【推荐】On the history of comparison in folklore studi

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On the history of comparison in folklore studies


Ulrika Wolf-Knuts

Introduction

It is quite obvious that comparative research has been important in folklore studies in general. Even defining the group that forms the "folk" is the result of a comparative process. The very concept of variation is the product of a comparison.

The historic-geographical method was, for a long time, the predominant pattern for folklore research, and it is still valid as a means of approaching and displaying folklore material. In this paper, I want to discover the dominating background against which this method must be regarded today, what was compared to what and how was the comparison conducted, what were the purposes of comparing, how the method has changed during the last 150 years and what are its future chances.

The study of folklore has, to a large extent, consisted of comparison between one text and another and between one custom and another. The texts and the customs were sought and compared for different purposes. In one case that was influenced by evolution and positivism, the aim was to search for a primordial Indo-European culture from which Western languages and ways of thought were assumed to have developed. In this instance, according to Max Müller (1823-1900), folklore was regarded as a rest of primitive mythology. Another purpose, evidenced by researchers such as Edward B. Tylor (1832-1917), Andrew Lang (1844-1912) and James Frazer (1854-1941), was to reach a deeper understanding of human culture all over the world. In his essay, "The Method of Folklore", Lang states that comparison is the way of doing folklore research.

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