want to show how those reinterpretations combine with other subjects and provide different feminine and female worldviews, showing how dynamic folklore could be.
Folklore, feminism and theology
For Nüwa, things are easier. As mentioned above, her folklore usually contributes to theology. Chinese theology is complex, as there are various versions with huge differences among different people, but fortunately, it is not what we will discuss, but it still is the study of god.
It seems that figures like Nüwa are ignored in the study of theology, as they are forgotten in the patriarchal system, where people may argue more about the ‘God’ in Chinese mythology (I guess the Jade Emperor in Taoism). It is successful in finding feminist evidence from the folklore of Nüwa. The myths, rituals and those remaining rock carvings of the folklore show that there was a time female was the same or even more important than male, just like the opposite of the patriarchy that we have, pointing out that the difference between female and male is the result of socialisation, not something inborn.
By bringing back feminist retelling folklore to the discussion of theology, feminism can significantly impact theology. This affects both sides: for theology, feminist theology is started; for feminism, this provides the theological basis for feminist theories.
Folklore, feminism and ecology
Usually, the myths of Gaia are used for storytelling. Thus this figure is far more well-known in the world. However, this figure has other uses in other subjects.
Originating from the name of goddess Gaia, the Gaia hypothesis, or Gaia theory, is a scientific concept developed in the 1970s by British scientist James Lovelock and American biologist Lynn Margulis. It posits that the Earth is a complex, self-regulating system where living organisms and the physical environment work together to maintain conditions that support life 2.
From the Gaia hypothesis, an extension called Gaia philosophy came out. It promotes the idea that humans should consider themselves an integral part of the Earth’s ecosystems rather than separate or dominant entities. Gaia philosophy emphasises ecological awareness, environmental responsibility, and interconnectedness between all life forms.
No matter the Gaia hypothesis or Gaia philosophy, the core is a movement called ecofeminism, a theory bringing feminism and ecology together. Gaia philosophy extends the idea out of ecology, putting it into every aspect of our life.
So, how folklore contributes to the Gaia hypothesis? Overall, the folklore itself contributed to the Gaia hypothesis by providing a framework for understanding the relationships between living and non-living components of the Earth, as well as emphasising the importance of respecting and caring for the natural world.
For example, the concept of Gaia as a self-regulating system suggests that the Earth has a natural ability to maintain the conditions necessary for life to thrive; the mythology of Gaia also indicates the interconnectedness of all life on Earth.
In this example, the goddess Gaia is a metaphor for other theories by providing a framework for them. Although the theories themselves don’t rely on folklore, the folklore of the goddess Gaia still visualises the interconnectedness of life on Earth. The ancient Greek mythology of Gaia has contributed to the development of the Gaia theory by emphasising the importance of respecting the natural world, recognising the interconnectedness of all life, and providing a useful metaphor for understanding the complex systems that sustain life on Earth.
V
Why does folklore so important? In my opinion, the answer is that it is very easy for folkloristics to interact with other subjects, as folklore is ‘traditional customs, tales, sayings, dances, or art forms preserved among a people 3’. It influences the researchers through their minds, as it is the appearance of culture. The results will be influenced by the folklore they touch.
When feminism meets folklore, the female voice from ancient times will reveal itself again in every aspect, causing people to rethink the problems of society in every aspect as well, just like what Kylie Elizabeth Rogers said in the thesis Why Myth Matters: The Value of the Female Voice in Greek Mythology, ‘This modern retelling of a famous Greek myth brings together so many different elements of female existence, and how important it is to acknowledge that women are still facing so many of the exact same problems involving gendered violence, perception, and representation. This story is able to be modernised because in its essence, it is not a myth. It is reality. 4’
NOTES
1 The version is from https://ctext.org/text.pl?node=367836, while the facsimile version can be found at https://ctext.org/library.pl?if=en&file=80539&page=43
2 https://www.studocu.com/in/document/alagappa-university/environmental-science/understanding-earth-as-a-living-organism/54341636
3 According to Merriam-Webster dictionary
4 Rogers, Kylie, “Why Myth Matters: The Value of the Female Voice in Greek Mythology” (2021), Page 44
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Rogers, Kylie, “Why Myth Matters: The Value of the Female Voice in Greek Mythology” (2021). Honors Theses. 1727.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/1727
Sturgeon, Donald (ed.). 2011. 中國哲學書電子化計劃 (Chinese Text Project).
https://ctext.org
何春蕤, 從女神崇拜到神學的新女性主義 (1982)
(Josephine Chuen-juei Ho, From Worship of Goddesses to New Feminism of Theology, 1982)
https://sex.ncu.edu.tw/jo_article/1982/08/%E5%BE%9E%E5%A5%B3%E7%A5%9E%E5%B4%87%E6%8B%9C%E5%88%B0%E7%A5%9E%E5%AD%B8%E7%9A%84%E6%96%B0%E5%A5%B3%E6%80%A7%E4%B8%BB%E7%BE%A9/