Mythoecology

Mythoecology is the study of how myths, legends, and cosmologies shape and reflect human relations with the natural world. It examines how narrative systems encode ecological knowledge, ethical norms, and practical understandings of ecosystems, including how landscapes, species, and processes are interpreted within cultural frameworks.

As an interdisciplinary field, it draws on anthropology, folklore, religious studies, ecology, and the environmental humanities. Researchers analyze mythic narratives, ritual calendars, place names, and sacred prohibitions to understand how communities perceive resources, manage landscapes, and respond to ecological change. Methods include ethnography, textual analysis, comparative mythology, and ecological fieldwork.

Core topics include sacred landscapes and place-making; taboos and moral codes that regulate hunting, gathering, and cultivation; personification or animal metamorphosis in myths; and cosmologies that explain seasons, weather, and ecological cycles. Mythoecology also considers how myths justify or critique social arrangements and resource use.

Relation to conservation: by revealing traditional ecological knowledge embedded in stories and practices, mythoecology can inform biodiversity protection, climate adaptation, and community-based stewardship while highlighting cultural values. Critics warn against universalizing mythic meanings or treating them as literal ecological accounts.

Challenges include interpretive bias, translation across languages, syncretism with external belief systems, and differentiating historical memory from contemporary storytelling. The field emphasizes careful, context-sensitive analysis rather than universal claims.

Related fields include traditional ecological knowledge, ethnobiology, environmental anthropology, ecocriticism, religious ecology, and sacred ecology.