Fictionis. A synthetic introduction into the mythology of transmission*
Fictionis. A synthetic introduction into the mythology of transmission*

Summary/Abstract: Often, current literature1associates the phenomenon of socio-cultural transmission2 with an"awakening gift". Developing "at all levels and at all ages of our lives" for perpetuatingvirtuous existential models, this phenomenon "triggers new emotions and cognitive states inus, determines us to live an unusual experience, to acquire new knowledge, values, identitiesor cultures”.As an "awakening gift", socio-cultural transmission is undoubtedly a source of change "forboth the giver and the receiver". What comes from those "at one end of the relation" isimposed by the ability to substantially influence "the life of those at the other end of thebond". Ultimately, the type targeted by transmission can be associated with a stimulatingfactor, likely to induce social actors to give and receive really interesting, notable and essential"important things". Since socio-cultural transmission, bearing such an "awakening gift"aura, reproduces a phenomenon of enormous scope and depth that goes beyond the ordinarymeasure, it is absolutely natural for people, interested by the nature and the ways of itsmanifestation, to offer different points of view. Some of them are sufficiently well- structuredand convincing, based on logical principles. Others, however, lack consistency and clarity,which places us, whether we want it or not, under the domination of confusion. Having no realbasis, the latter appears, most often, as exaggerated appraisals or simplistic representations,that is under the form of false interpretive clues or - more precisely - of elementary myths ofphenomenological expression. Considering this last reason, the present study refers to threemythical constructions, which obviously distort the entity of the phenomenon of socio-culturaltransmission. These are the assessments according to which (i) "all people are experts intransmission", (ii) "transmission is good in itself" and (iii) "transmission meanscommunication".

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