Allusion: A reference or quotation to a work of literature or other cultural artifact that readers are expected to recognize as a result of their cultural and literary awareness. A reader recognizing the allusion can then apply its context and meaning to the context of the work making the allusion and so gain a deeper understanding. For instance, the title of William Faulkner's novel The Sound and the Fury is taken from Shakespeare's Macbeth, where Macbeth refers to time as "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Recognizing the allusion, a reader is able to apply this knowledge to Faulkner's novel in order to better understand the novel.

Archetype: "[A] primary symbol, action, setting, or character-type that is found repeatedly in myth, folklore, and literature. Religious mystics have at various times proposed that there is a universal symbolic language of dreams and visions; and in the 20th cent. this notion was encouraged by the speculative anthropology of J. G. Frazer and the psychology of Jung, who claimed that human beings shared a 'collective unconscious' for which archetypal images, whether in dreams or in imaginative literature, provided evidence. Archetypal criticism . . . under Jung's influence has sought to trace the recurrence of such symbols and types as the Earth Mother, the Quest, the Paradisal Garden, and the Trickster. . . . The wider significance of archetypes in literature was explored by Frye" ("Archetype")

Autonomy: Self-rule

Binary oppositions: Paired opposities, such as off and on; left and right; right and wrong; good and evil; black and white. In Marx's view, one group is privileged while the other is marginalized in a society or culture.

Ethnocentrism: "A tendency or disposition to judge other ethnic groups, cultures, nations, or societies by the standards and customs of one's own, often accompanied by a dislike or misunderstanding of other such groups and a belief in the intrinsic superiority of one's own" ("Ethnocentrism").

Euhemerist: Someone "who interprets myths as primitive explanations of the natural world or as time-distorted accounts of long-past historical events." the term is based on the name of Euhemeros of Messene who argued the stories of the gods were embellished history about real persons (Leonard and McClure 5).

Exemplar: Model for behavior

Extravert: (alt. spelling: extroverted) A person primarily motivated by external motivations. As a consequence, extraverts are often very sociable.

Fertility Myths: "Fertility deities and myths exist nearly everywhere that agriculture is important--that is, in most parts of the world.

"Animistic myths involving the sacrificial dismemberment and 'planting' of body parts and the subsequent germination of crops are obvious fertility myths. The Hainuwele myth of the people of Ceram is an example, as are the many Corn Mother myths, such as those we find in Native North America and in the Slavic tradition.

"Myths of sacrificed and resurrected gods--the grain god Osiris in Egypt; Attis, the son of the earth goddess Cybele in Phrygia; Adonis in Phoenicia and Greece; Narcissus and Hyacinth in Greece--who die and are reborn as plants may be said to be fertility myths. The fertility aspect of many deities is indicated by their being depicted ithyphallically, as in the case of several gods in Egypt, or as bulls, as in most parts of the Middle East.

"Storm or weather gods--such as Tlaloc or Chac in Mesoamerica, the Assyrian Aramean Adad-Hadad, and several Hittite- Hurrian deities--whose power brings the new life associated with rain, are fertility deities, as are the many goddesses--the Mesopotamians Ninhursag and Inanna/ Ishtar and the Canaanite Anat/ Astarte--who descend and return from temporary death in the dark underworld. The many-breasted Artemis of Ephesus is a clear representation of human fertility. Other important fertility goddesses are Freya and Frigg in the Norse pantheon, Brigid in Ireland, and Demeter/ Ceres and her daughter Persephone in Greece and Rome.

"Whole classes of deities, such as the Vanir in Scandinavia, are fertility figures, representing female-centered agricultural societies, as opposed to later patriarchal, male-centered warrior societies represented by such groups as the Norse Aesir gods.

"Farmer god myths of the Balts and Slavs are obviously fertility myths. The Nummo twins of the African Dogon creation story are fertility deities who, like many such culture hero figures, teach the people how to grow things.

"In Arthurian lore, the loss of fertility is depicted in the failure of the Fisher King. In other cultures, such as those of Japan and the Hittites-Hurrians, for example, that loss is depicted by the disappearance of a sun deity" ("Fertility Myths").

