Editor’s Note
We're delighted to be able to bring you this first volume in Joseph Campbell's Masks of God series, which stands alongside The Hero with a Thousand Faces and the sadly unfinished Historical Atlas of World Mythology as Campbell's most important and enduring writing.
The Masks of God sprang out of Campbell's experiences during
his year-long sabbatical in India and East Asia (chronicled in
his Asian Journals).
As he traveled through the lands about which he had been teaching,
he was struck both by how different it was to experience the mythic
realms in person, but also how little visitors from the West — even
educated professionals and diplomats — understood about the
cultures of the countries to which they were
journeying.
While he was staying in Japan, contemplating his own career, Campbell realized that while his work centered around the ways in which humanity's myths spring from universal sources, it was essential to look at the ways in which mythologies and cultures varied over time and across continents. He began to plan a single-volume work that he gave the working title The Basic Mythologies of Mankind. Here is the manifesto that he laid out for himself:
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Beginning from the beginning, I am to follow motifs objectively and historically. Also, I am to record interpretations objectively and historically, on the basis of contemporary texts.
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As a contemporary Occidental faced with Occidental and contemporary psychological problems, I am to admit and even celebrate (in Spengler’s manner) the relativity of my historical view to my own neurosis (Rorschach formula).
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The historical milestone represented is that of the recognition of the actual unity of human culture (the diffusion and parallelism of myths) together with the relativity of the mores of any given region to geographical and his- torical circumstance (Bastian, Sumner, Childe). The time has come for a global, rather than provincial, history of the images of thought.
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The moral object of the book is to find for Western Man (specifically, the post-Christian Occidental) suggestions for the furtherance of his psychological opus through a transformation of unconscious into conscious symbols, a confrontation of these with the consciously accepted terms of the present period, and a dialogue of mutual criticism. This, however, is to be the minor aim, subordinated strictly to 3.
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Make no great cross-cultural leaps, and even within a given culture, do not try to harmonize what the philosophers of that culture itself have not har- monized. Stick to the historical perspective and all will emerge of itself.
—Asian Journals: India and Japan, p. 471
This work, which would take up Campbell's time from his return home in 1955 until 1969, took on the title The Masks of God and grew from one to four volumes: Primitive Mythology, Oriental Mythology, Occidental Mythology, and Creative Mythology.
As we mentioned in the Editors' Foreword, this book was a greater challenge to bring into the twenty-first century than any of the other volumes in the Masks of God series. Some of the science to which Campbell referred changed radically even during his lifetime, and has continued to evolve (pardon the pun) since. The need to update the text — and the question of how best to do it — meant that Primitive Mythology, while the first of the for books written, needed the most time to release in the Collected Works of Joseph Campbell. It is with enormous gratitude that we acknowledge the assistance of two wonderful scholars, Sydney Yeager and Andrew Gurevich, in bringing this wonderful book in line with current science.
Campbell intended that his writing spark thought and discussion. To comment or discuss this book locally, we encourage you to find one of our local Mythological RoundTable® groups, meeting regularly in small towns and big cities around the globe. To discuss mythology, psychology, religion, art, and just about everything else under the sun (or over it) with readers from around the world, visit our Facebook page.
Thank you for maintaining this ebook for your personal use.
If you have received this book gratis, we hope that you found it inspiring and thought-provoking. We invite you join our associates in supporting our on-going efforts to bring out new, exciting editions such as this by making a donation at JCF.org.
If you have feedback about any aspects of this book, please contact us at publications@jcf.org.
David Kudler
Mill Valley, California
April 15, 2018