Skip to main content

ETHNOS_APP

Home • Search • Journals • List 0

Spread of folklore motifs as a proxy for information exchange

Contact zones and borderlines in Eurasia; pp. 3–13

Bibliographic Data

ID20205937
AuthorsY Berezkin (0000-0001-6001-7339, European University at Saint Petersburg, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume19
Issue1
Pages3-13
Publication date2015-02-25
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTrames Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1406-0922 • E-ISSN: 1736-7514
PublisherEstonian Academy Publishers (PUBLISHER • EE)
DOI10.3176/tr.2015.1.01
OpenAlexW1977255455
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited5

The aim of this paper is to reveal patterns of areal spread of folklore motifs in Eurasia and to understand their rationale. The distribution of 615 motifs related to adventures and tricks according to 339 Old World traditions was statistically processed using factor analysis. Tendencies in the areal spread of motifs are interpreted as proxies for the intensity of information exchange between people. Two regularities in distribution of motifs deserve attention. Western Europe and the Mediterranean with adjacent Africa are contrasted with the Caucasus, Central Asia and Mongolia with adjacent Siberia. Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Byelorussian and Ukrainian traditions are strongly â Europeanâ , the folklore of the Crimea Tatars and especially of the Bashkir is strongly â Asiaticâ , the folklore of the Gagauz, Volga Tatars, Mari, Udmurts and Komi moderately â Asiaticâ , the Russians, the Setu, the Karelians and the Mordvinians are slightly on the â Europeanâ side while the Chuvash are slightly on the â Asiaticâ side. Other set of motifs contrasts Siberian, Eastern European and Baltic traditions with the Mediterranean â South Asian ones. The northern set of motifs seems to have origins as deep in time as the early Holocene. The southern one largely correlates with the spread of Islam but can have some roots in the early civilizations of Western Eurasia

Archaeology · Contact zone · Ethnology · Folklore · Geography · Computer Science · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · History · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices

  • Analysis of the Worldwide Distribution of the 'Man or Animal in the Moon' Motifs

    Open Access•Marc Thuillard•Folklore Electronic Journal of…•2021

  • Folklore

    Open Access•Stelios Michalopoulo, Stelios Michalopoulos et al.•The Quarterly Journal of Economics•2021

  • Standards and quantification of coin iconography

    Open Access•Barbara Pavlek, James Winters et al.•Digital Scholarship in the…•2021

  • The Perceptions of Early Childhood Education Teachers About Folklore as an Educational Resource

    Open Access•Miriam López Santos, Miriam López-Santos et al.•Education Sciences•2026

  • Teaching Tale Types to a Computer

    Johan Eklund, Josh Hagedorn et al.•Fabula•2023

  • Calebasses anthropophages et dévoreurs africains

    Open Access•Jean-Loïc Le Quellec•Afriques•2021

  • Manifestation of Worldviews in Traditional Narratives

    Open Access•Y Berezkin, Y E Berezkin•Archaeology Ethnology and…•2018

  • Motif-Index of Folk-Literature, Volume 1

    Stith Thompson•Motif-Index of Folk-Literature•1960

  • The Pleiades as Openings, The Milky Way as the Path of Birds, and The Girl On the Moon

    Open Access•Y Berezkin•Folklore Electronic Journal of…•2010

  • Earth-diver” and “emergence from under the earth

    Open Access•Y Berezkin, Yu E Berezkin•Archaeology Ethnology and…•2007

  • Types of Indic Oral Tales

    M B Emeneau, Stith Thompson et al.•Journal of American Folklore•1962

Citations per year0.88
Citation span2018 - 2026 (9)
Highly citedNo

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access
Ethnos_APP • Open Source Project • MIT License • Frontend v2.0.0 • Privacy and Cookies • API Documentation: api.ethnos.app/docs • API Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17049435 • Frontend Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17050053 • cruz.rio.br • Expectantes Misericordiae