Fertility rites: "The promotion of the generative powers of earth, water, and human, animal, and fish populations is a common concern of major religions and small-scale cults the world over. In this general sense Christian farmers praying for a bountiful harvest, Muslim prayer leaders seeking to hasten the rains, and 'magicians' of the Trobriand Islands, chanting harvest charms to enrich 'the belly of the garden', pursue similar objectives despite varied ritual styles. These types of performances have existed in human cultures for thousands of years" (Beaver, par. 1)

"Many forms of fertility rite use simple forms of association to build a complex metaphysics of generation. These associations have been classified as the two laws of sympathy: (i) the law of similarity ensures that 'like acts on like', 'opposites act on opposites'. Accordingly, a ligature or knotted cord will produce impotence or inhibit procreation, and water will overwhelm dryness to produce rainfall; and (ii) the law of contact dictates that objects once joined share a special sympathetic relationship, even when separated. Consequently, the middle finger of an aborted child will retain a power to limit fertility, and the shadow of a 'lusty' woman will communicate her fertility to the barren. Recent scholars have used these 'laws', which modern science would reject, to explain why preindustrial societies experienced high fertility even though they practised sometimes elaborate forms of fertility control" (Beaver, par. 5).

Intravert: (alt. spelling, introvert) A person who is primarily motivated by internal forces. Consequently, introverted persons are often given to introspection and tend to be less socially active.

Matriarchy: "Literally, a community of related families under the authority of a female head called a matriarch; applied more generally to any form of social organization in which women have predominant power, there being controversy as to whether a matriarchy has ever existed, although there is no doubt that matrilineal societies have existed" ("Matriarchy n.")

Matrifocal: "Or mother-centered. Refers to a family structure in which the mother plays a dominant role" ("Matrifocal")

Matrilineal: "Of or relating to descent, kinship, or inheritance through the female line, as occurs in some non-western societies" ("Matrilineal adj.").

Metaphor: "The most important and widespread figure of speech, in which one thing, idea, or action is referred to by a word or expression normally denoting another thing, idea, or action, so as to suggest some common quality shared by the two. In metaphor, this resemblance is assumed as an imaginary identity rather than directly stated as a comparison: referring to a man as that pig, or saying he is a pig is metaphorical, whereas he is like a pig is a simile . Metaphors may also appear as verbs (a talent may blossom) or as adjectives (a novice may be green), or in longer idiomatic phrases, e.g. to throw the baby out with the bath-water" ("Metaphor").

Patriarchy: "Literally, a community of related families under the authority of a male head called a patriarch; applied more generally to any form of social organization in which men have predominant power" ("Patriarchy n.").

Patrilineal: "A term used in kinship theory to denote the tracing of kinship through the male line. The term agnatic is also used. A patrilineal group is a descent group that traces its ancestry to a single male ancestor and acts as a corporate group for political purposes. Patrilineal systems depend on the principle of passing on property and status from father to legitimate son. However, like legitimacy, membership of a lineage may not only be through actual blood ties but can be socially ascribed" ("Patrilineal").

Ritual: "Generally, an often-repeated pattern of behaviour which is performed at appropriate times, and which may involve the use of symbols. Religion is one of the main social fields in which rituals operate, but the scope of ritual extends into secular and everyday life as well. For example, the dramaturgical sociology of Erving Goffman makes extensive reference to 'interaction rituals', the various ritualized codes of everyday behaviour by which actors co-operate in acknowledging a shared reality and preserve each other's sense of self " ("Ritual").

Scapegoat: "One blamed, punished, or stigmatized for the misdeeds of others, after the classic atonement tale in Leviticus 16, in which one of two goats was sent into the wilderness after having the sins of the people symbolically placed upon it" ("Scapegoat").

Shaman: "[A] person regarded as having access to, and influence in, the world of good and evil spirits, especially among some peoples of northern Asia and North America. Typically such people enter a trance state during a ritual, and practise divination and healing" ("Shaman"). "Shamanism can best be defined as a technique of ecstasy, in which the soul of the shaman leaves the body and journeys through the spirit world. In their trances, shamans are able to communicate with the dead, and with demons, nature spirits, and the elements, without becoming subject to them. They speak secret or otherworldly languages, and, in the soul's 'magical flight', they can travel immense distances, ascend to the sky or descend to the underworld. Shamans cure illnesses, accompany the dead to the next world, and serve as mediators between people and the gods. They form a small mystical elite which directs the community's religious life and guards its 'soul'" (Hattori, par. 2)

Trickster: Tricksters are "figures of play" (Leonard and McClure 247) whose "playfulness can carry with it serious, even tragic or transcendent, overtones. . . . embodying all the infinite ambiguities of what it is to be alive in the world" (Leonard and McClure 250). The trickster "'combines in his nature the sacredness and sinfulness, grand gestures and pettiness, strength and weakness, joy and misery, heroism and cowardice that together form the human character'" (Erdoes and Ortiz qtd. in Leonard and McClure 250).