It is remarkable how often we consider certain constructs in other peoples' worldview to be
myths while in our own case we regard equally arbitrary assumptions as inherent to the nature
of things. As every anthropologist knows one's most cherished cultural assumptions tend to
remain implicit in other words worldview is largely unconscious. This book explores the
possibility of plumbing obscure aspects of one's own culture in order to assess what some might
call (regarding other cultures) the mythic underpinnings of worldview. Seven explorations in
folklore and ethnography exhume a conceptual heritage that still influences perception albeit
in unconscious ways. This archeology of intangible heritage provides the sort of break in
intellectual routine that allows us to look anew at familiar things.
