Acculturation and Myth

The effect of myth on the acculturative potential between groups is explored in this article. Among different kinds of myths those identified by Malinowski as "charter myths" are selected as being particularly relevant to acculturative-assimilative processes, since they have a direct bearing on group identity. The distinction, suggested by Kluckhoh, between adjustive myths, those which promote individual survival, and adaptive myths, those which promote the survival of the group, is also found to be a useful conceptualization. Finally, a dimension of validation, the conceding of the validity of one group's myths by another group, is introduced. It is argued that one can judge the acculturative-assimilative potential between different groups by determining the state of validation prevailing among these groups. Several types of validation are discussed: mutual validation, mutual "respect" for one another's myths, in the sense that one group concedes the myths of the other to be their (other's) story and valid for them, while the other reciprocates in granting validity to the indigenous myths of the first group; unilateral validation, a nonreciprocal case in which one group grants validity while the other does not; and mutual invalidation, a mutual denial of the validity of the other's myths. The implications of these concepts for plural societies are also examined.