USC-UCLA Joint East Asian Studies Center
Cultural Values Through Hero Mythology
From Teaching Units on Individual and Society in East Asia, Oregon International Council, pp. 89- 94.
Posted on the AskAsia section of the Asia Society website.
- Preparer: Maureen Milton
School and District: Jesuit High School
Grade Level and Subject: 9th and 10th grade English
Projected Class Time: 2-3 weeks (8-12 class periods)
Unit Goals:
To identify cultural values through reading, analysis and appreciation of various hero myths.
To assess and appreciate cultural similarities & differences through analysis of hero mythology.
Teaching Approaches:
Initial description of students' heroes.
Assigned readings for entire class.
Daily journal question: What are this hero's most salient qualities, both good and bad?
Small groups of students present paired myths (2 from each culture) to class.
Large group discussion: Based upon topography, climate, and hero, what qualifies are prized in this culture? What characteristics are disdained?
Final essay comparing and contrasting various cultural values providing
textual support.
Materials to be used:
World Mythology, Donna Rosenberg
Greek: "Me Labors and Death of 'Heracles'" "The Odyssey"
Roman: "Romulus and Remus" "The Aeneid"
Middle East: "Osirus, Isis and Horus" "Gilgamesh"
Native Amer.: "Lodge Boy and Thrown Away" "Raven &
the Sources of Light"
China: "Tales From the Water Margin"
"Nature the Superhero" Zuangzi Speaks, p. 44
Japan: "Yamato-no-Takeru-no-Mikoto" (ex.) Kojiki, book
11, ch 85- 88
"The Death of Tadanori" (ex.) Tales of the Heike, pp 152-
160
Korea: "The Tale of Hong Kiltong"
"The Story of a Yangban"
Evaluation Approach:
Assigned daily journal writing
Small group presentations
Analytical essay
CURRICULUM OUTLINE
Unit 1 (1 -2 weeks) What Is History?
Begin with "archeological dig" on school grounds where students in small groups "discover" buried artifacts of an earlier civilization from which they must piece together their notion of the "culture" and its history they've discovered.
Debrief and discuss notion of incompletion and assumptions about history and culture.
Ask students in small groups to assemble a current history book using
newspapers and
magazines supplied by teachers and students.
Have students present history books as a product of choices, decision-making. Discuss subjective nature of history and perspective. Have students consider the role of written history, documents and fiction as sources of information. Keep for examination at semester.
Introduce journal requirement. All students will keep a journal with at least two entries a week which can focus upon readings, class discussions, questions from research or elsewhere and any other of their mind's musings. (perhaps a side discussion on importance of journals in history?)
What Makes A Person a Person?
A. Ask students to write autobiography as means of introduction to
classmates. Providing a model from the teachers, have students address
the following questions:
Who are you in relation to other people in the world (family, friends, neighbors, culture, state, nation, etc.)?
What is your relationship to the government? How does it affect you directly/indirectly? What are your rights according to your government?
What is your gender and how does it affect your perception of the world?
What is your relationship to the planet, nature?
How does technology affect your life? the lives of those around you?
What is the role of God and religion in your life?
How do these elements combine to form you as an individual?
What are your greatest concerns about being alive right now?
Perhaps change these questions to: What are your most basic needs? least basic needs? What do you love the most? the least? Where are you from and where are you going?
Evolution
Introduce elements of study skills, inc. how to outline a chapter, note-taking, and map reading.
Begin by examining geography and its role in human evolution.
Students will read creation myths from Donna Rosenberg's World Mythology, inc. Chinese, Greek and Roman, Egyptian, Japanese, Norse and Indian. Also, supplement with excerpts from Genesis. Have students examine myths for common elements, imagery and themes. Also, ask students to identify elements distinct to a particular culture.
Students will find and read excerpts from Darwin and NY Times magazine article, "The Handy- Dandy Evolution Prover." Compare to material which supports creationism and discuss reasons for dispute.
Students will write own creation myth or essay debating theory of evolution or topic of choice.
Unit 2 (4 weeks) Ancient Middle East/Egypt, India, China (7000 BC - 256 BC
Work on small group skills and research skills, inc. notetaking, bibliography writing, incorporation of direct and indirect quotes, and avoidance of plagiarism.
Students will be assigned a small group and geographical area for focus of research. Each group must outline their chapter, draw maps and create a timeline for the period in their area. The group will be the experts for their area and complete research on answers to questions above (see questions under "What Makes a Person a Person?" in Unit I above) of their area's culture. Include a field trip to area libraries at PSU, L&C, Reed, central downtown?
Using a jigsaw method, student groups will share their expertise with groups from the other four areas. Students will develop assessment tool for all areas.
Meanwhile, students will read and analyze the epic Gilgamesh independently and in small and large groups. In addition, they will compare translations of the epic and discuss vagaries of translation, esp. with regard to reading ancient lit and lit in translation. Students will also read excerpts from the Old Testament, Confucius' Analects, and the Ramayana, comparing and contrasting themes, elements and cultural contributions.
Students will complete a short research paper on some aspect of cultures studied.
