Cataloguing and Categorizing Ancient to Medieval Folk Tales Using Modern Tools: A cross-cultural folktale classification system and virtual framework based on the foundational works of Aarne, Thompson, and Uther. Certainly, the scope of this project is overly ambitious and much more suited for a long-term scholarly pursuit, as even assembling the relevant reading list to ensure adequate coverage of a single region would take weeks; to say nothing on the brute data entry and prerequisite network architecture and endless struggles to find or develop a tool with which to do so. However, the organization of information will be a crucial part of this project, and the tools and topics covered by Rowley & Hartley will undoubtedly be of huge assistance in preparation for such an undertaking. Before even considering such a project (likely meta-analysis), adequate planning and pre-coordination is imperative. Overall this process is still in the brainstorming/research//repeat cycle and will likely not be ready for actual creation or evaluation for quite some time. However, attempting to organize and compile even preliminary information is a bit overwhelming. For that reason, and to draw adequate conclusions from a survey of applicable literature, it is imperative to draw up a rough sketch of the potential related literature. I began a comprehensive [but by no means exhaustive!] survey of journal articles regarding the evolution of myths and tales, then printed off a handful that looked to be promising. As I deciphered where to begin reading, something clicked: “Comparative Phylogenetic Analyses Uncover the Ancient Roots of Indo-European folktales.” My first foray into what I now know to be the study of classifications was an absolutely wonderful course titled “The History and Usage of the English Language,” in which we traced the predecessors of the English word ‘milk’ back to Proto-Indo European. Additionally, my hobby of genetic genealogy strongly supports a familiarization with DNA-verifiable clades and subclades in the context of early human migration patterns. So why not stories, too? At this thought, an echo of author Brene Brown’s research theory: “Stories are data with a soul.” What seems logically straightforward to me has now been moderately backed by “hard” science (statistics) instead of just conjecture (cultural). Applications in Technology. The recent increase of interest in tools such as metadata, relational and interactive databases, and digital aided sense-making applications (yes, “Apps”) would actually make a fully international survey of folklore more of a possibility than ever before. Although still dependent upon the human functions of record keeping and classification, much of the software available today certainly makes the task much more manageable. Additionally, the increased connection supported by the internet and such features as Google Translate and international academic databases makes it much easier (and faster) to find and procure adequate reference information with which to begin processing. Whether or not that is where they intended to go, Chicago’s Newberry Museum actually is setting a potential example through their recent exhibit titled “Transcribing Faith,” an attempt at transcribing and translating documents such as the many “Commonplace” Books of 1700s, which can include variations of English, French, German, and even some Latin. These books served as a journal of sorts, a way for the “writer” (although not always the creator) to collect and set into record recipes, stories, tales, events, so-called “common knowledge,” and other miscellaneous notes. An entire unrelated project or essay could likely be made based around the digital reproduction of the texts and accessibility of that project, as well as the crowdsourcing volunteer labor and questions of authenticity ala Wikipedia. However, in the past year this project has expanded from the original three books to also include an Italian text and a Calligraphic commonplace book. These “catch alls” provide invaluable information about the daily life and culture of our ancestors. In the study of Norse mythology, the first factual (nonfiction) recorded mention of a character, weapon, place, or term is generally referred to as the “attestation,” for example, the fact that something existed, or had a particular quality or relationship, what we might today call a “reference,” except these are references that are otherwise unrecorded in any textual manner—some early attestations amount to little more than Viking headstones, with a name and a couple accomplishments or relationships listed (Sanderson, N., 2000). In a similar fashion, the transcription and translation of Newberry’s collection of Commonplace Books could illuminate details to help situate many cultural artefacts and assumptions in the larger history of mankind. Organization of Information. Perhaps the question is less one of the organization of information, but rather the presentation and representation of information in a fluctuating time of rapid technological advancement. Over the past two semesters, I have often struggled with how to arrange and present information on the macro-level in a visual manner that makes abstracting and connection-finding much more manageable. The whole picture isn’t quite in focus yet, but I have at least found the lens-cap! One of the goals of a proficient information professional is to become sufficiently familiar with the “principles of cataloguing” in regards to “[constructing] cataloguing records.” According to Rowley and Hatley’s text, these three principles can be summarized as (1) audience identification and assessment, (2) design considerations, and (3) facilitating interoperability (2017, p. 12). Again, each principle is certainly worthy of exploration and discussion, but to do so at this point might be distracting. Also, in context of modern society, these three concepts are becoming more and more integrated and complicated. Each of these concepts can be used to reinforce or support each other, and in today’s networked age the process of reciprocity can be nearly simultaneous—the “Holy Trinity” of cataloguing, if I may be so blasphemous. Modern “responsive design” techniques allow digital content to be automatically (or forcibly, by advanced users) scaled to the viewer’s relative screen size, without actually knowing the audience (Vodnik, 2015, p. 233). This practice allows participants to view information in user-defined, aesthetically pleasing. and non-distracting ways, allowing for a more effective transfer of information. Additionally, designing with foresight helps to reach the largest audience by raising accessibility across diverse population groups. Apps and beta versions of software openly solicit commentary and criticisms from their users in order to facilitate effective design changes. Once an audience has been established, defined, and described, this knowledge is in turn used to design a system that will be most useful to said audience. Rowley & Hartley note that design considerations need to