Myth, Ritual, and Symbolism
An MIT OpenCourseWare anthropology course examining how humans build meaning through symbols. The syllabus moves through metaphor and figurative language, the symbolic use of animals and the human body, cosmology and complex symbolic systems, ritual practices including symbolic curing and magic, and the structure of narrative and mythology. Materials include the full MIT course site with readings and topic-by-topic session breakdowns showing how symbolism threads through politics, family life, and the life cycle. The course asks how symbolic systems are created and organized, and how they can be interpreted once identified. As with other MIT OCW offerings, all materials are free to access, there is no instructor interaction or certificate, and the content is meant for self-directed study rather than formal credit.