Hereafter, my notes reflect our need for further meetings regarding curriculum development for the sections which follow.
Unit 3 (6 weeks) Greece/Rome/India/China and the East-West Division (200O BC-550 AD)
Students will examine the development of Western ideas (democracy, Christianity) and Eastern ideas (Taoism) and differences in Eastern and Western notions of heroism.
Students will read and act out Euripedes' Medea together. In addition, they will read excerpts from Plato's Republic, Aristotle's Poetics, The Mahabarata, The New Testament, Book of Paul, Lao-tsu's Book of Changes and Zuangzi Speaks. Again, they will be asked to examine texts as a reflection of culture and history and compare and contrast.
Students will attend Reed College production of ancient Greek play (probably Aeschylus' The Libation Bearers). Compare to Medea? Aristotle's definition of tragedy?
Unit 4 (6 weeks) Middle Ages in Europe and Feudal Japan/ Islamic and Byzantine Empires/ Renaissance and Reformation/China (500 AD - 1500 AD)
Examine Middle Ages in Europe as outcome of fall of Roman Empire. Compare to feudal Japanese society.
Investigate life of Mohammed, advent of Islam and Byzantine empire.
Meanwhile, in China, it's Boomtime for Buddha, the T'ang Dynasty, a
subsequent Confucian
revival, and first contact with the West via Matteo Ricci, S.J.
Reading will include: T.H. White's The Sword In the Stone, excerpts
from The Koran,
Machiavelli's The Prince, Chaucer's Canterbury Jaiva, and Tales of
the Heike.
Perhaps include
Beowulf and Julius Caesar (esp. view of Roman hero through Renaissance
eyes).
All of the above will supposedly take place prior to semester exams.
Second semester departs
somewhat from the chronological approach and will deal with themes
across continents and over time.
2nd Semester
Things Fall Apart and excerpts from Locke, Hobbes, Mill, Montesquieti,
and Woolstonecraft,
Ricci, journals of explorers and accounts of encounters between explorers
and explored. (Ranald
McDonald?) Perhaps additional post-colonial lit? (Jamaica Kincaid's
A Small Place or Arturo
Arias'After the Bombs)
Unit 6 (6 weeks) Ecology and Economy
Industrial Revolution
Technology and change
Reading may include Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, or work by John McPhee (The Control of Nature, Conversations With the Arch Druid, "A Sense of Where You Are"). Also, excerpts from Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Lenin, Lewis' The Jungle, and/or Dickens. Also, modem accounts of exploitation of laborers in Mexico, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, etc. (Making Waves). Researching historical environmental literature.
Unit 7 (6 weeks) War and Peace
Readings may include Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, Verden's The Price of Glory, Duong thu Huong's The Paradise of the Blind, Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities.
Students will present a culminating project during the last few weeks of the semester.
Currently at Jesuit, freshmen take seven separate classes, including
English, math, religion/keyboarding, world history, P.E., science, and
introduction to the arts. This presentation of the world as a divided system
with clearly delineated, discrete subject areas is misleading. "Separating
learning, as we tend to do, typically leads to less understanding, not
more. Alfred North Whitehead (1959) wrote in this regard, "In separation
all meaning evaporates." (Vito Perrone, "Large Purposes," in Kathe Jervis
and Carol Montag, eds. Progressive Education for the 1990s: Transforming
Practice, Teachers College Press, New York, 1991, p. 13.) This false separation
may also exacerbate students' misconception that strong ability in one
subject area necessitates weak or lacking ability in another. Similarly,
this division accounts for students complaints ("Ms. Milton, but this is
English, not history.") when we study Greek history prior to reading ancient
Greek drama. Moreover, this approach runs contrary to stated Ignatian pedagogy
in which we are called to NEED DQ HERE.
Proposed Reading List for Class
1st Semester
World Mythology ed. Donna Rosenberg
Gilgamesh
Sophocles's Medea
Bible, Old and New Testament (from religion classes)
excerpts from Confucius's Analects
excerpts from Plato's Republic or Aristotle's Poetics
excerpts from Lao-Tzu or Zuangzi Speaks
excerpts from The Koran
excerpts from The Canterbury Tales or Malory's La Morte d'Arthur
excerpts from Tales of the Heike
T.H. White's The Sword In the Stone
2nd Semester
Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart
excerpts from Locke, Hobbes, Mill, Montesquieu, and Woolstonecraft,
Ricci, journals of explorers and accounts of encounters between explorers
and explored. (Ranald McDonald?)
Jamaica Kincaid's A Small Place
Arturo Arias's After the Bombs
Rachel Carson's Silent Spring
John McPhee's The Control of Nature,
"Conversations With the Arch Druid, 'A Sense of
Where You Are'"
excerpts from Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Lenin
Sinclair Lewis's The Jungle
Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities
Making Waves
Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front
Verden's The Price of Glory
Duong thu Huong's The Paradise of the Blind
The Hot Zone
researching more historical environmental titles one biography of Asian
person
Add: Booklists of Supplementary (outside of class time) Reading for Students
Go to the Joint Center home page.