be aimed at the Cognitive, Semantic, and Linguistic frameworks of their associated audience (2017, p. 12). Particularly in the departments of semantic and linguistic areas, this opens up a potentially problematic can of worms which I am not prepared to wrangle with, but I feel will gradually unfold as I begin forming categories. The third principle is perhaps the most relevant and most fascinating to me personally: “Interoperability.” Not only do current and future information professionals need to anticipate issues of obsolesce (of the hardware, software, and analog variety!), it is also important to not loose our imaginations and foresight. Interoperability also applies to integration, a sort of literary camaraderie, that is facilitated by the literary function of intertextuality. Cataloguing international tales very strongly supports intertextuality in a variety of manners. It is from this overlap, and insatiable curiosity, that I have honed my original interests into a rough outline of potential scholastic contribution. Uther and Modern Contributions. In addition to these three principles, or perhaps as a subset of them [I haven’t quite formed all the connections yet], is a hidden gem by Hans Uther, a student and critic of the Aarne-Thompson FairyTale Index, which is the overall community accepted standard for this work (sometimes indicated as AaTh type, motifs, or most recently, ATU type). In his 1996 survey and critique of over 30 folktale index attempts (many of them regionally or culturally focused), he revives nine ‘best practices’ for the creation of future folktale index systems or schemata. These nine requirements were originally detailed in a 1987 article also written by Uther: 1) clear definition of time and area when documenting literary and traditions; 2) presentation of recorded notations in accordance with a theme-oriented system, on the basis of already existing classification systems or as an independent system, which includes reference to international type- and motif-numbers; 3) indication of the individual structural elements; 4) chronological and structural listing of the variants; 5) indication of contamination with other narrative types; 6) suggestion of related tale types; 7) notation of the year of recording (publication); 8) references to international sources and literature; 9) indexing of subject matters, names, places, and narrators (Uther, 1996) Uther correctly showed the Aarne-Thompson classification system to be extremely Eurocentric; however, few successful attempts to replace or even broaden their system have been attempted (except, unironically, by Uther himself—adjusting the Aa-Th story numbers to today’s ATU numbers). Although the ATU types do tend to be somewhat Eurocentric, folktale mapping provides some insight, but mostly more questions. For example, da Silva and Tehrani have effectively traced relatively sound tales back as far as Proto-IndoEuropean lines, using Bayesian prediction models. Although they don’t quite reach the 90% that would show a strong proof, they do clear 70% for some and 50% for all 76 of the tales they were able to successfully track as having purely vertical transmission patterns. Their diagram of story types (below) raises many questions, particularly regarding the first three culture blocks—Proto-IndoEuropean, Proto-Western-IE, and Proto-Indo-Iranian. In just these three cultures, many changes are taking place, perhaps simultaneously: Both Proto-Indo-Iranian AND Proto-Western-IE gained story 311, “Rescue by Sister” Both Proto-Indo-Iranian AND Proto-Western-IE gained story 531, “The Clever Horse”—a potential connection to the domestication of horses? Proto-Indo-Iranian “lost” story 330, “The Smith and the Devil” Proto-Indo-Iranian gained story 460B, “The Journey”—a possible tie to large-scale migration? As a side note, the only culture “downstream” that also has a version of 460B is Proto-Balto-Slavic, which da Silva and Tehrani indicate as an off-shoot of Proto-Western-IE [however, this is somewhat problematic, as Proto-Western-IE actually lacks the “Journey” tale]. Figure 1: da Silva and Tehrani's phylogeny of folktales, 2017 For a graphical illustration of the overlapping common tales of the first three cultural branches, see Figure 2, below: As modern folklorists, cultural anthropologists, and cultural preservation groups continue to unearth traditions and stories from our past, their creative vision tends to narrow in scope—although I seem to have bitten off way more than I can chew on this topic! It is my goal to one day have a systematic, semantic code with which to classify folktales that are currently recorded. I intend to use Uther’s guidelines (listed above), Aarne-Thompson type-motifs, and potential categorical fields such as language, era, location, characters, and narrator. Of course, overlaying these criteria upon a systematic framework with a cross-cultural controlled vocabulary is no easy task. I have ideas involving MARC, metadata principles, and standardized coding practices that may help sorting a variety of overlooked cultural tale compendiums, but they are not yet finalized. Next steps include conducting a survey of various resources and articles, dating back at least to Aarne and Thompson’s original work (1950s), and particularly focusing on the past two decades (since the increase of familiarity and availability of modern technology, as well as a slight boost of academic attention in the 1990s, thanks to Uther and others). Of special interest is Uther’s 2004 Index. Additionally, I would like to index all of these potential leads, as well as documenting their links to each other (intertextuality, much?). Currently, I have not yet learned enough about databases and APIs to facilitate a time- and labor-effective means of recording and coding this information. Thanks to da Silva and Tehrani’s recent work (2017) to parallel folktales with genetic phylogenic trees, it has been logistically and statistically proven likely that folktales indeed disseminated along the same or similar lines as genetics and linguistics, with relatively little amounts of “contamination” or distillation from cultural and linguistic appropriation. Tracing the backwards footsteps of Proto-IndoEuropean folktales (again, with nods to currently accepted genetic and linguistic phylogenies) may help to unravel an overarching cultural diaspora for all of modern man. References Brown, B. (2018). Research. 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London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. Sanderson, N. (2000, May 09). Viking Runes Through Time. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/viking-runes-through-time.html Silva, S. G., & Tehrani, J. J. (2016). Comparative phylogenetic analyses uncover the ancient roots of Indo-European folktales. Royal Society Open Science, 3(1). doi:10.1098/rsos.150645 Uther, H. (1996). Type- and Motif-Indices 1980-1995: An Inventory. Asian Folklore Studies,55(2), 299-317. doi:10.2307/1178824 Vodnik, S. (2015). HTML5 and CSS3 Complete (2nd ed.). Cengage Learning.