Cultural change can be read from mythological material. As myths are the carriers of belief and value systems, the mythological characters, the kinds of relationship existing between them, and the stage on which they act allow one to infer changes in the material world. An examination of myths can demonstrate how the two historical forms of subsistence, hunting and agriculture, are referred to in sets of beliefs, how the meanings of the myths have been shaped and are expressed, and furthermore, how their consolidation or their change is supported ideologically.
