How would you rate your current knowledge of:

	very good	good	OK	poor	very poor
folklore
mythology
cultural studies
sociology
politics
religious studies

Do you agree or disagree with the following

	strongly agree	agree a little	agree and disagree about equally	disagree a little	strongly disagree	don't know
Myths suggest a comparative order of facts, ideas and decisions
The form of myth is more important than its content
Mythology is the study of narratives from people who are well-separated from 'us' in space and/or time
Myths are not so much the contents of consciousness as deep structures that shape the contents of consciousness
Myths are typically sacred stories
By myth humans have lived, died and – all too often – killed

	strongly agree	agree a little	agree and disagree about equally	disagree a little	strongly disagree	don't know
In modern society myths are as likely to be intermeshed with political ideologies as they are with the notions of the sacred
'Political myths' and 'sacred myths' have a close affinity
Political myths are at least as prevalent as religious ones
Political myth is ideology cast in the form of story
"Myth = ideology + narrative" is an interesting starting point for both political and religious myths

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For mythologists, cosmology is the study of the organisation of the cosmos, not necessarily its origins
Repeated exposure to myths – or merely mythic motifs – rather than conscious learning is responsible for embedding myths into the structure of our consciousnesses
Pre-literary or 'oral' societies differ greatly from the way thinking evolved after the advent of writing
By 'excluding' others a society helps to define itself
Accounts of Satanic ritual abuse have much in common with tales of abduction by extraterrestrials

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All human societies think and speak of time as something we are 'in' or as a 'flow'
We do not see things the way they are but as we are
Almost everything people believe in as grown ups consists of lies they were told as children

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Ideologies are internalised cognitive maps that filter perceptions of social reality
Ideologies reduce the ambiguities of reality to clear-cut distinctions
Ideologies offer a semblance of security by making reality intelligible and meaningful
Ideologies help construct an individual's sense of identity within their 'social reality'
The mass media do not transmit ideologies, they are themselves an ideology

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If a social group can be persuaded to accept the ideology (cultural, social, and moral) of another group then hegemony is established and the 'hegemonic group' will be able to dominate or control the other group
One technique of hegemonic control is to absorb subversive threats into the mainstream by trivialisation
The current Western political system is not so much a democracy as a hegemony

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In the modern world almost everything is experienced as a reproduction or 'simulation' of already experienced reality – a 'permanent present' made up from our 'reprocessed past'
Traditional craftspeople have always received their techniques and designs directly from those who taught them
What passes for 'traditional' is rarely rooted in the real past but rather in the nostalgia that derives from dissatisfaction with modernity
The origins of the study of myths and folklore in the nineteenth century are deeply rooted in emergent nationalism
Folk tales are radically different from modern Western thinking when it comes to representing time and other 'processes'
By and large folklorists and mythologists, even the academic ones, have not been quick to take an interest in the theoretical basis of their disciplines
Folklore, mythology, cultural studies and many other disciplines are essentially about studying the 'signs' of a culture
Semiotics stands at the furthest extreme from materialist visions of human culture
Advertising agencies are expert semioticians

	strongly agree	agree a little	agree and disagree about equally	disagree a little	strongly disagree	don't know
Cultural studies is the study of power within the context of meaning
Cultural studies offer the possibility for providing some invigoratingly fresh insights into many aspects of popular culture, including those conventionally regarded as 'folklore', 'mythology' or 'politics'
Too much cultural studies is nitty-gritty, obsessed with specific instances (usually female and blond TV and pop stars)
Despite cultural studies interest in 'mass culture' there is little interest in the way the political agendas of mass media and consumer-driven capitalism create modern culture

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