Folklore

Area of Science:

• Cultural Economics
• Anthropology
• Sociology

Background:

• Folklore comprises traditional beliefs, customs, and stories transmitted orally across generations.
• A unique catalog of oral traditions from approximately 1,000 societies has been compiled.
• The catalog's motifs have been validated against known geographic and social attributes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel catalog of oral traditions to economic analysis.
• To demonstrate applications in expanding ethnographic records and analyzing cultural traits.
• To explore the relationship between folklore and societal characteristics.

Main Methods:

• Cataloging and validating oral traditions from diverse societies.
• Utilizing machine learning and human classification for trait analysis.
• Analyzing correlations between folklore motifs and societal attributes (e.g., political complexity, gender roles, risk tolerance, trust).

Main Results:

• Folklore motifs reflect known geographic and social attributes.
• Analysis of tales reveals links between dominant male narratives and women's subordinate positions.
• Societies with risk-averse narratives exhibit less entrepreneurial populations.
• Communities punishing antisocial behavior (tricksters) display higher trust and prosperity.

Conclusions:

• Folklore is a significant, yet underutilized, resource in cultural economics.
• Oral traditions offer insights into historical and contemporary societal structures and behaviors.
• Further applications of folklore analysis in economics are warranted.